Main Takeaways: -It is as much fun to be a platform PM as a frontend/UX driven PM -Invest in building and maintaining relationships -Embrace communication-Be the voice of the user and the business to the team, and a spokesperson of the team to the business

1. www.productschool.com
Uncovering the World of
Platform/Backend PM
by Skyscanner

2. CERTIFICATES
Your Product Management Certificate Path
Product Leadership
Certificate™
Full Stack Product
Management Certificate™
Product Management
Certificate™

3. Corporate
Training
Level up your team’s Product
Management skills

4. Free Product Management Resources
BOOKS
EVENTS
JOB PORTAL
COMMUNITIES
bit.ly/product_resources
COURSES

5. Uncovering the world
of platform product
management
Nayana Chandrashekar

6. Why
• Very likely to bump into platform product management in your
career
• Critical role as a PM
• Different environment, and hence requires different approach from
that of working on frontend/UI

7. Agenda
1. Intro to platform product management
2. How is it different, and challenges
3. Tips

8. About me…
Engineering in
Computer
Science, India
Software
Engineer, IBM
MBA, Esade,
Barcelona
Product
Manager,
Startups
Senior Product
Manager
Product
Manager,
eDreams Odigeo
SaaS platform, payments, order
management, catalog management
Booking platform, partner integrations,
search speed, multiple APIs

9. Platform and Platform PMs
Opportunity to work on some really cool things
API
Payments,
partner
APIs,
Platforms
Experimentation
tool Database

11. No need to have a technical
background to be a platform PM

12. How is it different?

13. • Same product management skills, applied differently

14. Research &
data
Understanding
who you are
building the
product for
Understanding
underlying
problem
Experimentation
Care about
outcomes
Same product management skills, applied differently

15. • Same product management skills, applied differently
• 2 sets of users – internal and end users. Platform products are
usually an enabler for user facing products

16. API
Payments,
partner
APIs,
Platforms
Experimentation
tool Database
1 2

17. • Same product management skills, applied differently
• 2 sets of users – internal and end users. Platform products are
usually an enabler for user facing products
• Product evangelism is hard
• Product-led vs engineering-led
• Thinking long term, and thinking broad
• Expensive to pivot – crucial to validate risks (value, viability)
before building out the system
• Much harder and complex problems

19. Tips to be good at
platform PM

20. Really own your product -
Understand what the product
is, how it works, how it impacts
end users

21. Be clear on the big picture.
Connect the dots

22. Focus on delivery - right
things, in the right order,
incrementally

23. Invest in building
relationships

24. Building Relationships
• Find your space, clarify your role, and how you are going to
add value
• Discuss boundaries – careful about overstepping on your
engineering lead
• Spend time with the team
• Leave the ‘how’ to the engineers
• Ask questions, challenge, but also know when to give in

25. Embrace communication

26. Communication
• Visualise the product
• Share team’s work with rest of the company
• Bring the context from other parts of the company to the team
• Share learnings/impact/outcome, connect the work back to why

27. Summary
• Own your product - Understand what the product
is, how it works, how it impacts end users
• Big picture. Connect the dots
• Deliver right things, in the right order, incrementally
• Invest in building relationships
• Embrace communication

28. www.productschool.com
Part-time Product Management Training Courses
and
Corporate Training