TravelFli had our second meeting with Niel Robertson today. He’s been a great mentor since we first met him and has provided us with tons of industry information as well as some pretty awesome introductions into major loyalty programs. Today we focused predominately on Product Management. Although Niel is a tech guy at heart, he also has this innate ability to help people solve real problems with their processes and this is evidently where his true passion lays.

Niel thinks that product management is “The most important thing most startups forget to do.” I agree. It often gets pushed aside as ‘something we’ll do when we have more time” or “part of the plan after our Series A.”

Niel not only emphasized the importance of including a product management process from the very beginning of development, but he also illustrated how easy it can be. Basically it’s all about developing a process for delivering the right features at the right time. Here’s the major points to remember:

1. The job of a product manager is to clarify the situation and learn when (and how) to say NO.
2. You should choose ONE product manager and they should be the most empowered person in your company.
3. Everybody needs to participate in the process and everybody (even the developers) need to write things out.
4. Write the requirement > clarify it verbally > have everybody write it out. This will cut down on the chances of misinterpretation before the team risks wasting time building the wrong thing.

So when you set out to write out a product requirement and spec, here’s how you think about it:

The user should be able to X (fill in requirement)
The user can do X by (fill in spec).

It’s pretty damn simple. Niel is a badass (I mean, look at his picture). We’re really excited to get this all inked and implemented. Thanks for all the help, Niel!