Product managers are constantly juggling priorities, navigating market trends, and striving to build products that not only meet user needs but also anticipate the future. In the whirlwind of daily tasks, it’s invaluable to step back and learn from those who have built incredible things, from groundbreaking space missions to cloud infrastructure that powers the internet.
In a recent episode of the Startup Project Podcast, Natraj chats with Kwaja, a seasoned engineer and entrepreneur with a career spanning NASA JPL, Amazon AWS, and now, his own startup, Momento. Kwaja’s journey, filled with experiences ranging from image processing for Mars rovers to building core AWS services, is a treasure trove of insights for product managers. This blog post distills some of the key product management lessons learned from Kwaja’s remarkable career, offering actionable takeaways for PMs at all stages.
Customer Obsession: Beyond a Buzzword, It’s a Way of Life
Kwaja’s journey is deeply rooted in customer obsession, a principle famously championed at Amazon. From his early days at NASA, where he personally used his credit card to leverage AWS for faster image processing, to his time at Amazon AWS and now Momento, the customer has always been central.
“Amazon was a much smaller company… and the customer obsession was really nice because people put themselves in the shoes of the customers and you would get to go work with all kinds of customers around the globe and understand problems in a completely foreign domain that you have no idea about and help them solve deeply technical problems via using the AWS infrastructure.”
For product managers, this resonates deeply. It’s not enough to just say you’re customer-centric; you need to live it. This means:
- Deeply Understanding Customer Pain Points: Go beyond surface-level requests. Dive deep into the why behind customer needs. Kwaja highlights the importance of working with customers in “completely foreign domains” to truly grasp their challenges.
- Empathy and Proximity to the User: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. Spend time with them, observe their workflows, and actively listen to their frustrations and aspirations.
- Building Solutions, Not Just Features: Focus on solving real customer problems, even if it means building “boring infrastructure.” As Kwaja says, “we sell boring infrastructure, but we take pride in the fact that as more AI applications are formed… people are gonna want more interactivity and that interactivity has to be fuelled by the latest data.” This is about identifying fundamental, enduring needs.
Think Big, Start Small, Iterate Fast: The Amazon Way
Kwaja’s experience at Amazon underscores the power of the “Think Big” leadership principle. While many initially doubted Werner Vogels’ prediction that AWS would surpass Amazon’s retail business, the Amazon leadership team genuinely believed in the potential for massive scale.
“The one thing about Amazon leaders is, you know, they really believe in the think big leadership principle and the leadership principle just says, you know, thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
For product managers, this translates to:
- Visionary Thinking: Don’t limit yourself to incremental improvements. Envision the future of your product and industry. What impact can you truly make?
- Breaking Down Big Visions: “Think Big” doesn’t mean building everything at once. It means having a grand vision and breaking it down into manageable, iterative steps. Kwaja’s experience moving the NASA image processing pipeline to AWS using only EC2, S3, and SQS in the early days showcases starting with the essential building blocks.
- Embrace Experimentation: Cloud computing, as Kwaja points out, “was demonetizing infrastructure to make it available for experimentation.” Product managers should foster a culture of experimentation, enabling rapid prototyping and validation of ideas.
Focus: The Unsung Hero of Product Success
One of Kwaja’s key learnings as a founder is the critical importance of focus, especially in the early stages. Initially, Momento’s go-to-market strategy was too broad, targeting every vertical. He learned the hard way that focus is paramount.
“One thing I learned is the focus really matters… once you land a pretty customer, you immediately gotta start looking for look-alikes because when you go to those look-alikes, they know that they’re not the first ones, they’re not the sacrificial lamb that you’re trying with.”
For product managers, this means:
- Defining Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP): Don’t try to be everything to everyone. Identify your core target audience and their specific needs. Momento found success by focusing on media, gaming, and fintech companies with “spiky workloads and mission-critical needs.”
- Prioritization and Ruthless Scoping: Say “no” to features that don’t align with your core value proposition and target audience. Focus your team’s energy on the most impactful initiatives.
- Look-Alike Customer Strategy: Once you find success with a customer, leverage that to identify and target similar customers. This creates a virtuous cycle of growth and reinforces your product-market fit.
Abstraction and Developer Productivity: Building for the Future
Kwaja’s current venture, Momento, directly addresses a pain point he experienced firsthand at AWS: the complexity of caching solutions. He recognized the need for higher levels of abstraction to boost developer productivity.
“One of the things that we really loved about Dynamo was… you don’t have to learn what instance type, the number of shards, the number of replicas… they just kind of go away with Dynamo and that experience did not exist with any of the caching solutions… they exposed a lot of the knobs to the end-user.”
For product managers, this highlights the importance of:
- Developer Experience (DX): Especially for infrastructure products, prioritize developer ease of use. Reduce cognitive load and abstract away unnecessary complexity.
- Simplicity and Usability: Strive to simplify complex tasks and workflows. Focus on creating intuitive and user-friendly products, even for technically demanding domains.
- Anticipating Future Needs: Kwaja recognized the growing demand for interactive, real-time applications driven by data. Momento is built to address this future need, providing the foundational infrastructure for these applications.
Culture and Team: The Foundation of Success
Throughout the podcast, Kwaja emphasizes the importance of people and culture. From the passionate mission-driven environment at NASA to the customer-obsessed culture at Amazon and the craftsmanship of team building at Momento, people are at the heart of every successful endeavor.
“The people matter, the people matter a lot, and if you have the right team and you know and that team has the right passion, you can accomplish anything.”
For product managers, this underscores:
- Hiring for Passion and Mission Alignment: Seek out individuals who are not just skilled but also genuinely passionate about the problem you are solving.
- Building a Strong Culture: Cultivate a culture of ownership, psychological safety, and customer-centricity. These values, as Kwaja points out, are crucial for fostering innovation and operational excellence.
- Mentorship and Continuous Learning: Surround yourself with mentors and advisors. Embrace continuous learning and encourage your team to do the same.
Embrace the Axioms: Foundational Truths in a Changing World
In closing, Kwaja offers a powerful perspective on the future of technology, particularly in the age of AI. While AI is transformative, he emphasizes the enduring importance of fundamental needs.
“We sell boring infrastructure, but we take pride in the fact that as more AI applications are formed, the undeniable truth, the axioms that are always gonna be true, people are gonna want more interactivity and that interactivity has to be fuelled by the latest data… real-time data and they want it fast. It’s never gonna change.”
For product managers, this is a crucial reminder:
- Focus on Foundational Needs: In the face of rapid technological change, don’t lose sight of the fundamental user needs that remain constant. Interactivity, speed, and real-time data are timeless requirements.
- Build for Enduring Value: Create products that are not just trendy but built on solid foundations and address long-term needs.
- Embrace “Boring Infrastructure”: Sometimes, the most impactful products are not the flashiest but the most reliable and foundational. Investing in robust infrastructure that enables innovation is crucial.
Kwaja’s journey is a testament to the power of customer obsession, visionary thinking, focus, and a relentless pursuit of solving real problems. By embracing these lessons, product managers can navigate the complexities of product development and build truly impactful products that stand the test of time, whether they are powering space exploration or the next generation of interactive AI applications.
Nataraj is a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft Azure and the Author at Startup Project, featuring insights about building the next generation of enterprise technology products & businesses.
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