346: Building a product management group from scratch in a rapidly growing company – with Kenton Hansen

How product managers can gain influence, solve problems, and propel their organizations to success What would you do if you were the first product hire in a rapidly growing company? Our guest, Kenton Hansen, was in that position at Roll20 three years ago. The company now has more than 9 million users on its platform, providing the best of tabletop gaming in an online environment. Kenton is now the Product Director at Roll20, and over the last three years, he has built the product management and UX processes and teams the company uses. We’ll talk about what that journey was like and what he has learned. Summary of some concepts discussed for product managers [1:34] What was going on at Roll20 that caused leadership to hire their first product person? It was a time of targeted growth, and leadership was excited about growing the platform. The business had already grown significantly, and we had just announced our 3 millionth user. There was a product vacuum as one of the co-founders was becoming CEO, and development management was moving out of product into more technical aspects. I was happy to come in and provide support across the organization to make sure growth could happen. [4:08] What were your first few months like, bringing a product management process to the organization? I treated the position as a consultancy role. I talked to a lot of people and wrote down the problems people shared with me. I learned product knowledge and understood the vastness of the company and the various customers you might never think about. We’ve been a virtual company from the beginning, and that virtual environment is challenging and interesting. You have to be more targeted in understanding how other people contribute. After understanding the problems that needed to be solved and the flow of business, revenue, and innovation, I started a punch list of the main problems. I took an approach based on the three horizons model, and focused on accomplishing innovation in horizon one, which is everyday iteration. I focused on how we could deliver features and projects to our users immediately and how we needed to change our process. [7:08] How did you get to know people and problems in a virtual environment? I tried to listen more than I spoke or type less than I read in an online chat. I wanted to internalize the happenings in the organization, and I started to see people’s characters and personalities emerge. Quick coffee chats or volunteering for simple tasks to work alongside others was effective, especially in a small organization. [8:49] What were some of the main problems you discovered, and what did you do about them? I knew our goal was massive growth and scaling, and the punch list to get the product process organized was a small part of the larger goal. I understood that what got us here (the growth we had already seen) was not going to get us there (to more massive growth). I relied on other members of the team to help me create new processes and get some work off my plate. Our strategies and philosophies needed to change to accommodate the stage we were in then and the stages I expected in the future. [10:37] How did your level of real authority compare to your level of gained influence? The authority given to me was not enough to make effective changes, so I knew I needed to show I could handle myself. Volunteering for tasks with others is the best way to build trust. Everyone is going to make mistakes, and showing up for mistakes as much as for successes is key. Great product people understand you share victory and you carry defeat yourself. Influence is gained in small, intimate settings. [13:47] As you were trying to scale dramatically, what was wrong with the processes in place? We needed to understand that pre-optimization is waste. I could have designed a process and slammed it through the organization,