Vision and Strategy

Joining Sakari as the first Product Manager in early 2022 placed me at the heart of transformative industry shifts and pressing regulatory mandates. Tasked with launching Sakari’s V2 SMS platform, I guided the product through significant enhancements in user experience.

My strategic vision centered on developing a user-friendly yet powerful business messaging platform, while addressing stringent compliance rules. This involved clear alignment on features like syncing contact data with HubSpot, setting organizational rules for automated SMS responses, and leveraging custom attributes to drive increased relevancy in scheduled campaigns. We maintained a dynamic roadmap, and deployed new features on a continuous development cycle, accounting for evolving carrier compliance such as A2P 10DLC regulations and toll-free verification.

Launch Plan

Sakari V2 launched in Q4 2023, emphasizing usability improvements, deep CRM integrations, and automated compliance workflows. Subsequent feature rollouts included workflow automation feature and voice / IVR capabilities.

Metrics and Reporting

• Immediate adoption from zero to several hundred daily active users (DAUs) was achieved, with users expressing high satisfaction in the initial months, one stating, 'Logging in to Sakari V2 is the highlight of my day.'
• Integrated seamlessly with HubSpot in about 30 seconds.
• The successful beta rollout was marked by users voluntarily transitioning to the new interface, which facilitated the decommissioning of the old version.

Key Risks & Open Questions

The most critical risk was ensuring compliance amid aggressive industry-wide enforcement deadlines:

• A2P 10DLC compliance: Managed by automating campaign registration and guiding users effectively.
• Toll-free verification deadline: Integrated compliance tracking into Sakari’s dashboard, reducing customer friction.

Balancing urgent compliance against broader user experience improvements required constant communication with phone-number providers, the carriers, and regulation partners like The Campaign Registry, helping to mitigate these uncertainties.

Prioritization Tradeoffs

Critical tradeoffs involved prioritizing compliance automation and CRM integration features over broader UI enhancements:

• Delayed UI improvements, including advanced theming and dark mode, in favor of essential compliance functionality and automation workflows.
• Prioritized rapid CRM integration deployment and compliance tools to maintain uninterrupted service amid tight regulatory deadlines.

These tradeoffs were carefully managed through regular cross-functional retrospectives, frequent alignment of priorities, and obtaining user feedback.

Cross-Functional Challenges

Successfully navigating cross-functional alignment required significant effort. Initially siloed teams (Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Support) necessitated:

• Weekly triage and grooming sessions, ensuring clear backlog management.
• Enhanced internal product training, particularly around compliance and new workflows, ensuring sales and support teams were well-prepared.

This approach significantly improved inter-team efficiency and customer response speed.

Outcomes Against Goals

The launch successfully achieved critical goals:

• Compliance automation significantly reduced customer friction amid regulatory changes.
• CRM integration drove user adoption and satisfaction, directly impacting platform retention and growth.
• The introduction of AI messaging features distinguished the product from competitors, significantly increasing user engagement and adoption rates.

However, opportunities remain in earlier usability testing and further refining internal educational resources.

My Direct Influence

My direct contributions were pivotal:

• Defined strategic vision and successfully managed product roadmap responsive to industry changes.
• Managed stakeholder expectations and set requirements for all teams involved in the launch, including marketing, sales, and support. Responsible for QA and feature request prioritization, along with defining the bug triage and escalation processes.

• Led cross-functional teams effectively through industry-wide compliance crises, notably maintaining uninterrupted messaging capabilities.

Reflections on Mistakes

An important oversight was delayed comprehensive user testing, resulting in late-stage discovery of user friction points in workflows and contact management. In hindsight, embedding continuous early-stage usability testing would have reduced these issues.

Additionally, initial underestimation of complexity around data model changes highlighted the importance of early technical evaluations to mitigate mid-cycle refactoring challenges.

Learning from Mistakes

• Early and Continuous Testing: Embed continuous usability testing earlier in the development cycle to promptly address friction points.
• Enhanced Internal Training: Expand internal readiness through robust educational materials, particularly around complex compliance and automation features.
• Strategic Metric Alignment: Clearly tie product changes to business-level KPIs to improve tracking of product ROI.

Conclusion

Launching Sakari V2 amidst rapid industry evolution and rigorous compliance demands provided a thrilling experience. Successfully navigating complex regulatory landscapes, introducing powerful automation features, and driving deep CRM integrations positioned Sakari as a leading business SMS platform. These achievements, coupled with reflections on early-stage testing and internal readiness, reinforce my ongoing commitment to strategic innovation, meticulous execution, and deep customer-centric product management.