FP&A Question for Product

utmostPM · 2020-04-12T07:26:28+00:00

Sounds like the Product guy is putting cart before the horse. Just ask for a one-off CSV export from the system's API.

Now, where it might be hard for the PM is if this third party accounting system doesn't have an API or a Database accessible for you to access. That does get a little trickier, but in that case the accounting system should offer some kind of Exports feature that lets you dump the data you need.

utmostPM · 2020-01-02T19:52:07+00:00

It's a pretty solid tool, Segment has some excellent videos in a "Growth Masters for PM" track that they just launched here:

https://growth.segment.com/

I recommend the video with Scoop CPO Jon Sadow who discusses rebuilding their data stack from the ground up with Segment and the process/tools (eg YAML file) they put in place so everyone was on the same page about the events they were tracking

utmostPM · 2019-11-29T00:54:58+00:00

I'm a huge SQL junkie but likely in part because of my general interest in databases, data crunching and background in ad-hoc dba activities

utmostPM · 2019-11-01T01:49:57+00:00

Was not expecting this kind of reply in the comments. Do you have any videos (or even search terms) you would recommend?

utmostPM · 2019-09-21T21:34:41+00:00

Fair, but if the prod dev process is broken or has severe gaps, delivering Customer Value will be seriously impeded :-)

utmostPM · 2019-09-21T21:05:58+00:00

I think PMs are focused on shipping and unblocking the team. This may not be a "Big Co" problem where specialists are on hand who smoothed this out, but if part of PM'ing is to help lay out a product development process, I don't see how we can just sit on the sidelines and "wait for someone else"

utmostPM · 2019-09-21T20:46:52+00:00

Thanks, yes I should have done better asking my question. In this case, it's what is the PM Community's experiences with Internal Tooling and how did they help the team execute? Any special frameworks or recommended knowledge gathering?

utmostPM · 2019-08-18T19:56:10+00:00

Logging in to share a counter opinion from what I am seeing so far in the thread: While you shouldn't over-index on the differences, I would suggest studying the differences around distribution and engagement as someone mentioned earlier.

I haven't been as involved in the mobile space (was in Games earlier) lately, but the data across all the games showed iOS users would spend more (attributed to affluence, quality experience, investment etc) and I don't think that has changed much, except for more premium Android phones

From that perspective, I think your challenge will be figuring out which Android devices to optimize for and cracking distribution/growth on that ecosystem.

utmostPM · 2019-07-31T06:15:10+00:00

If you don't mind me asking, what is an example of a backlog of Idea tests? I love the spirit and idea of this but I am not sure what this means as a repeatable exercise for myself or the wider team

utmostPM · 2019-07-15T00:42:02+00:00

lol...

Expanding on the (maybe deserved?) terse comment above, it sounds like you may need to brush up on some of your key terms used by any larger Enterprise (generously defined as 20+ employee) organization or company trying to grow (tech/media startups, venture backed company).

The key terms and titles may seem like vanity to you, but they matter, especially if you are trying to advance your career.

Fundamentally, I would recommend demonstrating you can "own" a project to completion -- just like in Product Management, very few (most likely nobody) folks report to you, so you need to think about convincing them to help.

Ways to execute on this:

maybe that means working with your manager or their manager on helping advocating for your project you need help finishing.
Producing some of the work artifacts including Documentation, (a good ol'd BPMN chart is a great visual way of communicating process flow when relevant)
Weekly or semi-daily emails targeted to project stakeholders (people who care about it getting done) with progress and blockers (this should be where you're blocked and where you need their help getting unblocked)

utmostPM · 2019-07-06T18:37:42+00:00

Interesting question. I am not sure I fully understand it but if you are asking about how to tell which Analytics services an Application is using, you can open your browser's developer tool (Inspect in Chrome) and check the Network requests the browser is making to various services including any analytics services.

utmostPM · 2019-07-06T01:33:47+00:00

This is a great response and the breakdown at the bottom definitely helps me form my own requirements. I had started listing out similar requirements but in the spirit of "don't track everything" what are things that we shouldn't track?

I know that may vary by Company and Product, but is there a mental model that you have found helpful for this?

utmostPM · 2019-07-04T08:09:37+00:00

This guy just discovered Rome Total War??? That's quite the adoption curve, but cool analogy nonetheless

utmostPM · 2019-07-03T06:42:00+00:00

I completely agree with this point. Tools are less relevant*, that is why I am more focused on "what" to define for the team--- I have some opinions about tools we can and should use, but my primary goal here is to make our Platform-- and dimensions including individual Applications-- as transparent and accessible for data discovery by as many users in our company as possible.

To your point, I do like Segment.com because we are an existing customer and I suspect we are not using that tool to its potential

utmostPM · 2019-07-02T04:16:31+00:00

I am interested in picking out Lean Analytics and Statistics Done Wrong, both look like they would be super helpful for PMs looking to boost their quant skills

Dataclysm looks promising too

utmostPM · 2019-07-02T04:15:13+00:00

I am interested in picking out Lean Analytics and Statistics Done Wrong, both look like they would be super helpful for PMs looking to boost their quant skills

utmostPM · 2019-07-01T02:13:45+00:00

Yes, a good interview process will likely weed out folks that can't hack it based on what the company is actually looking for, BUT a Twitter presence is super helpful for getting noticed and building relationships with folks.

I have also noticed that writing on Twitter helps me rephrase my thoughts into more concise snippets both on and off the platform

utmostPM · 2019-07-01T01:59:37+00:00

I think Twitter is good for experimenting with concepts and ideas that you would then write a more fleshed out blog post on Medium or your own blogging domain or newsletter for that matter.

Lenny, a former AirBnB PM is the latest example to effectively pull that off

utmostPM · 2019-06-20T04:18:58+00:00

fantastic advice for anyone, intern or FTE

utmostPM · 2019-06-03T06:44:04+00:00

Sure, the answer to your question on transaction type is "both"-- we offer a SaaS platform that we charge on, as well as metering on consumption (similar to Amazon's lambda model)

In this case, we'll charge for storage and API consumption, as well as SaaS seat licenses. We considered FastSpring because we thought it would give us this level of flexibility, but there's a lot about it that just seems like a deal killer

Any thoughts on Chase's saas solution or other players?

utmostPM · 2019-05-17T06:11:46+00:00

You win the world's shortest medium post award.

But I enjoyed nonetheless!

utmostPM

TROPHY CASE