20 Years of Product Management in 25 Minutes by Dave Wascha

There is probably one part of the product management job we can all agree is the hardest - people. People are unpredictable, have strong opinions and unconscious biases, and many people in your organisation have more power than you, yet are wrong just as often. In this illuminating talk from Mind the Product San Francisco 2017 Janna Bastow, Co-Founder of Mind the Product and Co-Founder and CEO of ProdPad, shares her own stories of dealing with people, and how she handles the toughest part of the job.
Good Books:
- Product Management For Dummies - amzn.to/2U6dPT7
- Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action - amzn.to/2SZbr0F
- The Lean Product Playbook: How to Innovate with Minimum Viable Products and Rapid Customer Feedback - amzn.to/3A9ilBd

[@SpreadIdeas]

See also: Yes, Product is Hard, but WHY? by Marty Cagan - kzbin.info/www/bejne/baOYaKyhmamgodU

[@pratikstephen]

TLDW: 1. listen to your customers… to deeply understand their scenarios and problems 2. stop listening to your customers… when it comes to building solutions 3. watch the competition… to better understand customers problems, reactions & feedback 4. don't watch the competition… you don’t HAVE blindly copy every feature 5. be a thief… take ideas from other products/people that help solve your customer problems 6. get paid… validate that you create value that customers will pay for 7. don’t only worry about getting paid… appeal to your customers social and emotional needs, not just functional needs 8. speed up! Inaction & delay can be costly 9. say no… for the right reasons. you can do anything once you stop trying to do everything 10. don't be a visionary… products don't need visionaries, they need product managers who are obsessed with understanding the customers problem and solving it. 11. don't confuse yourself with your customers… you may use your product, but you are NOT ALL your customers 12. be dumb… you don’t know everything. So keep learning & always advocate for customers

[@DominicDsouza5]

Short crisp and tangy. was great to recapture the whole session. Thank you.

[@mj7259]

Saw this before watching the whole video.. This stuff is golden.

[@matthieuborgognon1133]

Just a small contribution as you forgot the between 9 and 10. What do you think of "9b. stop saying no... make sure sure you say no for the right reasons, in a customer perspective "

[@tanaylko]

Thanks a billion!

[@mspaehn]

Executive summary: 2:30 Listen to customers (for user problems) 5:00 Don't listen to customers (for solutions) 6:23 Watch the competition (for customer research) 8:40 Don't watch the competition 10:15 Be a thief 10:57 Get paid 15:30 Stop worrying about getting paid 21:25 Speed up 23:18 Say no 25:10 Stop saying no 25:20 Don't be a visionary 26:05 Don't confuse yourself with your customer 27:58 Be dumb Great charismatic talk!

[@rajender5428]

Very Good , you are good listener

[@luyokai]

Never seen so many contradictions in a single speech.

[@jaredmdobson]

Wow Definitely not watching this 😂

[@parvez3128]

So viele danke!

[@DominicDsouza5]

Incredibly smart way to be of service and being able to transfer knowledge so efficiently.

[@SwedishNeo]

I miss the time when companies at least tried to solve people's problem instead of just using marketing to convince them they have a problem which they really don't have.

[@PhilippeLarcher]

you're not having fun salting your dishes!

[@NQuiz52]

That's not marketing, that's just shoving irrelevant ads into their faces.

[@radar29]

Oh yeahhhh !!!!

[@whysokara]

Cameraman is really having a tough job today, following this guy

[@DrewShah]

LOL

[@blahuhm6782]

it's as if his body wants to go somewhere, but doesn't know where

[@bubblybubblu]

It's as if he really needs to pee

[@Fer77gg]

Ahahaha

[@edchong]

@@DrewShah .........

[@school8066]

In a single line: Genuine and Key Customer Focus -- Product Enhancement -- Marketing -- Better Revenue...

[@heyklau]

This is one of those videos where you find new gems and insights every time you rewatch every few months.

[@olgagerber1404]

The best 25 minutes spent listening to the Product Management presentation. Thank you, Dave, for the great advice!

[@charlesdara]

This has got to be the most useful, down-to-earth, authentic presentation I have ever watched. Thank You Dave

[@CaptainBob42]

Great presentation! Everything he spoke of mirrors my experience as a PM. The only thing he missed is - the PM fills in all the gaps on their team. Lose your BA, you write specs. No launch manager, available? You do the launch.

[@ExploringDiaries]

Some real and useful points that were covered in this talk, definitely one of the finest I'd say as far as product management is concerned. It is in fact true that how some of the obvious points mentioned here are something most product managers fail to execute. Even reminding yourself what you are supposed to be doing with some key questions once in a while goes a long way in making the most from this role. ~ Amyth

[@GregJoshuaW]

This is a good talk not only for product managers but also entrepreneurs and start ups.

[@aakash_rohilla]

One of the finest talks on products I have listened to. Thanks Dave.

[@adityajha2553]

- Listen to your customers: Get the basics of customers problems right - Don't listen to your customers for solutions - Competition - Judge them by how well they are solving customers problem - Get paid: Will your customers pay for the feature? Users pay for value, not for how hard you try - Not everything is about getting paid: Features might not have a direct impact on value add - Speed up: There is a huge cost of indecision - Say no: What does not add value to the user cannot be added BUT Say no only to protect the customer, not your team mate - Don't be a Visionary: Focus on users problem - Be dumb: Always look at a problem from the lens of a customer Don't listen to dave

[@asishmohanty5800]

Thanks Dave !! This is a pleasant stay , excellent experience, thought process to lead in product services!!

[@TonyPhanHCM]

I would like to say thanks to Dave. This is definitely a great talk. Very insightful.

[@KrzysiekSetlak]

Are you referring to Gina's review of the Oral-B Blabbityblahblah? ;)

[@biggest312]

Title is correct, this was Dave Wascha. Description is dead wrong, this was not Jann Bastow.

[@nkechi1]

Starting off tomorrow as a product owner so happy I found this. Also useful to share some ideas on my channel about product. Thanks for sharing David Wascha!

[@edchelstephens]

Thank you for this! Very educational talk.. I'm a newly assigned PM and this video is very helpful! God bless!

[@shirravuna1357]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge and your experience, I've learned a lot!

[@SanjeevReddyBora]

Loved every aspect of it

[@AliKhundmiri]

This is such an amazing presentation. I love the way he has command on stage.

[@paddy0028]

Amazing control of presentation & the audience.

[@Jacintaaptr]

this is honestly very insightful and engaging talks to watch

[@shawnmabey9806]

Brilliant presentation!

[@naveennirban]

Good piece of subtle, grounded, non-jargon knowledge. Good work Dave.

[@tanavbajaj1689]

Loved it and it was 100% worth watching

[@prernasharma1307]

Awesome talk.... Insightful points articulated with humour..... Very engaging❤

[@janardhand6200]

Love sir, great lecture

[@soumyaiter1]

Thanks Dave ! for the great insight and fun

[@visualpmpacademy2230]

Great job. Thank you so much

[@eMarketEducationBengaluru]

Thanks for this great video on Product Management.

[@TheodoreRavindranath]

I liked the part about the emotional connect

[@swetasbala7950]

Wow !! what a great masterpiece !! Loved it :)

[@oumarh.gassama8063]

Really inspiring and great talk with indeed essential and truly important knowledge. Besides his hilarious jokes, what really made me chuckle was how at 28:14 Dave simply called all the customers dumb: "[...]and the best product managers that I've ever worked with have had this capacity to be dumb to always look at a situation through the eyes of the customer." :-D

[@CNote1906]

And "some people" are never given the opportunity to fail. Perfection is demanded from the very beginning. No second chances.

[@sanansa4567]

I know right. It can be a luxury to be in a life situation where you can fail. It's situational, and that is why these talks are often nonsense. Also, the part about 'listening' to the customer, Thats a 30 minute talk right there, because again it's situational and depends on the relationship with the customer/stakeholder; organizational size/industry, etc. In most cases its best to have a formal process to interact with customers, it would make it much smoother. Such as a Project Scope Form and also a Change Request Form. This way 3 months down the road you don't get into a "He said/She said" Situation.

[@Chefrondon]

This was so insightful !!!! love it

[@Loudtechie]

Crisply explained... Dave ❤❤

[@SaifHassan]

Thanks so much! This helped a lot

[@salmanfardeen]

Oh man! That is one of the best 29 minutes I have spent in my life! ❤️🔥🔥

[@RahulYadav-pw5wf]

What an amazing speaker! His presentation was educational, humorous, and had my attention the entire time.

[@leedavey9703]

great presentation Dave!

[@japhillis12]

There's a book called The Innovator's Method. It goes through a process called painstorming. In essence this is what he's talking about.

[@frankservant5754]

Loved the bit about pagerduty

[@espiditltd]

I really enjoyed this one 👏🏽👏🏽

[@KhatuYogesh]

Wonderful session... 11 Guidelines Principles of Product Management....one of beauty of this lecture is that there are not any heavy managment jargons (hired from HBR😂)

[@prathimad4566]

Wow! This made my day!

[@SpadeZ777]

Amazing thank you very much.

[@KrzysiekSetlak]

I can't remember last time when I grabbed my notebook and a pen when watching KZbin, but this definitely doesn't happen often.

[@carriechildress5032]

Great talk! Loved it.

[@mudburon3381]

I love Dave Wascha

[@oluwaseyiakindolie2702]

beautiful insights

[@cruzincruz09]

Great video, MTP. Great speaker.

[@arnoudt]

Great walk ... talk!

[@alex_kovac]

He's a great story teller. Sounds and reminds me a lot of Simon Sinek

[@parry1]

What a brilliant talk! Highly engaging - humorous and getting the point across very well.

[@CollosalTrollge]

Thanks my Portuguese friend

[@vedantgera5741]

One of the best videos on Indian Politics. Great work Mohak.

[@axg056000]

Good content. Presented well!!

[@syedquadri3922]

These are gems. Watch the video from start to end. And do not spoil videos for a few likes

[@ayomideebifemiolayinka3445]

This is awesome and mind blowing, this is actually applicable to so many things and not just a product alone. Its applicable to life itself

[@harshaarrfan]

You spoke my mind

[@finchhalleyburton1055]

Great Advice, TIA Dave

[@kasimalam5663]

Again - really interesting stuff!

[@micheymon]

Wow ,love this

[@sharkbaba4134]

语言文化不同却产生了高度相同的产品理念，谢谢这个视频让我更自信。thank you!

[@chetanchoudhary08]

Summary: 1.Listen to customer problem 2. Don't Listen to customer solution 3. Watch the competition 4. Don't watch the competition 5. Be a thief if its a good idea 6. Get paid 7. Stop worrying about getting paid 8. Speed up (cost of delay) 9. Say no, no to features not useful for customers

[@Chiramisudo]

*Summary of the video:* The Product Manager's job is to say "No" for the right reasons... Failing to do this crucial job properly results in the Software Engineers getting stuck with implementing all the unnecessary crap the Product Managers failed to say *"No"* to, which in turn results in slower time to market, more bugs, more technical debt, and much greater cost of development and *maintenance.* _Having a poorly defined technical specification that accurately represents the customers needs is another major contributing factor to poor products._

[@Choucheeeenn]

"The server's on fiiiiiiiiiiire, on fiiiiiiiiiiiiiire"

[@TheNikhilravi]

Amazing talk !

[@user-kt1pp1pz3q]

one of the greatest speech I've ever seen

[@aumtripathi1665]

Executive summary: 2:30 Listen to customers (for user problems) 5:00 Don't listen to customers (for solutions) 6:23 Watch the competition (for customer research) 8:40 Don't watch the competition 10:15 Be a thief 10:57 Get paid 15:30 Stop worrying about getting paid 21:25 Speed up 23:18 Say no 25:10 Stop saying no 25:20 Don't be a visionary 26:05 Don't confuse yourself with your customer 27:58 Be dumb

[@m_f9196]

Thank you

[@sandyanima2]

Two great words I picked up from this video. BE DUMB. Thanks Dave for this

[@darshinip7010]

the best 30 mins for my career.

[@kirbywong60]

Well it does make somebody has a job and be useful in their own skills, digital marketing is a source not just for business but also for our own leisure, to promote oneself the likes and their creations.

[@zacharybelford3771]

best talk of the year ty

[@antonbrams_io]

best walk of the year ty

[@ronaldfarber4540]

Bill's sales pitch of this smalt dispenser was AWSUMN! but especially loved the part at 4:08 when there was that one guy in the audience shouting out a little "Whoo!" ... hmmm ... How do i get my hands on a pair of these smalts, anyway?

[@raghavendraj3758]

The Sir gives good information about how work relationship between as a employee and customer and failure and success fantastic...

[@ExplorewithAmitabh]

Worth watching.

[@allendavee]

Taking a product management course at the moment. This is really insightful 👏

[@kalpak.asolkar7]

Have you done MBA ?

[@allendavee]

@@kalpak.asolkar7 no, why did you ask?

[@kalpak.asolkar7]

I heard that for product management role corporates prefer to hire candidates with MBA background, so thought of asking

[@allendavee]

@@kalpak.asolkar7 I don't think so, I know product managers who don't have MBA. It depends I guess.

[@xoxcrewofficial1379]

​@@allendavee yoo brother , How was the journey , You got a job now? What are the courses that you took?

[@AlanHofman]

Quality storyteller

[@0dyss3us51]

Okay sick plug for Pager Duty at 20:25 smart move to sing it, lol

[@cagmz]

Advice starts at 4:50

[@joegolife]

This made me clap in front of my computer! Thank you for the gems!

[@deelesiemmanuel1972]

One of the greatest time I had

[@taint_misbehavin]

Glad I kept watching for Barber Duty

[@bhisesaurabhravindra8589]

If you play it at 2X, Dave starts running off the stage. Good talk though

[@fivenine1057]

Great presentation.

[@coolbrotherf127]

The AAA gaming industry leaders need to watch this presentation. Those publishers are notorious for coming up with every possible way to make money and not what will create an engaging user experience for the customers.

[@daniel.adeyemi]

Great talk ❤ I love the ringtones 😂

[@namanbader]

If you can make somebody smile, you give the foundation of lifetime of royalty

[@nehagupta5256]

Just awesome

[@shanehagan]

fantastic vid

[@ScrubsIsee]

Thanks for the upload - but please correct the video's description! It seems not to be Janna Bastow who is talking here ...

[@ChaoLegacy]

Good!!!

[@Mr-Ghost17]

Listen to your customers to understand your problems , mind the product , Watch the competition , Mind the PRODUCT , shipping to be instinct and what they think about , People are starting to SAY , even Comments on Communication. Friends k samne hi open hojata hu bhai mai aise kisi k samne open ni hota

[@janhafen1263]

amazing vid

[@khatritariq]

brilliant talk ! learned a lot.

[@2010sparsh]

And u learnt it all wrong

[@2010sparsh]

Example.. listin to customer .. lol did customer knew that they need diesal engine before it was invented ? So how would u listin to them

[@khatritariq]

@@2010sparsh how'd you know i learned it wrong ;)

[@2010sparsh]

@@khatritariq as u said u learnt a lot from video proves the fact that u learnt it all wrong cause whatever he is saying is all wrong..there is nothing called product management... Just one questions tell me a product who no body wants and it flew just because of marketting ..and i can tell u thousand of product which flew without marketting

[@khatritariq]

@@2010sparsh examples ?

[@cormacrealestate2267]

*The camera man is having a tough job following this dude 😂✌️*

[@ramdhiwakarssec916]

Great Video