What The Creators of Kim’s Convenience Taught Me About Product Management

Posted on by Karthic Vaidyanathan

Disclaimer: This post is not related to my employment with CBC and I am not paid to write this post. This post is a true reflection of my views on why Kim’s convenience is a runaway hit. I still hope the creators can come back together and give this show a closure that all the fans are longing for.

There are many shows that my wife and I start watching but there are only a select few that catch our attention and we manage to complete. One such show that we watched was Kim’s Convenience. As per me, an episode of this hit sitcom can give you energy on a draining day. There are various aspects of why this show is a success and I was able to see parallels and learning for product managers which can help them succeed. Here are my takeaways as a Product Manager from Kim’s Convenience.

Keep It Simple: The primary reason for the success of this show was the creators of the show kept the show simple enough that the users had no trouble connecting with the show. The seamless flow of story helped the audience understand the value of the show without the need for re-emphasizing. In the digital world, a product is a success when the user can understand the flow without the intervention of a specialist. Keeping it simple is a not an herculean task. Think of a product from a customer’s perspective, users should not require hand-holding to understand your product and the value it brings to them.

Building Strong Persona(s): The show had a father, mother, son, daughter, friend(s), and a boss and each one of them had a strong character. Some key tips for a strong character includes Building characters by describing their attributes and what they do with those attributes, focus on why those attributes are important, Show their motivation and also include their strengths and weaknesses. This ensured that the audience were able to relate with the show and consume the content with joy. Similarly, when a persona is built in the following sequence it will help stakeholders an opportunity to discuss critical features, develop a common understanding of the audience, build an informed design and creating more empathy and understanding of the product’s users.

Example of a good persona

Key Steps in building a Persona:

  1. Give them a fictional name
  2. Give them title and build core responsibilities
  3. Define their core characteristics
  4. Provide more information around their demographics: Gender, Ethnicity, Age, and Education.
  5. Their background and dependencies/constraints
  6. What is the motivation behind them using our product, What is their objective?
  7. What is stopping them from taking it a level up? Frustrations and pain-points

Binge watching shows can sometimes leave a lasting impact on us and some shows give us a valuable lesson that changes our perspective. Feel free to comment if there was a show that had a similar impact on you.

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Together Everyone Acquires More

Posted on by Karthic Vaidyanathan

There was a student appearing for their examination. The student flunked so bad in the tests and thus began the root cause analysis for his/her performance. The parents pointed to the teachers, the teachers pointed to the tutors and the tutors to the parents. Setting their arguments aside, they decide to go in for a combined effort. The student comes out with flying colours and scores a very high grade. Again, the parents pointed to the teachers, the teachers pointed to the tutors and the tutors to the parents. But this time it was about praising each other and their contribution to the success of the student.

““The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”

— Phil Jackson

In a more relatable example, we have seen many like Ronaldo, who have put themselves above the team and we could see the impact it had on the team. Though Ronaldo scored 24 goals in the 2021-22 season, the team played with no identity and lost track of their target. Although it has been up and down this season, Manchester United has been playing like a team. Working for their teammates and fighting as a team is reflecting in the way in which the team plays. Manchester United’s goal is to be the ultimate joy to their supporters, aka their customers, and seeing my beloved side play as a team has given us hope to dream bigger again.

What is the relevance of about the above mentioned stories and how can this help us? I have encountered so many obstacles in my corporate journey so far and one tough nut that is always tough to crack is making people realize the benefits of working as a TEAM. The word TEAM itself expands to give a very good motivating phrase “Together Everyone Acquires More“. Only when the Designer, the manufacturer and the salesperson are in sync the profits of the Car industry can be multiplied. In the case of the IT industry also only when the Product Manager, Project Manager, Developers and Quality Assurance Engineer are in good sync the product shapes up well to satisfy the customer. No one is lesser than the other and no one is bigger than the other. But yeah the man who finances the thing has to take the top spot. All that matters at the end of the day are delivering a good product to the customer that they would use and help us learn from their interactions with the product. That can be achieved only when we think and work as a “TEAM“.