3 cat lessons in Product Management 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 🐈‍⬛

Power up your discovery 😼 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ This episode of Product Rantz is sponsored by my cat, who woke me up at 6 am so I could help him drink water straight from the tap, because "drinking from a water bowl is quite frankly disgusting." Cats teach us important lessons in Product Management. Since LinkedIn agreed last week, I've compiled some cat lessons in product discovery and product growth that all of you are now probably meow-ing to know.   Lesson number 1: Never assume you know what the user wants! [Image] [Bart Jaworski](, a former Senior PM at Microsoft, wanted to promote his cat's back health. To that end, he MVP-ed a solution that would prevent the cat from having to bend his neck every time he ate from a bowl at the floor level. The user quickly rejected his innovation: [Image]Now you know you should "test it (your assumptions) before you've built it" - here's a handful of tips on how you can make your [discovery process]( more successful: - Initial product discovery takes place before the product launch and leads to the creation of the MVP. Once it’s out, it turns into a [continuous discovery process](, the role of which is to look for ways to [add value to the product.]( - There are two key aspects of product discovery. First, you look for opportunities to grow the product. These could be user problems or needs. Next, you look for solutions to these problems. - [Opportunity Solution Trees]( are visual ideation tools that help you understand the interplay between your users' problems/needs and the solutions your product could offer. They help you link solutions with opportunities and desired outcomes: both for the users, and for the business. [Image] - For example: 1) Desired user outcome: cat is not bending its neck to eat. Desired business outcome: more health-conscious cat owners buy our product. 2) Opportunity: Address cat's back problems. 3) Solution: build a cat table. 4) Experiment: Use a shoe box as an MVP. - If you have a lot of opportunities to choose from (=your users have a lot of problems/needs your product can solve - good problem to have!) you may have troubles pricking the right one first. There are a number of [prioritization frameworks]( that you can use to prioritize the features that deliver the most value: e.g. RICE, MoSCoW, Kano or MoAR. - ​RICE score = (Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort - MoSCoW = a framework classifying new features into 4 buckets: “Must-Have,” “Should-Have,” Could-Have,” and “Won’t-Have” (at least not in the short term) or “Wish-to-Have”. - The Kano model isused to prioritize features based on the 'hierarchy of needs': Basic (must-have features taken for granted), Excitement (wow factor features), Performance (Quality of life improvements that lead to better tool performance), Indifferent (the customer won't care), Dissatisfaction (might actually deduct value). - MoAR stands for Metrics (=the impact of the new feature on a selected metric one wants to improve = business outcome) over Available Resources. It allows for a holistic view of prioritization across multiple teams and roadmaps while considering the business’s needs.  [Prototypes](, including [fake door tests](, are effective product discovery tools for idea validation: [Image]​ That might be a tad too much friction... You can easily build a fake door test in your product in [Userpilot]( by adding e.g. a tooltip to your dashboard sending people to a prototype page.  Lesson number 2: The way you've built it =/= the way your users use it. [Image] My partner emerged from a client call the other day and announced to me triumphantly: - Wow! I've learnt so much about how to use BacklinkManager from this call! - Aww good for you! ...wait, what?! Aren't you the one who *built* BacklinkManager?! He could have as well replied "so what" to that.  How you designed your product to be used, and the way your users are using your product - are again, often two very different  things. That's why [Teressa Torres published a book about Continuous Discovery Habits](. You need to continuously track how your users are using your product, to shape the future direction of product development and UX improvements. Watching tons of session recordings + product analytics is the way to go (unlike asking biased, [bad survey questions.]() You should pay attention to what your users actually do with your product - not what they say they do (many people can't really tell how they are using your product/ might underreport issues due to [self-serving bias](). [Image] ✅ Real life session recording: the user clearly *got* the product Putting the needs of the users first while developing the product is the foundation of [product-led growth](. If you develop a product that is great at solving users’ problems, they will become its most loyal champions. This is what will [drive growth](, and not necessarily the work of your marketing or sales teams. More and more SaaS businesses are recognizing the value of product-led growth and embracing it as their[ go-to-market strategy](. But...there is a but, of course: Lesson number 3: You can't make [Product-Led Growth a Rule by Decree]( [Image] Leah Tharin from ProducTea ☕, my latest obsession, [wrote in her newsletter recently: "Growth is a 3-D word salad"]( [Image] If we can't agree on the definition of growth (let alone Product Led Growth) between the different departments - how can we successfully implement a product growth strategy? 👉 By starting small. There's actually no contradiction between having a sales-led growth process and a great user onboarding experience (duh, but guess how many times did I hear that a company is "not focusing on user onboarding because they are sales-led"?) Join our [User Onboarding Tips from SaaS Experts]( webinar today to get started! [Image]( And that's it for today. P.S. If you're looking for a product adoption tool so easy your cat could use it -[give us a ring]( 😼 See you all next week! [Image] Emilia Korczynska, Head [Cat Lady]( at Userpilot I'm a marketing manager obsessed with product growth (and cats). Wanna talk? Simply respond to this email!  To make sure you keep getting these emails, please add emilia@userpilot.co to your address book or whitelist us. Want out of the loop? Don't remember you subscribed at all? We get it. We sometimes don't remember how we got to our office today let alone how we subscribed to this or that email. Sometimes people also get offended by our strong opinions on all matters product, SaaS and UX, but you know what? We won't stop sharing them - and what we believe is the best product practices and the future of SaaS. Anyway, if you ever want to come back you'll know where to find us. Until then! [Unsubscribe](. Our postal address: 1887 Whitney Mesa Dr #9995 Henderson, Nevada 89014 United States