Why We Must Become Business Owners: The Thorny Path of Building Web Services

This is

I gave a 45-minute presentation!
I recently gave a presentation at Scrum Fest Osaka, so I would like to introduce the content. This presentation is scheduled to be released as a video at a later date, so please check that out as well.
My presentation this time carries a strong, muscle-headed message: 'If you are building a web service, the product manager must become the business owner.' However, if you read the materials, you should be convinced... I hope!
It is an intentionally strong title, but it also fits content like 'Traps often fallen into when building web services.'
I wrote this hoping we could reach a common understanding of the difficulties in building web services.

Video is here

First, my gratitude

I have participated in XP Festivals in the past, but this was almost my first time participating in the Agile community.
The remote streaming setup was well-organized, connecting the satellite venue and online participants simultaneously. They provided a space where I could see people's faces, which made it very easy to present. The atmosphere was also very warm, which was a huge help while I was thinking about how tough it would be to keep presenting to a void for 45 minutes. The experience of being able to gather despite being online, and having a drinking party after it ended, was the best.
Love for the Shinagawa-Katsushika track.

Target audience who might find this relevant

• People who have engineering experience and have launched a startup

• People who have moved from an SIer to a business company

• People who are facing the challenges of web service development

• People in companies building web services who are thinking about their next move after going public

Who are you?

I am someone who does everything from launching new businesses to growth at BASE, Inc.
I joined BASE as an engineer in 2017, and from 2018, I was involved in launching BASE BANK in the financial division, becoming a product manager after the product release. After that, I became a business owner.
There was no role called 'business owner' in the company, but after I started calling myself a business owner on my own for a few years, the concept of a business owner was created. It is important to just say it, anyway.
Currently, while launching and growing new products, I am also creating business plans and building teams from recruitment. Starting from a team of about 3 people, I am currently forming multiple cross-functional teams.
Recently, I have been overseeing the overall strategy for BASE BANK, and I am challenging myself to let PdMs take charge of each domain.

We are at a stage where the business itself has finally started to grow recently. I am still in the middle of trial and error, saying 'I don't know.' Everyone, I am waiting for you to join the company!

Recently, I am also working hard on various horizontal expansions.

Brief explanation of the content

Since it is a 45-minute presentation, I cannot write everything, so I will skip a lot. Please look at the materials if you are interested!

Assertion

Product managers, become business owners!

Because building web services is difficult
This is no time for self-imposed restrictions!

Building web services is difficult.

Coming from an SIer background myself, I explain the difficulties of web service development by intentionally comparing it to SIer work.

I explain the difficulties mainly by categorizing them into:

1. Not knowing if you will get paid even if you build it

2. Users are invisible and requirements are ambiguous

3. Having to bear the development costs yourselves

4. The entity paying for development costs is different from the one paying for the service

I explain these categories, and focus specifically on the one I want to talk about most: "Not knowing if you will get paid even if you build it," narrowing it down to the following three points.

If you think about it calmly,making upfront investments to build something on your own without knowing if it will be usedis actually quite abnormal.
I believe that if you grasp the rules and principles here, the probability of being able to do what you want at a company that builds web services will increase significantly.

Also, I am quite proud of the following slide.
"The entity paying for development costs is different from the one paying for the service"
Naturally, you should look at the users, but the pull from the entity paying for development costs is also strong.
I feel that the results change significantly depending on whether you are aware that product managers exist and that Scrum or Agile methods are used to avoid making mistakes here, versus not being aware of them.

To overcome difficulties, become a business owner.

Looking only at the title, you might think it's a sudden leap,
but since we are taking on the challenge of creating something that has never existed in the world and has high uncertainty, I am saying: let's run the PDCA cycle including the business premises! It is an argument to expand the circle of product-making PDCA and become a business owner.

Since we are making things that have never existed in the world, no one knows the answer. We have no choice but to proceed little by little and verify things while not knowing.

How to become a business owner

I talk about writing a business plan.
Personally,the transition from product manager to business owner was the biggest chasm,but I have a feeling that I managed to overcome it by writing business plans extensively, so I talk about that.
The difference in time horizons is quite important. Grasping the sense of time horizons.

Everyone is saying the right thing, and the only difference is the time horizon.

That is it.

Warning: Even though you are a web service company, have you become like a contract developer?

This is something I really wanted to say: It's great to achieve PMF, but once you do, it's hard to maintain the mindset of overturning everything, including your fundamental assumptions—but if you don't, the business model itself will become obsolete and die is the kind of thing I'm talking about.
There is no product or business model that grows forever. We must maintain them together every day while keeping an eye out for new areas to target.

This is the punchline. I want to be someone who can create structures, not just someone who follows them.

This is a position-talk slide.

Summary: Product developers should become business owners to avoid becoming internal contractors.

As a premise, I have deep respect for contract development.
It is a simple yet powerful business model.

Web services don't end once they are built and delivered; they change every day. Where do those changes happen? They happen on the front lines of product development. We must firmly incorporate business premises into those front lines. Otherwise, I don't think we can build good products.Let's stop playing on 'hard mode' by limiting ourselves to running PDCA cycles only within the narrow scope of product development.

Let's stop distinguishing between the 'business side' and the 'product side,' and instead bring our respective areas of expertise together to keep the product evolving!

Product developers were the first to embrace Scrum and Agile concepts to tackle the complexity of Web service development.
Scrum and Agile concepts aren't just for tackling the complexity of system development; they are also for tackling the complexity of Web service development.
Let's seriously practice Agile together and meet on the next level.

Summary

This presentation has been a personal narrative that is almost embarrassing to share, but I hope it was helpful or resonated with you.
There is only one thing I want to say: Those who don't understand product development cannot build Web services, and those who cannot create business models cannot build Web services.
You don't need to be a superman who can do everything, but I believe the ideal is to keep that goal in mind and focus on how the entire team can cover for each other.

I am happy to perform this presentation again anytime, anywhere, so please call on me! Reach out to me!