11 Insights from the New York Product Conference
Like many Product People, my journey into the field was nontraditional. My first day on the job as a Product Manager — March 12, 2020 — was especially nontraditional. To make up for the lack of opportunities to meet and learn from other PMs at the workplace, I’ve immersed myself in the industry through a series of virtual coffee chats, webinars, books, online courses, and podcasts, but have craved a meeting of the minds in person. Enter this year’s New York Product Conference.
I found the programming not just inspiring and insightful, but also actionable. I sat down to unpack one key takeaway from each session that changed my mindset, inspired a new idea, or challenged me to approach a problem in a new way. These aren’t direct quotes, but paraphrases and interpretations or applications of insights through my own personal lens (though I hope I did each speaker justice!). Beyond functioning as a personal exercise, I hope these insights serve as a helpful resource for Product People like myself who are hungry for insights from the sharpest minds in the business.
If you also attended and want to talk shop about any of the sessions, share your key takeaways, or simply connect over a coffee, let’s do it!
Photo Credit: The New York Product Conference, Powered by Industry
The Insights
1. When launching a product, strive for 90% familiarity (which breeds utilization) and 10% re-training (for what makes your product unique).
— Forecasts for the Near Future of Tech - Scott Belsky, Chief Product Officer of Adobe
2. What gets you to point A won’t get you to Point B. The tactics that helped you succeed at first may end up holding you back, like an animal who needs to molt its old skin to regrow a new, stronger shell.
— What Got You Here Won’t Get You There - Natalie Gibralter, VP of Product at Squarespace
3. Use real, tangible use cases to fund investment into product launches and updates.
— Building Products with a Platform Approach - Vik Scoggins, Product Manager at Coinbase
4. Don’t use experimentation as a crutch for weak prioritization.
— Measuring the Unmeasurable: Product Testing in Surprising Environments - Raj Krishnan, VP of Product at Noom
5. Frameworks are not silver bullets for prioritization. Your roadmap is the synthesis of your prioritization, but it doesn’t end there — share that roadmap out and align with stakeholders.
— Ruthless Prioritization - Cassidy Fein, Director of Product at Vimeo
6. Psychological safety is simple, but don’t confuse simple with easy — everyone comes to the table with different contexts, expectations, and definitions.
— Psychological Safety for Diverse Teams - Victoria Kennedy, Founder and GP of Seed to Harvest
7. You won't always have all the data you need to make decisions when your company or product is at a hyper-growth stage, so use 60% quantitative, 20% qualitative, and 20% instinct or taste.
— Lessons from the Trenches: Building Hypergrowth Product Organizations - Shiven Ramji, CPO at Auth0
8. Applying product management principles to operational challenges allows you to “de-mess” complex issues with a problem-first mindset.
— Applying Product Principles to Operations - Ashley Zhou, Lead PM at CookUnity
9. Push for data that reps your TAM, using leading metrics for directional alignment and lagging metrics to compose a compelling argument.
— Inclusive Decision-Making to Drive Retention - Laura Teclemariam, Director of Product Innovation at Netflix
10. Everyone is learning on their own — most tests stay within the organization. By learning from each other, we can stop wasting time on experiments that have already been found by other testers to yield no results between options (i.e. button color).
— The Truth About Testing - Andres Gusman, CEO & Founder of DoWhatWorks
11. Speak the demand side’s language. The biggest competitor to a mattress brand is not another mattress brand, but a comfy sofa, cocktail, or bottle of Zzzquil.
— The 5 Skills of an Innovator - Bob Moesta, CEO & Co-Founder of The Re-Wired Group