Governing prioritisation, product delivery, and product outcomes
One of the most significant risks for organisations engaging in digital product development is ensuring the product roadmap is delivered on time and on budget, as well as ensuring the business is focused on the appropriate things. These risks are addressed through governing prioritisation, product delivery, and product outcomes.
Managing Prioritisation
Product prioritisation entails managing the multiple inputs and opinions of stakeholders across the business, as well as creating a stack of features in a specific order. One of the most difficult aspects of a product manager's work is narrowing the list of needs and feature requests for a sprint or a product roadmap. Another problem for product managers is determining how many team members, stakeholders, and customers to participate and how much they should vote on which features, tasks, and updates to work on next.
To prioritise work across teams or squads, digital product managers often employ a range of techniques. Among the most common approaches are:
Priority matrices entail building a matrix with various criteria on the vertical axis (e.g., impact, effort) and various activities on the horizontal axis. These criteria are then used to score the tasks, and the resulting matrix is utilised to prioritise the tasks.
The Kano model: This model is used to prioritise client needs and can also be utilised within a product development team to prioritise work. The Kano model divides client requirements into three groups: must-haves, performance variables, and delighters. Must-haves are the basic needs that customers demand, whereas performance factors influence customer satisfaction and delighters exceed customer expectations.
Prioritization with MoSCoW: This method is used to prioritise work based on the relative significance of various tasks. MoSCoW is an abbreviation that stands for Must have, Should have, Could have, and Won't have. Tasks are assigned to one of these categories based on their priority, with the necessities coming first.
The ICE framework is used to prioritise work based on the importance, confidence, and ease of execution of certain activities. Each of these criteria is assigned a score to each task, and the resulting scores are used to prioritise the tasks.
The RICE framework is similar to the ICE framework, except it includes a fourth criterion: Reach. A task's reach is a measure of the number of users or customers who may be impacted by the task. This is followed by the impact of the task, confidence and effort.
The method used will rely on the organization's specific context and requirements, and a key governance step is to verify that approved work is in sync with those accountable for business objectives and the broader corporate strategy.
This could encompass a number of different teams inside a company:
The development team is in charge of the product's design, construction, and testing. The product manager will collaborate closely with the development team to ensure that their work is in line with the overarching product strategy and projects that are prioritised. On-time delivery is another critical area of agreement with the development team.
The marketing team is in charge of advertising the product and generating demand for it. In today's analytics, attribution, and data-driven marketing world, measurable ROI of digital marketing campaigns should make it onto the product roadmap. Marketing teams will very certainly share accountability for results with the product manager.
The sales team is in charge of selling the product to clients and will have access to the information and resources required to do so efficiently. They will almost certainly be held accountable for sales targets and performance enhancements as a result of the development effort.
The customer support team is in charge of assisting customers who have questions or problems with the product. The product manager will collaborate with the customer service team to ensure that their efforts are in line with the broader product strategy and projects that are prioritised.
Operations teams: Many initiatives may focus on improving operations for internal systems that may affect finance, HR, service, or procurement. These initiatives' commercial drivers have an impact on operational improvements such as efficiency, data management, and automation.
Finance partner: The finance partner is critical in ensuring that the commercial outcomes provided are feasible and measurable. Sales, marketing, and product teams frequently exaggerate the impact of their efforts, and the finance partner should run the figures to examine the consequences of all proposed projects. The finance partner is also crucial in aligning project results to achieve CFO approval.
Senior executives are ultimately accountable for business outcomes and strategy. They should be consulted as a final step to guarantee organisational alignment.
Managing delivery targets to guarantee that work is completed on schedule and within budget depending on what has been prioritised
The specific methods used to monitor on-time and on-budget delivery will be determined by the project's environment and requirements. Product managers must have a system in place for measuring progress and recognising possible difficulties in order to meet deadlines and stay within budget. This should be simple to share with the team and top management.
Monitoring techniques may include:
Check-ins with the product development team on a regular basis: Regular check-ins with the team can help digital product managers track progress and detect potential issues or delays.
Project management software is used by many digital product managers to track the progress of activities and deliverables. Managers can often use this software to set task deadlines and budgets, as well as receive real-time reports on progress and any concerns.
Performance metrics can be used by digital product managers to track the progress of various tasks and deliverables. Metrics such as the number of tasks performed, the percentage of the money spent, and the amount of time spent on certain tasks can be included.
Following the progress of digital items. How can you tell if the Impact, Performance, and Reach are consistent with your initial assumptions?
Following the launch of a digital product, it is critical to monitor the outcomes to evaluate whether the initial assumptions made using a RICE or Kano model were valid. There are various approaches to this, including:
Customer feedback: Asking customers for feedback is one of the finest ways to measure the impact, performance, and reach of a digital product. This can be accomplished through surveys, user testing, and other means. The product manager can assess if the product meets the needs and expectations of customers by reviewing customer feedback.
Performance metrics can also be used by digital product managers to track the consequences of a digital product. Metrics such as the number of users, the amount of time spent using the product, and the number of conversions might be included (e.g. sales or sign-ups). The product manager can decide if the product is getting the desired results by studying these metrics.
Financial metrics: The product manager may need to track financial indicators in some circumstances to establish the performance of a digital product. Revenue, profit, and return on investment are examples of such indicators. The product manager can decide if the product is delivering the anticipated financial objectives by studying these data.
Overall, a product manager can evaluate the outcomes of a digital product in a variety of ways to assess if it is having the expected impact, performance, and reach. In order to continuously develop the product and assure its success, product managers must have a mechanism in place for tracking and analysing these outcomes. This should also be in the form of a report that is shared on a regular basis with corporate leaders.
Managing and managing priority, delivery, and outcomes allows a leadership team to "see around corners" and swiftly recognise and respond to digital project risks.
