The 3 Questions Framework: Build Winning Roadmaps

It’s time to start building the roadmap for next year and you have been tasked with doing it. It’s tough deciding what should be included because there are so many things you want to do and many features your users want, but you can’t do it all. On top of that, your competitors are launching new features and products, which only adds more headaches as you ask yourself:

“What should my main focus be?”

Focus Your Roadmap Planning

So you have a couple of ideas you think might help take your product to the next level (putting aside existing features, optimizations, bugs, and requested features) to satisfy your users while staying a step ahead of the competition. As you talk to your colleagues, and maybe even some users, about these ideas, consider what if you could have a super-simple framework that will help you:

1. Understand if you have created an opportunity or idea that addresses an underserved need.
2. Get a clear answer whether to develop this idea or not.
3. Prioritize and know the most important next step (MVP).

In “Lean Product Playbook”, Dan Olsen talked about ‘The Importance vs. Satisfaction’ framework that helps decide what problem or need to tackle to build a successful product.

This framework incorporates two basic questions:

1. How important is it for your user (on a scale of 1 to 10)?
2. How satisfied are your user with their current solutions (on a scale of 1 to 10)?

Based on your users’ responses, your idea can be positioned as Opportunity, Competitive, or Not Worth Going After. 

Opportunity – High importance and low satisfaction from current solutions. This is ideal. You have created an opportunity, and now you just need to decide the leanest version you can release to provide value quickly. 

Competitive – Although this is important to your user, they are satisfied with current solutions. Even if you build it, the user will probably not shift to your solution. Bottom line - you probably don’t want to develop this idea unless there is a very compelling reason that surfaces.

Not Worth Going After – Low importance (whether or not the user has high or low satisfaction from existing solutions). Move on. You don’t want to spend any time thinking about it.

?Throw in One More Question

I added a simple yet powerful third question to Dan Olsen’s first two (above) questions to maximize the value of his framework and focus me on deciding what to build first: 

“Based on what you now understand about this idea, If you could choose only one thing we will develop, what would you want it to be?”

users appreciate this and I get responses such as: “Wow! That’s a great question" followed by a few moments of thinking. Their responses help me learn my users’ priorities and what I should build first. 

The 3 Questions Framework: A Step-By-Step Guide

Now that we understand how to use this framework, how do we conduct a successful opportunity interview? Before the interview:

1. Determine your target audience.
2. Define your value proposition.
3. Have a clear pitch of your suggested solution (the idea/product/feature you want to get your customer’s feedback on).

The hard part is behind you! You are ready to meet your users. Start with an opening introduction and pitch your users the solution you are thinking of developing. 

Once your pitch is over and your users really understands the value proposition of your solution, you are ready to ask the 3 questions previously introduced:

1. On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is this solution to you? 
2. On a scale of 1 to 10, how satisfied are you with current solutions that address the same need? 
3. Based on what you now understand about this idea, if you had to choose only one thing that we will develop, what would it be?

Assuming you test three different ideas, this is how your graph would look like:

This graph shows you which idea is worth going after (Idea 1). My addition, the 3rd question, will help you decide what to build first and what the MVP should look like. If you do this with enough users, you can greatly increase your chances of success!

Key Takeaway

Following the Opportunity vs. Satisfaction framework and asking my supplemental third question will help you plan a winning roadmap, which will get you closer to Product-Market-Fit.

Do you have more tips to uncover underserved needs and prioritize your plan? I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback!

Originally published at https://prodacttips.wordpress.com on February 9, 2020.