๐๐ฝโโ๏ธ Product Management for Retail Products
Learnings from My Year Working in Retail
The same but in Spanish ๐ช๐ธ
Hi there! This is Jorge Herna ๐๐ผ Welcome to my newsletter, where Iโll share insights and thoughts about the Product world. You will learn about Product, Growth, Stakeholder Management, and everything that entails the PM role.
In case you missed it, hereโs what happened this month.
Like many of you, my professional journey has been quite diverse before landing in Product Management. Prior to and during my university years, I spent a significant amount of time working as a Sales Associate in a retail store ๐จ๐ฝโ๐ผ.
My time working at stores taught me to understand a customer within 30 seconds, craft personalized proposals within 60 seconds, navigate profit margins carefully, and recognize that sales efforts are a collective endeavor.
๐งโโ๏ธ However, what I didn't learn was to view sales software as a tool that could serve me beyond tracking sales and inventory.
๐ง๐ฝ Last year, I had the opportunity to work with store-support-focused software that was present in 5 countries and came with numerous challenges.
โญ๏ธ Today, I'll share six insights from my experience working with a digital product tailored for brick-and-mortar retail.
It's going to be dense, but I assure you it'll be worth it ๐
Product Management for Retail Products
If you've ever considered focusing on the Retail sector, I have good news for youโthere's a lot of room for growth in this industry.
While the e-commerce world has grown exponentially, there are still significant opportunities for innovation in the application of new technologies within physical stores.
The integration of AI, process automation, Augmented Reality, data-driven approaches, and the use of IoT products in storesโall these areas hold immense potential. As Product Managers, there's so much to explore, and we can continue making a substantial impact by uncovering and solving these challenges
However! the brightest technology in the world is of no use if we don't comprehend the peculiarities of the Retail environment.
Next, I'll explain the most significant learnings I've gained while working as a Product Manager for Brick-and-Mortar Retail.
๐ Lesson 1 - Start by Understanding the Randomness of In-Store Dynamics by Immersing Yourself in the Retail Environment
Have you ever worked in a store? If not, I can summarize the experience in two states: extremely busy and excessively calm.
You can start the first hour with 15 customers waiting in line and spend the following 2 hours without a soul in sight. And so it goes with many other store tasks.
During our initial weeks as PMs, we often cover the product knowledge aspect in a very theoretical manner. I'm not saying it's wrong, but for this type of product, there's nothing like fieldwork
Why?
It will help you evaluate how well the predefined User Journeys by your team align with real-world operations.
It will assist in establishing relationships with the sales team, making future Discovery much easier.
If you've built a product solely based on Use Cases without experiencing any real ones, your usability might be destined for failure. If you've fallen into that trap, try starting by identifying the key Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) for the in-store User.
โ๐ฝ Lesson 2 - Usability as a Tool to Win Over In-Store Users
Unless you're Zara with an average employee age of 29, it's quite common to have a significant age disparity among store workers.
Aside from age biases, it's a well-established fact that users from an older generation may be less accustomed to using digital products. Moreover, we must consider that, up to now, store software hasn't been what we could call user-friendly.
How does this affect us as Product Managers?
The obvious: design and usability, just like in mobile, will be crucial for your future features and a significant criterion when prioritizing.
The not-so-obvious: the speed at which we obtain data on the generated impact slows down. This is because engagement and learning tend to be slower.
Example: After completing a Discovery, we discovered that many users had trouble reading the words on the screenโthey were too small. We enabled the option to enlarge them, and voila!
๐ ๐ฝโโ๏ธ Lesson 3 - Most of the time, the end user didn't choose to use you
In general, when a salesperson starts working in a store, the business already has software that helps them with XYZ, and their job is simply to learn how to use it.
How does this affect the Product Manager? It's quite straightforward:
First, in the perception of the software's value for the salesperson.
Second, in the enthusiasm with which the salesperson will approach any drastic change in the User Journey.
As Product Managers, we always strive to create impact for both the business and the end user. However, the way each perceives it may not have the same level of enthusiasm
It's quite common to encounter a lack of enthusiasm from store workers during your Discovery processes. That's why I've emphasized the importance of working in the store at least once. If we don't come down from our ivory tower, we won't achieve meaningful engagement.
The second point is also important.
All store salespeople inherently want to get improvements. However, they'll end up resenting you if you implement a change that ultimately requires a significant learning curve.
To better grasp this point, I invite you to watch the following clip. But if you're feeling lazy, here's a snapshot
In summary, every time we launch something new, there are two forces that hinder user engagement with the new solution.
In environments like the retail store, where software is a tool and not the center of our action, these two forces are particularly strong. The age factor and the energy with which changes are approached make Usability even more crucial.
๐งญ Lesson 4 - Find a Way to Connect Business Metrics with Product Metrics
An error I've frequently encountered in Retail SaaS Products or internal products is the absence of a clear link between user metrics and business metrics.
Why is it important to work on this?
It helps us understand how product actions are assisting us in achieving our business objectives.
It aids in discarding what we call 'vanity metrics'โmetrics that may seem important but are merely superficial.
How do we achieve this connection between Business and Product?
You know I don't recommend frameworks just for the sake of it, but using a North Star Metric can significantly assist in creating that connection.
๐จ๐ฝโ๐ซ Mini Example - About When I Was Working on an Internal App for a Major Retailer
Situation
Company: Aims to orient the internal app towards improving in-store sales.
Team: Has implemented features and improvements based on stakeholder pressure and top-down requests.
Obstacle
When I mentioned that the new strategy would be focused on improving sales, they didn't understand how we would achieve this, especially within an internal app.
Actions
We researched the actions performed by the sales development representatives (SDRs) that were directly related to increasing revenue and identified complementary jobs and mini-jobs.
We evaluated which actions potentially impacted acquiring new customers and driving sales.
We selected the most significant action and structured it as a North Star Metric.
Outcome
Streamlined our feature prioritization process.
Product goals became directly aligned with the business goals.
Improved our approach to pitching new features to the business stakeholders.
๐ Lesson 5 - Product Analytics Is Your Best Friend
I believe the aspect of the fast-paced nature of retail is clear now. Users will have limited availability for Discovery.
Hence, it's extremely important that the Product Analytics part is well implemented. It might sound absurd, but I've come across products over a year old without a Product Analytics app implemented.
Do not make that mistake. If you had 'Discovery and Implementation of Product Analytics' on your roadmap, please dedicate time to it. A kitten dies every month your app doesn't have a Product Analytics tool. ๐ฟ
๐บ Lesson 6 - Rack Your Brain to Create an Effective User Training Program
When I started my first job, they allocated a full 2-day training to teach me how to use the software. Whenever there were updates, they'd send an email with an extremely long PDF filled with screenshots. Crazy, right?
Thankfully, the universe has blessed us with much-improved onboarding and knowledge transmission processes. You can even create a Loom directory if you like.
Unfortunately, I still come across companies that invest very little time in improving onboarding or providing training on new features.
Why is it important to enhance this aspect?
Because it reduces the user's learning curve in the store, consequently enhancing engagement.
Remember, a dynamic environment + no time for something new + the forces of habit and stress from novelty = low engagement. The fewer friction barriers, the better. ๐
Well, that concludes a year of experience working as a PM in Retail.
What a journey, right? If you've made it to the end, thank you very much! ๐๐ฅณ It was challenging to select the most important highlights. In a year, you can gather numerous product learnings.
๐ฅ My next post will be about โProduct Management in Health Tech Productsโ. I'll share the insights from my year working on the launch of a 0 to 1 product in Health Tech.
๐ On October 10th, I'll be at the โTardeo de Productoโ organized by Escuela Escribano. Hope to see you all there. Congratulations to Javier Escribano for launching something so needed.
๐ช๐ฝ My schedule is open for Interim Product Management projects starting in November. If you know someone in need of a Product Manager, I'm happy to help ๐.
Take care and see you next week!
Jorge Herna