Delivering Impact as an Internal/Platform PM by Booking.com Sr PM

Summary

Zena Ashra, a senior product manager at Booking.com, shares insights on creating impact as an internal product manager. She emphasizes the role of internal PMs in building products that enhance efficiency, growth, and competitive advantage within businesses. Zena discusses the challenges faced, such as understanding diverse user needs, balancing priorities, and managing resistance to change. She outlines strategies for directing products and teams, focusing on user-centricity, engaging with customers, and measuring outcomes to ensure continued relevance and success.

Takeaways

• 🌟 Internal Product Managers (IPMs) build products to increase business efficiency, scale, and competitive edge without directly generating revenue.
• 🛠️ IPMs face challenges like understanding diverse user needs, balancing conflicting priorities, and managing limited resources.
• 📈 To overcome these challenges, IPMs should direct the product and team towards impactful outcomes, align with the organization, and focus on user-centric product development.
• 🎯 Clearly defining a business case, product vision, and strategy is crucial for securing investment and stakeholder support.
• 🤝 Effective stakeholder management involves identifying key people, establishing communication channels, and setting realistic expectations.
• 👥 Focusing on the user base involves leveraging internal customers (colleagues) for requirements, involving them in the development process, and maintaining engagement.
• 🔄 Prioritize features based on customer value and chase outcomes over milestones to ensure the product aligns with user needs and company objectives.
• 🚀 Market the internal product to users by educating them on its benefits and leveraging various communication channels to build awareness.
• 🔍 Stay current by evaluating and benchmarking against external competitors and being vigilant to evolving user needs and internal processes.
• 📊 Measure the product's impact through clear metrics tied to goals, collecting feedback, analyzing usage data, and tracking performance.
• 💡 Demonstrate the product's value by showcasing success stories, user satisfaction levels, and how it contributes to the company's strategic objectives.

Q & A

What is Zena Ashra's current role and how long has she been in product management?

Zena Ashra is currently a senior product manager at Booking.com, and she has been in product management for six years.

What does a design system do and how does it benefit designers and developers?

A design system is a product that helps designers and developers build consistent user experiences efficiently by providing reusable components and guidelines.

How does an internal product manager contribute to a company's growth and success?

Internal product managers build products that help businesses become more efficient, grow at scale, and gain a competitive edge by supporting teams and departments to be more productive and deliver more value.

What are some examples of internal products?

Examples of internal products include automation of recurring operational tasks, tools that display customer information and performance metrics, and systems that integrate work streams and data flows between departments like marketing operations and finance.

What challenges do internal product managers face when understanding user needs?

Internal product managers face challenges such as gathering and understanding the diverse needs of users, prioritizing these needs, and dealing with limited resources like time, budget, and team members.

How does Zena Ashra recommend managing multiple stakeholders across various functions and management levels?

Zena Ashra suggests identifying all key stakeholders, establishing clear communication channels, building relationships, setting realistic expectations, prioritizing feedback, and addressing concerns promptly and effectively.

What is the importance of building a business case for an internal product?

Building a business case is crucial for articulating the product's value proposition, describing the problem it addresses, outlining the recommended solution, and demonstrating the business value it provides, which helps secure investment and support from the company.

How does Zena Ashra advise internal product managers to stay current with their area of operation?

Zena Ashra advises internal product managers to periodically evaluate and benchmark against external competitors, listen to and observe their users for evolving needs, stay updated on internal processes, and ensure alignment with the company's direction.

What are some key trends that will shape the future of internal product managers?

Key trends include the adoption of agile methodologies, increased focus on user-centric design, integration of emerging technologies like AI and IoT, cross-functional collaboration, increased importance of data analytics, and the emergence of no-code and low-code solutions.

How can internal product managers demonstrate the value of their products?

Internal product managers can demonstrate value by defining clear metrics, collecting feedback, analyzing usage data, tracking performance, and sharing success stories and positive feedback from users.

What is Zena Ashra's advice for internal product managers to ensure their product's continued relevance within the organization?

Zena Ashra advises internal product managers to monitor the product's impact smartly, demonstrate its value regularly, and ensure that the product aligns with the company's goals and objectives.

Outlines

00:00

📝 Introduction and Background

Zena Ashra, a senior product manager at Booking.com, introduces herself and sets the stage for the session on creating impact as an internal product manager. With 12 years of experience, including six in product management, Zena discusses her passion for delivering exceptional user experiences in complex products. She holds an MBA in marketing and a bachelor's in electrical engineering and is based in Amsterdam. Zena explains that internal product managers build products to improve efficiency, growth, and competitive advantage within businesses, supporting various departments beyond customer-facing teams.

05:01

🤔 Understanding Internal Product Management

Zena delves into the role of internal product managers, noting that while the term might be new to some, it is crucial for organizational efficiency. She explains that internal PMs work on products that, although not directly generating revenue, contribute to company growth. Zena references the Pragmatic Institute's framework to highlight the relevance of internal PM roles, emphasizing that these roles are about more than just technical product management. She outlines the challenges internal PMs face, such as understanding diverse user needs, balancing conflicting priorities, working with limited resources, managing multiple stakeholders, aligning with organizational goals, obtaining user feedback, and dealing with resistance to change.

10:03

🎯 Directing Product and Team for Impact

Zena discusses the importance of directing the product and team towards impactful outcomes. She suggests building a business case, defining a product vision and strategy, and managing stakeholders effectively. Zena emphasizes the need to articulate the product's value proposition, align the product with company objectives, and manage stakeholder expectations. She also stresses the importance of understanding user needs and preferences, and adapting to feedback to ensure the product remains relevant and useful.

15:04

🤝 Stakeholder Management Strategies

In this section, Zena outlines strategies for managing stakeholders effectively. She advises identifying all key individuals affected by the product, establishing clear communication channels, being proactive in highlighting dependencies, and building relationships for better communication with decision-makers. Zena also suggests setting realistic expectations about the product's capabilities and impact, prioritizing feedback to inform product development, and reacting promptly to address concerns to build trust and credibility.

20:05

🌟 Focusing on Customer-Centric Products

Zena emphasizes the importance of customer-centricity for internal products, highlighting that understanding and meeting the needs of internal users is crucial for success. She recommends leveraging the user base, conducting customer research, involving users in the development process, and prioritizing features based on customer value. Zena also stresses the importance of maintaining user engagement, ensuring a positive experience, and staying current with user needs and company processes to keep the product relevant and effective.

25:07

📈 Measuring Impact and Demonstrating Value

Zena discusses the importance of measuring the impact of internal products to ensure their continued relevance. She advises defining clear metrics tied to the product's goals, collecting feedback from users, analyzing usage data, tracking performance, and forging relationships with teams using the product. Zena also highlights the need to demonstrate the product's value by sharing success stories, user feedback, and celebrating milestones to maintain visibility and reinforce the product's contribution to the organization.

30:08

🚀 The Future of Internal Product Management

Zena concludes the session by discussing the promising future of internal product management. She outlines key trends that will shape the industry, including the adoption of agile methodologies, increased focus on user-centric design, integration of emerging technologies, cross-functional collaboration, and the importance of data analytics. Zena also mentions the emergence of no-code and low-code solutions, suggesting that internal PMs must adapt to these changes to continue driving success within their organizations.

35:09

🗣️ Closing Remarks and Call to Action

Zena wraps up the presentation by inviting participants to connect with her on LinkedIn for further questions or discussions. She expresses her hope that the session was informative and useful, and thanks everyone for their time and attention.

Keywords

💡Internal Product Manager

An Internal Product Manager (IPM) is a professional who oversees the development of products or systems within a company that are not directly customer-facing but are designed to improve efficiency, streamline processes, and enhance the overall functioning of the business. In the context of the video, Zena Ashra, an IPM at Booking.com, discusses her role in driving the design system team, which aims to help designers and developers create consistent user experiences efficiently.

💡Design System

A design system is a collection of reusable design components, guidelines, and tools that help teams create consistent, cohesive, and scalable user interfaces. In the video, Zena Ashra explains that as a senior product manager, she drives the design system team at Booking.com, which is a product that facilitates designers and developers to build consistent user experiences efficiently.

💡Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional teams are groups composed of members from various departments or specialties within an organization. These teams collaborate to leverage diverse skills and perspectives to achieve a common goal. In the context of the video, Zena mentions the challenge of managing multiple stakeholders across various functions and management levels, which is a key aspect of working with cross-functional teams in product management.

💡User Experience (UX)

User Experience (UX) refers to the overall experience a user has while interacting with a product or service, encompassing usability, accessibility, and the emotional connection formed. Zena Ashra emphasizes the importance of delivering beautiful user experiences in complex cross-functional products, which is a central goal for internal product managers.

💡Stakeholder Management

Stakeholder management involves identifying, engaging, and balancing the interests and expectations of all parties involved in a project. In the video, Zena discusses the importance of effective stakeholder management for internal product managers, as they must navigate the diverse priorities and needs of different groups within the company to maintain alignment and support for their products.

💡Business Case

A business case is a document or presentation that provides a compelling argument for the implementation of a project or initiative, outlining the benefits, costs, and risks associated with it. In the context of the video, Zena highlights the need for internal product managers to build a strong business case to articulate the value and necessity of their product, ensuring that it aligns with the company's strategic objectives and securing the necessary resources for its development.

💡Product Vision

A product vision is a clear and concise statement that describes the future state an organization wants its product to achieve. It serves as a guiding principle for product development and helps align the team and stakeholders towards a common goal. Zena Ashra emphasizes defining a product vision as a key step for internal product managers to guide the product's direction and ensure it contributes to the company's broader objectives.

💡Customer Centric

Being customer-centric means designing and developing products or services with the needs and preferences of the end-users at the forefront. In the video, Zena discusses the importance of focusing on the user and building customer-centric products, which is crucial for internal product managers to ensure that the solutions they develop meet the needs of the internal users and provide value to the organization.

💡Adoption

Adoption refers to the process of users accepting and starting to use a new product or service. In the context of the video, Zena talks about the importance of ensuring adoption of internal products, as even the best-designed products will fail if they are not embraced and utilized by the intended users within the organization.

💡Impact

In the context of the video, impact refers to the positive effects or influence that a product has on an organization, which can include increased efficiency, cost savings, improved collaboration, employee satisfaction, and achievement of business goals. Zena Ashra emphasizes that the success of an internal product is determined by the value it brings to the organization, and its impact is a crucial metric for assessing this.

💡Agile Methodologies

Agile methodologies are iterative and incremental approaches to project management and product development that emphasize flexibility, collaboration, and rapid response to change. In the video, Zena mentions that as the industry evolves, internal product managers will need to be proficient in agile methodologies to ensure efficient product development and adaptation to changing needs and technologies.

Highlights

Zena Ashra, a Senior Product Manager at Booking.com, shares insights on creating impact as an internal product manager.

A design system is a product that aids designers and developers in building consistent user experiences efficiently.

Internal Product Managers (PMs) build products to enhance business efficiency, growth, and competitive edge.

Internal PMs support various departments, not just customer-facing teams, through products like automation tools and data integration systems.

Despite not directly generating revenue, the work of internal PMs contributes to company growth and success.

Internal PMs face challenges like understanding diverse user needs, balancing conflicting priorities, and managing limited resources.

The success of an internal product is determined by its value to the organization, measured by its impact.

To navigate challenges, internal PMs must direct the product and team alignment, focus on user-centric products, engage with customers, and measure outcomes.

Building a business case, defining product vision and strategy, and effective stakeholder management are crucial for internal PMs.

Crafting a well-defined business case is essential for articulating the product's value proposition and aligning it with company objectives.

Internal PMs must engage with users, prioritize their feedback, and maintain a captive audience to ensure product adoption and satisfaction.

Marketing the product to users and staying current in the area of operation are vital for keeping the internal product relevant and effective.

Measuring the product's impact involves defining clear metrics, collecting feedback, analyzing usage data, and tracking performance.

Demonstrating the product's value includes showcasing success metrics, user feedback, and celebrating outcomes and milestones.

Agile methodologies, user-centric design, and emerging technologies will shape the future of internal PMs.

The importance of data analytics and cross-functional collaboration will increase for internal PMs as they adapt to evolving business needs.

The future of internal PMs is promising, with a growing need for their role in innovation and digital transformation.

Zena Ashra invites further questions and conversation on LinkedIn, emphasizing the value of connecting with peers in the industry.

Transcripts

hi everyone um thank you for joining

this session on creating impact as an

internal product manager I'm really

happy to get this opportunity to talk

about my experience and to share any

insights that I have gain from it so

let's get

started before we begin I'd like to

introduce myself my name is Zena ashra I

am currently a senior product manager at

booking.com and I drive the design

system team there now a design system is

a product that helps designers and

developers build consistent user

experiences efficiently I've been in it

for about 12 years now out of which six

years have of the six of the past years

have been in product management

I really enjoy the challenge of

delivering beautiful user experiences in

complex cross functional

products I have an MBA in marketing and

I also hold a bachelor's in electrical

engineering I'm currently based in

Amsterdam with my

family so nice to meet all of

you for some of those who have joined

the session today the term internal

product manager might might be something

new so let's spend some time to

understand that

better internal product managers build

products that help businesses be more

efficient grow at scale and gain a

Competitive

Edge ultimately they support teams and

departments to be more efficient and

deliver more value internal PMS not only

help customer facing teams but also any

other business

department think of an automation of

recurring operational tasks and

workflows in an

organization or a tool that displays

customer information and performance

metrics or even a system that integrates

work streams and data flows between

marketing operations and

finance they are all examples of

internal

products now the terminology of the role

can vary or to org some some refer to

them as technical product managers some

even call them non-revenue product

managers internal PMS or platform

PMS for the sake of this presentation I

will refer to this role as internal

product

manager if you use the pragmatic

institutes framework as a reference and

you take away the blocks relating to

pricing and

sales you do see that all the remaining

blogs are very much relevant to what an

internal PM would do for the product

that they

own even though internal PMS work on

products that don't directly generate

Revenue their work does ultimately

contribute to the company's growth and

success now we have established who

internal product managers are let's see

how this position can deliver impactful

change internal PMs can be seen

sometimes as the slightly less glamorous

sibling of feature

PMS but my experience has taught me that

it can be a very satisfying role if you

operate keeping a few things in

mind this session is focused on

delivering impact but what does impact

look like for an internal

product in this context impact refers to

the effect or influence than the product

has on the organization and its

operations this impact could be could

take different forms like increased

efficiency cost savings improved

collaboration among

teams increased employee satisfaction or

even the achievement of business

goals now as a PM you want to create

products that meet the needs of the

users and provide value to the

organization iation all the time

minimizing any negative

effects and so the success of the

product is determined by how much value

it brings to the

organization and here its impact is a

crucial metric for assessing

this now if only delivering impact was

so easy we would not need this session

right but there are some challenges

internal PMS

face

understanding user needs it can be

challenging to gather and understand the

needs of users that are so often diverse

and because of that there may not be a

clear way to prioritize

them balancing conflicting

priorities as internal PMS you will

receive multiple requests from different

departments or stakeholders each with

conflicting priorities so now which one

do you pick up

first limited

resources you often have to work with

limited resources like time budget and

team members because most companies want

to focus their Firepower on customer

basing

products complex stolder management this

one is tricky because you have to manage

multiple stakeholders across various

functions and varing management levels

it can be challenging to balance the

needs of each group while keeping the

product Vision

intact organizational alignment you need

to ensure that the products you develop

aligned with the company's overall

strategy and goals now this can be

challenging considering that some

departments might have completely

different

priorities and objectives

lack of user feedback unlike external

customer products internal products may

not have mechanisms established to

obtain use of feedback and even if they

do the number of users that are many

that exist are many times not large

enough for us to get significant

insights this can make it really

difficult to understand user needs and

preferences resistance to change

introducing new products or features

within a company can be met with a lot

of

resistance from especially from users

who are comfortable with the status quo

you need to navigate this resistance and

build support for your

ideas finding that balance between

Innovation and

practicality the sky the limit as far as

what you can achieve but let's get a bit

realistic about what actually is doable

with given the constraints of people and

time so you must ensure that the

products you develop are feasible

scalable and

profitable ensuring

adoption even the best design products

will fail if they're not adopted by

users in some cases processes or the

company might mandate that each employee

use your product but what what happens

if it's an option or an alternative that

employees have and you really need to

drive ad

option okay that is a huge

list now what will it take for us to go

from this chaotic mesh of challenges on

the left to reach a point on the right

where we gain control of the product and

start reflecting the intended

outcomes

okay this list might look familiar

you're right it's the same list of

issues that we looked at a second

back let's see how we can handle each

group of these

challenges one direct direct the product

and the team to better align with the

organization two focus focus on the user

and build customer Centric

products

three engage with your customers to

bring down barriers to

adopt and four measure outcomes and that

is going to help in each of these above

points that I mentioned

earlier let's Deep dive a little bit

more direct as a product manager for an

internal product you need to be in the

driver seat and give the team and the

product the direction to ensure

continued Pro positive progress use your

skills to guide the product and the team

towards delivering impactful outcomes

while maintaining alignment with the

organization now while you can explore

more methods what I would recommend is

these three key steps business build a

business case Define a product vision

and strategy and have effective

stakeholder

management

why do we need to build a business case

because what is your reason to exist why

should the company invest in your team

why should a group of people put time

and effort into the solution that you

propos there's so many wise so crafting

a concise and well- defined business

case is crucial for the future

prosperity of the product it helps

articulate the pain points that the

product seeks to address so make sure

you describe

the problem statement the approaches

that you have considered and the

Alternatives that you have

evaluated describe the risk of not doing

anything and even the risk of each

approach based on all the factors what

is the solution that you

recommend outline the business value the

solution

provides describe the scale of a

solution in a language that makes sense

for senior

stakeholders for example the business

benefit could be the cost Savings of

doing things right once and consistently

across the

company Define the product vision and

strategy now this is where we go deeper

into the value the product will provide

and how you will go about it some

internal products are born out of

hackathons or a solution to Urgent

problem statements that exist at at the

time by building a product vision and

strategy you use the opportunity to

describe how this tool goes beyond that

one automation it delivered or how it's

a solution that will benefit users

beyond the current fiscal Ure it will

force you to outline and discuss your

assumptions and push you to think more

deeply about

it take your team through your product's

vision and strategy review the actions

you are taking now and how they

contribute to that

Vision be open to feedback and feel

comfortable to incorporate it into your

strategy the product Vision can provide

a clear direction for the team to focus

on and prioritize their efforts towards

achieving a specific common

outcome it also helps to align

stakeholders around a common objective

and ensure that everyone is on the same

page

we also use this opportunity to tie the

product with the company's objectives

outline how it aligns with and

contributes to each objective as most

feature or customer facing teams work on

products or business capabilities it is

important to decode how your product

complements their

goals one thing I like to do towards the

beginning of the year when everybody's

setting objectives is to be observant of

the objectives of the more customer

facing teams I identify the

opportunities for our product team to

support and enable them in order to

achieve their

objectives in this way my product not

only will increase efficiency bring in

cost savings and improve employee

satisfaction but it will also result in

contributing to improving revenue for

the

business it's important important to

highlight here that your vision will

provide a benchmark for measuring

progress and evaluating whether the team

is moving in the right

direction much of what product

leadership entails even for an internal

product is creating alignment and

enthusiasm for an idea so use your

product Vision to get that conversation

started internal prod products are

slightly harder when it comes to

stakeholder management and this is why

one you have multiple

stakeholders and you they exist across

the company they exist across crafts and

functions in different management levels

each group has different priorities

needs and interest and it can become

challenging to manage all of them

effectively you own a product that is

not customer facing which means that it

can become challenging to demonstrate

the value of the product and gain

support from stakeholders who may not

understand its

importance resistance to

change nobody likes to disturb status

quo so it can make it challenging to

gain Buy in and support for your

products especially if they require

significant changes to existing

workflows or

processes these are the strategies that

I feel can

help one identify your stakeholders

start by identifying all the key people

who will be impacted by your product

this includes employees managers leaders

and any other groups of

individuals make sure you consider the

needs expectations and their

priorities establish clear communication

ch

Channel keep stakeholders informed about

the progress of the product its benefits

and any potential

challenges this can include regular

status updates progress reports feedback

sessions be proactive and highlight

dependencies that might that might need

unblocking build

relationships build relationships with

your stakeholders by engaging with them

regularly and seeking their input and

feedback this will help create a sense

of ownership and involvement amongst the

stakeholders and increase their support

for the

product also identify key stakeholders

who hold slightly more influence because

of their position and can help better

communicate with other decision

makers set realistic expectations be

transparent about what the product can

do cannot do and set realistic

expectations for its impact and timeline

now this will help manage stakeholder

expectations and avoid disappointment or

frustration prioritize feedback and

address those

concerns prioritize feedback from your

stakeholders and use it to inform the

development of your product so you are

slowly making sure that you are moving

in a direction that is amplifying

benefits address concerns or issues that

stakeholders do have react to them

promptly and

effectively this will help to build

trust and credibility and demonstrate

your commitment to their

needs the next step we now talk about

users customer centricity is as

important for internal products because

just like external customers internal

users have specific needs and

requirements that must be met for the

product to be

successful once you do this you now

create products that are more efficient

effective and user friendly and that in

turn can lead to increased adoption

improved productivity and a better

overall experience for the

users my recommendations to do this are

to firstly leverage the user base Chase

outcomes and maintain your captive

audience

how can you leverage your user base for

an external product manager users are

people outside of the company like

customers sellers or other third parties

who use the product whereas for an

internal PM your customers are your

colleagues and your peers which will of

course include employees within the

company and

departments now while being the main

source of requirements internal users

can sometimes be harder to

manage imagine having to justify your

latest feature that you released in the

last quarter over your lunch break or

deal with clarifications about how to

use a feature while you run to get some

coffee not really really fun huh now on

the flip side you have easy access to

your

customers take opportunities to

understand the needs and goals of your

users this involves conducting customer

research analyzing customer feedback and

identifying pain points or areas for

improvement involve users in the

process by involving them in the

development

process they feel more invested in the

product and they feel seen you can do

this by user testing or or conducting

focus groups this will ensure that the

product is designed with their needs in

mind now when I'm in conversations with

other PMS I like to give them a heads up

on a feature or initiative we feel will

be relevant to

them and this feature could be coming up

in the next few months so this gives

them a feeling that not only am I as a

PM sensitive to their needs but I'm also

working towards addressing and

prioritizing them

Chase outcomes over

Milestones prioritize features based on

customer

value focus on product features based on

the value they provide to the end user

this will help you ensure that the

product is aligned with their needs and

the goals instead of Milestones like in

project plans focus on initiatives that

contribute to the outcome that you want

to

see it can be easy to slip into a mode

of funding or prioritizing features

based on Milestones like in a project

plan but in all likelihood that would

lead to fragmented features that shift

the product further and further away

from the company's

objectives now this step becomes easier

when you have done the due diligence of

identifying what the core value of your

product is and like you good with any

product use your vision and Mission as a

compass to prioritize what makes the

most impact to your company and to your

users this has been a learning for me in

my current role considering how I used

to operate in my past

positions but what I've learned is that

it takes some gumption and some bravery

to take an outcome based approach why

because now at the end of the quarter or

the year you have to demonstrate the

outcomes you have

achieved the best part though is it

gives you the PM so much flexibility to

adjust the road map as needed to achieve

the desired

outcome maintain your captive

audience in most companies users will be

recommended to use your tool or

protocols will mandate that they use

your

product now in case they unha happy with

their experience you now have not a

captive but a fugitive User Group who is

so frustrated because they don't have an

alternative now this might not result in

a loss of Revenue but it will definitely

impact how your product is perceived and

used in the

future so acknowledge user frustration

establish feedback loops and provide

excellent customer support to ensure

that users have a positive experience

with with the

product this includes providing support

resources and responding promptly to

feedback and

issues maintain current documentation of

your features and give users the tools

to learn and explore the product by

themselves use all this as a mechanism

to build

trust Additionally you never know where

your next best idea comes from we get

many feature requests from our user that

provide us with New Perspectives and

insights into the

product engage engage with users and

build

relationships that will Foster trust and

loyalty the following two points will

get you will get the ball rolling for

you first Market your product to your

users and second stay current in area of

operation let me tell you more about

it Market the product now most PMS would

have W the marketer had at least once

now let your talent shine here too by

now you would have had a better

understanding of who your users are what

are the the groups or the cohorts that

they form us it to develop a strategy

focusing on individual user groups

because one size may not fit all for

example

the design system that I work with

Services developers designers and

product

managers we realized that we had to

communicate in varying degrees of

technical

details in order to for the information

to seem relevant to each of these user

groups Market your product take

opportunities to educate and build

awareness to its benefit for example in

large companies you have a and stream of

new chers or employees who have recently

switched departments identify them and

hold a training or an introduction

session of the product for them this is

a great way to get them on board and

start exploring your

product leverage blogs workplace forums

and Company events take these as chances

to generate interest in what you offer

and to amplify its

impact

staying current this is important

because you need to stay current with

what is happening both externally and

internally if your product does not stay

current it can become outdated less

effective and potentially even obsolete

you don't want that in addition to

decreased user satisfaction this can

also lead to a variety of other negative

consequences for the organization such

as decreased productivity decreased

efficiency higher costs and a decreased

competitive

Ed so first periodically evaluate and

Benchmark against external

competitors the company might have

decided 3 4 years back not to use an

external tool but to build the solution

inhouse time has passed and the market

has so has much more evolved products

out there and if your product has not

kept up with the times it is possible

possible that solution is not providing

the benefits to the company like it did

before you may be reaching a point of

obsolete

product cut I will do the slide

again staying current in your area of

operation is really really important and

this

applies

to sorry I'll do this live again

staying current in your area of

operation is really critical so keep be

aware of what is happening both

externally and

internally if your product doesn't stay

current it can become outdated less

effective and potentially even

obsolete in addition to decreased user

satisfaction this can also lead to

variety of other negative

consequences like de increased

productivity decreased efficiency higher

costs and a decreased Competitive Edge

so how do you go about doing that first

periodically evaluate and Benchmark

against external

competitors the company might have

decided 3 years back to not use an

external tool but to build the solution

inhouse now time has passed and the

market has much more evolved products

out there

if your product does not keep up at the

time it is possible that the solution

you built is not providing the benefits

to the company like

before this can lead to decrease

productivity and increase frustration

amongst the

users listen to and observe your users

to improve user

satisfaction be vigilant to where the

touch points with your product are over

buing your users at any point engage

with them to understand their evolving

needs wants and pain points and use that

information to guide the development of

your product or service ensuring that it

meets their needs at all

times stay updated on processes if there

are changes in processes or protocols

internally within the company introspect

on how your product can adapt to it

staying aligned with processes will

ensure that your product stays relevant

to its

users make sure you stay aligned with

the company Direction and are working to

contribute to

it a company that maintains a portfolio

of internal products that are aligned

with its direction can gain a really

strong competitive

Advantage but that's on the PMs to

ensure that contined

alignment we come to the last part of

our Solutions or strategies measuring

measure the impact of your product to

drive direction and ensure its continued

relevance within the

organization this can be done by

monitoring smartly and Demon

demonstrating

value without good monitoring mechanisms

your product will suffer due to lack of

accountability inefficient use of

resources and missed

opportunities so to maintain the health

of your product you need to Define clear

metrics metrics used by external and

internal products are very different for

an external product their metrics are

customer driven like Revenue growth

retention rate but for an internal

product we can't use something like

retention rate because in all likelihood

users will not stop using a product as

long as they are in the

organization before launching the

product or before reaching a key

Milestone Define clear metrics that'll

be used to measure its impact these

metrics should be tied to the goals and

objectives of the product like

increasing efficiency productivity or

employee

satisfaction metrics should be specific

measurable achievable

relevant and time about make them

smart collect feedback collect feedback

from users of the product to understand

how it is being used and identify areas

of

improvement this can be done through

surveys focus groups or user

testing analyze usage

[Music]

data

analyze usage

data analyze usage data to determine how

often the product is being used which

features are being used the most and

which features probably aren't being

used as much this can help identify

areas of improvement or you make sure

that there are some features that can be

removed track performance performance

this is really important to see if the

product is meeting the defined

benchmarks of

performance so put in place mechanisms

to track that as part of the product

code or its

implementation now make the process of

gathering the data points as

frictionless as

possible to do that Forge relationships

with the teams using the product so you

have the collaboration and getting the

inputs you need

and this second point is really

important automate as much as possible

we can all agree that having to chase

down 20 30 stakeholders every quarter to

update a Google sheet is really not fun

for anybody

involved the Second Step demonstrate the

value take opportunities to demonstrate

value this is a chance to engage with

your stakeholders and it help helps to

tie your product Vision with how you are

building a customer centc

product see what I did there I connected

all the blocks

together many times internal product

teams almost operate in the shadows or

they choose to communicate only to the

stakeholders directly involved with

that take space in the company and

remind your organization about the

business problem that your team is

working on and solving and its current

progress so share the success Matrix

whether it be user satisfaction or

performance Matrix let users see in

quantifiable ways what is the value you

have

delivered share positive feedback from

users and their success

stories as humans we relate to personal

experiences very

intrinsically display and celebrate

outcomes and important

milestones announce that recent feature

that you all worked on or call out the

start of the latest

experiment establish your team's

presence and reaffirm that progress is

being made in the right

direction the future looks bright for

internal PMS as companies continue to

focus on Innovation and digital

transformation the need for internal PMS

will only increase here are some key

trends that will shape the future of

internal PMS in the industry agile

methodologies now agile methodology has

become the norm in all types of product

development internal as well so as an

internal PM you need to be proficient in

it to ensure that you're prod working on

products

efficiently increased focus on user

Centric design internal PMS will need to

focus more on the user experience and

develop products that meets the needs of

the

users so we go back to the reason that

we need to gather feedback listen to our

users and make informed product

development

decisions integration of emerging

Technologies as emerging technology such

as AI blockchain iot become just

mainstream internal PMS will now need to

understand these

Technologies and try to think ahead of

how they can bring it into their

workspace

cross functional

collaboration internal PMS will need to

work closely with other teams including

development design marketing that to

ensure that products are developed and

launched

successfully increased importance of

data analytics you will need to be

proficient somewhat in data analytics to

gather insights and make informed

decisions that will drive your

team emergence of no Code and low code

now this has created a new techn

functional space in business operations

which is perfect for product

managers overall the future of internal

PMS in the industry looks promising and

they can be pivotal to empowering teams

and setting them up

success with that I come to the end of

my

presentation I really hope you found the

session informative and useful if if you

have any further questions or you would

like to continue the conversation I

invite you to connect with me on

LinkedIn you can just type in my name

and you'll see my face um thank you for

your time and attention today

bye