The Product Coalition

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

Startups don’t starve, they drown. It was 2010 when I watched the online stream of the Startup Lessons Learned conference, initiated by Eric Ries. I went with the cofounder of my first startup, which we used as our own “industry project” for our masters, and a couple of other students to Birmingham.

Startups 111

Startups User Testing Customer Experience Product Research 111

Mind the Product

JULY 1, 2019

In this post, I look at the value of asking great questions, cover a few strong sample questions and suggest some exercises to help you generate your own insightful questions. This is not a “one size fits all” exercise. The Cardinal sin: no Questions for Your Interviewers. A Starter List of Solid Questions to Consider.

User Testing 168

User Testing Product Manager Product Management Customer Experience 168

Mixpanel

FEBRUARY 23, 2021

It’s been a long-held notion in startup circles that lack of product-market fit will doom even the scrappiest of teams to fail. And beyond the anecdotal, an often-cited 2019 study CB Insights found that “no market need” was the leading reason most startups don’t succeed. ” Credit: The Lean Startup Playbook. In short, yes.

User Testing 130

User Testing Onboarding KPIs Product Research Startups 130

Intercom, Inc.

MAY 16, 2022

Product design workshops are an opportunity for a team to untangle a problem together by going through a series of group exercises designed to get to a specific outcome. Warm-up exercise. Exercises (30 min). Warm-up exercise (3-5 min). What are product design workshops? Where will the workshop be held? Goal of workshop.

Workshop 245

Workshop Feedback Software Research Software Reporting Tools 245

The Product Guy

AUGUST 1, 2017

We started by defining the objectives I wanted to achieve over the course of my 6 months in the product mentor program, an important exercise at the beginning of any mentor partnership. This is a relative quick exercise and the matrix can be adjusted over time. Draft procedures to get commitment.

Leadership 247

Leadership Product Manager Product Management Product Research 247

Product Innovation Educators

APRIL 17, 2023

Paul acquired the breadth of experience through his leadership roles at San Francisco Bay Area startups and high-growth companies. He helps rapidly scaling early-stage startups craft their Product Strategy and everything related to it. Any VC-backed startup has a deck they need to show on a quarterly basis to the board members.

Customer Experience 257

Customer Experience Leadership Startups Engineering 257

UX Planet

FEBRUARY 29, 2024

From design-team-of-thirty to design-team-of-one Over the past two years, I have been a design-team-of-one at a fast-growing startup, and the experience has been nothing short of a rollercoaster. In a startup environment, where resources are often limited, collaboration becomes not just a preference but a necessity.

Startups 91

Startups Product Research Feedback Software User Testing 91

Mind the Product

OCTOBER 7, 2019

Experience Mapping is a strategic exercise of identifying, capturing, and communicating the interactions of multiple brand touchpoints over space and time. It is a strategic exercise for getting omnichannel alignment. Types of Experience Maps. The type of experience map chosen will depend on the goal.

Customer Experience 150

Customer Experience Advertising Consulting Framework 150

Mind the Product

APRIL 11, 2019

Last year I started my product management career full time, with a startup called Split Software. Seeing a problem from a different perspective is an incredibly worthwhile exercise for a product manager. Working as a product manager in a fast-moving startup can feel overwhelming. Using the Hours in the day Effectively.

Product Manager 166

Product Manager Product Management Customer Experience User Friction 166

The Product Coalition

APRIL 1, 2020

Most of us in the startup community have embraced the principles of Lean product development and MVPs. Despite this, most startups still flatline or fail after their MVP has been released. Startups are complex, so there’s many factors at play. This is precisely why growth curves for most startups are flat forever.

Startups 79

Startups User Testing Customer Experience Product Research 79

The Product Coalition

JANUARY 26, 2021

Despite discovering useful techniques and exercises and experimenting with workshop formats, templates and canvases, we weren’t finding a process that ticked all our must-haves whilst also taking into consideration the constraints on the product leader? During the workshop, the group will complete: Vision Primer exercise ? Tangible?—?

Vision 187

Vision Product Research User Testing Workshop 187

bpma ProductHub

MARCH 20, 2017

Scenario two – startup has a grand idea. In a recent exercise with a product team, I challenged them to list the markets where the company could potentially sell. The same repeats for market B, C and D and before long the product team is inundated with requests that keep changing day in and day out.

Technical Advisors 150

Technical Advisors Marketing Technical Review Software Review 150

Intercom, Inc.

DECEMBER 31, 2019

And it’s not just the startups playing this game – Steve Jobs was proudly averse to the notion of subscriptions, and now Apple spends most of its earning calls boasting about the performance of its services division.

Artificial Inteligence 259

Artificial Inteligence Entertainment Customer Experience Messaging 259

Mind the Product

AUGUST 9, 2019

In the startup context, thinking big should be unconstrained and boundless. Practise this exercise during crucial conversations in one-on-ones, with management, and during staff meetings. Key Operating Principles. This stage is the “yes, and…” stage – it is where brainstorming, whiteboards, Post-It notes, and stickies live.

Product Research 180

Product Research Product Manager Product Management Feedback Software 180

Product Management Lessons from the Trenches

JULY 24, 2018

Focusing on what matters most and why is a critical key to success for any business/product and this intense focus is ever more important in a startup with limited resources and where time to market is a matter of life and death for the company. I think you get the point of this exercise.

Data Visualization 150

Data Visualization Analytic Tools Customer Experience Download 150

Intercom, Inc.

NOVEMBER 24, 2021

Speed is every startup’s biggest competitive advantage. These broad information-gathering exercises are typically an inefficient, cumbersome, and unnecessary step. Your decision-making process is slowing you down. . They consciously try to exclude their own expertise, intuition, and objectives from the process.

User Testing 257

User Testing Data Visualization Feedback Loop Weak Development Team 257

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 21, 2018

Despite common belief, arming your sales team with live chat doesn’t have to be a costly exercise; it just requires a more efficient way of working and some prep work ahead of time. At Intercom, our sales team (the SDR team, to be precise) uses live chat to capture and convert these high-intent website visitors.

Product launches 199

Product launches Customer Experience Messaging Startups 199

The Product Coalition

APRIL 19, 2018

The Big 3 ‘Lean Startup’ Mistakes Companies Still Make Are you spending a ridiculous amount of time working on a product, and getting nowhere? If this sounds like you, you’re probably stuck in the lean startup trap. The idea The problem in lean startup originates right at the first step. And you’re not the only one.

Startups 68

Startups Customer Experience User Testing Feedback Software 68

The Product Coalition

MARCH 10, 2021

It’s a common element of a team startup or launch, and strong teams often revisit their team norms. c) Think like your user : An empathy exercise can help the whole team clarify their customers’ and users’ pain points. Even a short empathy exercise can help align the team on the user’s pain points and needs.

Research Software 154

Research Software Webinar Product Research Customer Experience 154

The Product Coalition

DECEMBER 19, 2021

The first product manager in a startup is a critical role with immense impact on the startup’s success?—?both As the VP Product at a startup, I knew I had to work hands-on, and hiring a product manager to take the load off of me would happen only when it became absolutely necessary. both in the short and long term. and during?—?the

Product Manager 184

Product Manager Product Management User Testing Weak Development Team 184

Intercom, Inc.

SEPTEMBER 19, 2019

It’s a timely conversation for us, coming hot on the heels of the release of our book Intercom on Sales last month and Steli’s own book The 2020 Startup Sales Playbook this week. A lot has changed since Close started teaching people and startups how to sell. We’re not really a startup anymore. to Close.com.

Weak Development Team 184

Weak Development Team Customer Experience Startups Reporting Tools 184

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 14, 2018

Rather than suggesting a model startup, advisor and author Laura Klein is likely to point you toward her favorite heist film. Now the Vice President of Product at Business Talent Group , she has honed her expertise into a set of best practices and published them in two books: UX for Lean Startups and Build Better Products.

Weak Development Team 190

Weak Development Team CTO Coach Onboarding KPIs Fractional CTO 190

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 29, 2018

I experiment a lot with retrospectives, usually mixing different exercises that share the same goal but differ in structure. If you can’t answer these questions, the whole exercise is biased and almost doomed to failure. Experimenting with your retrospectives. What do team members expect from the team?

Framework 217

Framework Technical Review Construction Engineering 217

Product Talk

JANUARY 10, 2018

Many teams use design studio exercises to quickly answer this question. Lean startups use landing page tests to assess the desirability of their services before they commit to building them. Thanks to the rise in popularity of The Lean Startup and design thinking , we have countless examples of prototyping to answer specific questions.

User Testing 224

User Testing Feedback Software Research Software Product Research 224

Mind the Product

JUNE 26, 2017

Here’s an example from a project Convivio ran with a recruitment startup with a business model based on user referrals. At the end of the exercise, you should have a complete set of steps your prototype will need to cover and have an insight into customer thoughts and feelings throughout the journey. Now Start Sketching.

User Testing 189

User Testing Customer Feedback Customer Experience Research Software 189

Product Talk

AUGUST 8, 2018

After exploring the distinct perspectives on your team, use the exercise described in this video to create a shared map. This is one of the most powerful exercises I’ve come across for quickly getting to a shared understanding. We all see the world differently and we want to leverage our unique experiences when creating together.

Product Research 264

Product Research Feedback Software User Testing Research Software 264

Product Innovation Educators

JANUARY 7, 2019

After I graduated college, I went to work at a startup called Feedburner, which was later acquired by Google. We suggest ways that people can approach diet and exercise with this relationship in mind. After I graduated college, I went to work at a startup called Feedburner, which was later acquired by Google.

Framework 159

Framework Books Technology Naming 159

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 24, 2019

Mike has been in and around startups for the better part of three decades: as a consultant, as a co-founder and now as the Managing Director of Salesforce Incubator, which propels new startups into the marketplace. He joined me for a chat that ranged from the role of AI to how they choose startups to incubate. Short on time?

Analytic Tools 151

Analytic Tools Data Visualization User Testing Artificial Inteligence 151

Intercom, Inc.

OCTOBER 16, 2019

The classic example sees a company move from niche startup to mainstream scale-up, but it can also see companies hone their product-market fit by focusing on a more specialized, and yet more lucrative, user base. Of course, the content burden is significant and thus is more appropriate for well-funded startups.

Strategy 195

Strategy Customer Experience Inbound User Testing 195

Product Talk

JULY 6, 2022

I can still run through a hypothetical exercise. There will be some people, particularly in startups, who are going to want to see you take it a step further. Even though I don’t work for a streaming entertainment company, I can still interview people about their experience with it. I can still map out the opportunity space.

Customer Experience 227

Customer Experience Product Research Entertainment Data Visualization 227

The Product Coalition

FEBRUARY 23, 2024

The stakes are exceptionally high for startups, where a misfit in the product team can have significant repercussions. I am not in favor of assigning home exercises. This discrepancy necessitates a rigorous interview process to identify candidates who embody the essence of product management.

Analytic Tools 143

Analytic Tools Data Visualization Research Software Feedback Software 143

Intercom, Inc.

JANUARY 5, 2022

Suddenly, the team got to know SOC 2 Reports all too well and realized just how burdensome and unscalable it could become, especially for high-growth startups. Drata recently raised $100 million in venture capital funding, which I believe makes it San Diego’s latest startup unicorn with an evaluation of $1 billion.

Reporting Tools 211

Reporting Tools Data Visualization Software Review Technical Review 211

The Product Coalition

DECEMBER 5, 2021

Last month, for example, I met a startup, which had a good indication from the market that their initial product direction was viable. That’s especially true if you need to go all-in with this single direction (which you should, it’s called focus and it’s critical for startup success ) and leave all other options aside.

Vision 162

Vision User Testing Startups Consulting 162

The Product HQ

JUNE 1, 2024

Product managers who work at startups have their work cut out for them. Nowadays, sharpening your startup product manager skills has become more of a priority than they have ever been. Based on startup statistics shared by Embroker , around 90% of startups fail.

Startups 52

Startups Product Manager Product Management Technical Review 52

Intercom, Inc.

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

No, this isn’t some theoretical mental exercise. That’s right, would you offer yourself a job at your company? It’s a question every interviewer should ask themselves. It’s actually a powerful question to ask yourself when you’re looking to expand your team but find yourself paralyzed with options.

Technology 192

Technology Books Management Management 192

People-First Product Leadership

FEBRUARY 4, 2025

I am leveraging my product background in both coaching and advising AI-driven startups. Network Persistently : I stayed in touch with a startup recruiter for six months before landing my first PM-adjacent role. Throughout my career, statistics have directly influenced my career decisions.

Data Visualization 52

Data Visualization Reporting Tools Research Software Technical Advisors 52

Mind the Product

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

After an idea generation exercise he and the team designed a new look for the Encarta product – which better showcased the quality of their product. Startups move from Idea to Launch in much more iterative fashion than other businesses. This was a huge problem for Jake’s team. The Design Sprint is the outcome of this process.

Research Software 151

Research Software User Testing Airlines Software Review 151