In this evolving series I've already described how you can learn product discovery and delivery with the help of generative AIs such as ChatGPT. Product managers are ultimately judged by the success of their products. In this post, we will learn how to increase your chances of product success.
Metrics
Before you can grow your product you first need to know how it is doing now. To do that you need ways to track the performance of your product, its users and their behaviour. At your disposal are multiple tracking methods and analysis frameworks. Here are some prompts that will help you learn about measuring your product:- How do I measure the performance of my product?
- What are the most important KPIs to track for a product like [product name or product category]?
- How do companies like [company name] measure their product success?
- What tools to use to measure a product's performance?
- How to debug a metric in a software product?
- How to track user behaviour inside a product?
- What product metrics are the most important for the business?
- Propose alternatives for AARRR framework
Feedback
Metrics is one way to get feedback from your customers, asking them directly is another. You need to employ all available channels to get a full picture of your product's performance. Here are some of the prompts that could further help you get feedback about your product:- How customers can provide feedback about a product?
- What are the ways to measure customer satisfaction with a product?
- How to calculate NPS for a product?
- What are the alternatives for the NPS?
- What is a churn rate?
- What are the ten most used software product review websites?
- What software tools can help to gather product feedback?
Pricing
Setting a price for your product is notoriously difficult. In product management, it is a whole sub-field and you sometimes have pricing specialists whose sole job is to figure out the best possible price point and business strategy for a product. However, as a well-rounded product manager, you still need to learn the basics of pricing. These prompts could help:- How to set a price for a software product?
- What are the most used software product pricing models?
- What are the main differences between on-premise software and the cloud?
- Suggest ten books about pricing a product
- How to experiment with a price of a product?
- How to discount a product in the right way?
Product Marketing
Launching a successful product and marketing go hand in hand. Often good products failed because of poor marketing. Long gone are the days of "build it and they will come". Now you need to have a marketing strategy and actively adapt it as you bring a product into the hands of your customers. Here's how you can start learning about product marketing with the help of generative AI:- What is a product-market fit?
- What is a press release?
- Provide ten examples of exceptional press releases
- How to design an effective landing page for a software product?
- Provide ten examples of highly converting landing pages for software products
- What tools I can use to design and publish a landing page for a product?
- What is a product box technique in marketing?
- How to communicate a new release of a software product?
- What tools I can use to manage multiple social media accounts for my software product?
- What are the differences between B2C and B2B marketing?
- What are marketing battle cards?
Virality
Depending on the product you are building you might need to consider virality aspects. It's a subfield of product marketing but could be as complex and deep as any other strategy. You can start learning about it using the following prompts:- What is a network effect in marketing?
- Describe the HOOK model by Nir Eyal
- Explain the Fogg behaviour model
- What is a viral loop in marketing?
- Provide ten examples of marketing campaigns that have gone viral
Pivoting
Sometimes you'll not get the product right the first time. Spoiler alert: you will never get your product right on the first attempt. Most of the time, you'll need to go through multiple iterations until you find the best product-market fit. Eventually, you might learn that you need to change your product in a fundamental way or in product terms - you will need to pivot. What is it and how to do it - ask our all-knowing chatbot:- What is a product pivot?
- How to communicate to customers about a product pivot?
- How to explain product pivot internally?
- How to judge if a product pivot was successful?
Sunsetting the product
A part of product management rarely spoken about is discontinuing a product. And yet this is part of the job as well. When a product no longer serves the purpose for your customers or your company it might be the time to pull the plug. How to do it gracefully - start learning with these prompts:- When I should discontinue a software product?
- How to assess if I should discontinue a product?
- How to communicate about a product shutting down?
- How to perform a post-mortem for a software product?
Product growth and marketing are probably the most dynamic parts of product management. The strategies change quickly, the tools change even quicker. In this realm, a lot depends on your inventiveness and the speed with which you can experiment.
The general recipe is simple-sounding: learn the basics, start small, measure impact, iterate fast, and be customer-focused. In the next chapter of this series, I will demonstrate how you can get your first product management experience by combining all the knowledge you acquired so far and a little help from generative AI.