What product managers do

01The problem

Paystream, the mobile wallet from the AI courses, has a backlog of ten feature ideas, a sales team asking loudly for one of them, and a CEO who wants "more users". Eight thousand people signed up in the last eight weeks. Fewer than half of them ever sent money.

A product manager's job is to decide what to build next and why, using evidence about users, and then to check whether it worked. This course teaches that job with Paystream's real signup, feedback, interview and launch data.

02The concept

Outcomes, not outputs

An output is something shipped: "savings goals launched". An outcome is a change in what users do: "more salary earners keep money in Paystream for a month". Product managers are measured on outcomes; shipping is only the means.

Product and project

Most teams need both, and the Project Manager track teaches both.

A north star metric

One number that captures the value users get, which the whole team can move. For a wallet: weekly active users who make at least one transaction, not downloads or signups.

03Example

Paystream's signups over eight weeks, and how far each new user got:

import pandas as pd

base = "https://academy.cloudtechanalytics.com/datasets/product/"
users = pd.read_csv(base + "users.csv")
print(len(users), "signups;", users["signup_week"].value_counts().sort_index().tolist(), "per week")
steps = ["phone_verified", "bvn_verified", "first_deposit", "first_transfer"]
print((users[steps].mean() * 100).round(1).to_string())

8000 signups; [1023, 960, 1008, 1018, 1010, 1001, 970, 1010] per week
phone_verified    91.9
bvn_verified      62.8
first_deposit     50.5
first_transfer    42.8

More than nine in ten new users verify their phone, but only about four in ten ever send money, which is the moment Paystream becomes useful to them. Celebrating signups would hide that. Now the users who matter most for the north star:

activity = pd.read_csv(base + "activity.csv")
week_two = activity[activity["week_since_signup"] == 2]["user_id"].nunique()
print("Signups:", len(users))
print("Made a first transfer:", int(users["first_transfer"].sum()))
print("Active in their second week:", week_two)

Signups: 8000
Made a first transfer: 3422
Active in their second week: 2596

Each step loses people. Lessons 4 and 5 find out where, and for whom.

04Walkthrough

1. Run the cells. Which step loses the most new users?
2. Propose an alternative north star metric for Paystream, and say what it would miss.
3. Rewrite "launch split bills" as an outcome.
4. Write three outcomes for Paystream's next quarter (the task below).

05Practice

06Check your understanding