The Critical Turning Point: How a Product Manager Pivoted from a Failing App Launch to Deliver Results

OK, um, I mean, I have a scenario that I'm thinking of that we were on the wrong path, um, and realized that halfway through, and I, I continued. OK,

Sure. Um, so we were, um, So, similar business, uh, you know, working a pillow, uh, leading the product team, um, Uh, There was a, so we had an application for our vendors, our independent contractors in the market, and then we had a web app for our owners. And we didn't have any technology for um the The guests, right? They had uh a website where they could access um some information about their vacation rental, um, but no app. Um, and the information on the web app was sort of incomplete and it wasn't a great experience. And so we revamped the, um, The web app to improve the experience. Uh, one of the major things we are focused on is, um, reducing the number of reservations that experienced a lockout where they weren't able to get into the, um, The, the, the vacation rental, and so that was the, the primary focus of our um Uh, of our redesign of the guest interface. Um, as part of that, we also wanted to release a mobile app, um, in part because, um, You know, our guests were on the go, right? So, they were checking into a vacation rental on vacation, um, and we wanted to ensure that they had, um, an experience that would make it easy for them to access their vacation rental, and then we also had, um, mechanisms for supporting them throughout the reservation, um, that we thought would be a better experience to, to navigate in, in an app itself. Um, so, Uh, and, and we had also committed to investors, um, and our board that we were gonna release an app in, I think it was like, you know, the early in Q1 of that year. Um, so, uh, Halfway through the project, basically, I, um, You know, thinking through the user experience, I did, I did think it was important for them to um be able to access this information on the go. Um, But It didn't necessarily need to occur in a uh native application. Um, there were some wins there that were, um, important, like, you know, being able to store the data, uh, locally on the phone, so that if they didn't have access to Wi Fi, then they would still be able to access it, um. But it became clear that um that those were cases for the customer and um that the whole, like, building it as an application in and of itself was um not an efficient use of engineering resources. Um, so what we should have done is, uh, release with um only the web app and then determine if our growth in reservations, um, resulted in It being necessary to, to launch the mobile app, um, but what we did is instead is like the launch the mobile app as a fast follow. Um, so, I'm sorry,

Yeah, so we were more than halfway into developing the mobile app, like, we were more than halfway done, um. And Uh, Yeah, it, it was like, we just completed it and got it into the App Store. It was approved very quickly, um, and we had a mobile app, but, uh, it turns out that during that time of development, we realized that the web app was more than sufficient for guests to be using, and, um, they weren't getting a huge amount of additional value from the, the web app or the mobile app because the web app was solving, like, 98% of their problems.

Uh, we are defining success of the revisions to the interface of reducing customer support requests and reducing the occurrence of this particular incident of lockout, um, but we had achieved that with the web app. And so there weren't, um, there weren't specific metrics associated to the, the mobile app other than sort of general engagement and then the ability to initiate, uh, like, additional, um, Kind of add-ons to the reservation that made the, the, um, the company, you know, incremental revenue, um. But, uh, You know, those were also supported in the web app, so it wasn't necessary to do it in a native application.

Uh, I mean, it, it certainly was deprioritized with regard to, uh, development, um, also just cause we can make improvements on the web app so much more quickly. Um, we developed it, um, with I'm blanking on the moment, but so we are also able to get some of those improvements into the web app without having to do a new App Store approval and release, um. But, so actually the company was a startup and um they, you know, within 6 months of releasing the mobile app, they actually pivoted to focus more on B2B than B2C uh and so the mobile app became even more not necessary um at that point because they were, um, they were really making products for People who were renting out like full apartment buildings on Airbnb at that point and so they were more focused on the um the sort of owner interface that gave them visibility into management.

Um, So, let's see. Uh, you know, when considering, I guess, like, or making decisions, you know, it's important to consider trade-offs. Um, so, if I have to make a decision without enough data, um, You know, I, I'm doing a couple of things, right? Like, I'm relying on um, My You know, my overall knowledge of, like, the, the market, the customer, um, Sort of using that as a strong foundation for intuition. Um, and then I'm also looking at, you know, impact to stakeholders, um, both, like, internal and external, um, you know, how the decision will impact our customers, uh, you know, when it's B2B, our, our, like, counterpart within another organization, and also, like, their role within that organization, um, how will it impact the business side of things, our revenue, uh, our Um, You know, engagement metrics, our usage metrics, and then, like, you know, how it impacts the team stakeholders internally, like, engineering, design, my team, um, you know, the product team. So, There's, uh, I mean, I think there's great value from quantitative data that provides clear direction and knowing. But there is also a huge amount of sort of qualitative data that informs, um, or can inform decisions, uh. That gives you a Directional understanding of what is the right path to go down without certainty. And I, you know, I, at, at just like you said, right, like, as a PM you're often put in that position where you're, um, expected to make a decision without having enough data, and so that is why, you know, as a PM I find myself Closely tied into all of that network of qua qualitative information so that when I do have to make a judgment call, um, I'm able to, to tap into that qualitative information in order to choose, uh, like a direction, right? Um, and then make a decision based on that.

Um, I mean, The time to build. Like relationships isn't necessarily at the point of decision making, right? So, it's important for me to have a, a strong relationship with all of my stakeholders. Like, full stop, all the time, right? And, and like that foundation of trust and reliability is, uh, is what Like you need so that if you do have to make a decision, and there is, you know, fallout, and it can be on sort of any, any one of those given stakeholders, depending on what the right decision is, that you have the strength of that, like, relationship to, to fall back on in order to, um, In order to kind of mitigate the, the long-term impact of any sort of negative blowback as a part of the decision. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you're asking about who I prioritize and, and what that looks like, uh, you know, I prioritize the customer, um, over revenue, over internal stakeholders because I have strong relationships and I know internally, I can make the case that we have to do the right thing for the customer because that's in the long-term, uh, best interest of the business. I have good relationships with my executive team, so that, you know, if we do have to prioritize the customer over like a short-term impact of revenue, I know that, um, We, like, can walk through that decision together and are typically aligned on, you know, what's doing the doing what's in the best interest of the customer is the right thing to do over the long term for the business, right? Cause that's how our business, that's how I would structure, like our business, um, in order to be successful, so. Yeah,