Product Management in Practice, 2nd Edition

Chapter 11. “Data, Take the Wheel!”

These days, it seems like everybody wants to be—or hire—a “data-driven” (or at least “data-informed”) product manager. And why wouldn’t they? For a product manager, “data-driven” can be handy shorthand for “in this ambiguously defined role full of squishy human complexity, I know how to do serious data business things.” And for a hiring manager, “data-driven” can be handy shorthand for “Don’t make any mistakes, ever.” What could possibly go wrong?

In all seriousness, there is a lot to be gained from looking at user, product, and market data. If our goals help us see where we are going and our strategy helps us decide how we will get there, then data can help us understand whether or not we are actually on the right track. Of course, this requires knowing what the “right track” means for your particular product and team. In your product career, there will likely be times when you don’t have access to the data you think you need and times when you have access to so much data that it feels impossible to make a decision. Navigating both these situations requires cultivating a strong point of view about what data matters to you, why it matters, and what specific decisions it will inform.

In this chapter, we focus on the high-level, tool set–agnostic approaches that will help you use data to your advantage without handing over the wheel.

The Trouble with the “D” Word

Let’s begin with the word data itself. This word can be used to describe a lot