Product Management

What It Is

• The product manager manages the feature list
  • What hurts to do?
  • What can't we do at all?
• Requires:
  • Discussions with users (including potential future users)
  • Observation (which often contradicts what they say)
• Produces:
  • A roadmap for the product's evolution

Complexity Budget

• Most features are never used by most people

NAME
     ls -- list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
     ls [-ABCFGHLOPRSTUW@abcdefghiklmnopqrstuwx1%] [file ...]

• So "improving" doesn't always mean "adding features" [Perri2018]
• "Two features forward, one feature back"

What's Wrong with Git?

• [PerezDeRosso2013] found that even experienced Git users' mental models of it were significantly different from how it actually works
• So they designed a simpler interface
• But online documentation had too powerful gravitational pull [PerezDeRosso2016]
• In practice, retiring features is nearly impossible
  • Python 3 is now 14 years old…

Starting Point

Taking Notes

• User: "I want to be able to add notes to my data"
• Product Manager:
  • "What kind of notes?"
  • "Are they shared with other people?"
  • "Can you search for notes?"
  • "Can you change them?"
  • "If so, can you look at old notes?"

Concept Map

Requirements Discovery

• User: "I want to be able to add notes to my data"
• Product Manager:
  • "What kind of notes?"
  • "Are they shared with other people?"
  • "Can you search for notes?"
  • "Can you change them?"
  • "If so, can you look at old notes?"

Requirements Discovery

• User: "I want to be able to add notes to my data"
• Product Manager:
  • "What kind of notes?"
  • "Are they shared with other people?"
  • "Can you search for notes?"
  • "Can you change them?"
  • "If so, can you look at old notes?"
• If they aren't shared, add data to .dvc file on user's computer
• If they are shared:
  • Add a file of notes in the cloud
  • Add a single line to the .dvc file pointing at the shared notes
  • Mumble mumble versioning

Division of Responsibilities

• If they aren't shared, add data to .dvc file on user's computer

• If they are shared:

  • Add a file of notes in the cloud
  • Add a single line to the .dvc file pointing at the shared notes
  • Mumble mumble versioning

• Not the product manager's responsibility

• Developers are responsible for implementation
• But:
  • There has to be conversation to identify this as the key question
  • You are probably both the product manager and the architect