Day 2
Mastering PM in uncharted territories
A new category in the market? Check. A new industry for me? Check. A new group in the company? Check. All the ingredients were there to present challenges. And opportunities.
Join us as we explore the journey of building a new product team in a cutting-edge, deep tech scale-up. From building a multi-disciplinary team of domain experts, to leading market education with innovative solutions, to opening back-doors to customer interaction - we'll explore how we navigate uncharted territories on a day-to-day basis.
From Product to Business: A CEO's Eye-Opening Journey
It's only by changing roles that you can shift your perspective and see what was just in front of you, but you weren’t able to see. Join us for an insightful talk where Noa Danon, a seasoned product leader turned CEO, shares a candid journey of realizations and revelations. Transitioning from a product-centric role to the helm of a company, she encountered a series of eye-opening surprises about the business world. This talk will dissect several stark assumptions commonly held by product professionals and contrast them with the gritty realities of leading a business. This session is not just about the transition but also about the lessons learned that can empower product leaders to think more broadly and better perform when working with business roles and CEOs. Whether you’ve been told you need to have more of a business mindset, or you are heading the product department, you'll leave with a new perspective on the intersection of product management and business leadership.
Few people have journeyed from being developers and UX designers to product managers, startup management team members, and finally, founders and CEOs. These transitions have given me unique perspectives on various roles and motivations. I made mistakes that only became clear when I changed positions. Working closely with sales doesn’t mean you truly understand business, and the same goes for marketing or being a CEO. This talk provides an authentic reflection on how product professionals are viewed, which I believe will resonate deeply with the audience.
Breaking Boundaries: Product Innovation and Market Understanding
In my presentation, I share the journey of transitioning from a "never went to production" product to an innovative startup solution that transformed the restaurant industry. Our breakthrough was an iPad-based mobile POS system for waiters, initially receiving mixed feedback. This led to key insights:
- Market Analysis:
- Customers needed a seamless integration with existing management systems.
- Established software providers resisted collaboration, leading us to create a comprehensive management system.
- Understanding the Customers:
- Most potential clients were independent restaurants and small businesses.
- These customers required user-friendly technology that supports various restaurant operations.
- We developed a one-stop-shop solution tailored to their needs.
- Empowering the Customers:
- We provided White Label solutions, allowing customers to adapt technology to their brand, thus reaching new audiences and strengthening their brand identity.
- This approach saved marketing costs and enhanced operational efficiency.
Conclusion:
Key questions explored:
- Are you an addon or a full product?
- How do you handle competitor resistance?
- How do you identify and cater to your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)?
This presentation highlights the importance of market understanding and innovative thinking in creating impactful products while taking risks.
Learning to think like the CFO can be your superpower
All PMs want to be business-oriented, but what does that actually mean? Is it simply projecting revenue dollars in your roadmap or (more recently) prioritizing profit?
In fact there is a language to businesses and that is the language of finance people. So PMs who learn to incorporate considerations such as Gross Margin, Revenue Recognition or Fiscal Year Budgeting can become more influential and create more impact for the business they serve.
The Secrets of Business Moats - How to create and develop defendable products
In today's competitive landscape, creating and sustaining unique differentiators, or "moats," is more challenging than ever. Just as my mother-in-law's unique cooking keeps us coming back to her table, a company's distinctive features keep it ahead in the market. Despite her generosity in sharing recipes, my attempts to replicate her dishes never quite match up. This experience illustrates how companies create their own protective moats—those unique traits and capabilities that set them apart from competitors, much like the moats around medieval castles. Identifying, articulating, and maintaining these moats has always been a difficult task, but it's even more crucial now with the rise of LLM models and the multitude of start-ups leveraging them.
In this exciting era where large language models (LLMs) have become widely accessible and commoditized, building sustainable moats is essential for product differentiation and growth. Companies must go beyond the surface-level features and delve into what truly makes them unique to maintain a competitive edge. This talk aims to shed light on the significance of moats in product management, offering practical strategies to identify, build, and sustain them, ensuring your products remain compelling and resilient in an ever-evolving market.
Product-Model Fit
In an era where product problems are translated into AI models to solve them, and with so many models out there, how can we as product managers ensure that all product requirements will be addressed in the selected model before committing to research and development? This session will cover the four "Product-Model Fit" principles Keren created based on her personal experience. These principles will help you conduct guided discussions with your data researchers, direct the research team with requirements that fit the AI domain, and set you, your team, and your product up for success.
The Data-Driven Myth
In pursuing data-driven decision-making, have we become so obsessed with numbers that we've lost sight of our instincts? We will explore the illusion of control that data provides, the downsides it carries, and the often overlooked role of instincts in product management. Prepare to challenge conventional wisdom as a case is made for balancing analytical insights with your natural product intuition.
Being (un)successful
My big failure story and how i grew thru it.
In real life product manager tale, Ram will take you step by step thru series of what seemed to be the right decisions, which lead to a failed product.
Learning from those mistakes, to be a better product manager, and when eventually facing this collapse of assumptions and effort going down the drain - pull yourself together and move on.
Go Big or Go Home: Crafting a Monumental MVP in the Gen-AI Era
.One year ago, at the dawn of the Gen-AI revolution, we set out to develop an innovative, intelligent chatbot for sports bettors designed to communicate as a professional analyst
Through our market analysis, we uncovered two key insights:
1. There is no comparable technology on the market.
2. Our competition lies in professional sports analysts providing user insights.
Faced with high development costs, we asked ourselves: Should our MVP be minimal or monumental? We chose to go big. Over four months, two dedicated teams created a high-quality, feature-rich product.
Join me to explore: What drove our decision to aim high with our MVP? How did we balance risks and rewards? What lessons can be learned for your next big product launch?
Boost Your Product Management Skills with AI
Navigate how the AI revolution meets you in your day to day as a product manager. We'll learn 4 effective tools and tricks and you'll be ready to take action immediately the following day and make AI your personal assistant.
From Zero to Insight: Measuring Value in Early-Stage B2B Products
In the ultra-competitive, fast-paced landscape of early-stage B2B startups, knowing and proving your product’s value is essential for growth. Yet, with limited resources and data, measuring value can be challenging. This talk explores why tracking value from the start is crucial, breaking down practical strategies for implementing product analytics and value metrics. With real-world examples, we’ll cover how data insights can empower your sales, marketing, and customer success teams, driving measurable impact across your business. Concluding with actionable steps for startups with no analytics in place, this session equips you with a roadmap to start measuring what matters—no big budget required.