Resource Center
Thank-you for registering for The Influential Product Manager’s bonus material. Here you will find downloadable frameworks, exercises and additional in-depth content to complement the materials in the book.
Resource Name | Description | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
Frameworks you can use to drive understanding of your customers and your market. Includes: | Chp 3 | |
Product Managers must be able to interpret the underlying financials of their business and ensure their product's business model is viable. Outlines seven common technology business models, the popular Lean Business Model Canvas and explains how to understand a P&L. | Chp 3, p67 | |
Building on the collaborative prioritization methodologies in the book, a: | Chp 4 | |
What makes a product usable and defining product-market fit. | Chp 5 | |
Building on the user story format, discussion on user story advantages over other methodologies, tools for managing user stories, detailed example for breaking down stories for the example product from the book Centsible, and the INVEST principles. | Chp 7 | |
More on the history and underlying principles of iterative development methods and their pros and cons. Detailed introduction to SCRUM and comparison with Kanban and Waterfall methodology. | Chp 8 | |
A service-level-agreement (SLA) template, bug categorization and triaging framework, and a process for disciplined post-launch issue management. | Chp 10 | |
Dealing with Ambiguity. Seven examples of value-based metrics. More on quantifying customer satisfaction, pirates, and a detailed LTV example. | Chp 11 | |
A brief overview of various organizational models - PM's don't care… they work across the org to drive impact, but it helps to avoid common pitfalls particular reporting structures tend to reinforce. | Chp 12 | |
Chapter Exercises  | An extensive collection of exercises and games putting into practice many of the techniques introduced throughout the book. Each chapter is broken into its own section. Sample answers are provided at the end. | All Chapters |
Reminding you of the various behaviors and techniques for each of the four mindsets for quick reference. | Chp 1 pg10 | |
Customer Journey | An example of a detailed customer journey integrating the online and offline touchpoints for a fictitious ecommerce platform. | Chp1 p12 |
Checklist for you to copy, edit and share with your manager, so you align with them and other stakeholders on what you will focus on in your first 90-days when joining a new team. Emphasis is on learning and relationship building at the start before you try to generate new ideas! | Chp 2 | |
A one-pager with key questions to ask of yourself and your stakeholders so you can identify and build rapport and trust with key influencers in your organization. | Chp 2 p46-49 | |
Fill in your stakeholder map to develop understanding and empathy from where they are coming from, head off conflict, and tailor your communication to maximize impact. | Chp 2 p46-49 | |
Use this template to provide a short but powerful weekly update email to your key stakeholders. | Chp 1 p25 and Chp 2 p53 | |
An IDP template with a complete example - showing you how easy it can be in one page to propose and agree explicit quarterly product and professional development goals between you and your manager, and ensure their support in your personal growth. Use it in collaboration with the Career Ladder for a rich, actionable discussion. | Chp 2 p53 | |
Whether you are a manager or direct report, use this question bank to remind you of topics to cover and questions to ask to make your one-on-one meetings effective and oriented towards building strong relationships. | Chp 2 p53 | |
A simple structure to make product forums strategic, focused and effective. Use these in your monthly stakeholder sessions. | Chp 2 p58 | |
More details and examples about the product, Babylon, referred to in the book. Many thanks to the Babylon team for giving permission to share. | Chp 3, p63 | |
Use this one pager to help you draft your personas. | Chp 3, p73 | |
A series of personas used at Masterclass illustrating its four different learner-archetypes (released with permission). | Chp 3, p73 | |
Stakeholder Presentation Example | Compelling stakeholder presentations don't have to be lengthy or overwhelming - tell a convincing narrative on the problem you a solving, for whom, why it matters now and why you're the right ones to go after it. A robust appendix for all the details ensures you are ready for almost any challenge questions which build confidence in you and your team. | Chp3 |
Figure 4.2 Example weighted scorecard was incorrectly reproduced prior to printing. This is the corrected version. We regret the error. | Chp 4 p110 | |
Use this OKR template to map targets and initiatives to your product themes. An example illustrates outcome-oriented OKRs. | Chp 4 p112-113 | |
Print off the speedboat template in large format and use with your stakeholders and customers. Use post its and arrange your product's anchors and propellers. | Chp 4 p125 | |
A script using the techniques outlined for the example product Photo-Pro that you can adapt. Bonus: a script for Masterclass. | Chp 5 p150/159 | |
A regularly updated list of common user testing and prototyping tools Product Managers and User Experience team members can use (paid, trial and free). | Chp 5 p163 | |
Sample Top-down Specification | Illustrating a final version of two feature specifications for the example product Photo-Pro using the top-down methodology outlined in the book. | Chp 6 p171 |
Real-world specification template you can download and adapt. It is a good idea to convert this to a template in your company's documentation tools such as Confluence, Github or an internal Wiki. | Chp 6 p180 | |
Illustrating a short product backlog and set of user stories for the example product in the book, Centsible. | Chp 7 p187 | |
More details and a demo about the product, Centsible, referred to in the book. | Chp 7 p187 | |
A regularly updated list of common product backlog management and roadmapping tools Product Managers can use (paid, trial and free). | Chp 7 p201 | |
Take the focus off deadlines and back onto outcomes and possible priorities. Copy and edit - and once you have agreement port it over to confluence or one of the many product roadmap management tools. | Chp 7 p201 | |
Ways-of-Working (Ed Tech example) and (Social Media example) | A set of principles at an Education Technology Company and a Social Media Company, for agreeing "How We Work" (how we work to work differently together) and "What We Value" (helping us make tradeoffs that we'd struggled with before). A WOW document makes explicit how you will accomplish your mutual goals with your product, design and engineering team. | Chp 8 |
A detailed RACI framework with each step of a typical new product lifecycle (inception to launch) defining the responsibilities and key contributors across Product and Engineering. Adapt it to drive clarity in your organization or simply as a checklist of all that needs to get done. | Chp 8 p215 | |
Retrospective Template and Five-whys Example | A simple retrospective template and an example from a real-life five-whys. | Chp 8 p228 |
Kick-off Meeting Presentation Template | A simple template you can use for your kick-offs meetings. | Chp 8 p230 |
Example Marketing Brief | An example marketing brief for a product using the template outlined in the book (Figure 10.4). | Chp 10 p298 |
Analysis Tools and Samples | A regularly updated list of common analytics tools Product Managers and their companies can use (paid, trial and free). Where available, includes a round-up from around the web of sample charts and reports. | Chp 11 p311 |
Use this template to define each of your product's metrics, to ensure they are clear, shared and robustly measured. We recommend you define an overarching North-star for your product (the change you want to make in the world) and about three value-based KPIs. | Chp 11 p316 | |
A typical job description for Product Managers that you can use to hire for you team, or simply use to calibrate your own areas of strength and development opportunity. | Chp 12 p344 | |
Based on years of building and managing teams, this competencies career ladder lays out the progression outstanding independent product managers make within five key competency areas as they grow and are promoted. Use it as a starting point to align expectations with your manager (of if a manager, your team) and adapt to your individual or company needs. | Chp 12 p344 | |
A Product Manager's skills-assessment template and examples to help you identify your current strengths and development opportunities. Use it in tandem with the PM Skills Matrix. | Chp 12 p344 | |
Here is a short-list of some interview questions you might want to prepare for or, if you are hiring a team, use. These follow the "Behavioral-based" interview technique. | Chp 12 p344 | |
A list of websites, podcasts, blogs, newsletters to regularly review to keep current on product management and technology trends. Also contains a list of Product Management conferences. | Chp 12 p352 |