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Product Management @ Mobile Internet Start-up

Yue ZhugeCo-Founder/CEO Ivy Gallery

March 20, 2014Session 2

A Four-session Series for Students at xlab, Tsinghua University

Session 1:

• Product management basics and skills

Session 2:

• From customer needs to quality product: requirements and design

Session 3:

• Project management and execution

Session 4:

• Product management at a start-up company

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Four Major Product Functions

Product Specification

User Understanding

Market Understanding

Product Design

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Three Inter-related Areas

Functions

UXUI

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Do not Listen to Your Customers: User Requirements to Product

Function

Product Function Must Be

Valuable Usable

Feasible04/09/2023 Yue Zhuge 6

Product Function Example: Ivy Auto-Grouping

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Product Function Example

• Why valuable?– Auto-grouping from multiple sources saves time for

organizing large amount of photos– It groups images naturally according to daily events just like

user would have done it manually• Why usable?– Auto-grouping needs no user actions– User can later label auto-grouped events

• Why feasible?– Can provide seamless experience within 5 sec of start time

with ≤50k photos on the cloud

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Spell out the Function in Details

• You may use a list of sentences start with “the user should be able to …” to spell out all the user facing changes due to this function

• Be aware of the impact to existing features

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Function Detail Example: Search

• The user should be able to search photos according to its labeling information– Date, location, event name, photo meta-data

• The search results will show up as a shrinking list with thumbnails while the user type

• The user should be able to jump the photo location in the dashboard from the search result

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Develop Multiple Functions for Product Releases

Follow a theme, or

Complete a user story

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• MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to start with• Then, each release

You do not Want a Headline Like This

“Citibank Releases Major App Update v6.0, and It’s a Mixed Bag”

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What’s in a Release Note

• Fab v6.4: – Added the ability to view videos– Added ability to see product full-screen

• Tango v 3.5.7– Comment on friend’s photos– Re-share pictures from the Newsfeed

• Prismatic v2.1– Save stories to read later

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Four Major Product Functions

Product Design

User Understanding

Market Understanding

Product Specification

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Design Tools for PM

Wireframe

• Illustrate the structure and components

Mockup

• Draft visual design to illustrate the effect

Prototype

• Semi-functional product that demonstrates the major functions and flow

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Example Wireframe

04/09/2023 Yue Zhuge 16Courtesy of sixrevisions.com

Example Mockup

04/09/2023 Yue Zhuge 17Courtesy of jantipuesto.com

Example Prototype

04/09/2023 Yue Zhuge 18Courtesy of smashingmagazine.com

UX and UI

• Follow iOS HIG (Human Interface Guidelines)– https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/

documentation/userexperience/conceptual/MobileHIG/index.html

• Follow Android Design Guidelines– https://developer.android.com/design/get-

started/principles.html

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HIG has Many Good Suggestions

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More important

Less important

UX/UI Thinking #1: Audience

• Demographic• Device• Time spent• …• What do they care

most: Speed? Fun? Rich content? Privacy?

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Example: Design for the Details: Device

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UX/UI Thinking #2: App Focus• (e.g., banking, commerce) • Simple, light-weight designFunction focused

• (e.g., game)• Visually impressiveLeisure focused

• (e.g., news, photos)• Performance and content qualityContent focused

• (e.g., SNS)• Emphasis on people

Communication focused

• (e.g., contacts, to-do list)• Ease of useTools

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UX/UI Thinking #3: Structure

• Example: weather, diaryFlat

• Example: news by categoriesList/Tree

• Example: bankingTab

• Example: image browsing, gossip Net

• Example: e-commerceFlow

• Example: local business searchContent Driven

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How to Validate?

Method 1: User Study

Method 2: Data Analysis

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Break and User Study Exercise

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Simple User Study

Select a partner

Find an app on your phone that is okay to see by your partner,

but unfamiliar to him.

• Login if needed.

Let him play with the app for five minutes

• You cannot help him with anything

• Observe without interruption even if you think he is making mistakes

Answer the following questions

• What is the first button he pressed?

• How long did it take him to spot the most important function in your mind?

• Is there a good function that he did not discover?

• Did he make any mistakes?

• Was he confused at some point?

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Data Analysis Example: People’s Action in Edit Mode

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Delete

Redo Move to

Share

Is this what you intended?

Thank You!

• Email: yue@ivy.ag• Twitter: @yuezhuge• Weibo: @诸葛越 Yue

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