Product Strategy Mock Interview with Eashan Kadam, Product Manager at Exponentia.ai

Summary

In this insightful video, Ishaan Kadam, a product manager at Exponential AI, discusses the challenges and opportunities in the billboard industry. He identifies the industry as under-monetized and suggests innovative solutions to enhance its reach and efficiency. Ishaan leverages his tech background and passion for product design to explore strategies that could revolutionize billboard advertising, emphasizing the importance of understanding both supply and demand dynamics in the market.

Takeaways

• 😀 Isshaan Kadam is a product manager at Exponential AI, a tech startup, and has a passion for solving product management interview questions.
• 🏢 The discussion revolves around identifying opportunities in the billboard industry, which is considered under-monetized.
• 📊 The industry is fragmented with various stakeholders, including real estate owners and big brands interested in advertising.
• 📈 The main pain points identified are scheduling inefficiencies, information asymmetry, lack of pricing transparency, and a non-uniform auction process.
• 📝 The process of booking a billboard involves a bidding mechanism, which can be complex due to the lack of a centralized system.
• 📊 Google's capabilities, such as Adsense, Maps, and traffic data, are suggested as tools to address the industry's challenges.
• 🛠️ Suggested features for a solution include a campaign manager integrated with Google's ecosystem, location-based recommendations, bid price transparency, and a calendar view for campaign management.
• 🔑 Prioritization of features is crucial, starting with registration for billboard providers and then building out the platform for brands.
• 📈 Metrics for success include the number of billboard providers registered, days booked out in a year, and the creation of new Adsense accounts.
• 🤝 The importance of understanding client needs and goals in a B2B context is highlighted, emphasizing the need for personalization and feedback.
• 💡 The session underscores the complexity of improving an existing ecosystem and the need for a nuanced approach to product management.

Q & A

What is the main topic of discussion in the video?

The main topic of discussion is the exploration of the billboard industry's under-monetization and the potential for improvement, particularly from a product management perspective.

Who is Ishaan Kadam and what is his current role?

Ishaan Kadam is a guest in the video and a friend of the host from ISB. He is currently working as a product manager at a tech startup called Exponential AI.

What is the issue with the current billboard industry according to the discussion?

The issue is that the billboard industry is under-monetized, possibly due to inefficient selling, lack of awareness about the business, or other unidentified problems.

What is the proposed approach to identify the reasons for under-monetization in the billboard industry?

The approach involves identifying pain points for each stakeholder in the industry and considering the core competencies of a company like Google to address these issues.

What are some of the key stakeholders in the billboard industry mentioned in the script?

The key stakeholders include billboard real estate owners, big brands interested in advertising, and possibly unicorn startups.

What is the process for booking a billboard as described in the script?

The process involves a number on the billboard that interested parties can call, followed by a bidding mechanism where multiple parties can place bids for booking the billboard for a certain period.

What are some of the pain points identified for the billboard real estate providers?

Some pain points include scheduling difficulties due to unpredictable demand, information asymmetry, lack of pricing transparency, and the absence of a uniform auction process.

How does Ishaan suggest leveraging Google's ecosystem to address the billboard industry's challenges?

Ishaan suggests using Google's Adsense for campaign management, Maps for location data, and leveraging Google's traffic and demographic data to provide insights for advertisers.

What features does Ishaan propose for the campaign management tool for brands interested in billboard advertising?

Proposed features include a map locator for billboards, integration with existing campaign management tools, bid price recommendations, and a calendar view for campaign planning.

What success metrics does Ishaan discuss for evaluating the effectiveness of the proposed solutions?

Success metrics include the total number of billboard providers registered, the number of unique locations registered, the number of days a billboard is booked out in a year, and the number of bids and campaigns processed.

How does Ishaan differentiate between performance metrics and goal-oriented metrics in his role as a product manager?

Ishaan differentiates by focusing on sales closures and feature demand for performance metrics, while goal-oriented metrics involve understanding client needs, customer satisfaction, and engagement, often gathered through direct client feedback and interactions.

Outlines

00:00

🤝 Introduction and Background

The video script introduces the host and guest, setting a nostalgic tone as they discuss their shared history at the Indian School of Business (ISB). The guest, Ishaan Kadam, is a product manager at Exponential AI, a tech startup. He expresses his passion for product management and solving interview questions, highlighting his journey from technology to his dream job. The host, Khanjan, presents a unique scenario where Ishaan is tasked with identifying opportunities in the under-monetized billboard industry as if he were a product manager at a search engine company like Google.

05:02

🚦 Understanding the Billboard Industry

This paragraph delves into the billboard industry, discussing the potential reasons for under-monetization. It explores the idea of inefficiency in billboard sales and the lack of awareness about the industry. The conversation centers on increasing the reach of billboards to improve revenue generation. The script outlines the discovery process of billboards, the bidding mechanism, and the stakeholders involved, such as real estate owners and advertisers. It also touches on the fragmented nature of the market and the types of entities that might own billboards.

10:03

🔍 Identifying Pain Points in the Billboard Industry

The speaker identifies several pain points within the billboard industry, focusing on the challenges faced by real estate holders and providers. Issues such as scheduling difficulties, information asymmetry, and lack of transparency in pricing are discussed. The speaker also mentions the absence of a uniform auction process, which makes it hard for brands to manage multiple negotiations with different providers. The paragraph concludes with a brief mention of considering the process and stakeholders involved in a brand's decision to advertise via billboards.

15:04

🛠️ Brainstorming Solutions for the Billboard Industry

The paragraph discusses potential solutions to the identified pain points in the billboard industry. The speaker considers leveraging Google's ecosystem, including Adsense, Maps, and search data, to create a more efficient and transparent system for billboard advertising. The idea is to integrate a billboard campaign management tool within Google's existing campaign management solutions, using traffic and location data to provide insights on potential impressions and target demographics. The speaker also contemplates features such as bid price transparency and a calendar view for campaign management.

20:04

📈 Prioritizing Features and Metrics for Success

This section of the script focuses on prioritizing features for the billboard advertising solution and establishing metrics to measure success. The speaker suggests starting with MVP features like location discovery and ease of booking for billboard providers. They also emphasize the importance of demand-side metrics, such as the number of bids per day and the success rate of campaigns. The goal is to create a platform that not only serves the supply side (billboard providers) but also attracts and retains demand (advertisers).

25:07

🤖 Experience Working at an AI-Based Company

Ishaan shares his experience working at an AI-based company, discussing the challenges of working in a B2B environment where sales cycles and closures are key metrics. He talks about the importance of understanding client needs and the difficulty of obtaining direct data to measure feature success. Ishaan emphasizes the need for feedback and proof of concepts to guide product development and ensure that new features meet market demands and improve customer satisfaction.

🗣️ Conclusion and Call to Action

The final paragraph wraps up the discussion with a reflection on the complexity of the billboard industry problem and the importance of considering all stakeholders in product management. The host thanks Ishaan for the insightful conversation and invites viewers to engage with them by leaving comments or connecting through their handles provided in the description. They also encourage viewers to subscribe to the PM School YouTube channel for more content featuring experienced product managers.

Keywords

💡Product Manager

A Product Manager is a professional responsible for guiding the development of a product, from its initial concept to its launch and ongoing improvement. In the video, Ishaan Kadam introduces himself as a Product Manager at Exponential AI, which is a tech startup. His role involves understanding market needs and ensuring the product meets those needs effectively, as discussed in the context of the billboard industry.

💡Exponential AI

Exponential AI is mentioned as the company where Ishaan Kadam works as a Product Manager. It is described as a tech startup, indicating a young, innovative company focused on artificial intelligence technologies. The company's name reflects the rapid growth and impact AI can have on product development and business strategies.

💡Billboard Industry

The billboard industry refers to the business of advertising on large boards or banners typically found in public spaces. In the video, the discussion revolves around identifying opportunities and reasons for the under-monetization of this industry. The script explores how technology and product management can innovate and increase revenue in this traditional advertising medium.

💡Under Monetized

Under monetized, in the context of the video, means that the billboard industry is not generating as much revenue as it potentially could. The conversation explores this concept by considering the inefficiencies and lack of technological integration in the industry, suggesting areas for improvement to increase profitability.

💡Stakeholders

Stakeholders in the video are the various parties who have an interest in the billboard industry, including real estate owners who possess the billboards and the brands that advertise on them. Understanding the needs and pain points of these stakeholders is crucial for developing a successful product or solution in the industry.

💡Information Asymmetry

Information asymmetry refers to a situation where different parties hold unequal levels of relevant information. In the script, it is mentioned as a problem in the billboard industry, where providers and advertisers may not have clear insights into market demand or pricing, leading to inefficiencies and missed opportunities.

💡Auction Mechanism

An auction mechanism is a process where goods or services are sold to the highest bidder. The video script describes a potential system for billboard advertising where multiple parties could bid for advertising space, suggesting a digital transformation of the traditional billboard sales process.

💡Campaign Management Tool

A campaign management tool is a software application used to plan, execute, and track marketing campaigns. In the video, Google's campaign management tool is mentioned as a potential platform for integrating billboard advertising, allowing brands to manage both digital and physical advertising from a single interface.

💡Google Ecosystem

The Google ecosystem refers to the suite of Google products and services that can be integrated and used together. In the video, it is suggested that a solution for the billboard industry could leverage various Google tools such as Adsense, Maps, and campaign management to create a comprehensive advertising platform.

💡Metrics

Metrics in the video refer to the quantitative measures used to assess the performance of a product or business. Ishaan discusses the importance of differentiating between performance metrics, such as sales closures, and goal-oriented metrics, such as customer satisfaction and engagement, in the context of his work at an AI-based company.

💡B2B

B2B stands for 'business-to-business' and describes a transaction or relationship between two companies. In the script, Ishaan's role in a B2B company involves understanding the needs of corporate clients and ensuring the product meets their requirements. This involves focusing on sales cycles and the features that are most attractive to potential clients.

Highlights

Introduction of Ishaan Kadam, a product manager at Exponential AI, with a background in technology and a passion for product management.

Ishaan's interest in solving product management interview questions and his approach to product design.

The challenge of identifying opportunities and reasons for the under-monetization of the billboard industry.

Discussion on the inefficiency in the sale and discovery of billboards, and the potential for increased utilization.

Overview of the billboard industry's stakeholders, including real estate owners and advertisers.

Analysis of the fragmented nature of the billboard market and the difficulty in discovering available billboards.

Identification of pain points for stakeholders in the billboard industry, focusing on scheduling, information asymmetry, and pricing transparency.

Proposal of a campaign management tool integrated with Google's ecosystem to address the challenges faced by brands in billboard advertising.

Utilization of Google's traffic and location data to provide insights on billboard impressions and target demographics.

Introduction of a recommendation engine for bid prices in billboard auctions, enhancing price transparency.

Discussion on the importance of a calendar view for campaign management and the automation of bidding processes.

Strategies for prioritizing features in product development, balancing effort versus value provided.

The necessity of registering billboard providers on the platform and creating a simple sign-up process.

Metrics for measuring success, including the number of billboard providers registered and the utilization rate of billboards.

Differentiating between performance metrics and goal-oriented metrics in a B2B context, focusing on sales cycles and client feedback.

The importance of understanding client goals and soft metrics like customer satisfaction in product management.

Closing thoughts on the value of personalized understanding and proof of concepts in B2B product management.

Transcripts

hello everyone welcome back to our

channel uh today i'm delighted to have a

very special guest uh ishaan kadam

uh hi shan how are you hi guys uh i'm

good kanchan how are you doing

i'm great too it's uh ishaan is a great

friend from isb and we actually used to

do our mock interviews together

uh in the campus uh it's quite a

nostalgic moment for us um

so uh ishaan now please introduce

yourself in your own words hello guys

i'm ishaan kadam i

am working as a product manager in this

phone called exponential ai

it's a tech startup about me uh i always

wanted to get into

uh product management i actually come

from technology uh i've had three years

of work experience prior to isp

and post isb now i'm working as a pm so

yeah that's my dream job

i also love solving pm uh interview

questions because they're very uh

interesting and fun to kind of think

about or a solution uh so yeah

product design is something that is uh

that i always like to go for

and let's see which question khanjan has

for me today

yeah so um today we are going a little

bit on an unconventional kind of a route

because

we are going to ask uh ishan you um you

are a

assume you're a pm at a search engine

company like google

okay and uh your job is to uh identify

the reasons or identify the opportunity

areas

the billboard industry because you think

that currently it is

or rather the findings are that

currently it is under monetized okay

all right so when we talk about

billboards it's the

big boards that you generally see across

the streets or at shopping malls uh

the big banners right there yeah yeah

you can consider it like a collection

okay fine so first thing so like uh so

you just mentioned that the industry is

underserved

does that mean that uh the billboards

are not getting

uh sold efficiently something like that

or uh is it that

uh people don't know that such

billboards or this business exists

so uh is that the kind of question that

we're looking at like in terms of an

objective of

uh solving for the efficiency of finding

a billboard or

on uh on the lines of actually kind of

capturing the billboard uh

what is it that we're looking for um so

okay so look at it uh as a related issue

right so

uh the more the discovery the more will

be the chances of utilization and the

more will be monetization that comes

from it but

just to uh summarize it uh essentially

you have to

increase opportunities uh of reach of

the billboard

got it got it so uh this i mean with the

objective of

improving the revenue generation what i

would like to do is like to uh

kind of summarize what i understand

about the billboard industry and

uh kind of i think i walk you through

what i believe

uh is the way they might be doing

business i mean i just have a high level

idea of how they function

so i had once noticed notice that a

billboard uh generally has a number on

it

which you dial and then i think i

believe they might have some kind of

process or a bidding mechanism but a

couple of people place their beds okay

they're interested in buying a billboard

or booking it for a

period of time and post that uh post

that booking process

maybe the billboard is kind of sold and

then people obviously know

so that is something that might be the

process now in terms of stakeholders

obviously you've got your stakeholders

involved in this whole kind of a

business would be your billboard

real estate owners uh now there can be

two kinds of uh

real estate owners that can be actual uh

build proper setup billboard real estate

owners

they actually have a built out of

billboard uh

kind of a setup around roads or it can

also be

uh private or players like housing

societies housing complexes or maybe

a mall organization system so there can

be such

uh players as well when they have got

some space which they want to rent out

or like

use as a billboard and then a society uh

comes in

so these are the kind of kind of players

in the billboard scene and i believe

it's it's a little fragmented i mean i

don't see one uniform

company or a firm kind of running over

all those billboards in a particular

city like

to consider something like mumbai for

example so it's a little fragmented in

the market

on the other side of things people who

want to buy billboards i mean who

generally wants to

rent out a space advertise on a

billboard

i mean most of the times big brands

definitely do advertise on billboards

whenever they have

they have campaigns that are running uh

synchronously

so uh obviously like i've already always

seen a billboard

surrounding uh a campaign so that is

something that is something unique that

i always find

so majorly big brands are interested in

billboard advertising

uh big corporates uh to advertise on

billboards but you can also find some

unicorn startups and advertising on

billboard so that they can kind of

target their campaigns uh well now

like just identifying these billboards

so uh in terms of the

players i we have already discussed that

uh this industry is a little fragmented

the billboard

uh people who own billboards have uh i

mean

might have real estates in different

parts of town and

uh it's very difficult for the big

brands who

want to kind of find uh billboards or

rent out billboards to kind of discover

them

so uh what i'm gonna do now is i'm just

gonna uh

highlight a couple of pain points and

based on

our main objective and we have actually

come across that these are under

monitors we're trying to identify why

uh they might be under monetized and uh

what are the various

problems that exist for each stakeholder

which is what are the pain points for

each stakeholder uh

and we will then come up with a way of

solving it

give me like a minute i'll just think

about something uh think about

uh the problems that we in this industry

face

all right so uh keeping in mind the

primary

uh kind of objective or the problem

which is that the industry is under

monetized

i've kind of identified a couple of

problems uh

one of the primary problems that i feel

now first i'll talk on the sides of the

real estate holders the billboard

providers uh now from the provider's

point of view

one of the primary problems is that uh

cherryland gap they can't forecast when

a particular billboard is gonna be gonna

go

get sold or uh have an idea as to

planning out okay

if this particular month or this

billboard is getting sold to a

particular player

uh a particular brand then uh what about

the next month or what about the next

few days when it is not sold

so the scheduling of the billboards is a

key element wherein uh not always will

there be an overlap

and unlike i mean unlike advertising

banners online

in terms of digital advertisements

wherein a

bid is actually for each individual

person who's viewing that advertisement

here it is not that case here anyone

the billboard is a i mean the the real

estate is uh

fixed so you the scheduling of the real

estate is something that is really

painful for the billboards because they

don't have any

kind of uh mechanism to forecast what

might be the demand for that billboard

and

yeah might be interesting so that is one

second is obviously information in

asymmetry uh in case of the billboard

manufacturer like the people who

own billboards the primary reason for

information asymmetry is because they

are not directly advertising

other than obviously the billboard of

where people call in they might have

websites uh

but for them to understand okay what is

the i mean interest in the market and

similarly on the flip side for the for

for the brands to actually

discover uh the the billboards there's a

lot of information symmetry also pricing

is different so every billboard uh real

estate holder

might have a set price for his specific

real estate each real estate might have

different pricing

and obviously that adds to the

information asymmetry

on both sides of this marketplace

pricing is something which is like there

is no transparency in pricing uh people

don't know why i'm paying this much

amount of money for this particular

billboard at this location

so that information is not shared for

both parties so right now

there are broken there might be broken

systems wherein there might be some

broker involved who might introduce

people to these billboards and make

things also there is not a uniform

auction as such now for example if you

look at a digital advertising campaign

an auction is uniform i mean i'm i'm

actually bidding for a spot

particular spot but uh in terms of a big

brand whenever they want to advertise

they might want to advertise in multiple

locations and each location might be

under a different banner of a real

estate uh provider a

billboard provider so essentially

they're negotiating with three different

real estate providers physically

they have to call their people have to

get in touch so it's

the optional auction or whatever the bid

acceptance and the date of uh

actually getting fulfilled there isn't a

uniform auction so it becomes very

difficult to keep track of okay i'm

investing in a billboard advertisement

campaign

along with my existing campaign but i

don't know where to kind of how many

players i have to deal with so that's a

little bit stressful

for the brands so these are a couple of

pain points

in terms of journeys i mean i would

actually like to trickle down a bit

and try to get into the flow of okay if

a particular brand actually wanted to go

and

get into a billboard advertisement

campaign what would be the process and

who will be the internal stakeholders

involved

that kind of just gives me an extra idea

as to how should this

this product be kind of thought of or

like solution and obviously we also have

the context of google which will be

playing a big part because we have to

also address the core competencies of

google and where

we can kind of match these pain points

that we have just identified

so now looking at the pain points in

terms of uh the pain points and

the core company competencies of google

so uh

when i said trickling down to a

particular user who will be actually

going through the process of booking a

billboard

so when do brands go and buy billboards

it's obviously not a one-off thing right

i mean they are not going to buy

billboards

just because okay campaign karnataka

billboard biker capes a billboard or

campaign

they would have campaigns all throughout

they would have digital campaigns going

on all to

along with social media campaigns

everything will be running through some

platform so

the personal that i i'm actually trying

to solve this problem for

is the marketing or communications head

or like

okay cheap marketing officer for a big

brand or if it's a startup then

obviously it can be anyone it can be a

cco or even the ceo might be playing

into the marketing of the company

so in both cases these people uh what

kind of tools

would they be using now uh looking at

keeping google in mind

i would say obviously adsense is

something that they might be they must

be using

they must be using the google's

marketing uh the

campaign management tool that google

provides in terms of their suit

google also has maps and they might be

searching out for those

billboard providers and searching for

them their addresses they would search

on online

so in terms of the tools that these your

ctos or your

chief marketing officers might be using

or they are associates might be using or

doing research for

the cto they might actually be using a

lot of

tools in the google ecosystem so it

actually makes sense to kind of solution

the product around the google's

ecosystem of products and

along with like keeping these problems

in mind so

essentially uh i'll just like kind of

list down a couple of features that come

to my mind

when i'm trying to solve these problems

that i mentioned and then we'll go ahead

from them in terms of prioritization how

do we want to go ahead with the features

do we want to make one solution multiple

solutions

so yeah give me like two minutes i'm

thinking about something

all right so um i can high level think

of

two things uh two solutions uh and

each of these solutions is actually

catered to each of the stakeholders

now uh majorly uh right now because

they're trying to solve the problem for

the

billboard real estate providers so i

mean

essentially they are the supply right i

mean yeah we get the money supply they

are the supply

the problem is that they are under

monetized which means that the billboard

industry which means that the billboard

providers are under monetized so

the solutions will be in two parts but

it is really important that the brands

will be actually eventually renting out

these billboards

uh they are also kind of uh considered

in the process of building the product

because eventually it is obviously going

to be the demand that will be

uh fulfilling the supply so uh in terms

of

the features i have divided into two

parts one is obviously the campaign

manager

for the brands and the other part will

be a

tool which uh which will basically uh

allow

uh your billboard uh firms to kind of

register with google

and just give i mean basically register

their locations

and stack monetization on it so it can

handle their

scheduling of uh when their particular

billboards get

bid on and who gets the bid how much

money

what is the auction pricing who controls

the auction what are the rules for the

auction or the rules for the billboard

there can be certain

uh billboard uh providers who might have

certain rules as to okay this kind of

content i won't allow on my billboard

there can be certain rules so those kind

of things to clarify so that is the

other part of the solution so

uh let's go one by one so first i'll

talk about the

demand side which is the brand side and

what is the what are the features that i

think of

in terms of that solution so first thing

this particular solution will sit

inside your campaign management tool

that google already provides

and the way it will sit is along with

your existing campaigns digital

campaigns that you are running

you can also have a tab on top of your

campaign management kind of

window admin panel dashboard where the

tab will kind of lead you to this

billboard

uh campaign designing tool now another

interesting synergy that google kind of

brings to table in terms of feature is

that google

uh has a lot of traffic data google

knows how many

people are moving uh through traffic and

in a lot of scenarios when billboards

are right next to

traffic i obviously will have location

data of the billboard so

i can give a much clearer picture as to

what has been

what is the probable number of

impressions that each

individual billboard is receiving

because of the traffic data that it

collects

in a uh in in a much more uh i mean

granular level in terms of the data that

google already collects uh we also have

a lot of personal information which is

said

now obviously like personal data

security aside

uh certain data is really uh i mean

key i mean for example google would know

that okay what is the name of the uh

person or where does this person come

from what is my

work location where do i come from so

those

my new details can give me a very great

forecasting strength as to what is the

expected footfall that i'm gonna receive

and what is the target demographic that

i'm uh i'm expecting

uh of to be going through this route

because if it knows if google knows my

daily commute routine it knows that this

person is going to be going through that

route

daily and i it also knows for

demographic or some demographic

information

okay i'm a male i'm 26 years of age

where do i stay

that information is there although it

can share that information it need not

share it directly but it can use that as

a statistic to give a

high level uh i mean more demographic

information as to what to expect

it won't reveal my name but it will use

it as a statistic

for the billboard so that's another cool

feature i was thinking about next uh

obviously uh i mean while auctioning the

price

uh transparency in pricing that's

another issue right so when we make this

this into a marketplace sort of a

situation uh people can then

based on their campaigns uh google can

recommend

the ideal prices based on both the sub

what is the supply expecting in terms of

higher their starting price and what is

google gonna be providing so

uh in terms of prices that that also

plays like a uh

an interesting tool but then it can give

an estimated bid amount

that could probably win that billboards

uh auction

and what in in that scenario also in

terms of the timeline on so

those can also be attributes that you

can kind of uh

i mean tweak on your campaign i mean

depending on the seriousness or the

depending on the length of your campaign

you can plan that out so

uh a recommendation engine as to the bid

price recommendation is another feature

that i was thinking about

so uh that is it uh other than that

the fourth feature that i was thinking

about was uh

like where a calendar view of sorts

would be your primary view

like after you book the billboards and

uh

that kind of like dashboard uh view view

would be primarily what you get like

after you do a questionnaire of

questionnaire filling setting up of the

kind of uh

i mean campaign that you want to build

out it will recommend you

points to kind of bid for i mean

locations which are perfect for your

demographic which you're targeting

so that is also something which uh kind

of plays together so

all in all to summarize i thought i

talked about like four uh features one

is

obviously as you can locate the

billboards through the

map kind of locator second is it will be

sitting inside your campaign management

solution obviously so

inside that it will also give you

recommendations depending on what

campaign you're already running

uh and which location should suffice

third it will give you transparency in

terms of bid price by looking at the

demand uh locations which are obviously

recommended

and from that uh what is this what is

the starting bid price that

uh or what is the price at which the bid

is uh possible

uh for you to win that bit so that is

kind of like a recommendation so

after a point this process can also be

automated i mean many people are bidding

and if no one else is good and the

deadline for it has

is coming through so then people can get

notifications uh as to okay they should

increase their paid and whatnot

so controlling the bit is something that

is also important and yeah that is it

that is it for the uh brand side coming

to the

flip side of things for the providers

to cut you in between now you have

mentioned four features right so would

you like to

use them all at once uh probably in

unison or would you like to prioritize

some over the other and

is there any rationale behind the

prioritization definitely

so for prioritization what i would

normally do is because

right now we just discuss the demand

side i mean how will people be

interested in billboards so

for privatization i would actually think

of like

effort versus value provided by the

feature

matrix to kind of like gauge whether a

particular feature

the amount of efforts that we have to

put in compared to it whether

the value that it is providing uh

substantiate that uh effort okay

so that is one approach that i would

probably do but obviously

one more thing that i should also keep

in mind is that because this is an

industry which is already existing

yeah if you don't target demand or come

up with a solution for sorry target

supply and come up with a solution for

the supply to be happy because that is

who we are

solving for it won't make sense so even

if i make this amazing tool for

uh the brands to kind of book billboards

it will be a moot point if i don't have

the billboards registered on my platform

so in terms of prioritizing features

first of all i need to

also service uh the way the billboard

providers

register with the platform and yeah so

that should be the first thing maybe

initially right now they are doing a

calling feature maybe we can uniform uh

create a

dashboard or like create some kind of

login for these

billboard providers to register and with

their basic information maybe initially

the mvp would start off with something

which is small like one or two features

like just discovery of

locations and ease of booking that would

be the first step in terms of

prioritizing the future

on the other side of things for the

billboard providers for them a simple

registration website of sorts but then

they can just go and register their

billboards or

a simple sign up process they can come

onto the platforms

sign up with the company provide some

documents

of their legality and that they actually

have those billboards and whatever

then once they register it uh there can

be a two-step process that can be a

person who goes and actually checks

whether verifies whether this

particular person owns a billboard over

there get some documentation done uh

after the initial process of setting up

definitely

i mean once we get so you would uh

ideally start small you would start with

some one city maybe

something like home by bangalore and

then you start off with a pilot

locality with a couple of billboards on

board from there

and then gradually move on to building

out the platform for the brands

but yeah these both processes are very

key to kind of start one after the other

all actually in tandem while you're

working on

so yeah uh next i would actually kind of

uh

try to look at what are the metrics that

i would kind of look to

see whether whatever we are trying to

build uh has been successful or not so

uh i generally try to kind of look at

okay what would be the

input matrix metrics that would kind of

validate whether

what we are uh what solution we are

proposing is actually

uh valid in terms of an input metrics

how many people would actually come on

to our platform is something that uh

is important to us so on the supply side

of things the

primary input matrix is total number of

billboard providers registered number of

unique locations registered onto our

platform on that side of things oh no

total i mean uh in terms of the

billboards

the another input metric would also be

number of days in a year

that but what is the traffic that is

expected on the website the number of

days in the year

is that particular billboard booked out

for so that is also a good input metric

to kind of load

next uh success metric of uh i mean so

click-through rate for

uh successful bid options with the

platform this is again coming to the

demand side of things number of bids per

day uh number of billboard owners

onboarded onto the platform that's

another success metric

number of campaigns processed complete

campaigns that

can run because this is a key metric in

case if we go through the route of the

campaign uh recommendation kind of an

engine kind of for this

so that will help out over there and

total number of ads in

adsense accounts now this is something

interesting this is something like

because of this campaign management tool

that you're providing for billboards

how many new adsense accounts got

created for google or digital campaigns

so it's kind of like a metric which will

kind of tell you whether whatever you've

worked on whatever product you've

created uh inside the access platform is

it also having some

beneficial effects on the insistent

viewers and users for coming out

so yeah these are the couple of methods

that you can kind of think of that was

very well articulated so it was a

complex problem right because

when we say that we want to increase the

reach uh we don't know

where is it that we have to make

improvements which will actually

translate into

better reach and plus when there are

multiple stakeholders involved

as a product manager uh if we tend to

overlook any one stakeholder then we are

we are inviting failure right we are

inviting trouble so i think uh

yeah you covered those aspects very well

and yeah it was uh i think it'll be very

helpful

um what i'll do is i'll try to leave

certain

uh descriptions about certain terms that

we use because uh

yeah it's a complex ecosystem so

ah great so ishan now would you like to

share your experience how is that been

so far

working at an ai based company right so

like how do you because it's a very tech

heavy uh i would say role right so then

how do you

differentiate the metrics from a more uh

let's say performance side

to a more gold side so when i say goal

it could be acquisition reach

engagement retention etc so how do you

approach that kind of a problem

uh differentiating between uh

performance matrix versus goal oriented

metrics

yeah in in my daily work yes yes so in

terms of when we look at metrics first

of all my company is b

to b so obviously uh that that kind of

adds another layer of

complexity into how we think about

metrics because for us in a b2b

ecosystem uh most of the metrics are

number of closures that happen in that

month it's very uh sales oriented

basically sales cycles uh kind of rule

the entire process of how we kind of

sell

obviously um in a form like exponential

like which

which is like a tech startup we are

mostly on the ai

tech solution site so we have a platform

we have a product

uh and as a pm for that product my role

majorly has been

to kind of help present the product

better to

uh whenever we go for uh whenever anyone

in our sales team kind of goes and sells

the product when

big brand or like in big corporate so in

order to do that we

for me the metrics that i would kind of

kind of look at is uh

in terms of closures or in terms of

enticing a particular client what are

the features which we are we have in our

product score uh what are the features

which are the

most wanted or the top five features

that that your corporates are the

upcoming sales pitches that all

campaigns that we are running

would be uh interested to or be enticing

to our potential clients so that is

something that is important so because

again it's a very goal oriented thing

every month we have

our sales people have targets and we

have to i mean

keep the product or add new features to

the product such that we keep in mind

what is

what the market demands and what the

industry actually wants we have done

a lot of proof of concepts that we have

created my team has created

uh have actually been i mean directly

gone into

uh implementation for a particular

client so

it's like a client comes in in a meeting

you're trying to

obviously a sales person is trying to

sell the product as a tech or a product

representative you're sitting in the

meeting you're trying to understand

uh okay what is it actually that the

client wants other than

the i mean his goal i mean everyone has

a goal everyone has a goal to achieve a

lot of time clear goals can be hard

numbers like okay what how how is it

improving my acquisition rate if i add a

chatbot on my website

that might be a question he's asking but

on top of that he also

wants he also has a soft goal right i

mean acquisition customer satisfaction

those are things which are metrics which

his ecosystem

of whatever technology he is using they

might be tracking it in some way or form

but

these are the couple of uh key metrics

like what is the customer satisfaction

that i might be interested in

and how i'm bound wowing my customers

and like getting them engaged and stuff

like that so

when when coming from b2b perspective

these although there are hard numbers

allocated to

targets or uh metrics but in terms of a

goal

for whoever whichever stakeholder i'm

selling to uh

our goal is essentially to just

understand uh what might be a use case

uh that is enticing and that is needed

in my product so that i kind of

uh get it involved because there's no

direct data coming in or flowing to me

telling me that okay

500 i can do an a b test because uh i am

selling to individual clients who might

have

a lot of people using the product but i

can't actually go and uh do an a b test

like a b2c startup and i could

understand okay

this numbers looks like okay this

feature is working or not working i have

to actually physically get a lot of

feedback get more

uh i mean non data oriented kind of uh

soft goals which i kind of gauge from

conversations with clients

yeah i really like i i completely concur

with what you

mentioned because i also am working in a

b2b company and i think

for us to personify our clients is also

very difficult because we don't know

that

in that company which end user what is

their role what is their

responsibility that they are having in

that organization to which we are

catering and it could be different in

all

organizations right so i think yeah the

way you put it it's more about a more uh

one-to-one kind of an understanding and

trying to hypothesize and building proof

of concepts which

if they are well accepted by the clients

which if they are well translated into

success for the clients then it makes

sense for us to

build those features definitely cool um

cool so i think uh this was a very

interesting session personally for me

also and uh it was great to catch up

we have caught up after a long time

thank the

pm live um but uh yeah so all the

viewers if you enjoyed this video if you

could learn a thing or two or if you

have any questions for ishan

or me please leave a comment below i

will leave ishan's handle and my handle

in the description box

which you can connect to us and please

subscribe to the pm school uh youtube

channel if you haven't already we are

going to come up with many more such

mock interviews and

conversations with experienced product

managers at various

companies and industries um so yeah

thanks a lot ishaan

it is a pleasure having you