Screencasts for Product Managers

Screencasts are easy to build and a great way to convey information. As a Product Manager, being awesome at communication is a big part of your job. Can you tell a great story to customers? Are you articulating the product roadmap to your company?

I have used screencasts to:

Demo a “Getting Started” experience on the website
Show off the product at a conference booth
Give product updates at Board Meetings
Describe the customer journey for a new product to team members
Help sales reps communicate with beta customers
Announce new product features on blog posts

My setup is:

Vimeo Plus https://vimeo.com/plus
Screenflow http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm
Yeti usb mic http://www.bluemic.com/yeti/
Byword http://bywordapp.com/
Quicktime Player

My workflow to build a screencast is:

Open Byword, type out a 1/2 page script (5 min)
Grab scrap paper and pen, sketch a storyboard of the screencast (2 min)
Plugin USB mic, open Quicktime Player and record the audio a few times to get the pace and tone of your voice sounding right (5 min)
Open Screenflow, import the audio track. (1 min)
In Screenflow, click record and capture video of your screen following along with the storyboard you sketched. Do this a few times to get it perfect. (5 min)
In Screenflow, edit your screencast adding call outs, transitions and titles. (15 min)
In Vimeo, go to Create / Music Store and search for an instrumental background track. One you find one, download it and import into Screenflow. Adjust volume levels of your voice track and the instrumental track. (10 min)
Export your screencast to Vimeo (2 min)

Total time: 45 min

Tips

In Vimeo, there are a few helpful settings under “Privacy”:

password protect your video to share with a select group of people
set “where can this video be embedded” to “only on sites I choose” if you only want the video available within your app for example

I’ve used my iPhone to record a few seconds of people around the office, people in front of a whiteboard or monitor, etc. If you are building a screencast to tell a customer story this can work well. Plug your iPhone into your laptop and import the clip into Screenflow.

Examples