Product Development at Stubhub: Don't Stop Believin'

Abstract

Arnie Katz, chief product and technology officer at StubHub (SH), was helping to lead a contest intended to result in innovative and valuable new ideas. Product managers presented more than 100 new business initiative proposals to create new value for customers and provide additional revenue streams and differentiation opportunities. The secondary-ticket (resale) market in the United States was becoming increasingly fragmented, and SH was losing market share. It was imperative to move SH from being a trusted platform for conducting ticket-resale transactions to becoming an integral part of fans' experience of live events. This case is intended to be used in conjunction with a technical note on product–market alignment (PMA): "Product–Market Alignment" (UVA-OM-1706). Katz and his teams conduct successive rounds of investigation and data gathering across the three dimensions of PMA: defining the customer need, identifying business value, and evaluating operational capabilities. This case also presents a bridge between high-level operations strategy and a more granular discussion of process capabilities. Agile software development is discussed. This case is suitable for operations-management classes focusing on Agile, scale-up, product and project management, emerging technology, and new product development. It can be used with a graduate, undergraduate, or executive education audience.

Excerpt

Apr. 18, 2022

Product Development at StubHub: Don't Stop Believin'

The Pitch

It was November 2019, and a group of product managers at StubHub (SH) would soon be presenting over 30innovative business idea proposals for consideration to the senior leadership team of five executives, including Arnie Katz, chief product and technology officer. These 30 business ideas had already made the cut from an initial 100 that had been presented several days prior. Among the product managers preparing to deliver their pitches were Morgan Kelly, DeSean Lucas, and Reva Gupta. The winning proposal would be funded and implemented over the next three to nine months and could even become the basis of SH's growth strategy for the next several years.

. . .

Keywords: ticketing, StubHub, agile, innovation, scale, growth, new product development, product–market fit, product–market alignment, software development, product management, process management, project management, operations management