Product Collective - More data ➡ more success

How to use data in your software product

Data is an essential component of just about every software product. Some product teams use data to make product decisions (and yes, some ignore the data altogether). Other teams look to data to provide more value for their product. Whichever situation you’re in, it’s helpful to know the unique aspects of working with data in your product management efforts.

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Leveraging data for more impactful, relevant feature development. Forward-thinking companies work within the reality in which we live while boosting their understanding of customer engagement. They analyze data on how users use the product (and how they don’t) to take the guesswork out of trying to figure out what customers want and need. Keith Fenech looks at how three different companies use anonymous product usage data to drive meaningful, relevant product development.

(via @OpenViewVenture)

Six simple (but powerful) rules for data product management. Data product management teams analyze and implement data product opportunities within an organization. Many of the same basic principles apply to data product management as with any other technical product management initiative. The folks at Trissential explain that there are some unique differences for data product management that you need to understand.

(via @Trissential)

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Should we do more to protect our users from our own apps?

My oldest child is 9 years old -- and believe it or not, even at that age, one of the most common requests that he is steadfast in making nearly every day is, “Hey Dad, can I go onto TikTok?”

To be clear, he doesn’t have his own TikTok account. And yes, it’s true that at the beginning of the pandemic last year, one of our “stay in the house” activities was to make fun TikTok videos together on my account (which I rarely use anymore). But like other social media apps, TikTok has become an aspirational app and he simply wants to do what the older kids are doing. 

Most of the time, I reject his repeated requests. Sometimes I do give in, but only if he’s browsing a channel I approve. But as a parent, I definitely feel like it’s my responsibility to limit his TikTok intake. 

But what about as a product person? Should TikTok itself limit my son’s use of the app? If we lived in China, then the app would be doing just that. The Chinese version of TikTok now limits the use of its app, Douyin, to just 40 minutes per day. And there’s a curfew, too -- no kids can get onto the app from the hours of 10pm - 6am. Hey, you gotta get a good night’s rest, right?

Some might look at these measures as Draconian. As parents, we ought to make that determination for what’s good for our kids ourselves, right?

Then again, maybe they’re onto something. For the products and platforms we manage, maybe we have a responsibility to our users to do what’s right for them. Rather than design for growth at all costs… maybe we should be determining when the use of our products is actually detrimental and help protect our users. 

What do you think? Where do we draw the line between building our products with growth in mind… to proactively thinking of the ways that our products could potentially hurt our users? Let me know on Twitter -- I want to hear from you! 

Data product management: The missing link to create value from AI. Many artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives forget to consider what value an initiative creates for their users. In order to address that issue, Nadiem von Heydebrand and Philipp Hartmann argue that there is a need for a dedicated discipline and role to make data-driven products successful. They call this role the data product manager.

(via nadiem-vh)

Data product management. Boris Jabes shared the panel discussion from Operational Analytics Conference 2021. The discussion featured an expert panel of PMs, ex-PMs and product people who shared their perspectives on building data and machine learning products, up-leveling their companies and organizations to be more data-centric, and when not to use data in making product decisions.

(via @getcensus)

What, exactly, does a data product manager do?  Data product management is in much the same place that data science was in 2014. People generally know it is important, but there is no consistent description of what the role is. Eric Weber focuses on 5 themes of a data product manager’s work to explain his view of what data product managers do.

(via ericdataproduct)

Dan Olsen is a product management trainer and consultant along with being the Author of a must-have for any product management library, The Lean Product Playbook. He has served as a Product Leader and consulted for companies like Intuit, Box, Friendster, and others.

In this discussion, we'll be talking through how we can use analytics to improve our products and businesses by understanding tested frameworks and how we can implement and execute those frameworks. We'll also discuss what to do when we're providing analytics to our customers and end-users – and whether our approach changes.

This webinar is supported and sponsored by our friends at Logi Analytics.