Product Happy Hour
By Product Happy Hour
Product Happy HourAug 10, 2022
Episode 17: Hacks for How to Write a PRD & other PM documents!
Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! 🍻 In this episode, Era and Ajay talk about the commonly created documents and tell you how to make them useful and something your team actually wants to read. And surprise! Documentation that is read, is documentation that influences. And that’s a big part of gaining momentum within your org, team and domain. 💪
We will start with killer strategies for your Jira user stories and bugs, then cover technical specs like PRDs and end with killer hacks for your product roadmaps. This is Era’s favorite episode… and not just because of the drinking game...🍸😎
📣 Subscribe at https://www.producthappyhour.com/ for the latest episode updates! 🙏 If you haven't become a paid subscriber, now's the time to support the show! It’s either $5/month or $30/year, that’s one Starbucks latte a month or one Doordash order a year!
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🎥 Check out the video on YouTube, and please hit the like button and subscribe on YouTube for more great product content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUFQ0IDmdKQ
✍🏾 Show Notes00:00 Intro
01:50 Life Updates
09:10 Why you should care about being a good writer
13:04 Hacks for writing Jiras & User Stories
21:25 Pre-writing PRD doc-hacks
25:00 5 hacks for PRDs
41:35 Product Roadmap writing hacks
47:18 Punch list of PM documentation hacks
50:48 Cool Product Thing - ChatGPT3
56:45 Wrap-up & Outro
Resources:
Joel on Software - Painless Functional Specifications – Part 4: Tips
Lenny’s Newsletter - What makes a great 1-Pager/PRD?
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You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 16: John Meakin! 🧪 How to Win at Experimentation as a Product Manager
🍻 Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, an interview with John Meakin, Data Scientist for the Facebook Experimentation Platform, formerly Head of Experimentation at Vrbo! He has over 10 years of experience with experimentation at companies that are some of the best in tech. We discuss his advice on how to win at experimentation as a product manager.
📣 Subscribe at https://www.producthappyhour.com/ for the latest episode updates! 🙏 If you haven't become a paid subscriber, now's the time to support the show! It’s either $5/month or $30/year, that’s one Starbucks latte a month or one Doordash order a year!
Subscribed
🎥 Check out the video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/1HdcjtwIl64
👨🔬 John’s BioJohn Meakin is Staff Data Scientist at Meta. John has worked with top tech companies Expedia and Meta specifically on the art of A/B testing.
He began his career as a researcher at the American Institutes for Research, managing experiment design on research projects there. From AIR, he joined Vrbo, part of Expedia Group, as a statistician focused on experimentation, which is where we met and embarked on many experimentation adventures! John eventually became Head of Experimentation at Vrbo prior to joining Meta in San Francisco. At Meta, John continues to be focused on all things experimentation in his role on Meta’s experimentation platform.
✍🏾 Show Notes00:00 Intro
01:30 Welcome John!
01:46 John's Bio
04:10 What's That Drink?!
05:14 Hard Truths about A/B Testing
09:39 What to Watch Out For When Experimenting
17:34 Exposure, SRM Level-Setting, How to Do It
24:15 Choosing an Evaluation Metric
26:14 Binarized vs. Non-Binarized Metrics
29:25 How Product Managers Prepare for A/B Testing
34:07 Being a Skeptic
38:24 Issues with A/B Testing Evaluation
46:35 Process for Product Managers When Engaging in A/B Testing
51:29 Clarity on Experimentation Policy Required
53:50 Parting Thoughts
58:44 Outro
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You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 15: 🐦 How We Would Fix Twitter
🍻 Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, Era and Ajay have a jolly ol’ time trying to figure out how to fix Twitter. We put into practice the kernel framework we cover in Episode 7 to develop a new product direction for Twitter. Hopefully it’s fun, but also a great way to learn how to start developing a product strategy on your own! 🎉
📣 Subscribe at https://www.producthappyhour.com/ for the latest episode updates! 🙏 If you haven't become a paid subscriber, now's the time to support the show! It’s either $5/month or $30/year, that’s one Starbucks latte a month or one Doordash order a year!
Subscribed
🎥 Check out the video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/DGceOA0tTYQ
✍🏾 Show Notes00:00 Intro
02:37 What's That Drink?!
04:29 Quant & qual insights about Twitter
12:27 What are the user problems?
21:10 What are the business problems?
25:55 Diagnosis of strategic problems to solve
28:17 Guiding policies for our Twitter product strategy
35:09 Coherent actions to fulfill guiding policies
54:26 Wrap-up & Outro
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You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 14: Lisa Roberts! Product Management at Startups, Leveling Up at PM & Marketing vs. Product
🍻 Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, an interview with Lisa Roberts, Chief Marketing & Product Officer at FloorFound and Ajay's first boss as a product manager! She has over 25 years of experience in start-ups and now large companies that are some of the best in tech. We discuss her advice on how to get into product management, what makes PMs great, different types of product managers, what you should learn as a PM and so much more!
📣 Subscribe at https://www.producthappyhour.com/ for the latest episode updates! 🙏 If you haven't become a paid subscriber, now's the time to support the show! It’s either $5/month or $30/year, that’s one Starbucks latte a month or one Doordash order a year!
🎥 Check out the video on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/rYqj0lnJrBw
✍🏾 Show Notes
00:00 Intro
01:14 Lisa's Bio
03:04 Welcome Lisa!
03:44 What's That Drink?!
05:12 "How did you get into product management?"
13:17 "What do you look for in those entry-level product manager roles?"
17:07 "What makes a product manager great?"
26:03 "What are things product managers do that drive you crazy?"
32:20 "What skills and knowledge should product managers acquire early on?"
35:38 Tech-Heavy vs. Business Heavy PMs
44:52 Up-level by shadowing great people you work with
46:10 How Lisa kills it at saying no, her secrets to the process
48:42 Start-Up vs. Large Company Product Management
01:04:09 Commonalities & Differences between Marketing & Product Management
01:13:06 Moving from Marketing to Product Management
01:17:51 Parting Advice: Ask for What You Want
01:20:48 Thank you, Lisa!
01:21:27 Outro
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You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 5: Qualitative & Quantitative Research
Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, we break down qualitative research, quantitative research and the relationship between the two. A trippy topic, and Era and Ajay are here to provide their non-filtered perspective.
Something new: donations! We're accepting donations now so we can continue to do the pod with minimal ads. If you'd like to start a $1, $5 or $10 monthly donation, you can do that here, please and thank you! https://www.producthappyhour.com/support
Let us know what you think! Follow us for more, comment and let us know what else you'd like to learn or see:
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl8HEn4OjeSjx3y1JjF4_ig/
You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 4: What is Product Management?
Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, we break down "what the f is product management?" An excellent question, and Era and Ajay are here to provide their non-filtered perspective.
We are also trying out some new segments this episode! What's That Drink, where we discuss officially our drinks, and Cool Product Things, where we break down a cool product thing Era or Ajay observed in the wild that exemplifies a key product concept. Let us know what you think!
Follow us for more, comment and let us know what else you'd like to learn or see:
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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl8HEn4OjeSjx3y1JjF4_ig/
You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 3: Working with Designers
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YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCl8HEn4OjeSjx3y1JjF4_ig/
You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 2: Working with Engineers
Join us for happy hour in your sweatpants! In this episode, we dive deeper into working with engineers, some of our favorite folks. Sorry for the loooooooong delay, Ajay got sick (yay!) and that pushed everything back. More to come soon! Follow us for more, comment and let us know what else you'd like to learn or see:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@producthappyhr
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/producthappyhr/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl8HEn4OjeSjx3y1JjF4_ig/
You can also contact us here, leave us ideas, questions or feedback: producthappyhr@gmail.com
Episode 1: System 1 & System 2 Thinking (and Intros!)
The inaugural episode! Join us as we introduce ourselves, the pod, and talk about System 1 & System 2 thinking from Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman.
You can grab the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
The behavior psychologist Ajay mentioned is Susan Weinschenk, Ph.D. She has an amazing book on this and other subjects we highly recommend, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321767535/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1
