Karthik Dinne

***99% of product managers don’t understand the super effective but non obvious levers for growth. *** Growth is not just paid traffic and writing blogs and good landing pages. Some obvious and non obvious levers - 1. The basic maths says ARPU > CAC so obviously the very first lever to get channel economics work is getting your funnel conversion as high as possible to make this maths work. 2. Now let’s talk about some non obvious levers- the first big one is bundling. Build bundled offerings/build products that increase the basket size in the same transaction. What does bundling do is it increases the ARPU for users which means that you have a better chance of winning the ARPU > CAC equation. 3. Next non obvious lever is to Improve organic/direct traffic %age of your overall traffic. What this does mathematically is brings down your blended CAC across organic + paid traffic and helps you win the ARPU > CAC equation or in other words the organic traffic and orders helps you experiment with higher CAC on your paid channels. How to improve organic/direct %, well build solid products to drive repeats, invest in an SEO engine to drive organic and so forth. 4. Next non obvious lever is help your team identify users on marketing channels who tend to engage with your product more. This means defining key milestone events on your funnel - sign ups, user demonstrating intent eg add to cart etc even before the final purchase and help your team build similar audiences to these users. Relying just on the final milestone will leave you with a much smaller sample to work with and super hard to scale. 5. Finally, a key part of making the economics work is specifically working on a product strategy that heroes high ticket size products. Which means working in tandem your growth team to work out product categories where interest in those categories (either shown by search volume/potential impression volume is high) and the ticket sizes are also reasonably high. Think of a 2x2, you want products with high ticket size and reasonable interest volume. What this does is again improves ARPU while lowering CAC helping you win the equation. Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq My Playbook - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc My Channel - https://lnkd.in/gs6qnNUJ

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***How to actually be a data driven product manager? Well if you are are the kind of PM who only looks at data supplied by your analyst in excel and has never documented a deliberate instrumentation section in your PRDs and has never logged in into your web analytics tool but love to proclaim yourself as a data driven PM, well let me peel the layers a bit*** 1. Let's start simple - first step is understand some basic nuances of data that you are seeing - let's say you are looking at conversion data - some simple questions you could ask yourself - Is it visit level or visitor level data, does it make sense to look at this data at this level, what do the attribution windows look like? Default attribution is ok or should you look at longer term attribution. 2. If the data feels off, do you have the ability to look under the hood and know whether it is due to an incorrect instrumentation problem or due to incorrect segmentation strategy - eg some segments applied at visits level, some at page views level. Hint - segmentation should generally be applied at same granularity. 3. When you are asking for more granular data - know what is feasible and what is not. Eg. if as a PM while launching the product you never bothered to instrument price buckets for devices on key events - then expecting your analyst to supply you conversion data for high end vs low end devices is foolhardy. Sure, he could first pull out the data by different device models and then manually bucket them but he is just paying extra tax for your own sloppy work. If you were planning to do this analysis from get go you should have built it into your instrumentation strategy. 4. Which brings me to a very important point always be very very deliberate and clear about your instrumentation plan- events and dimensions and make it part of your PRD. 5. Finally, you need to know the right tracking strategy for the problem at hand. Eg. if you want to know conversion of users who click on filters in the funnel, what should your tracking implementation be? Do you think if you track the click info in a page level variable as normally click data is tracked, you will be able to find the conversion? I hope you will do this in the future before loudly and proudly proclaiming yourself as a world class data driven PM. Let’s stop BS-ing shall we? Follow me for high quality content, not product philosophy but practical insights - https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND also here https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq While you are at it you can also grab my product assignments playbook, 19 real product cases, all successful submissions, real job offers, ~258 pages of content. ***Grab it now**** - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc #product #datadriven #analytics

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Product Management : beyond influencing without authority, to leading without authority. Influencing without authority has long been the name of the game for PMs. As the industry moves (rightly so) towards a world with fewer managers and more individual contributors, ICs must continue to build their muscle on how to lead without authority. What does leading without authority look like for an IC PM? - Don't measure your worth only through execution. Execution is table stakes. Have strong views on the right thing to build, and the right way to build it. - Insert yourself in critical discussions. Ask for facetime with leaders, present your views. Leaders must learn to listen and embrace feedback/inputs from senior ICs. - Ask for help. For e.g. if some complex data pull needs to be done, make a case to the data team and push your request. DIY is ideal but don't be averse to asking for help. - Be vocal about where you see gaps. Sometimes gaps exist because nobody's thinking deeply enough. Thinking is the job of the PM. You should've thought through issues and experiences before it hits your customers. There's unmatched satisfaction in being an IC PM and building as opposed to endless meetings, but we need to give more agency to the IC leaders. This will also need ICs to not distance themselves from leading - leading is part of the job.

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What is North Star ✨ framework? North Star framework is an important product management concept to define success metric for business and inputs that drive the success metric. Here is an attempt to simplify it (Go to PPT 💻) + What is a North Star Metric? A North Star metric is the one measurement that’s most predictive of a company’s long-term success. + Why Do We Need a North Star Metric? Focus and Alignment Company-wide View

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Product management demands honed skills that are cultivated and refined over time. Many believe they can effortlessly navigate the realm of product management, but there's a chasm between mere participation and achieving tangible outcomes. Here are five pivotal skills for product managers who consistently deliver results: 🚀Insightful Data Interpretation: Transforming qualitative and quantitative data into actionable insights necessitates sharp critical thinking. 🚀Product Intuition: This amalgamates cognitive empathy, creativity, and domain proficiency. While nurturing creativity can pose a challenge, it's entirely attainable. 🚀Compelling Data-Driven Narratives: Mastering the art of persuasive storytelling with data, while ensuring factual accuracy, is a skill that can be developed with practice. 🚀Versatile Communication: The ability to communicate effectively across various mediums is crucial for successful product managers. 🚀Decisive Decision-Making: Product managers are constantly required to make informed decisions swiftly, utilizing available information to prevent team stagnation or inertia. What stands as the foremost growth opportunity in product management within your organization? And what about yours? #productmanagement #coachingproductmanagers #productleadership #producttakes ------ 🌍 Shubham Karnwal 🆘 0-1 Product Managers 🔔 Follow me for more content ♻️ Share is care

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In spite of all the crazy abundance of literature on product management and the flood rush of self certified product gurus, all it takes is very basic questions and 99% of PMs cannot answer it. Some examples below - 1. Self certified consumer mobile products guru - ask him/her how do you make sure the app assets (images/icons) look good without any blurriness on all kinds of devices with all kinds of screen resolution? Eg. Android devices with all kinds of screen sizes and densities. 99% of them have never even considered that question. 😅 2. Ask a web apps product guy - What kind of work goes behind the scenes to ensure Multi language support. All they can talk about is translations and when asked how do you ensure translations for static vs dynamic content - 99% haven’t ever considered that question or even hilariously ask what exactly do you mean? Could you pls explain the question 😂 3. Ask a product design question - how would you improve a browser like Google Chrome? A reasonable candidate at best would be able to come up with some reasonable use cases for a regular end user (eg something on tab management, bookmarking etc) ***No one would ever consider other user personas - vectors that actually made Chrome popular to start with. Unclear?*** I am talking about segments such as developer segment - ***how to improve chrome dev tools for web developers Chrome as a marketplace for 3rd party developers - chrome extensions and their discovery. Business users - Chrome as practically an OS for business users.*** Why is this the case? See product management at its core requires true passion for solving problems (staying in problem space) and empathy for users but it also requires an innate drive to always peek behind the scenes. If your curiosity ends at the UI layer, I doubt you care enough about building world class products. Don’t be a wannabe. Follow me for high quality content https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 or https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq My Channel - https://lnkd.in/gs6qnNUJ My Playbook - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc

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Product Managers, if you're seeking career growth insights, Lenny Rachitsky's recent podcast featuring Vikrama Dhiman is an absolute must-listen. Vikrama shares a valuable PM skill development framework, and immense wisdom and specificity on how to sharpen skills at every stage. While avoiding generational stereotypes, he definitely addresses what, I'd hazard, other leaders have noticed as a rising trend of young professionals seeking rapid career progression ahead of skill enhancement - and he does it with gracious & empathetic advice that is right on the money. For leaders aiming to mentor product managers effectively, this discussion is a goldmine too. Thanks Lenny and Vikrama for the thought-provoking dialogue #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #LeadershipDevelopment

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Many times in my PM career, my teams were executing at full capacity, as per the aligned product startegy and also building backwards from customer needs found during user research convos. But the products failed to deliver the impact in first go and required few iterations to hit expected success metrics. Reflecting back, the success was not denied due to execution, but due to lack of understanding of all parameters which lead to success in any complex initiative. Navigating such complex situations requires understanding the issue and then communicating the same with others in team to create a shared understanding of what's wrong. In such cases Dr. Mary Lippitt's Model helps understand what's really happening in an initiative. The model essentially says, there are 5 inputs to manage any complex change and if any of the 5 inputs is missing the team will struggle. Go through the screenshot to identify individual scenarios and the corresponding team reality. Once you understand the parameter absent in your relevant context, fix it proactively to increase your odds of success. From experience, defining right “ Incentives” for teams with conflicting priorities is the toughest and "Vision" and "Skills" are most difficult to change in short term and hence Product Managers typically tweak the other 3 parameters to achieve success. #productmanagement

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Product managers face many roadblocks. Good News:  A leadership mindset can help. Here’s how to overcome them. ☑ Resistance to Change Actions to Overcome: - Identify key influencers. Address their concerns directly. - Show value through quick wins. Start with a pilot project. - Share success stories from other organizations. ☑ Myth: Product Management speeds up Development Actions to Overcome: - Communicate that it’s about understanding customer needs. - Use data to show the cost of building the wrong things. ☑ Lack of Resources and Investment Actions to Overcome: - Build a compelling business case.  - Use data to show benefits. - Start small. Use existing resources. - Partner with other departments. ☑ Skill and Knowledge Gaps Actions to Overcome: - Conduct a skills assessment.  - Prioritize training. - Create a comprehensive onboarding program. Address these roadblocks with a leadership mindset. Drive the adoption of best practices. Transform your product management. ♻️ Repost this and transform how you build products ✉ DM me: If you are a Linkedin creator in Singapore/ANZ. I am building a community of like minded folks.

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Most intro to tech for product managers - let's talk APIs, what about its very close cousin SDKs? :) Every one seems to have memorized the restaurant and butler example for APIs. If SDKs sound like an out of syllabus question.. let's set it right. What is an API - well the most simplistic but clear explanation is it is a URL/endpoint that gives you raw data that you can munge as per your requirement. What is an SDK then? - SDK stands for software development kit, basically an SDK is a packaged piece of code for a particular platform to enable a certain functionality - For eg. you will have different SDKs - a Javascript SDK for web, an Android SDK for Android platform, so on. At this point you are like Anurag not getting this at all, what the f*** are you trying to convey. Let's take a concrete example - let's talk Facebook login So, let's say you are trying to enable Facebook login on your website and your Android/iOS app Now, Facebook offers different SDKs to enable Facebook login for different platforms, so like I said earlier a Javascript SDK for web, Android for Android apps, iOS for iOS Apps. Eg. FB SDK for Android https://lnkd.in/gtnCn_BT What it does is allows the Android developer to quickly get up and running, doesn't have to worry about many details - eg. how should I create user screens for FB login, the SDK comes with pre-built login button Don't have to worry about writing code for hitting FB server with user credentials & receive the access token, manage token still live etc, the SDK provides you this pre-built functionality which you just use. Think of it like boilerplate/starter code that FB has provided for your specific platform to make your life easy. Ok let's talk API now, well I can always say that hey I don't want to use the SDK & I want to implement the same via APIs Remember API involves hitting URLs so here is how you would hit FB servers to invoke the login dialog through the raw API https: //www.facebook. com/v18.0/ dialog/oauth? &redirect_uri={"https: //www.domain.com/login"} &state={"{st=state123abc,ds=123456789}"} GET the access token GET https:// graph.facebook. com/v18.0/oauth/access_token? &redirect_uri={redirect-uri} &client_secret={app-secret} &code={code-parameter} This approach will work on any platform because you are just hitting URLs and managing the response. Now when would you use an API & when would you use an SDK. Well sometimes your hand is forced, for eg. let's say FB doesn't offer an SDK for building apps on Windows platform - well your hand is forced you have to use the API. Sometimes you want to keep size hit to a min an SDK can often be big, use an API, sometimes you want to build functionality server side, eg. get ads from multiple sources server side and then pass the best ad to your website, use API, in most other cases use SDK. My Channel - https://lnkd.in/gs6qnNUJ My Playbook - https://lnkd.in/gHzyN-Xc Follow me https://lnkd.in/gHweK_q7 AND https://lnkd.in/ggUKftFq

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Understand difference between roles or PM, PO, BA, Project Manager Product Manager: Product Manager defines the vision and product roadmap. PM’s focus is strategic and long term PM is someone who has the most context about users and market PM is responsible for impact Continue reading in ppt 🖥️ #productmanager #po #projectmanager

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Product and A/B Testing A/B testing is tool used for the validation of the changes to the user experience and the impact achieved . Talking to users is best way to get the feedback about product / feature but as users scale - it becomes difficult to speak to all or most users. A/B testing as a tool - helps gather data driven performance of the options, and further can be used to arrive insights to be validated in user discussions. A/B testing usually done to validate - UI design and its impact on the conversion/engagement - the marketing content / CTAs for acceptance - the different pricing options - the impact on output metric with feature on / off - if identified solution is providing intended impact The main objective of the A/B testing is to gather data at scale to validate if solution is providing impact in the expected direction. This tool helps in two ways, first to validate the solution if it works and second, to generate insights on the larger set of users. Some thoughts on ponder on - Do every feature/UI change needs to be run through A/B tests? - What is minimum percent of users needed to conclude A/B test results? - Can there be A/B/C test or A/B/C/D? - Can one run multiple A/B tests at same time? What could be benefits / disadvantages doing so? What are the conditions when tests can be run at the same time? - Does any external factors affect results of A/B tests? - What is ideal duration of the A/B test before conclusion is reached? - Does user segmentation have impact on the A/B test results? How to co-relate the two? #product #experiment #abtesting #productstrategy #execution #productdevelopment #product101 #startup

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#ProductMusings: Facing Failure: A Product Manager's Challenge 🚀🤔 In product development, not every experiment goes as planned. Failed or inconclusive experiments can be discouraging, but they are crucial for growth. The key is understanding why an experiment didn't succeed—whether due to hypothesis errors, technical glitches, or market misalignment. 🤔 Here’s how to turn setbacks into opportunities: 🔹 Explore with Curiosity: When outcomes are unclear, dive into user feedback to uncover missed insights. For instance, after an A/B test doesn't provide clear results, teams might find value in identifying overlooked user pain points through feedback analysis. 🔹 Refine and Simplify: Use what you learn to tweak and improve the product. Some teams have discovered that simplifying features based on feedback can better meet user needs. 🔹 Transparent Communication: Share learnings openly to align the team and build trust. Regularly updating teams on experimental outcomes encourages a culture where failure is seen as a stepping stone to innovation. 🔹 Learning from Others: Study how other teams resolve setbacks. For example, after launching a new feature and receiving poor feedback, some teams have transformed critiques into enhancements, demonstrating effective iteration. 🔹 Record and Reflect: Keep track of what went wrong and what was learned to prevent future mistakes. This practice ensures valuable lessons aren't lost and guides future projects. Each failure is a chance to innovate! What lessons have you learned from a failed experiment? Share your thoughts👇💬 #ProductManagement #LearningFromFailure #Innovation #GrowthMindset

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What makes great products great is balance Balance between depth of features and breadth of features Balance between how often their PMs say yes and say no to stakeholders Balance between speed of increments and quality of increments Balance between number of problems they solve and the importance of problems they solve Balance between business needs and user needs Balance between successful and failed feature launches Balance between agility and stubborness Great products are like those Grand Slam winners in tennis who know how to win games by understanding the conditions and balancing their games according to what is required Their greatness is inherent in their ability to balance! #ProductManagement #Balance #Products

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Product Market Fit or PMF is essential to have a viable business. During the initial product life cycle, a product manager should be focussed on finding a product market fit. 𝐐. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐭? “Product-market fit describes a scenario in which a company’s target customers are buying, using, and telling others about the company’s product in numbers large enough to sustain that product’s growth and profitability” It means.. - Your product solves a problem faced by enough number of people - There are people who are willing to pay for your offering with money or time (Read more in ppt 💻) #productmanagement #productmanager #productmarketfit #pmf

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Think broad. Think deep. Think basics. Think random. Spoke to Vishal Gupta about what homework PMs should do before the idea goes into execution. #productmanagement

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🌟 How to Be a Successful Product Manager in 2024 🌟 In the world of product management, the role of a product manager (PM) is crucial for a product's success. Often called the “CEO of a product,” a PM oversees every stage of a product’s journey, from the initial idea to its market launch. Did you know that the success of products like the iPhone or Netflix is largely due to skilled product management? Behind every groundbreaking product is a dedicated PM guiding it from start to finish. And let's face it, if product management were easy, it’d be called 'Product Vacation!' Here are some insights from Arun Singhal, former Director of Product Management at Google, on what it takes to thrive in this role: Arun also emphasizes the importance of metrics and data in product management, strategic thinking, and mastering trade-offs and prioritization. For anyone looking to excel in this field, continuous learning and adaptation are key. Here are a few tips to elevate your effectiveness as a product manager: Engage with Customers: Direct interaction provides invaluable insights. Understand Key Metrics: Keep key metrics at your fingertips. Develop Quick Presentation Skills: Create concise presentations on short notice. Maintain a Sense of Humor: A happy team is a productive team! How do you ensure successful product outcomes in your teams? Share your experiences and tips below! Let's discuss how we can all drive product success together. #ProductManagement #Leadership #Success #CareerGrowth #Teamwork Credits: https://lnkd.in/dyVUzcg7

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