Product 2019

DEC 31 TLV

Everyone loves data. Everyone loves talking like they understand data. Everyone loves using ML and AI buzzwords - but still, they are usually just throwing them out there into the open.

 Since the data world does not usually excel in explaining itself with nice user-facing UI, how can we show stakeholders what we are working on while presenting to a group that only sees the tip of the iceberg?

In this talk, Sarit will share from her experience how to build presentations for stakeholders that have the correct balance between HL concepts and explanations of specific ongoing data features. 

Re-platforming of 15 financial, mission critical, products using a new, micro service technology, while moving to the cloud, is not only a complex and fascinating technological challenge, but no less, a challenge of human interaction - bringing people onboard, managing conflicting agendas and smart interaction with stakeholders and groups across the organization.

In the talk, we will discuss how to achieve all this and live to tell the story.

Thought process and a few anecdotes on product innovation in a non-existent market

Product Managers are required to manage multiple stakeholders, across functions yet sometimes apply a "one size" fits all to influencing. We will go through a basic stakeholder mapping framework, generalize about personas in an org and walk through how to apply different type of influencing skills to different types of stakeholders.

Thought QA is the boring part of the product life cycle ? think again!

Come see why the word quality can be misleading and mean different things to different people in different products and how to truly define the quality level of your product in an agile manner.

Learn why the Product-QA relationship is a two way street, how a good QA will influence your roadmap and how a good product manager can become an excellent product manager by embracing a methodology of a “Product review” before each release.

Many companies have designed their codes and developed their products over five years ago, when AI was still associated with Spielberg’s “Artificial Intelligence”. To adapt with today’s growing demand for cost-effective data-driven products, these companies need to take their “old” product and augment it with AI and ML capabilities. This journey is a hell of a ride, which won’t leave the company with technological enhancements alone. Adding these capabilities requires a fundamental change in the mindset of people, their skills, and the way they manage their product, while bearing immense impact on the overall business and its value proposition.

I've worked in both product and marketing, and I've seen friction and tension between product at marketing at every single company that I've worked at. But it doesn't have to be that way! Product and marketing can get along and even make magic together - the key is very specific communication and alignment. During my talk I'll provide several examples that show how miscommunications and lack of alignment led to big problems, and how they could have been easily solved. 

The relationship between product and sales teams is often a highly tenuous one.  This is due to structural differences in vantage points and conflicting objectives. 

When it comes to machine learning based products, the challenge is even greater.

In this talk I will share, using examples, how by implementing the right processes, and maintaining a product strategy and implementation which is in sync with relevant stakeholders (sales, operations, marketing) we were able to overcome these challenges and turn them into productivity drivers.