As an engineering manager, you have to balance the needs and expectations of various stakeholders when deciding what features to build for your product. How do you prioritize the most valuable, feasible, and desirable features that align with your vision, goals, and user feedback? Here are some best practices for prioritizing product features effectively.
Before you dive into the details of each feature, you need to have a clear understanding of your product strategy. What is the problem you are solving, who are you solving it for, and how do you measure success? Your product strategy should guide your decisions on what features to prioritize, and help you communicate the value and impact of your product to your team, customers, and stakeholders.
I actually disagree with step one here. Businesses are often ecosystems (as are Markets) - understanding the Business’s overall strategy and how your products currently and in the future will fit into it should be your first step. Then based on those Business needs you can begin build product strategies, align your stakeholders to those, and then prioritize the most impactful strategy given the timeline/ resource/ outcome constraints you have at that point. All things in Product start with a deep need to understand 'The Why's'
Understanding your product strategy is a fundamental step in prioritizing product features. It's about having a clear vision of the problem you're solving, the audience you're targeting, and the metrics for success. This strategic clarity ensures that feature prioritization is aligned with overall goals, providing a coherent direction for the product. It's not just about what features to add, but also why they matter and how they contribute to the overarching objectives of the product.
A prioritization framework is a tool that helps you evaluate and compare different features based on various criteria, such as user value, business value, effort, risk, and dependencies. There are many prioritization frameworks available, such as the RICE score, the MoSCoW method, the Kano model, and the Value vs Effort matrix. You can choose one that suits your context and preferences, or create your own. The key is to use a consistent and transparent method that helps you make informed and objective decisions.
Prioritization is the one of the primary aspects of product management and is key to maintaining focus, and ultimately to wining. Prioritization must be ruthless - if it doesn’t hurt, did you really prioritize? Two things I found useful to help with prioritization: 1. Start by filtering out anything that doesn’t align with the strategy outlined. For example, if the feature is not aimed at solving a need or a pain for your target audience, don’t spend time prioritizing it. 2. Pick a simple prioritization framework. While having multiple dimensions might feel more rigorous, it will also make it harder to calculate and to use when deciding between items that rank similarly.
Prioritization is a skill that a Product Manager need to master for being successful. It’s not just about deciding what features to build, but also when to build them. Below mentioned are the steps to take while prioritizing the features/tasks: * Collect and analyse requests * Evaluate the feature requests * Use a prioritization framework - ?? ???????????? - Must have, Should have, Could have, Won't have ?? ???????? ?????????? - Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort ?? ???????? ?????????? - Basic needs, performance needs and excitement needs * Align the requests with company goals * Communicate the priorities * Re-evaluate and re-prioritize
Employing a prioritization framework is a best practice that brings structure and objectivity to the process of selecting product features. Whether it's RICE, MoSCoW, Kano, or Value vs Effort, these frameworks provide a systematic approach to evaluate features based on varied criteria like user value, business impact, and implementation complexity. The key is to choose a framework that resonates with your product's context and ensures that decisions are made transparently and rationally.
To prioritize features that meet the needs and expectations of your users, you need to gather and analyze data and feedback from various sources. You can use quantitative data, such as analytics, metrics, and surveys, to measure how your users interact with your product and what problems they face. You can also use qualitative data, such as interviews, user testing, and reviews, to understand why your users behave in certain ways and what they want from your product. You should use both types of data to validate your assumptions and identify the most critical pain points and opportunities for improvement.
Working backward from data and understanding if the product features are mapping to the quantitative benefit of the organization's goal helps with stack ranking and prioritization.
Gathering and analyzing data and feedback is crucial in understanding user needs and expectations. Quantitative data offers insights into user behavior and interaction patterns, while qualitative data delves into user motivations and preferences. This combination helps in validating assumptions and pinpointing critical areas for enhancement. It ensures that the features prioritized are not just based on gut feelings or assumptions but are backed by real user data and insights.
Prioritizing product features is not a solo activity. You need to collaborate with your team and stakeholders to get their input, perspectives, and buy-in. You can use techniques such as brainstorming, voting, dot voting, or affinity mapping to generate and prioritize ideas with your team. You can also use tools such as roadmaps, backlogs, and prototypes to communicate and align your priorities with your stakeholders, such as customers, executives, and other departments. You should involve your team and stakeholders early and often in the prioritization process, and be open to feedback and changes.
Collaboration with your team and stakeholders is essential for a well-rounded feature prioritization process. Engaging with your team through brainstorming or voting methods, and aligning with stakeholders using tools like roadmaps and backlogs, ensures a diverse range of inputs and buy-in. This collaborative approach fosters a shared understanding and commitment to the prioritized features, enhancing the likelihood of successful implementation and adoption.
Tapping into the collective power of your cross-functional team to prioritise product features can be a game-changer. When you have a diverse group of contributors, each with their own unique insights and ideas shaped by their knowledge of the industry, customers, and the product, you can create a more tailored product that meets the needs of a wider range of users. By tapping into this collective wisdom, you can improve your product and make it far more successful!
Product Manager's role is to collaborate and work closely with the cross-functional teams and with it comes a greater responsibility of stakeholder management. Given that all the teams have different goals and OKRs, the approach and thinking process of the design team would be very different from the engineering team; and engineering team's priorities would be largely different then sales team and so on. Hence it is important for the PM to know their audience and design their communication strategy accordingly; making sure that all the stakeholders are aligned with the product roadmap and product feature prioritization.
Prioritizing product features is not a one-time event. It is a continuous process that requires regular review and adjustment based on changing conditions, such as user feedback, market trends, competitor actions, and technical constraints. You should monitor the performance and impact of your features, and collect and analyze new data and feedback. You should also revisit your product strategy and goals, and check if your priorities still align with them. You should be flexible and adaptable to changing needs and expectations, and be ready to pivot or iterate on your features if needed.
As a product manager, it is important to review, re-evaluate and reprioritize the product backlog regularly to ensure that the product development process is aligned with the business objectives and customer needs. Best practices: * Reviewing the product backlog helps to identify items that are no longer relevant or necessary, and remove them from the backlog. * Re-evaluating the backlog helps to ensure that the items are still aligned with the business objectives and customer needs. * Reprioritizing the backlog helps to ensure that the most important items are at the top of the list and are worked on first. * Involve all the stakeholders * Make data driven decisions * Communicate changes to all the stakeholders
Regularly reviewing and adjusting your priorities is a key aspect of dynamic product management. The product environment is constantly evolving due to factors like market trends, user feedback, and technological advancements. Regularly revisiting and adapting your priorities ensures that your product remains relevant and competitive. This flexibility to pivot or iterate is crucial in responding to new challenges and opportunities, keeping the product aligned with its strategic goals and user needs.