Blended Metrics

In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference. We’re starting a new set of Q&A posts called Highlights to dive into these kinds of questions, and enable everyone in the community to revisit the answers and contribute further!

“What do you think about creating blended metrics (a series of metrics, rolled-up into one)? How do you generally decide the weight to give to each particular metric in the blended metric?

For example, let’s say we want to improve “User Enjoyment” for a travel booking site. Imagine that we already have the following raw metrics: net promoter score (NPS), look-to-book (percentage of people who make a purchase out of all people who visited), repeat bookings, and referrals. Continue Reading

Product Development Q&A and Best Practices

In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference. We’re starting a new set of Q&A posts to dive into these kinds of questions, and enable everyone in the community to revisit the answers and contribute further!

“How can I be well-organized on JIRA for multiple platform products? We have mobile, back-end, API, admin panel, etc., so when we start the sprint all our focus is based on user experience, but we need to improve all our products. How should we handle this?”

– Anonymous

First, it depends on how your product teams are structured. Do you have a single team that is tackling all of these initiatives simultaneously, or do you have dedicated teams? Let’s walk through how to organize JIRA for either team structure. Continue Reading

Product Leadership Best Practices

In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference. We’re starting a new set of Q&A posts called Highlights to dive into these kinds of questions, and enable everyone in the community to revisit the answers and contribute further!

“As I continue to grow into a leader of product managers, I’m finding myself disconnected from the actual product work that’s taking place. I should mention that I also manage the design team, so I’m strapped for time, as you can imagine.

At any given moment, I want to know what’s going on with the PMs and their work so that I can be helpful, but I don’t always have the time to sit-down and debrief each week. Continue Reading

Product Review Meetings

In the PMHQ Slack community, we regularly get thought-provoking questions that we feel should be explored in-depth and documented for future reference. We’re starting a new set of Q&A posts called Highlights to dive into these kinds of questions, and enable everyone in the community to revisit the answers and contribute further!

“How do you conduct quarterly product review meetings with the executive team? Do you have a good outline or example to share what you include and in what order?” 

– Ellen Last

As a product manager, it’s crucial to keep executives in the loop regarding product direction, achievements, and blockers. While different organizations schedule different cadences for product review meetings (some review monthly, others review quarterly), product managers must ensure that they are communicating effectively with the executive team. Continue Reading

PMs & Metrics: Net Promoter Score (NPS)

During our last post of the PMs & Metrics series, we covered the details of retention rate. In today’s post, we’ll be going over another important metric that PMs should be familiar with – the net promoter score, also known as NPS.

For our discussion, let’s break it down into the following sections:

  1. Definition: What is the net promoter score?
  2. Measurement: How do you measure net promoter score?
  3. Impact: Why does the net promoter score matter?
  4. Insights: What insights does the net promoter score yield?
  5. Limitations: What are the shortcomings of the net promoter score?
Definition of the Net Promoter Score

The net promoter score is a great way to gauge how well you are serving your customers.

To calculate your net promoter score, all you have to do is ask this single question:

How likely is it that you would recommend this product to a friend or colleague?

Your respondents should be given a scale of 0 – 10, with 10 being “extremely likely” and 0 being “not at all likely”. You can then classify your respondents into the following 3 categories: Continue Reading

Work-Life Balance as a Product Manager

The role of a product manager is to fill in the white space between departments, to ensure that the customer receives a product that produces value, and that the company has a product that generates value.

Of course, there’s one big problem with the role: there’s infinite white space, and therefore infinite tasks that a product manager could do!

To be an effective product manager, you need to create clearly defined boundaries so that you can perform the most valuable work that you can. After all, each additional hour of work has diminishing marginal returns. At some point, you may even wind up with negative returns for each additional hour.

Below are a few tips on how to ensure you maintain work-life balance as a product manager. Continue Reading