Building Successful Products in the Maze of a Large Organization

 

*Image is generated using AI

Large organizations offer a treasure trove of resources and stability for product development. However, navigating their intricate landscapes can be a daunting task for product managers with innovative ideas. This guide empowers you, the young product champion, to navigate these complexities and build successful products within a large organization.

1. Charting Your Course: Building a Deep Understanding

Imagine a product launch party – everyone's excited, but celebrating different things. Stakeholders in a large organization often have diverse priorities and goals, which can lead to misalignment and missed opportunities. To ensure your product resonates with everyone, gain a deep understanding of their needs and objectives. For example, the marketing team might prioritize features that drive brand awareness, while the sales team focuses on functionalities that close deals. Align your product vision with these internal needs to ensure everyone celebrates the same success at launch. 

• Stakeholder Management: Juggling multiple stakeholders with varying priorities can feel like a three-ring circus. Effective communication is key. Go beyond formal meetings and scheduled presentations. Have informal conversations near the water cooler or in hallways to build rapport and understand their perspectives. This “hallway view” provides valuable insights that can strengthen your product roadmap.

2. Collaboration is King: Leverage the Collective Power

• Cross-Functional Teams: A large organization is like a well-stocked toolbox. You have design experts, engineering wizards, marketing gurus, and sales superstars. Build strong relationships with these teams. Don't just tell them what to do – collaborate! For example, involve designers early in the process to ensure a user-centric approach, and work with the sales team to understand customer pain points. This cross-functional collaboration fosters a cohesive product development process and a seamless user experience.
  
  

• Internal Communication: Silence breeds mistrust. Keep all stakeholders informed about your product's progress, challenges, and upcoming features. Regular updates through emails, internal wikis, or team meetings build trust and allow for proactive problem-solving.
  
  

3. Prioritization is Key: Focus on What Matters Most

• Data-Driven Decisions: Data is your compass in the complex landscape of a large organization. Leverage market research data to identify user needs and understand competitor offerings. Analyze user feedback to pinpoint areas for improvement. Utilize internal analytics to measure feature performance and prioritize functionalities based on their potential impact.
  
  

• Market Savvy: Don't get lost in the internal world – keep your eye on the external market. Conduct thorough market research to validate your product concept. Identify user needs that your product can address and ensure it offers a unique value proposition compared to competitors.
  
  

4. Embrace Agility: Adapt and Iterate

• Minimum Lovable Products (MLPs): Don't try to build the Taj Mahal in one go. Start with a Minimum Lovable Product (MLP). An MLP is a basic version of your product with core features that allows you to gather early user feedback and validate core assumptions. This approach minimizes development time and allows you to iterate quickly based on user insights.
  
  

• Embrace Experimentation: Don't be afraid to experiment with new ideas and functionalities. A culture of experimentation encourages innovation and helps you identify what works and what doesn't. For example, A/B test different design layouts or marketing messages to see which resonates best with users.
  
  

5. Be a Champion: Advocate for Your Product

• Passionate Vision: Be your product's biggest cheerleader! Clearly articulate the product vision, its unique value proposition, and the positive impact it will have on users and the company's bottom line. Speak with passion and conviction to ignite excitement and secure buy-in from stakeholders.
  
  

• Data-Driven Advocacy: Passion alone won't win the day. Back your vision with data and evidence. Use market research, user feedback, and internal data to demonstrate the potential of your product and secure the resources needed to bring it to life.
  
  

By following these steps, you can navigate the complexities of a large organization and build successful products that meet user needs, deliver business value, and contribute to the company's overall success.

Bonus Tip: Leverage existing processes and tools within the large organization. Many large companies have well-established product development processes and tools in place. Learn to utilize these resources effectively to streamline your product development journey.

8 Product Management lessons from the movie 'Gold'

The movie 'Gold' starring Akshay Kumar, is an inspirational story of how passion, determination and persistence can help one achieve the Impossible.

The character of Tapan Das, who was the Team Manager of Indian Hockey Team, is a fine example of an ideal Product Manager.

Listing few of the core responsibilities/skillset of an ideal PM with examples from the movie (Spoiler Alert! ):

1. Vision: The foremost responsibility of a PM is to set the vision for the team. During 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Tapan clearly set the vision for Gold medal as free India as a Goal and Vision.
2. Hustle: As a PM, you need to hustle to get things done. Tapan, hustled to meet Mr Wadia to get things done over and over again through out the movie.
3. Stakeholder Management: Aligning different stakeholders to your vision and progress is critical. Tapan did a brilliant job of doing that with Mr Wadia, Imtiaz, Samrat and other members of the team. Be it a royal blood like Raj Pratap Singh or a village boy like Himmat, he aligned everyone to a common objective over and over again through out the movie. Post Independence, when Mr Wadia asked him, "If the current team can win a Gold Medal?". Though he knew it was not possible at the moment. He told "Yes" and than worked towards making it happen. These are some of the most important quality that a PM needs to demonstrate on a daily basis.
4. Expert Advice: Whenever, you start on a new project, it's best to take expert advice. Tapan at the start of his journey reached out to Samrat, the hockey sensation and not only got the important directions on how to start, but also a mentor and believer, who helped when all the guards were down.
5. Extrinsic Factors: There are always external factors at play which is beyond our control. Only way to sail through them is persistence and determination. When the team was ready, India and Pakistan partition led to it to break. It was determination and persistence of Samrat and Tapan that helped them achieve so much, in such a little time.
6. Limited Resource: You are always sort of resources. Only way to succeed is to figure out ways to work around by thinking out of box and come up with innovative solutions. Tapan, when sort of funds, got a Buddhist Monastery for setting up National Hockey Camp.
7. Multiple Hats: As PM, one needs to wear multiple hats, like from resourcing to logistics to planning. Given the needs of hour, resource availability, one needs to fill in different roles. Same was depicted by Tapan, when he went out scouting talent to build a team or took up logistics for the team stay post independence.
8. Influence, don't enforce: As a PM, when you work with other stakeholders, it important to know your boundaries and figure out ways to influence them. You should be persistent but never enforce your opinions. You need believers. Like when Tapan wanted Himmat to play in the finals, his approach was to convince the Captain, Vice-Captain and the team. As a PM one needs to take this up on a daily basis with Tech, Business, UX, Operations, etc.

This was a fun attempt at explaining the role of Product Manager. Hope, you enjoyed reading this. Do comment!
If you are preparing for PM Interview, then below book is a must read!

Did Snapchat CEO's comment on India being a poor country?

I would like to get the facts straight over here before we get more offended reading the headlines of all the major Indian bulletins.

Lets breakdown this incident:

• This is an allegation. There are no evidence yet to prove this yet.
• The allegation is made by an employee of Snapchat, Anthony Pompliano, who is currently engaged in lawsuit against Snapchat, accusing the company of misleading the investors by providing inflated statistics about user data.

Snapchat unredacted lawsuit by gmaddaus on Scribd

• According to the allegation, the statement was told in answer to a private company meeting, discussing the further expansion plan.
• India was ranked 126th in the world richest country. Total countries are 189. The ranking was created by adjusting GDP per capita to relative purchasing power. 
• Snapchat is a business. It earns money from advertising. The digital advertisement market of India is close to  Rs 7000 crore . Which roughly comes to $ 1 billion which is very low for the population of the country. It's 1/30th of China's digital advertisement market.

We as an Indian have few options here:

• Get offended, uninstall Snapchat, tweet, comment and troll Snapchat.
• Lets understand the facts about our nation. Learn why some countries are rich and some poor and work towards making our country great again by paying our taxes and electing the right candidate to run the country.

• Ignore it as there is nothing wrong with whatever being said.

And if you are feeling Rich then you can buy the snapchat spectacle over here



I have got lots of backlash for defending this. So i would like to add some more facts.
Approximately 23% of people in our country is below poverty line.
Moreover, India's per capita income (nominal) was $1,570 in 2013, ranked at 112th out of 164 countries by the World Bank, while its per capita income on purchasing power parity (PPP) basis was US$5,350, and ranked 106th. Other estimates for per capita Gross National Income and Gross Domestic Product vary by source.
Up to 95% of India still qualifies as poor or low-income, the vast majority of India's 1.2 billion citizens. For the globe, the equivalent proportion is 71%. As far as middle-income Indians go, only 2% of the country actually falls into this zone, compared to 13% of the globe, which is itself a disappointing number.

How different is Lalu Prasad Yadav and Donald Trump?

After my post on How similar is Lalu Prasad Yadav and Donal Trump? , I have been getting request to write a post on their difference. So lets see how different they are:

Money

Donald Trump has 300 times more money to screw up with as compared to Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The GDP of US is approximately 300 times of Bihar.

Power

Trump have control over nuclear weapons and can destroy the world while Lalu only had some rogues and destroyed just a state.

People

Trump have 3 times more lives at stake as compared to Lalu. Population of USA is approximately 3 times that of Bihar.

Comic

Lalu succeeded in making Bihar butt of all Jokes. Trump still has a great and enthralling task ahead of him. Lets all pray that he fails.

Ancestry

Lalu was born to a poor peasant family in Bihar. And his rise to power is a "rags to riches" story. While Donald Trump was born to a rich emigrant family in USA. Never the less his rise to power is more of "anything is possible" story.

 

Buy Cow Dung Soap now

Initially when I found that amazon is selling Cow Dung cakes online,  I was shocked and humored but recent news of Government Researching Cow urine for Cancer Treatment have taken me out of my wits.

Now today, I discovered a Soap which people are buying made from Cow Urine and Cow Dung, I felt it needs to be shared. So find the all new Patanjali Kanti Panchagavya Soap made from Cow Urine and Cow Dung for a more stinkier skin.


Cow Dung Soap

Donal J Trump Inaugral Address : Live Funny Excerpts From Speech

Donald J Trump's Inaugural Speech:

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: Fuck you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to doom our country and to restore balance in world power.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships. But we will get the job done.

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another -- but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to Moscow, the Man without a Face. And Thank You Bane for the inspiration

For too long, a small group of nation's  has reaped the rewards of power while the rest of world borne the cost. Washington flourished -- but the world did not get share in its wealth. US prospered -- but the world crumbled.

That all changes -- starting right here, and right now, because this moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this moment on, it's going to be America Last

I will fight wars for you with every breath in my body -- and I will never, ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before..

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American. - Thank You Modi for inspiration.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones -- and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth. - Thank You Hitler for inspiration!

We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action -- constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.. - Though You took me! In your face!

Together, We will make America weak again.

We will make Russia wealthy again.

We will make Hitler proud again.

We will make World War again.

And yes, together, we will doom America again. 

Thank you. 

God bless you. And God bless America.

Also read : How similar is Lalu Prasad Yadav and Donal Trump?

How to send a meeting request correctly with nodemailer?

I am trying to use the following code to send out meeting request using nodemailer. The problem I am facing is that the meeting invite is going as an attachment ics file instead of request where one can directly add. I have tried it on multiple mail client. Any pointers would be highly appreciated.

transport.sendMail({
                    from: 'BakBak.io ',
                    to: 'biplav.saraf@gmail.com',
                    subject: 'Meeting',
                    //html: "Hi",
                    text: "Hola!!",
                    alternative: {
                      contentType: "text/calendar; method=REQUEST; name='meeting.ics';component=VEVENT",
                      contents: new Buffer(cal.toString()),
                      contentEncoding:"7bit",
                      "Content-Class":"urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"
                    },
                    headers: {
                              "Content-Type": "text/calendar", 
                              //"charset":"utf-8",
                              "method":"REQUEST",
                              "component":"VEVENT",
                              "Content-Class":"urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"
                            }//,
                    //attachments : [{filename:'invite.ics',contents: cal.toString()}]
                    }, function(err, responseStatus) {
                    if (err) {
                        console.log(err);
                        res.render('schedule',{errors: err.message});
                    } else {
                        console.log(responseStatus.message);
                        res.render('schedule',{success_msg: "Successfully Created!"});
                    }
                });

Answer:

Gmail does not show meeting request and give an option to add to calendar if sender and receiver are same.

This is what worked for me:

transport.sendMail({
                    from: 'BakBak.io ',
                    to: 'donateoldspectacles@gmail.com',
                    subject: 'Meeting',
                    html: "Hiya!!",
                    text: "Hola!!",
                    alternatives: [{
                      contentType: "text/calendar",
                      content: new Buffer(ical)
                    }]
                    }, function(err, responseStatus) {
                    if (err) {
                        console.log(err);
                        res.render('schedule',{errors: err.message});
                    } else {
                        console.log(responseStatus.message);
                        res.render('schedule',{success_msg: "Successfully Created!"});
                    }
                });

function createIcal(params,uid) {
start = new Date(params.start);
end = new Date(params.end);
ts = new Date();
start = getTZFormat(start);
end = getTZFormat(end);
ts = getTZFormat(ts);
uid = replaceAll('-','',guid());
main_email = params.email;
part_email = params.main_email;
org_name = "BakBak Scheduler";
org_email = "donateoldspectacles@gmail.com";
subject = params.subject;
agenda = params.agenda;
url = 'http://www.bakbak.io/schedule/meeting/parts?users='+main_email+','+part_email;
escaped_url = ' <'+url+'>';
return 'BEGIN:VCALENDAR\r\n'
+'PRODID:-//Bakbak//BakBak Scheduler Calendar 1.0//EN\r\n'
+'VERSION:2.0\r\n'
+'CALSCALE:GREGORIAN\r\n'
+'METHOD:REQUEST\r\n'
+'BEGIN:VEVENT\r\n'
+'DTSTAMP:'+ts+'\r\n'
+'DTSTART:'+start+'\r\n'
+'DTEND:'+end+'\r\n'
+'SUMMARY:'+subject+escaped_url+'\r\n'
+'UID:'+ uid +'\r\n'
+'DESCRIPTION:'+ agenda +' \r\n' 
+'LOCATION: Web Location'+escaped_url+'\r\n'
+'ORGANIZER;CN='+org_name+':mailto:'+org_email+'\r\n'
+'ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN='+part_email+';X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:'+part_email+'\r\n'
+'ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN='+main_email+';X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:'+main_email+'\r\n'
+'SEQUENCE:0\r\n'
+'LAST-MODIFIED:'+ts+'\r\n'
+'CREATED:'+ts+'\r\n'
+'TRANSP:OPAQUE\r\n'
+'STATUS:CONFIRMED\r\n'
+'END:VEVENT\r\n'
+'END:VCALENDAR\r\n';
}