As a product manager, you have to balance the needs and expectations of various stakeholders, such as customers, users, executives, developers, and designers. How can you allocate product resources effectively to deliver value, quality, and innovation? Here are some tips to help you prioritize, plan, and execute your product roadmap.
Before you allocate product resources, you need to have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and why. What are the problems you are solving, the opportunities you are seizing, and the outcomes you are measuring? How do your goals align with the company's strategy and mission? How do you communicate your goals to your team and other stakeholders? Having a well-defined and shared product vision will help you set the direction and scope of your product.
In our banking product, a mission to transform the UX hit a storm of dependencies. The integration with new security protocols and UI design alignment became a tangled mess, risking a missed deadline. Faced with this challenge, we steered the team back to the product vision—an effortless and secure banking experience. This shared reminder acted as a compass reset. The team, fueled by the vision, collaborated to untangle dependencies. The UI designers and backend developers aligned efforts, and the security team expedited their work. Through this, the team sailed through the storm. The banking app feature was released on time, embodying the initial vision. This example highlights how a product vision, guides the team in turbulent times.
Allocations should be flexible. Allocation of resources has to be flexible enough to change in every phase of product development. While ideation process team need to work on research and having POCs rather than actual development. Similarly while development phase research would be less. While launch and support phase , team need to spend more time in feedback and bug resolution. Ideation Phase: Emphasize research and proof of concepts over actual development during the ideation process. Development Phase: Shift focus to execution, with a reduced emphasis on extensive research during the development phase. Launch and Support Phase: Allocate more time to feedback collection and bug resolution during the launch and support phase.
Imperative to allocating resources efficiently is the need for a clear understanding of what you are building towards (vision), the metrics (OKRs) defining success and the strategy (how we will get there). These high level components can then be broken down to determine resourcing and new org structure. For example: one strategic pillar will then have a specific objective and key result that ladders up to the top level objectives. This will then be assigned to a team (or group of teams) informing resourcing needs.
Look for opportunities that your product can capitalize on. This could be a new market trend, technological advancements, or unique selling points of your product.
Understanding your goals is like knowing the destination before starting a journey. In simple terms, it means having a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Just as a traveler plans where they want to go, understanding your goals in everyday language is about knowing what you aim to accomplish. It's the compass that guides your actions and decisions, helping you stay on the right path to reach your destination.
The next step is to evaluate the resources you have available and the constraints you face. Resources include not only the budget, time, and people, but also the data, tools, processes, and skills that enable you to build and deliver your product. Constraints include the technical, legal, ethical, and competitive factors that limit your options or increase your risks. By assessing your resources and constraints, you can identify the gaps, dependencies, and trade-offs that affect your product decisions.
Resource assessment is key step before embarking on product journey. Know your talent, know your legal boundaries and understand the criticality of timelines. Considering above all prepare roadmap and get sign off from stakeholders. The most important step is developing detailed documentation of all the features you want and that helps in better sprint planning.
Effective product management requires aligning goals with both team resources and project requirements It starts with understanding the team's skills and strengths. However, it's not just about who's on your team. It's equally important to consider factors like project complexity, the technology stack involved, and the timeframes. The goal is to match your team's capabilities and the project's demands, ensuring efficiency and effectiveness. Regularly revisiting this alignment is key. As your project evolves, so will its requirements and possibly your team's capabilities. Staying attuned to these changes and adjusting your resource allocation accordingly will keep your project on track and your team engaged.
During resource assessment for one of the sophisticated chatbot features for our banking solution, we realised that we had tech, bandwidth and overall resources, but a key expertise was missing - NLP expert. While everyone in the team was experienced enough to pick this up and learn it over time but that would have impeded other work and would have taken time. So, we made a decision to outsource this feature to external experts and integrate into our product. It not only saved us time but the solution designed by SMEs added real value to the product. Hence it is critical to perform a detailed resource assessment from all aspects and make required course corrections.
Evaluate Available Resources: Budget: Determine the financial resources allocated for the product. This includes funding for development, marketing, and other operational costs. Time: Assess time constraints, including project deadlines, market timing considerations, and resource availability over time. Human Resources: Evaluate the team’s size, expertise, and capacity. Consider not only the development team but also support from marketing, sales, customer service, etc. Data and Tools: Review the data you have for decision-making (market research, user feedback) and the tools available (project management software, development tools).
Assessing your resources is like taking stock of what you have in your toolkit. In simple terms, it means looking at all the things you can use to get the job done. Just as a chef checks ingredients before cooking, assessing your resources is about understanding what tools, people, and materials you have available. It helps you figure out how to make the most of what you've got to achieve your goals effectively.
One of the most challenging and important tasks of a product manager is to prioritize the features that will deliver the most value to your customers and users, while also meeting the business objectives and technical feasibility. There are many methods and frameworks to help you prioritize features, such as the MoSCoW technique, the Kano model, the RICE score, and the value vs. effort matrix. The key is to use a consistent and transparent criteria that reflects your goals, user needs, and market conditions.
This has to be the most important task of a Product Manager. If you ask any Product manager, they will tell you that all of their features are P0 i.e. highest priority. But sadly, that's not how things work in real world. Is your feature a real P0? Is a customer waiting for this feature? Is the competitor going to release similar feature and going to capture the market? Is the tech-debt on the verge of breaking the system? These are some of the questions that you can ask to better prioritize your roadmap. Note: You might say that there is pressure from the top management, but as the CEO of your product, your job is to make the best decision in the interest of the product.
Use Prioritization Frameworks: MoSCoW Technique: Categorize features into Must-haves, Should-haves, Could-haves, and Won’t-haves. This method helps in focusing on essential features while keeping the scope flexible. Kano Model: Classify features based on user satisfaction and investment required. This model helps identify features that can delight users versus basic expectations. RICE Score: Evaluate features based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort. This quantitative approach considers both the potential benefits and the resources needed. Value vs. Effort Matrix: Plot features on a matrix based on their value to the user and the effort required to implement them. This visual tool helps in identifying high-impact, low-effort features
Prioritizing features is the most critical job for a Product Manager as it sets the tone for building your product. One takeaway from me is, your prioritization should be aligned with the business goals, and has to be a well-informed decision backed by concrete data. Also, your prioritization should be robust and communicated to all the stakeholders, internal as well as external. It should be aligned with business goals, obviously, and the rationale for the prioritization should be valid and realistic.
No matter what prioritisation framework is in use, please make sure you communicate to the team and other stakeholders in the organisation why specific features were prioritised against others. It will help to build alignment and ensure transparency between various people involved in product development.
Prioritizing features helps teams make informed decisions about resource allocation, development timelines, and product roadmaps. It ensures that the most crucial and high-impact features are addressed first, increasing the chances of delivering a successful product or project within constraints such as time and budget. I personally prefer MoSCoW( Must-Have, Should-Have, Could-Have, Won't-Have) because it is straight and easy to deduce from market research aside the stakeholders suggestion. It is also very easy to be interpreted by investors and non- technical stakeholders.
Once you have prioritized your features, you need to plan how and when you will deliver them. A product roadmap is a strategic tool that shows the high-level vision, goals, and milestones of your product over time. It helps you align your team and stakeholders around a common direction and expectations. A product roadmap should be flexible and adaptable to changes, but also realistic and achievable. You can use different formats and levels of detail for your roadmap, depending on your audience and purpose.
I don't like the word "Plan" for a roadmap because it's a continuous effort and not a set-in-stone matter. Instead, your roadmap is a clear picture of your destination (outcome-oriented) and its path. Do not give in to the temptation to simply offer a roadmap because "We need visibility". Stakeholders must fully align with the initial step before delving into this exercise As soon as you've secured your roadmap, always remember that it represents the current state amidst evolving information and market dynamics. Stay agile by communicating frequently but avoid overreacting to every twist and turn. Always document the rationale behind roadmap decisions. This always helps a lot in retrospect. (people forget a lot and will challenge you)
Creating a product roadmap is a strategic process that involves outlining the vision, direction, and progression of your product over time. It's a crucial tool for aligning your team and stakeholders around a shared understanding of the product's future.
No matter what format you choose, keep in mind the following: 1) roadmap is an outcome focused representation of how the product will reach it's goal 2) it is not set in stone, it's a living document, that should reflect ever changing business needs 3) it should be communicated to and aligned with stakeholders 4) its good to visualise the connection between a product vision, goals/objectives, strategy and a roadmap
A well-crafted product roadmap is like a GPS for your product journey. In my experience roadmaps were pivotal in aligning the team's efforts with the company's strategic goals. They provide clarity and direction, helping everyone understand not just the 'what' but also the 'why' and 'when' of product development. Remember, a good roadmap is a balance of ambition and realism. It's important to remain flexible, as conditions change, but also to set achievable goals that motivate and guide your team. Think of your roadmap as a living document, one that evolves with your product and market insights. Happy planning!
In sprint execution, it’s beneficial to incorporate continuous learning and improvement cycles. This means regularly reviewing sprint outcomes and incorporating learnings into future sprints. Emphasizing a culture of open communication and psychological safety can encourage team members to share insights and innovative ideas, leading to more effective and creative solutions. Also, integrating user feedback during sprints, rather than waiting until post-deployment, can significantly enhance product relevance and user satisfaction.
The final step is to execute your product roadmap by breaking it down into smaller and more manageable units of work, such as sprints, epics, and user stories. A sprint is a short and focused period of time, usually two to four weeks, during which your team works on a specific set of features or tasks. A sprint allows you to deliver value incrementally and iteratively, while also testing and validating your assumptions and feedback. To execute your sprints effectively, you need to use agile methods and tools, such as scrum, kanban, backlog, and daily stand-ups.
Evaluation should extend beyond immediate product metrics to include long-term impact analysis. This involves assessing how resource allocation decisions affect overall product health and sustainability over time. Establishing a feedback loop with end-users and internal stakeholders ensures continuous alignment with user needs and business objectives. Also, adopting a holistic view of performance evaluation, which includes team morale, innovation rate, and customer loyalty, can provide deeper insights into the effectiveness of resource allocation.
People often underestimate proper planning and the effect it has on the overall success of a product/project. As a PM, I try to breakdown high level objectives into smaller units that can be achieved in a sprint and assign tasks based on that.
As a product manager, you should not only allocate product resources, but also measure and improve their performance. You need to evaluate the results of your product decisions and actions, using both quantitative and qualitative data. You should track and analyze the key metrics and indicators that reflect your goals, such as user satisfaction, retention, engagement, revenue, and costs. You should also collect and act on the feedback and insights from your customers, users, team, and stakeholders. By evaluating your results, you can learn from your successes and failures, and optimize your product resources accordingly.
It is best to first analyze project requirements, then prioritize the tasks based on impact and deadlines, assess team members' skills, and distribute work accordingly . A regular review on progress to adjust resource allocation is needed to optimize efficiency.
The first and second point are actually interdependent. You cannot set an actual goal unless you are aware of the complexity in terms of time and resources that is at your disposal. Committing to such targets can have high risk of generating unwanted backlogs and would result in an unsuccessful product delivery. Similarly, setting a small goal, such as swimming at the beach when you have the capacity to sail in the ocean on a ship, may lead to unsatisfactory results.
Resource allocation is a crucial part of Project Budgeting, P&L, product roadmapping and planning before the actual execution rolls out. Effective resource allocation determines the fate of the upcoming sprints and the product being developed based on the story points in the backlog.
Effective allocation is a dynamic process, so adapt, learn, and optimize as you go! Know your destination: Before diving in, clarify your product's "why." What problems are you solving? What impact do you want? Take stock of what you have: List all available resources - people, time, budget, tools, etc Prioritize features that matter: Focus on features that offer the most significant value to your users. Map resources to your roadmap: ?Break down your product roadmap into actionable sprints. Monitor and adapt: Be ready to tweak your approach based on what you learn.