How Yahoo creates a great experience for its users - Kameron Canbaz (Product Manager, Workflow and UX at Yahoo)
Dec 18, 2024
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Kameron Canbaz, a Product Manager at Yahoo with nearly a decade of experience, dives into collaboration strategies between product managers and engineers. He emphasizes the importance of involving engineers early in the design process to minimize errors. Kameron shares practical tips on maintaining a user-centric approach, including the need for regular user communication and fostering a culture of empathy. He also discusses the significance of identifying user frustrations through metrics and feedback to continuously enhance the overall user experience.
Early involvement of engineers in the design process helps to prevent errors and align user goals effectively.
Regular user engagement and feedback are crucial for identifying usability issues and fostering a user-centric organizational culture.
Deep dives
Cameron Jambas: A Unique Perspective on Product Management
Cameron Jambas, a product manager at Yahoo, has nearly a decade of experience at the company, which he sees as an asset rather than a limitation. His background as a user of the platform allows him to empathize with customers, giving him insights that enhance ease of use. Transitioning into product management, he focuses on creating a seamless user experience, leveraging both his personal experiences and research to inform his work. This approach emphasizes the importance of understanding user behavior and preferences in developing a user-friendly product.
Navigating Non-Functional Requirements
The discussion highlights the significance of addressing non-functional requirements, particularly performance and error handling, in product development. Jambas explains how user feedback revealed persistent issues with slow loading pages and frequent errors, which detracted from the overall user experience. By implementing error tracking and visualization tools, the team can identify and address these issues proactively. This initiative aims to integrate ease of use as a continuous priority rather than a reactive response to user complaints.
The Role of User Research in Identifying Problems
User research serves as a crucial mechanism for uncovering usability issues that may not be apparent through traditional metrics. Jambas advocates for regular engagement with users to gather feedback on their pain points, emphasizing that even minor annoyances can significantly impact the overall experience. He describes instances where small fixes, such as pasting currency values, garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback from users. This approach underscores the value of cultivating a user-centric mindset within organizations, encouraging product managers to prioritize user interactions throughout the product lifecycle.
Collaborative Strategies for Continuous Improvement
Fostering collaboration among product, engineering, and design teams is essential for maintaining a focus on user experience. Jambas illustrates how integrating feedback loops into the development process can help teams catch issues early, reducing the burden of post-launch fixes. By encouraging a shared responsibility for user satisfaction, product managers can ensure that performance and usability remain priorities throughout all stages of development. This collaborative approach not only addresses current challenges but also builds a framework for ongoing improvements in user experience.
In this week's episode, we speak with Kameron Canbaz, Product Manager at Yahoo, who shares collaboration strategies between product managers and engineers, highlighting the early involvement of engineers in the design process to preempt errors and align user goals. He provides practical tips for maintaining a user-centric mindset, urging regular communication with users and fostering a culture of empathy within product teams.
Featured Links: Follow Kameron on LinkedIn | Yahoo | "What we learned at Pendomonium + #mtpcon Raleigh: Day 1"feature by Louron Pratt
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
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