Product managers (PMs) face numerous challenges due to the volume and variety of decisions they need to make. The role requires balancing the needs and expectations of various stakeholders while ensuring the product’s success. To effectively navigate these complexities, PMs can focus on three key strategies: aligning on business impact, building a knowledge base through research, and prioritizing business impact while focusing on customer outcomes.
1. Align on Business Impact
To align on business impact, PMs must adopt a mindset similar to that of top management. This involves understanding and aligning with the core business outcomes that the organization aims to achieve. PMs should think beyond their immediate responsibilities and consider the broader business context.
Steps to Align on Business Impact:
a. Understand Organizational Goals:
Gain a clear understanding of the organization’s strategic objectives. This may involve conversations with executive stakeholders to clarify the business outcomes they prioritize.
b. Adopt a CEO Mindset:
Approach your role with the mindset of a CEO or a business area manager. This means considering how each decision impacts the overall business, not just your specific product.
c. Use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results):
Implement OKRs to link high-level business objectives with specific, measurable results. This helps translate broad goals into actionable steps that can be tracked and measured.
Example: If the organization aims to increase market share, a PM should identify how their product can contribute to this goal. This might involve developing features that attract new customers or enhance the product’s competitiveness.
2. Build a Knowledge Base Through Research
Building a robust knowledge base through comprehensive research is crucial for informed decision-making. PMs should gather both quantitative and qualitative data to understand their product, market, and customers better.
Components of a Comprehensive Knowledge Base:
a. Quantitative Research:
Work with data analysts to gather numerical data that provides insights into user behavior, market trends, and product performance. Tools like analytics dashboards, A/B testing, and user surveys can be invaluable.
b. Qualitative Research:
Engage in user research to gain deeper insights into customer needs, pain points, and preferences. Methods include interviews, focus groups, and usability testing.
c. Balance Structure and Curiosity:
While structured frameworks are essential for organizing research, PMs should also remain curious and ask probing questions. This ensures they don’t just fill out frameworks but truly understand the underlying dynamics.
Example: A PM might use quantitative data to identify a drop-off point in the user journey and then conduct qualitative research to understand why users are abandoning the process at that stage. Combining these insights can inform targeted improvements.
3. Prioritize Business Impact but Focus on Customer Outcomes
PMs must prioritize initiatives that drive business impact while ensuring these initiatives deliver meaningful outcomes for customers. This dual focus ensures that business goals are met through enhanced customer satisfaction and engagement.
Differentiating Key Concepts:
a. Output:
The tangible work produced, such as user stories, features, or bug fixes.
b. Outcome:
The benefits or changes experienced by the customer, such as problem resolution, behavior change, or improved satisfaction.
c. Impact:
The benefits to the organization, such as increased revenue, improved market share, or enhanced brand reputation.
Steps to Achieve This Balance:
1. Identify Business Impact Goals:
Clearly define the business impact you aim to achieve. For instance, increasing conversion rates or improving customer retention.
b. Focus on Customer Outcomes:
Determine how achieving these business impacts will translate into better outcomes for customers. This might involve enhancing the user experience, solving critical pain points, or adding valuable new features.
c. Use Epics for Manageable Scopes:
Break down large initiatives into epics, which are sizable chunks of work that can be completed in one or two sprints. This helps manage scope and ensures a focused effort on delivering customer value.
Example: If the business goal is to increase customer retention, a PM might focus on improving the onboarding process (output), leading to smoother user experiences and higher satisfaction (outcome), which in turn boosts retention rates (impact).
4. Express Features as User Stories
User stories are concise, user-centric descriptions of a feature or functionality. They follow a simple format: “As a [type of user], I want [an action] so that [a benefit].” This format ensures that every feature is framed from the perspective of the user, highlighting the value it delivers.
For example, instead of writing a requirement like “Implement a login feature,” a user story would be: “As a new user, I want to be able to create an account quickly so that I can start using the platform immediately.” This shifts the focus from the technical implementation to the user’s experience and the value it brings.
User stories help bridge the gap between various teams by providing a common language:
- Business Stakeholders: Understand the value the feature brings to the business.
- Designers: Focus on creating a seamless and intuitive user experience.
- Engineers: Concentrate on the technical feasibility and implementation details.
By expressing features as user stories, product managers can ensure that all teams are aligned on the goals and objectives, fostering better collaboration and understanding.
5. Conduct Joint User Story Mapping Sessions
User story mapping is a collaborative exercise that involves mapping out the user journey and identifying the necessary steps and features to achieve the desired outcome. This process helps teams visualize the workflow and prioritize features effectively.
Steps for Effective User Story Mapping
a. Identify the Epic:
Start with the broad objective or problem you are addressing. For instance, improving the onboarding process for new users.
b. Map the User Journey:
Outline the steps the user takes to achieve their goal, such as signing up, logging in, and completing their profile.
c. Fill in the User Stories:
For each step, identify specific user stories that need to be addressed. This might include stories like “As a new user, I want to sign up using my Google account so that I can save time.”
d. Slice the Stories:
Prioritize the most critical user stories and push less essential ones to later iterations. The goal is to create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) that delivers value quickly.
Involving both the development team and stakeholders in these sessions ensures that everyone has a shared understanding and contributes to the planning process. This collaborative approach helps uncover potential issues early and fosters a sense of ownership among all team members.
6. Capture the Conversions Triggered by the User Story
Capturing the conversions triggered by user stories means tracking how the implementation of a user story impacts user behavior and business outcomes. This step is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of the features and ensuring they deliver the intended value.
Once a user story is implemented, it’s essential to track its impact on key metrics. For example, if a user story aimed to improve the sign-up process, track metrics such as the number of new sign-ups, the completion rate of the onboarding process, and user engagement post-sign-up.
Gathering data on conversions helps product managers understand what works and what doesn’t. This data-driven approach enables continuous improvement. If a user story does not achieve the desired outcome, it provides valuable insights for refining the feature or exploring alternative solutions.
7. Five Practices to Create a Shared Understanding of What to Build Among Team and Stakeholders
Creating a shared understanding among your team and stakeholders is essential for successful product development. Here are five practices to help achieve this goal:
a. Unless You Share Pizzas, Write Things Down
- Amazon’s “two-pizza team” rule suggests that teams should be small enough to share two large pizzas—typically six to eight people. Larger teams complicate communication and decision-making.
- To avoid miscommunication and ensure everyone is on the same page, document all critical discussions and decisions. This can be done through whiteboards, Slack channels, or other tools. The key is to have everything written down and accessible.
b. Capture Most Details in Epic Documents
- Centralize all project details in an epic document. This document should serve as the primary reference point for the entire team, avoiding redundancy across different tools like roadmaps or design platforms.
- For example, use the roadmap for visual overviews and refer to the epic document for detailed information. Similarly, design and implementation tools like Jira should link back to the epic document to maintain a single source of truth.
c. Make Epic Documents Live Across Stages
- Start your epic document early in the project lifecycle. This document should evolve from initial ideas to detailed technical notes, including user stories and requirements.
- Continuously update the epic document as the project progresses, ensuring it remains the central source of information. Collaboration with your development team is essential, ensuring that everyone is aligned and working from the same document.
d. Use a Template That Can Anticipate Topics
A well-structured template simplifies the documentation process and ensures consistency. Key principles for an effective template include:
- Epic Level Scope: Keep the document focused on a manageable scope to maintain clarity and relevance.
- User Story Focused: Structure the document around user stories to ensure it captures all necessary details.
- Discovery and Delivery: Include sections for both the discovery and delivery phases, covering the entire project lifecycle.
- Stakeholder Readability: Start with a high-level overview, including the problem description, solution approach, success metrics, and rollout plan. This allows stakeholders to grasp the essentials without being overwhelmed by details.
e. Get the Structure You Need with an Outliner
An outliner tool presents documents in a tree structure of bullets, offering significant benefits:
- Detail Management: Product managers can include extensive details without overwhelming stakeholders, who can collapse sections they don’t need.
- Navigation Efficiency: Stakeholders can quickly find information by navigating the outline structure, especially if all PMs use a consistent template.
- Improved Workflow: Outliners enhance the efficiency of working with and structuring information. They allow for detailed organization while maintaining clarity and accessibility.
8. Enhancing Decision-Making in Product Management: Key Practices for Clarity and Collaboration
By focusing on three core practices—exposing underlying questions, facilitating structured discussions, and making the decision-making process transparent within documents—you can significantly enhance team collaboration and project outcomes.
a. Handle Decision-Making by Exposing Underlying Questions
Product managers make numerous micro decisions daily, often implicitly. To improve clarity and ensure all team members understand the rationale behind each decision, it’s vital to explicitly frame these decisions as questions. For instance, instead of vaguely noting “OAuth access tokens will be sent,” pose a question: “What standard should we use for user authorization?” This approach not only clarifies the decision but also opens up room for detailed discussion and context.
Example:
- Implicit Decision: “OAuth access tokens will be sent.”
- Explicit Question: “What standard should we use for user authorization?”
By framing the decision as a question, you highlight the decision-making process and create an opportunity for thorough examination and documentation of options and rationales.
b. Facilitate Structured Discussions for Difficult Decisions
Facilitating structured discussions is essential for addressing complex decisions. Employ frameworks like the Six Thinking Hats to guide these conversations. This method encourages team members to consider different perspectives, ensuring a well-rounded decision-making process.
Implementing Structured Discussions:
- Identify key questions that need resolution.
- Use frameworks to guide the discussion, ensuring all relevant viewpoints are considered.
- Document the outcomes of these discussions within the primary document to maintain transparency and context.
Example Framework: Six Thinking Hats
- White Hat: Focus on data and information.
- Red Hat: Explore emotions and intuitions.
- Black Hat: Consider potential problems and risks.
- Yellow Hat: Look for benefits and value.
- Green Hat: Encourage creativity and new ideas.
- Blue Hat: Manage the thinking process and ensure productive discussion.
c. Make the Decision-Making Process Transparent Within the Document
Transparency in the decision-making process is critical. Avoid using separate spreadsheets or documents that create multiple sources of truth. Instead, integrate questions, discussions, and decisions directly within the main project document. This method maintains context, ensures consistency, and makes it easier for team members and stakeholders to follow the decision-making process.
Best Practices for Transparency:
- Inline Documentation: Embed questions and decisions within the relevant sections of the main document. This keeps all information in context.
- Options and Rationales: For each decision, list possible options, pros and cons, and the rationale behind the final choice. This provides a clear trail of thought and justification.
- Marking Status: Clearly indicate the status of each decision—whether it is open, in discussion, or finalized. This helps track progress and ensures everyone is aware of the current state.
Example Documentation:
- Question: “What should the relative status of the sign-up methods be on the sign-up page?”
Options:
- Promote Google sign-up with email secondary
- Promote email sign-up with Google secondary
- Equally, promote both methods
Pros and Cons: Detail the advantages and disadvantages of each option.
Decision and Rationale: State the chosen option and the reasoning behind it.
