Building a pitch deck as a product manager (to get budget and approval to execute on a product vision) was something completely new to me. I have been part of many classes that focus on building pitch deck for VCs, but in this case we had to learn how to build a completely different story.
We started with a large number of assumptions on the past performance of the company. This was challenging because it meant that we had to take into our advantage all the defensibility and product developments that we had done in the past. Based on that, we had to understand the needs of our customers to propose a new product pathway to gain more market share and grow as a company.
This applied from product roadmap, to strategy, to business model, and to financial projections. We made decisions on each of these areas by putting the customer at the center and understanding their user person(a). This meant understanding their problems, needs/goals, and behaviors.
At the same time, it was really interesting to think on a potential acquisition to kick start the implementation of our new live streaming feature for our artists. Taking this aggressive strategy gave the possibility of growing rapidly and shipping our new music live streaming fast into the market, but it also meant a strategic and financial analysis.
Overall, I think this was a very enriching experience to think about product and strategy from the lens of a product manager, who’s decisions will directly impact +15 million customers.
