THE ADVANCED GUIDE TO

MOBILE PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

 T H E A D VA N C E D G U I D E T O

Mobile Product Management

Theres no denying it: Mobile is changing the world. But what does the shift toward
mobile mean for product managers? Enter the mobile product manager, soon to become
the standard for product managers everywhere.

Last year, we published a beginners guide to mobile product management, and

community interest was off the charts. But a year in the fast-paced mobile PM world is
equivalent to a decade, and a lot has changed since our first publication. Mobile product
managers are advancing their skills at lightening speed, and as a result, the industry as
a whole has had to level-up to compete for coveted jobs as the worlds biggest brands
continue to adopt a mobile-first approach. Our community quickly outgrew our beginners
guide, and was eager for more on how to advance their mobile product management
skillsets.

Well, you asked, and we listened. The Advanced Guide to Mobile Product Management
was created to help advanced mobile product managers better understand what their
peers are focused on, how to improve their technical skills, how to take metrics one step
further to gauge success, and what predictions and trends to get in front of in 2016.

We started by surveying 100 mobile product

Years Worked in Product Management
managers who work on iOS devices (63%)
and Android devices (37%) in order to learn 1-3 61%
as much as we could about their day-to-day 4-6 25%
roles, responsibilities, interests, and future
predictions. 39% of our total respondents 7-9 10%
have worked in product management for
10+ 4%
four or more years which gives extra insight
into how mobile product management
Survey Respondent Industries
has differentiated itself from product
management over time.
Banking 2%
Healt
h
Tr

care
av

To understand the types of products our

el

4%
6%

mobile PMs work on, we asked what

Entertainment
industries theyre in. The industries are 14%
diverse: 60% technology, 15% retail, 14% Technology
entertainment, 6% travel, 4% health care, Retail 60%
and 2% banking. 15%

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Due to the vast number of skills required to do the job, product managers arguably have
one of the most challenging roles in any organization. From working with both sides of the
house, to managing up and down, to having endless to-do lists, mobile product managers
responsibilities are daunting. Although challenges and goals vary for individuals, this guide
speaks to what makes mobile product managers unique, and offers tips to help close
the gaps based on specific company goals. You can easily navigate between sections by
jumping through the anchor links below, or start at the top of the guide and work your way
through (our recommendation for best results!).

Jump ahead to the following sections:

> How Mobile Is Changing the Role of Product Managers
> Tips to Boost Your Technical Skills
> Metrics That Matter for Mobile Product Managers
> Using Customer Feedback as a Secret Weapon
> Managing Up In the Decision-Making Process
> 2016 Predictions and Trends

We hope this guide helps you level-

up your mobile product management
skills, and are confident youll take
away something new that helps
make your job easier. Nows the
time to grab a cup of coffee (or
tea, of course) and settle inwere
about to dive deep into the intricate
world of advanced mobile product
management!

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 HOW MOBILE IS CHANGING

The Role of Product Managers

Mobile product management as a profession is still relatively new, although its picked
up tremendous speed over the last year across companies of all sizes. Many senior
product managers are making the switch to mobile, and despite their yearssometimes
decadesof experience, the transition can still have challenges.
While the fundamentals of product management (including roadmap creation,
requirements definition, performance measurement, and customer obsession) remain the
same, there are a few key differences between the goals of general product managers and
mobile product managers, especially when it comes to prioritizing projects and delivering
new ideas for product improvement. As a mobile PM, lets discuss a few ways PMs and
mobile PMs think about the world differently:

Constraints on screen real estate and usability. When youre creating a mobile
1 product, screen size dicates all. Feature prioritization is key to providing a positive
customer experience, and whether youre building for 5 inches, 2 inches, 6.5 inches,
or more, thinking backwards from the amount of screen real estate you have to
determine usability is key.

Prioritizing number of features on mobile. The biggest change in moving a desktop

2 experience to mobile? Youll likely need to restructure and/or reorder the pages
features. Successful mobile PMs are masters at evaluating relevance and priority
when it comes to features and usability, and are able to shift the structure of the
page to fit new customer expectations set by the mobile device.

Storyboards over documents. Most product managers are familiar with documents
3 to bring their products to life, but mobile PMs are moving into the age of
storyboards to help facilitate human-centric design. (Heres a great course from
Stanfords HCI to get you started.)

Understanding usability differences in customer expectations. Speaking of

4 customer expectations, the ways people engage with a mobile device vary
dramatically from desktop (and even across different types of mobile devices).
Becoming an expert in mobile usability is key to success for mobile PMsthe more
you know about what people expect out of their mobile experiences, the faster and
more seamlessly you can deliver said experiences through your product.

3
 Browsers vs. operating systems. There are myriad differences between designing for
5 browsers vs. operating systems. When it comes to optimizing for operating systems,
mobile product managers havent done their jobs well unless different OS-capable
versions of their product have been delivered. Understanding technical differences and
constraints between operating systems allows mobile PMs to better predict scope of
work, and will help alleviate buginess once a mobile product is released.

Factoring in submission time to app stores. Mobile product managers face a unique
6 challenge in submitting app updates through some of the app stores. Whenever an
app is first submitted to the App Store, the Windows Store, or the Amazon AppStore,
and whenever updates are submitted to the App Store, there is a period in which the
update must go through approval before its publicly available. On the web, there is no
need to submit updates for review, and the time it takes to deliver a new product to
consumers is instantaneous once its ready for release. Since many app stores require
a submission period for new apps and updates, mobile PMs need to take this time into
consideration or they face serious consequences across their products roadmap.

Device-specific factors. Aside from screen real estate, mobile devices have many
7 features product managers can use to meet mobile-specific customer expectations,
and to give their product an extra edge. Many features unique to mobile (including
GPS, push capabilities, cameras, etc.) can be leveraged to provide an extra-
personalized experience, and mobile PMs who dont take advantage will be left behind.

Orientation changes. One unique aspect of mobile is that you have two main
8 orientations to build for: portrait to landscape. The challenge is making the two work
together in a beautiful, intuitive way. Mobile product managers first have to decide if
they will support both orientations and that decision is not always an easy, straight-
forward one. If they do choose to build their product for both orientations, they are
then faced with the challenge of being creative in how the two can work together.

Mobile gestures. The standard point and click doesnt exist on mobile. Instead,
9 people swipe, tap, zoom, etc., to complete the actions necessary to get to their end
goals. Because people are so much closer to the product (theres not a mouse and
cursor in between), its important that mobile product managers think about how
users will want to interact with each area of their product. Users naturally feel more
connected to the product because they are touching it, and the best mobile PMs
maximize that sentiment to create more engaged users.

Frequent app updates. The web has been stable for years, but the world of mobile
10 apps is constantly being updated. Between OS updates and updates across the app
stores, mobile product managers are constantly playing a game of catch-up.

Moving from product manager to mobile product manager has its challenges,
but is incredibly rewarding as mobile continues to eat the world.

4
 Q: How do you move from a product
manager to a mobile product manager?

Not working as a mobile-only product manager quite yet and looking for tips on how to
make the switch? Heres what a few leaders in mobile product management have to say:

than they are to web products - and they have both the advantages and disadvantages

The one and only tip is to realize that mobile products are a lot more akin to desktop products

inherent in desktop products. You have to completely change your thinking about what a good
experience looks and feels like, and really study the quirks and limitations of mobile rather than
trying to keep your web-centric mindset.
Charlotte Gauthier, Senior Mobile Product Owner, Axel Springer

If your company is thinking about developing a native app, really think closely about the problem
you are trying to solve and start small with an idea of where you want to go. You will learn a lot once
you start getting people using your product, and you can refine your original version. Also, study the
best mobile apps that are out there and see how they work on both iOS and Android. Create lists
of what you like and dont like and ask friends. Mobile PMs can get obsessed with apps to the point
you often want to find out what apps your friends give the coveted home screen to on their own
devices. Read everything you can find about the platforms and what the new updates will enable
for mobile apps.
Joanne Phillips, Senior Mobile Product Manager, Concur

Three tips: 1) Understand what makes each platform different and special. This will help in
communicating with engineers. 2) Just be one. We live in a mobile world where all of our devices
are essentially mobile or need small screen experiences. So however it is that you look at mobile,

adopt that thinking into your current projects because Id guess that in most cases, your product
will probably be better off. From that point on, youre a mobile product manager. 3) You dont need
three tips. Youve got this. As a product manager, you know what youre doing. Mobile product
management is just another medium youre applying yourself to. You still need to talk to customers,
understand problems, protect your products vision from bloat and diversions, and work with a
team to build something that your customers find valuable, just as you would as a non-mobile
product manager. Trust your team, learn from your peers and your failures and celebrate your
successes.
Tricia Cervenan, Head of Product, Apptentive

5
 TIPS TO BOOST

Your Technical Skills

The product management profession requires varying degrees of technical skill, typically
dependent on how technical the product being worked on is. However, we wanted to
know how technical the average mobile product manager is, how mobile PMs define
technical, and where they go for continued education.

Only 8% of the mobile product managers who filled out our survey dont consider
themselves technical at all (i.e. do not interface with developers in a technical way). Over
half of respondents (65%) considered themselves mildly technical (i.e. ability to read
code, write some HTML/CSS, and troubleshoot computer issues), but are not completely
proficient. The technical skills our respondents possess increased from there, with 25% of
respondents reporting strong technical skills (i.e. ability to write and read code), and 2%
identifying as self-proclaimed technical geniuses (i.e. likely starting as an engineer and
moving into mobile product management).

Technical Genius 2%

No Technical
Skills 8%

Strong Technical
Skills 25%

Mildly Technical 65%

Speaking technically with developers seems to be a main barrier in getting projects

completed on time for most mobile PMs, and the majority of our respondents were
eager for tips on improving their technical skills. The more you know rings as true
for mobile product management as it does for any other profession, and continued
education should be a lifelong journey for mobile product managers who want to make a
mark on their industry.

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Here are a few of our favorite ways you can take your technical skills to the next level:

Surround yourself with mobile to understand what makes a good experience

1 good, and a bad experience bad. By immersing yourself in mobile, youll begin to
intuitively recognize product experiences that are worth emulating, and will have
an easier time brushing up on the basics. For example, do you know the difference
between a mobile website, a hybrid app, and a native app? Now is the time to dive
in and learn. For your first quick lesson, heres the difference:

Web apps Hybrid apps Native apps

are not real applications; they are really
websites that may look like native
applications, but are not implemented
as such. They are run by a browser
and typically written in HTML, and are
accessible in the same way all other
webpages are.
are part native app and part web app. Like
native apps, they live in an app store and can
take advantage of the many device features
available. Like web apps, they rely on HTML
being rendered in a browser, with the caveat
that the browser is embedded within the app.
are installed directly on a devices hard drive and
can maximize the capabilities of the hardware.
Native apps are installed through an application
store (such as Google Play or the App Store). They
are developed specifically for one platform, and
can take full advantage of all the device features.
Source: Nielsen Norman Group

Use your device often. The best mobile product managers are always on top of new
2 trends, and the best way to see whats hot or not is to use your device(s) as often as
you can. If you cant explain what makes your favorite apps great from a technical,
marketing, and product perspective, chances are you have some learning to do.
The more you challenge what you like and dislike in the mobile experiences you use
consistently, the better it will translate to how you build your product.

Build an app from scratch. Sound crazy? Youve got this! Not only will this exercise
3 help broaden your coding skills, it will also help you understand your development
team and process at a deeper level. The more confident you are in your technical
skills, the more trust your development team can put in your hands when it comes to
assessing scope of work, solving challenges, ordering bug lists, etc. Plus, building an
app from scratch can be tons of fun. Check out these tutorials to help you start:
Start Developing iOS Apps (Apple)
Building Your First Android App (Google)
A Step-By-Step Guide to Building Your First Mobile App (Entrepreneur)
The 2-Day Weekend Project Plan: Make Your Ideas Thrive (LearnAppMaking.com)

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 Become an expert in mobile usability. Customer expectations shift dramatically
4 depending on device. Whether you help your team build for iOS, Android, tablet,
wearable, or all of the above, having a deep understanding of how to use specific
mobile devices will keep you a step ahead. People have different expectations
depending on what device they use to engage with your product, and knowing how
to design for mobile in a broad way is no longer enough. The more you know
about customer usability expectations, the quicker you can make data-driven
product decisions.

Change your mindset to mobile-first. To take on the world of mobile product

5 management and build world-class app and mobile experiences, the only way to think
is mobile-first (more specifically, you could go one step further and start thinking
screen-first or platform-first, depending on your needs). As mobile continues
eating the web, many companies are beginning to take on the mobile-first mindset
as their standard for designing new products and features. Is your company mobile-
first? If yes, you should already be thinking this way (but theres always room for
improvement!). If not, be the change you wish to see across your company.

Read. All the time. Every day. As much as you possibly can. Here are a few product
6 and mobile-focused blogs recommended by your peers:
Product Hunt
Quora
PM Subreddits
Mind the Product
The Art of Product Management
Mobile App Management Blog by Apperian
Apptamin Blog
TechCrunch

Aside from this list of tips, you can check out a variety of conferences and courses
geared toward mobile product management. Here are a few of our favorites:

CONF E RE N C ES CO URSE S

Mobile Futures Forward Coursera

ProductCamp General Assembly 10-Week
Delight UX/Product Conference Product Management Course
Open Mobile Media Summit Udemy Product Management
Mind the Product Certification
ProductTank Meetup Series App Success Pro Course
Product Management, Innovation, Stanford Swift courses
& Growth
MVP Conf
Mobile World Congress

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 M E T R I C S T H AT M AT T E R

for Mobile Product Managers

Mobile product managers have a plethora of metrics to choose from when it comes to
determining the success of their products, so it can be difficult to understand which
metrics are the most meaningful. To get a sense of what metrics matter most, we asked
respondents to tell us which metrics they report on that they consider to be the most
vital. Heres what we learned:

What Metrics Do Mobile PMs Report On?

Downloads 87%

Active Users 94%

Visits 54%

Time in app 54%

Ratings 67%

In-app revenue 40%

Downloads, active users, visits, time spent in-app, ratings, and in-app revenue are
definitely all important metrics to help determine whether or not your app has been
successful. But theres plenty more to consider when youre gauging the true health of
your mobile product.

In order to get more budget for your projects and to better communicate across teams,
its important to look at your metrics in a meaningful, actionable way. For best results,
we recommend dividing your success metrics in four main categories to help you see the
forest for the trees.

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1 Customer Activity
Any daily/weekly/monthly activities you track about your customers falls into this
category. You will likely be the most familiar with this section as customer activity is
generally tracked by Product and Customer Success teams.

Track the following mobile app metrics to gauge customer activity health:

Downloads
Downloads are the number of people who have downloaded and installed your app on their
device.The most accurate way to track downloads is directly from the app stores. While
downloads alone dont paint the whole picture of success, they sure do help. Measure this
metric directly from the app stores. Third-party tools like AppAnnie and AppFigures can help
you crawl the app stores to get the most accurate download data.

Monthly Active Users (MAU)

Monthly active users (MAU) counts the number of unique users over the course of a month.
To calculate, count the number of unique users during the previous 30 days to understand
how many users have been active in your product.

Daily Active Users (DAU)

Daily active users (DAU) counts the number of unique users in a one day. To calculate, count
the number of unique users during the previous 24 hours to understand how many users
have been active in your product.

Session Length
Session length is the period of time between app open and app close, or app time out. It
indicates how much time your users are spending in your app per individual session. To
find this metric, calculate how long a user is in your app from the time they open the app
to the time they close it. Once you have individual data, segment your users to see which
groups spend more time in your app and why. Tracking the length of sessions is particularly
important for unlocking revenue potential in your app flows.

Session Interval
Session interval is the time between the users first session and their next session. This
metric shows the frequency in which users open the app and how sticky your app is. To
calculate, pull the time a user has spent from when they last close your app to the next time
they open it. When you know the typical time lapse between sessions per audience segment,
you can use that information to optimize the customer experience to encourage more
frequent app usage. Consider using in-app messaging to create a more immersive experience
for your customers.

Time In-App
Time in-app tracks how long a person was in your app over a period of time. It identifies how
often your app is being used and is an indicator of how valuable your app is. To calculate,
select a certain time period and add all of the session lengths for an individual user during
that time period. By identifying how often users engage with your app, you can identify
behavior and patterns over time. If a certain segment of customers consistently opens your
app for a long periods of time, dig into why.
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2 Conversion and Retention
All metrics that focus on conversion and retention should be placed in this category.
Marketing teams are typically responsible for these calculations, so sync with your
Marketing department for tips on pulling data before diving in.

Track the following metrics to gauge conversion and retention health:

Conversion Rate
The number of potential customers who started a trial and end up converting to paid
customers in a set period of time. Conversion is most commonly measured by taking the
number of leads or trials in a period of time (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) and dividing
by the total number of new customers added during that same period of time. By increasing
your conversion rate to customer even a small amount, you can quickly increase your
customers, MAU, and revenue.

Churn
A measure of what was lost during a given period of time. Churn can be in dollars, customers,
unsubscribes, etc. To calculate, divide the number of customers lost in a month by the prior
month total. Once youve assessed your customer churn, map out how much revenue was
lost (as some customers will be on different payment plans than others). Some amount of
churn each month is normal as its inevitable that a few customers will cancel, and looking
back on historical data will help you better understand how much churn is healthy for your
team.

Retention
Retention is a measurement of customer churn that tells you how many customers continue
to actively use your app in a certain period of time. Aggregate retention is best calculated
monthly. To calculate, divide your MAU by the number of installs you get in a given month.
To calculate retention for a specific period of time, divide the number of users retained at the
end of the time period by the number of installs at the start of the time period.

Love Score
The Love Score is a comprehensive metric based on your apps popularity, ratings and
reviews, customer sentiment, reviewer quality, and Apptentives internal database with over
50 million mobile customers to compare. To find this metric, plug your metrics into
this quick calculator.

3 Revenue
Revenue goals come from the top-down, and its not enough to simply know how
much money your mobile product is bringing in. Your CEO and Leadership team is
constantly iterating on the companys revenue goals, so understanding how your
mobile product fits into the grand scheme of things is imperative to learn before
gauging success.

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 Track the following metrics to understand how your mobile product affects revenue:

Download Revenue (for Paid Apps)

The percentage of your total company revenue that comes from people downloading your
app from the app stores. If your app is free to download, you can skip this metric. Find the
percentage of your total revenue driven by your app downloads by dividing your apps monthly
download revenue by your MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

In-App Revenue
In-app revenue is revenue collected from customers as they use the app from purchases,
ads, unlocking levels, purchasing points, etc. This metric does not include download revenue.
Find the percentage of your total revenue driven by in-app purchases by dividing your apps
monthly in-app revenue by your MRR (monthly recurring revenue).

LTV Lifetime Value

Lifetime value, or LTV, is the estimated total revenue from the customer over the life of
the relationship. Determine customer LTV by taking the average revenue per month and
multiplying it by the average lifetime of a customer in months. LTV is great at showing growth
over time for different segments of your audience (by acquisition channel or by monthly
cohorts, for example). This can tell you which customer segment is the most loyal, are the
biggest evangelists, and spend the most money.

4 Team
Its easy to only look at numbers when calculating success, but dont forget to look at
your teams health to understand how your mobile product is performing. Whether
one or five internal teams have touched a product, its important to gather data on
everyone involved to understand how the internal machine is movin and groovin.

Calculate the following metrics to understand how well your mobile product
team is doing:

Quality of Features Released

This metric helps you understand how the quality of your recently launched product and/
or feature compares to the quality of previously launched products and/or features. Gauging
quality isnt a perfect science, but you know the standards set by your team better than
anyone. Dig deep into how youve rated features and products in the past, and compare
those scores with your most recent release. How does it stack up? This metric is meant to
help you understand what you can improve for next time.

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 Timing of Features Released
This metric helps gauge release timing. It also helps you understand how feature creep
affected your release so you can better assess what to change for next time. Look at the
deadlines and release dates you gave yourself for a feature update/product release/etc. How
many deadlines were hit? For the deadlines that werent hit, how delayed were they? Take
the number of deadlines hit on time and divide them by the total number of deadlines set
for the project to give yourself a percentage score. Example: If three out of my five deadlines
were hit on time, my team gets a 60% feature release score out of a possible 100%.

Team Sentiment (i.e. Team Love Score)

Similar to the Love Score we covered above, this metric takes many different components
(including individual happiness, team progress, communication, individual involvement, etc.)
into consideration. Its the least scientific metric metric you can gauge your teams success on
as sentiment is quite interpreted; teams (and even individuals) define happiness in different
ways, and what works for you may not always work for the next group.

To calculate, think about the happiness metrics that matter most to members of your team.
Spend time with each team member and allow them to score themselves and the overall
team on each metric, whether through survey, email, or in person. Once everyone weighs
in, average the score for each category, then average your averages to come up with a final
score.

The team is incredibly important. I have found it is most important to have a strong relationship
between the PM, the designer, and the dev manager. We need to have strong communication and trust
in each other in order to be able to do our jobs. We are not collocated, so communication can be a

on what can be accomplished and in what time frame. Early morning stand up is a challenge with a
team in the UK and Prague. We touch base at the end of their day and beginning of mine so that I am

challenge (we use tools like Slack for messaging and Zoom for video calls). We make a point to talk at
least once a day and message continuously. I work closely with our designer to make sure that we have
created a user experience that will delight our customers, and our dev manager gives us the reality check

able to answer all of their questions and I can get details on issues directly from the developer working
on the task. We talk on video and it helps develop a rapport, and we end up laughing a lot together, too.
Joanne Phillips, Senior Mobile Product Manager, Concur

Recommended Resources

For additional tips to help drive your customer activity, conversion, retention, revenue, and team
metrics up and to the right, we recommend reading the following:

The Math of the App Business

The App Marketers Guide to Cutting Costs by Increasing Retention
15 Metrics Every Software Product Manager Should Know
5 Mobile Marketing Metrics That Matter Most
Focus on the Metrics that Matter
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 YO U R M E T R I C- B O O S T I N G S E C R E T W E A P O N :

Customer Feedback
Although each metric calls for its own calculation and improvement strategy, there is
one action that can be leveraged in order to boost every metric you calculate: listening
to customer feedback.

Creating an open, ongoing dialogue with your customersi.e., the people who use your
product every daycan uncover improvement opportunities even the scrappiest data
scientist couldnt reveal. Your customers are the very reason your product exists in the
first place, and building an improvement roadmap based on their feedback is the best
way to push your metrics across all categories up and to the right.

But dont just take our word for it! We asked our survey respondents how important
feedback is to their decision making process and how frequently they gather feedback.
Heres what we found:

How Important is Customer Feedback?

20

15 Somewhat important
Important
Very important
10

0
Daily Monthly Quarterly Weeekly Yearly

We took it one step further and compared respondents answers on how important
customer feedback is to their decision-making process with the frequency in which
they gather feedback. Not surprisingly, those who reported customer feedback as very
important to their decision making process gather customer feedback more often
dailythan those who rate customer feedback as less important. Customer feedback
can be difficult and time consuming to gather, but the feedback you receive can radically
change the course of action depending on how it lines up with current priorities in the
product roadmap.

The best part of our survey results? Zero respondents said that customer feedback is not
important to their decision-making, and we couldnt agree more.
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 Tools to Easily Gather Customer Feedback
To make capturing customer feedback regularly easy, mobile product managers can
implement tools to help automate the process, without having to actively spend time
gathering feedback every day. Software like SurveyMonkey and Apptentive allow
companies to ask their customers for feedback directly in-app with simple and highly-
targeted surveys. After a one-time setup process, mobile PMs can target customers who
just tried a new feature for the first time, power users who have opened the app more
than 10 times, those who made their second purchase, those who said no after served an
intelligent ratings prompt, and many others. This means spending time setting up the tool,
but reaping the feedback benefits daily thereafter, without continuous time and effort.

In-App Surveys
Surveys provide mobile product managers with a platform to ask specific questions about
their product and get quick, real-time responses. With surveys, mobile product managers
have the ability to make smarter decisions about their product based on their customers
wants and needs. Gone are the days spent weighing opinions about whats best for the
customer without data. With surveys, mobile product managers have the ability to ask the
customer directly, and put internal debates without data to rest.

A few examples of popular mobile product management survey questions include:

What parts of our app cause the most frustration?
What parts of our app do you like using the most?
Do you currently use other apps for the same purpose as this one?
Is there any additional feedback you have for us?

Intelligent Ratings Prompts

In addition to surveys, intelligent ratings prompts can collect data for mobile product
managers daily, without mobile PMs having to lift a finger. Except for analyzing data once
it comes in, collecting feedback from intelligent ratings prompts is a relatively hands-
off process once the feature has been implemented. Intelligent ratings prompts ask app
customers, Do you love [company or app name]? If the customer answers yes, they are
asked to rate the app in an app store, and if they answer no, they are presented with a
survey requesting feedback.

15
Mobile product managers have the ability to set the parameters around who will be
prompted, allowing them to target the specific customer demographic they want to tap
into. They can then log in to check the feedback theyve received as often or as little
as they like, and comparisons can be made between feedback pre-and-post product
changes, or used as a regular checkup into how the app is being received by customers.
Intelligent ratings prompts give mobile product managers direct access to feedback that
can help adjust their product roadmap to properly line up with current customers wants
and needs, and allows them to build personal relationships with their customers without
sucking time out of their day.

Customer Advisory Boards

In addition, mobile PMs can put a Customer Advisory Board together to run ideas by
for proof of concept before the project goes on the roadmap. Not only does asking the
customer what they prefer save time by eliminating the internal debates that take place
while trying to choose which idea to implement, it guarantees the company is making the
best choice with the customer-centric data they have.

Creating a Customer Advisory Board greatly helped our company make decisions. It also gave
our executive team and board access to talk to actual customers. We put out the call to our
email list saying we were looking for fans of the product, and asked them to tweet about their

for feedback. We asked for feedback on our homepage (out of these three options, which

favorite product category and fill out a very short questionnaire (demographic data). We then
selected people in our customer demographic and created an exclusive Facebook group for our
Insiders. Executives and group members introduced themselves and we quickly began asking

do you like best?), product feedback (which of these feature iterations would make you the
most excited) and we shared announcements there first. The key was to ask simple questions,
communicate frequently and listen to their feedback. I highly recommend tapping into the voice
of your customers in this way.
Shauna Causey, VP of Marketing at Decide.com (acquired by eBay)

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 MANAGING UP IN THE

Product Decision-Making Process

Mobile product managers at an advanced level work closely with lots of teams,
specifically leadership teams. In order to manage conversations and make progress,
becoming an expert at managing up is a necessary skill for success.

Managing up is based on the idea of building a successful working relationship with

your superior(s), but employees who are the best at managing up take it one step
further. Instead of simply building the relationship, they lay the groundwork for a strong
partnership by anticipating their managers needs, presenting information in the ways
their manager(s) understand, and do whatever they can (within reason, of course) to
make their managers jobs easier in order to complete projects at a fast pace. Managing
up is a skill any employee should master, but its especially powerful for mobile product
managers.

We asked respondents to name every internal team that has a say in product decision-
making to try to understand the importance of leadership approval (i.e. managing up).
Not surprisingly, the Product team is the most heavily involved internal team in the
product decision-making process, ranking 29% higher than any other team. Engineering
(56%), Design (44%), the CEO (38%), Marketing (35%), and Customer Success (21%) all
work with the product team to make decisions regarding the mobile product.

Teams Involvement in Product Decision-Making

Product Team 85%

Engineering 56%

Design 44%

CEO 38%

Marketing 35%

Customer Success 21%

Thats a lot of teams who need to weigh in, with leadership at the helm of each. The
amount of feedback necessary to make a decision on a product or update makes
managing up across leadership from involved teams necessary to confidently predict
how quickly a product or update can be launched.
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 Q: How Do Experts Manage Up?

Even if youre leading your team or are one of the more experienced employees at
your company, youll never get away from needing to manage up. To understand how
advanced mobile product managers effectively implement this skill, we asked our
experts what tactics they use. Heres what they had to say:
Ive had the good fortune to work in organizations that value radical transparency (and I left the one
organization that didnt), so managing up really isnt in my vocabulary. If youre working for a good
team of managers who see themselves more as servant leaders than as autocrats, they empower

you to make your own decisions and you dont have to rush to them for validation of everything you
do. That being said, you need to keep up your end of the bargain and keep communication channels
open. I like weekly or bi-weekly 1:1s with my direct manager, where I share an overview of lessons
learned and ask for input/advice in an informal setting. Also, frankly, the best way to manage up is
to ship. Ship great stuff, measure it, and show the team the user impact. Everyone loves you when
youre shipping brilliant stuff. (Except if theyre insecure. Quit if you get a manager like that.)
Charlotte Gauthier, Senior Mobile Product Owner, Axel Springer

1) Good sales skills. The importance of strong sales skills is paramount. Understand your clients
needs and wants before going in to make the sale. Be confident in your work and able to answer
questions as an expert in your field. Bring notes and supporting materials, but dont rely on them for
your primary presentation.
2) Strong hypothesis. Your hypothesis, problem, or solution should make sense and be in simple easy
to understand terms. Dont assume everyone in your upper organization has a strong understanding
of your subject matter.
3) Accurate data and assumptions to back up your hypothesis. While seldom fully reviewed, a good
amount of accurate data provided on any project or decision will help prove due-diligence and
attention to detail. It is important to follow through for yourself and believe in your course of action.

information to better navigate the waters.

4) Solid understanding of the companys needs and expectations. Always understand the businesss
ultimate needs. Attend executive review meetings if you can, and spend time understanding the
needs, pet peeves, and typical hang-up points when others work with the leadership team. Use this

5) When you need a decision to be made, ALWAYS provide a handful of concise, well thought-out
options that are actionable. Actionable examples include pros and cons lists, timelines, budgetary
concerns, etc Often you should highlight or recommend the solution you feel is the best.
John Swiderski, Product Manager, Global Media and Entertainment Company

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 Q: How Do Experts Manage Up?

Communication with my upper level management is key. It goes both ways. I listen to what the
executives are talking about in terms of strategic direction of the company, and I marry that with

what is happening in my piece of the business. I look at how people are using my product and what
is happening in business travel. I develop a rich vision with the help of my designer, and it helps
me communicate a roadmap that I can take to the executives. They can help unblock me and get
additional resources to get the projects funded. We use Aha to manage our roadmap. It has a slick
interface that allows me to create quick reports that I can take executives through, at a high level,
within seconds. I use it to manage my user stories, and it integrates with JIRA, so everything is
linked. Goals and metrics are all associated with the initiatives, and help keep me organized and on
track and ready to respond to executive questions for monthly and quarterly business reviews.
Joanna Phillips, Senior Mobile Product Manager, Concur

Managing up is the same as managing sideways or down. People are motivated by their values
and needs. Thus, its important to understand and learn what my leaders value most and need
from me to be successful in their jobs. This means asking a lot of questions, particularly Why?,
and then listening. Leaders arent always forthcoming with what they truly value, so sometimes
it takes a while and many experiments to figure it out. The key, for me, has always been to be
open to change and understanding.
Tricia Cervenan, Head of Product, Apptentive

The role of product managers includes interfacing with lots of different groups. This level of
interaction requires clear communication through writing, talking in-person, presenting, etc.
Product managers are the steward of the companys products, but hitting your goals sometimes
requires a lot of cajoling and lots of cat herding when youre working with so many stakeholders.

Managing up can be tricky at times if you dont always agree with what upper management has
coming down. Some of the best tactics are writing and building pro/con matrices for the product
in a non-biased way that uses corporate and customer data and analytics. When you use data
to support your theory, you help give an unbiased, clear picture. Present your findings in a non-
threatening, logical, researched way that shows what statistically should work, and look at the
data to tell you whats right for the product. Back up your decisions with customer feedback
since the loudest voice the company listens to should always be the customer.
Senior Product Manager, Major US Grocery Retailer

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 5 TIPS TO MAKE

Managing Up Work for You

Everyone responds to communication strategies differently, but weve found similarities
in tactics that work vs. tactics that flop. Although managing up is a lifelong lesson in
working collaboratively with a team, there are a few places you can start, regardless of
skill level:

Get stakeholders involved early. There are many product decision-making stages to involve
1 your leadership team, but we recommend giving them as early of a heads-up as possible.
Include them in your product kickoff discussions (or send them the post-meeting notes for
visibility), and loop them in on your weekly progress updates so they dont have to get up-to-
speed on the entire project at its endespecially since youll likely be crunched for time.

Ask for specific, low-level feedback. Everyone is busy, especially the folks on your
2 companys leadership team. The more prescriptive you can be in what you need from them,
the better theyll understand the request, and the better their feedback will *hopefully* be.
Also, make sure to ask for their feedback in a timely manner (i.e. as soon as you can). The
shorter your window of time for feedback is, the lower-quality the feedback youll receive will
beif you receive any at all.

Anticipate your bosss needs. There is no one way to understand what your boss will
3 need before they need it, but we recommend starting with their executive assistant. These
folks typically know the most about how your boss prefers to operate (e.g. how they like
to structure their days, how to get their attention on specific pieces of an email, preferred
communication methods, etc.), and their knowledge is a goldmine when you need some
extra insight. Leveraging an EAs expertise is a sure way to help make your bosss lifeand
your lifeeasier.

Learn how to disagree with respect. This may seem like a no-brainer, but its easy to forget
4 when youre slammed with product updates, cross-team communication, and an inbox filled
with untapped requests. Youre going to disagree with your leadership from time-to-time, but
when you handle the disagreement with respect, the better the outcome will be. Operate
with the knowledge that most managers purposely hire people theyll disagree with as it
tends to yield better business results through asking questions, poking holes, and showing a
different side of an argumentwhen handled with respect, of course.

Show your personal and product value. Your direct manager shouldnt be the only one who
5 sees how valuable you and the products you manage are. Seek out ways to show the rest
of your leadership team what your product is doing for the company, why they should get
excited about it, and how youll continue to drive it overtime to help the company reach its
goals. The more you can show your worth, the more time youll have to make progress as
youll receive more buy-in, more support, and more leadership team interest.

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 Use Customer Feedback to Manage Up: A Case Study
A global company (and Apptentive customer) removed a feature at the request of an
executive, without justifying the decision based on data. Customers were unhappy
with the update, reducing the companys app ratings to 1-star and negatively impacting
retention. The product team needed a way to capture actionable customer feedback
in order to justify future product roadmap decisions and to stop internal debates from
derailing progress.

The company implemented Apptentives software and utilized In-app Surveys. They
designed questions (e.g. What would you like improved in the app? and Which
feature should we build next?), defined segments, and collected results. Automatic,
real-time reports were created and shared amongst the teams involved. These reports
included custom data about the customer environment to provide the company with a
contextualized view of their new data.

RE SULT S
The survey results provided real-time, actionable data for the product team. Within the first
week, the team was able to collect 10,000 automatically organized responsesrevealing
two clear winners from the list of features customers wanted improved. The mobile product
manager used this customer data to back up their roadmap decisions, make their app better
for customers, and prioritize features, backlogs, and bugs. As a result of catering to customer
demand, the company was rewarded with a high volume of 5-star reviews, and reduced churn.

If the product manager had gained access to

customer data sooner, this negative customer
reaction to the removed feature could have
been prevented. Data helps show what
customers actually want, and a combination of
customer feedback and data are a great tool to
leverage when managing up.

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 2016

Predictions and Trends

Whew, weve covered a lot! Lets switch gears from looking at the present and look
toward the future of mobile product management in 2016.

We asked survey respondents what trends in the mobile product management industry
theyre paying most attention to next year. The list is long, but there are a few standout
trends that were listed in the open-ended answer box over and over again.

Here are the top trends mobile product managers should pay attention to in 2016:

Personalization: Personalized experiences have been popping up across web

1 experiences for years, and mobile is the next big opportunity. The ability to micro-
target customers based on past interactions with your brand will bring a personal
touch to customer engagement, and leveraging features of mobile devices (like GPS)
can provide a personalized experience that will blow your customers away. Data has
started to allow companies to segment mobile customers into small target groups,
which will make interactions more impactful as communication is personalized
based on the customers preferences in the micro-target, rather than bombarding all
customers with the same messages.

Personalization is huge. Through capturing customer data, we aim to make the experience in
our mobile app feel like a personal experience for every customer, and that our brand knows

them individually and adds value to their lives. For example, well know not to show customers
meat recipes if theyre vegan, or will be able to notify them when the protein powder they like
goes on sale, etc. On the business side, were putting focus on getting to know our customers
and capturing valuable data in order to prove company value. Additionally, were looking to
capitalize on actions that are unique to the mobile device (scanning, mobile payments, browsing
product information in-store, geofencing, etc.). At the end of the day, what were really trying to
accomplish is creating a personalized experience that adds value to all customers.
Senior Product Manager, Major US Grocery Retailer

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 App Indexing. Deep linking has been all the rage in 2015, but weve only brushed
2 the surface for how deep linking will affect the mobile marketing ecosystem. One
huge mobile change facilitated by deep linking is app indexing, a system that allows
people to click from listings in Googles search results into apps on their Android
and iOS smartphones and tablets through deep links. Until recently, app landing
pages have been in Googles index, but pages within apps have not. The change
means that search results within mobile apps are beginning to replace mobile web
results, which turns the way marketers have approached web search on its head as
they transition into mobile.

There are many, many smart people in mobile talking about what app indexing
means for mobile marketers, but for a comprehensive look and where app
indexing is headed, we recommend reading Search Engine Lands three-part series
on the topic.

Ad Blocking: The burst of ad blocking apps on the mobile scene has been causing a
3 significant amount of worry for companies who rely heavily on mobile ads as a revenue
stream. While the number of consumers using ad blockers has increased by 48% in just
the U.S. alone, estimations suggest nearly $22 billion in global ad revenue have been
blocked already this year.

The popularity of ad blocking is driven by two factors: experience and privacy. Consumers
who use ad blocking apps in turn have a better mobile experience because load times
can be four times faster, battery life can last longer without the extra drain of loading the
ads, less data is used, and they arent bombarded with unwanted ads. Consumers also
gain peace-of-mind from ad blockers because they stop companies from gathering private
information without the consumers permission. Most digital publishers who rely on ad
revenue argue that quality ads should be allowed for survival as consumers are used to
enjoying content for free, and Google is calling for an industry standard for acceptable
ads, warning that if a standard isnt set, there will be grave consequences for everyone.
Well see how it all plays out in the coming year.

A/B Testing on Mobile: A/B testing on the web has been dialed in for years, but there is
4 certainly room for improvement for A/B testing on mobile. Legacy A/B testing companies

like Optimizely and Unbounce have begun expanding into mobile, and tools like Apptimize,
Leanplum, and TUNE have given them a run for their mobile-money. There is still plenty of
room to define the future standards of mobile A/B testing, and 2016 will likely be the year
the standard is set.

Im especially interested in the new analytics tools that are coming online. Until now, no one
has really cracked the problem of A/B testing on mobile, and while I think were still not there,
the tools are getting closer and closer to being usable.
Charlotte Gauthier, Senior Mobile Product Owner, Axel Springer

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 Real-Time Mobile Analytics. Similar to mobile A/B testing, real-time analytics have
5 existed for the web for many years. There is still a gap between availability and
general adoption of mobile real-time analytics tools, and because mobile has already
started taking over 2016, were sure to see development in the expectations, ease
of integration, and detailed reporting in real-time mobile analytics tools. Flurry,
Mixpanel, and Amplitude are our three big contenders to watch, but the real-time
mobile analytics landscape is still ripe for disruption.

Mobile-first to Mobile-only. If youre still using the term mobile is the future, you may
6 want to hop in your DeLorean and take a trip forward to 2015. Mobile has already changed
the future of tech, so much so that the concept of mobile-first we once knew and loved may
already be outdated. Many companies are dropping the concept of mobile-first to move to
mobile-only, which will undoubtedly continue into next year.

Building on the concept of mobile-only, you can take your mindset one step further
and begin thinking platform-first or screen-first, depending on the needs of your
mobile product. The more granular you think about your existing and/or future customer
experience, the better designed your product(s) will become.

Mobile Video. According to Adobe, online video viewing on mobile devices is set to take
7 over desktop viewing by Q4 2016. Between devices with larger screen sizes, the general
speed of mobile adoption as a primary way to access the web, and media companies
clamoring to provide world-class mobile experiences, 2016 will be a big year to watch the
world respond to mobile video.

But aside from increased adoption, what do changes in mobile video mean for media
publishers, advertisers, and consumers? How will this change the way these three big
players in video interact with one another? We expect to see advertisers engaging
audiences in new ways through video, customer expectations around video viewing to
change, and media publishers shifting their sites away from desktop and towards mobile as
their priority, but only time will tell.

Wearables. Ah, wearables. Between the Apple Watch, countless fitness trackers, fashion
8 accessories, massive improvements in virtual reality, and even GPS collars for dogs, 2015
was a creative explosion in the wearables space. Consumers are cuckoo for wearables,
and 2016 will continue to see what else mobile developers can connect to the Internet of
Things. Wearable companies are on the hunt for the best mobile product managers to help
take their products to the next level, and many PMs will have unique opportunities in 2016
to work in the wearables space.

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 Wrapping It Up
As the mobile product management profession matures, industry standards and focus
will evolve with it. Mobile has already changed the world of product management, and
after covering everything from industry demographics, to boosting technical skills, to
next years trends, we hope youve taken away a thing or two that will help you level up
the world of mobile product management.

At Apptentive, weve placed our focus on helping mobile product managers be more
effective at their jobs through our two-way communication software solution that allows
PMs to easily gather customer feedback in real-time. Were confident we can help you
reach your product goals and get more out of your process.

Interested in learning more about what Apptentive can do for you? Have any thoughts
on what you just read that youd like to discuss? Wed love to chat. Drop us a line or
request a demo for more.

About Apptentive
We believe that theres a better way to engage your customers
one that builds advocacy, breaks through the noise, and extends the
customer experience. Our in-app messages, surveys, and intelligent
rating prompts empower brands to build meaningful relationships with Build Loyalty, Spread the Love
their customers, wherever they may be. Apptentives software makes it
easy for any company with a mobile app to grow retention, boost app
store ratings, drive downloads, and earn customer loyalty.

Join these companies in being Apptentive.

Request a demo at www.apptentive.com

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