E-Cell
IIT Guwahati
PRODUSCOPE
Through the LENS of a PM
Product Case Guide
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CONTENTS
Problem Statemen
User Person
What is a user persona
What are the details I can include
Why make a user persona
How to make a user persona
Pain Point
What are pain points
How to identify pain points
Competitor Analysi
Identifying Competitor
Competitor Offering
Proposed Solution
Prioritizing of Feature
Why is it Important
Success Metrics (or KPIs
Additional Point
User Journe
GTM Strateg
Wireframin
Want more Problem Statements?
Problem Statement
A problem statement will be given to you in the competition which you have to
understand and summarize it over here. It is necessary so that you can refer to it
while devising solutions preventing you from getting diverted from your goal.
User Persona
What is a user persona?
A user persona consists of fictional characters, which you create based on your
research to represent the different user types that might use your product or service.
For example, one of the major user segments of WhatsApp is that of students. So, a
fictional character Ananya, who is also a student will represent the student segment in
the set of users.
A very simple user persona looks like this.
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What are the details I can include?
A user persona can consist of all the details in your target customer’s life that are
important to you as a company. In addition to goals and pain points, they can include
age, place of residence, education, habits, and anything else you may feel is relevant.
Why make a user persona?
Before launching or modifying a product, it is extremely important to have a deep
understanding of who’s using your product and the pain points that they are
facing.
As a product manager, you can think of multiple solutions to multiple problems.
However, in that case, you’ll have to prioritize your solutions. A fundamental
understanding of your audience can help you a lot during this process.
Your user personas will also enable you to tailor-fit your designs and marketing
campaigns to your target audience.
How to make a user persona?
Pain Points
What are pain points?
Pain point of a user is basically the friction faced by the user in getting the desired
activity done.
Pain points can be segmented into two types:
Before the launch of the product (Goal of the product): They are those which
your product aims to address and solve.
After the launch of the product (necessary for improvements): They refer to
the specific challenges or issues that customers are currently facing with your
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product.
For example, a student living far from the main city could be facing the pain
point of having to travel a long distance for good food (This pain point is
before the launch of the product). Another pain point could be that a person is
facing the issue of receiving cold food through a delivery service app (This
pain point is after the launch of the product).
Identifying and highlighting these pain points (especially the improvement one) is
crucial for building your solutions and increasing the value proposition of your
product.
It helps create a compelling narrative by demonstrating a deep understanding of
your target audience's needs and presenting your product as the solution to their
problems.
It helps create a compelling narrative by demonstrating a deep understanding of
your target audience's needs and their issues with the product, hence validating
the solutions.
How to identify pain points?
The best way to identify pain points is to use the product yourself and list down
the issues which you face while doing so.
You can check out the ratings section of your product or app. It's where users talk
about their issues with your product.
Explain how these issues are troubling your users or the businesses you want to
help. Use real examples to show these problems. You can write the issues faced
by the user personas you designed earlier.
Finish by highlighting why it's important to solve these problems. It's not just
about improving your project; it's about making things easier for the people you
want to help. It's time to get to work and make those improvements!
Pain points are sometimes included with the user persona, but it's always advised
you list them out separately for better clarity.
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Competitor Analysis
Identifying Competitors:
Begin by listing your main competitors in the market. Be comprehensive and specific
in naming them.
Competitor Offerings:
Describe what products or services your competitors offer. Explain how they work
and what problems they solve for customers. Include specifics about features,
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capabilities, and any unique selling points.
See the areas where your competitors are doing good. This could include product
quality, customer service, brand reputation, or market presence. These could be
things which can be improved about the product, keeping in mind the pain points
and solutions.
Discuss where your competitors may be falling short. This can be in terms of
pricing, product limitations, customer complaints, or areas where they lag behind.
Again, provide evidence to back up your observations.
You can share information about the market share that your competitors hold.
This provides insight into their dominance or influence in the industry.
By providing this in-depth competitor analysis, you're demonstrating a deep
understanding of your competitive landscape which would help you in devising
solutions that could prove to be the USP (Unique Selling Point) for your product.
It can also be a valuable tool in neutralizing the USP of your competitor.
Proposed Solutions
Solutions, as one can intuitively understand are the changes which are to be
made in the existing product to improve the user experience and to provide them
with more value.
Feature - A solution which will target at least one of the pain points to be catered.
Listing all the features and the respective pain points which are resolved by the
same is a good place to start.
There is no universal design/template to present your solutions. However, the
following is an example to give you an idea. You can get more such ideas by
going through other case decks. The more innovatively you present, the more
points you get.
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Prioritizing of Features
Done with the solutions, it's time to start with a new topic that product managers
need, basically, a system (i.e. a feature prioritization framework) to prioritize features
because, without such a system, one is likely to make inconclusive and poor
decisions.
Why is it Important?
Imagine you want travel to multiple distant places, but with your available
resources (money as well as available leave) it is not possible to visit all in a
single trip, so you have to prioritize among them as per the convenience of the
available resources so that your trip can be as enjoyable as possible. Likewise,
prioritization of features has to be done due to the limited resources of the
company associated with that product, so that maximum returns can be gained
and value can be delivered to the users by implementing the optimal solution.
Prioritization can help you evaluate which features will provide the most value for
your customer base and make those your priority.
Based on your offerings, you may have different frameworks to judge the priority of
your solutions. Find some of those frameworks here: (Have a read)
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Success Metrics (or KPIs)
Now that we have prioritised the solutions, it is time to design suitable KPIs or Key
Performance Indicators for the selected solutions.
Think of metrics as our GPS in the world of product development. They tell us where
we are, where we're headed, and whether we're making progress with the
implemented solution. Just like checking the map on a road trip, metrics keep us on
track and help us make informed decisions.
1. What are Success Metrics?
a. Success Metrics or KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), are measurable
values or metrics that organizations use to gauge the performance or
success of specific activities or objectives within their operations. They serve
as quantifiable markers that help assess progress toward strategic goals and
objectives.
b. Success Metrics are majorly used to determine user acquisition,
engagement, and how financially stable our product is.
c. Teams use multiple metrics, and there is no universal success metric, that is
optimal. They are different for different sectors like sales, management and
IT, etc.
2. Why do we need this?
a. Connect work to goals
b. Assess strategy efficacy
c. Make data-driven decisions
d. Measure Progress
e. Identify weak points in your strategy
Some Standard KPIs (Success Metrics): (Have a Read)
We have also boiled down the 13 most frequently used Product KPIs for you:
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV or LTV)
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
Daily Active User/Monthly Active User ratio
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Session duration
Traffic (paid/organic)
Bounce rate
Retention rate
Churn rate
Number of sessions per user
Number of user actions per session
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
💡 Tip: Try to make Creative metrics according to your solutions which makes
a positive impact in the Deck.
Additional Points (that would enhance the
understanding of your solutions)
User Journey
A user flow is a flow chart of the multiple routes available when using an application
or website. It commences with the user's entry point, like an onboarding screen or
homepage, and concludes with the ultimate action or result, such as product
purchase or account registration.
Here’s a quick article to master User Flows:
Become a User Flow mapping master with these 10 simple tips
Hope that title caught your attention. Now come young Padawan.
Patience you must have. Skills we will learn.
https://medium.com/productpeople/become-a-user-flow-mapping-m
aster-with-these-10-simple-tips-3ee303c053e7
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GTM Strategy
Now that you have concluded which feature to implement, it cannot be just
implemented in the product. You have to make strategy to make your users aware
about that new feature as well as attract new users. They are necessary to mitigate
all the risks associated with the launch.
Here is an article to help you out with that:
Create a go-to-market strategy in 9 easy steps [2023]
So you’ve created an exciting new project or decided to expand
into a new market. Now what? You need a go-to-market strategy.
Luckily, our article outlines nine easy steps to follow to take your
https://asana.com/resources/go-to-market-gtm-strategy
Wireframing
Explaining the user journey to the developers can be a tedious task for product
managers. It becomes necessary to ensure that the vision in your mind is
communicated properly to the developers. Wireframing can help you to translate your
feature requirements into a sketch that illustrates what the product or feature will do.
FIGMA is a very efficient wireframing tool for a product manager to gain alignment
across cross-functional teams, ensuring that what you build serves your customers
well.
The following article will give you a good idea of wireframing:
Introduction to Wireframing and its Principles
What is Wireframing ?
https://medium.com/theuxblog/introduction-to-wireframing-an
d-its-principles-a43b19f97807
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