Who you need, where you need them, and what you can do to facilitate a collaborative and inclusive product roadmap session — a practical example.
So, it’s the morning of our squad product roadmap setting session. It’s a morning where opportunity hides behind every corner, the squad are rife with enthusiasm. And you running around making sure everything is set up!
The time has come to harness these, and channel them into your vision, strategy, and roadmap creation.
Before the session
Pre sesh round up
Before the session, I like to go and visit everyone, make sure that they can make it, and give them ample warning that it will be a very much active and involved session where their in put is key.
It’s also so get there thinking caps on and to understand if there’s anything burning or front of mind, that they wish for this workshop to cover off. This way, I can be on the front foot when I’m going through the opportunities and speak to some users to discuss their needs / problems before the session itself. It’s always best to have users attitudes to back up opinions.
It also gives those invitee’s, particularly the senior folk enough time to delegate to others.
The Product Paraphernalia
The Aim:
This is so that everyone is clear about what the next [insert number of hours here!] are about, and if anyone has any questions, thinks they shouldn’t be here etc can raise their views now. It’s also important to allow everyone to focus their minds on the task at hand.
The agenda:
What you’re aiming to cover off, and the timings to stick to… And as the facilitator, it’s up to you to make sure that they are stuck to.
The Parking lot:
This is also why I have a parking lot, to write down any topics which are relevant to the product, but not relevant to the roadmap, to discuss at a later point, so that the agenda can be stuck to.
Frequency:
How frequently should we have roadmap setting sessions? This really depends on the business, how new product is, and the new-news of the product. The one I am holding is a quarterly roadmap session. This topic — frequency — I feel, is for a separate article!
The setting up:
Is just as important as the session itself, it provides you with a great footing on which to ad-lib before the sesh. Make sure the session can run smoothly and the timings work in real life.
The session itself:
What could be included, the relevance, and the outcome…
- The leadership vision and strategy : The over aching North Star to where the leadership captains are steering the ship. It’s great to acknowledge this, as it makes sure that everyone is heading in the right direction over having smaller life boats heading in all directions
- The product teams vision and strategy : This should be 100% aligned to the leadership teams vision and strategy but with more directional and specific detail in. This is really important, as it prevents the squad being pushed and pulled in different directions, as well as to highlight that everyone is rowing in the same direction.
- KPIs / OKRs (key performance indicators / objectives and key results): Why do you get up every morning and come into work? No, it’s not to make your boss that nice amber coloured cup of tea, nor is it to relish in making everyone happy as Larry by saying ‘yes, of course’ to everyone! The OKRs are a way to tell a story to your stakeholders, and to refer back to to see if your actions are helping the business to grow to demonstrate success. OKRs should be:
- Measurable – all OKRs should be measurable to demonstrate success
- True metrics – it’s important to use true metrics in order to see the gain to the business
- Counter metrics – a counter metric is where moving one metric, such as Cost Per Acquisition, can harm another, such as Customer Life Time Value. For example, if I were to use a cheaper marketing channel to get a whole bunch of sign ups, yet, this traffic converted poorly, the cost per acquisition would be lowered (yays!) yet the customer life time value would be a lot lower (boo)
- Vanity metrics – what it says on the tin… a metric which makes an individual look like a freak in the sesh, but actually had no tangible business benefit. Such as time spent completing a form… what this should be accompanied with is ‘completion rate’ to demonstrate the business benefit.
Highlighting what your squad is all about, being upfront, collaborative, seeking feedback, and holding yourself and your squad accountable is crucial to the success of your Product squad. Don’t be afraid to challenge the questions/suggestions from your stakeholders.
4. The output : demo-img, collectively, the working tech! This is a chance to celebrate the work which the squad have done over the past 3 months. It’s pure delivery work, the produce of each of the review sessions, and the squad deserves a ma-hoosive round of applause for the amazing work which has been done. Because it’s the glorious squad who do this work, it’s their chance to shine, and revel in the praise.
5. The outcome : This is a demonstration of how the numbers have moved. Each in line with an independent story, or group of stories. This is to highlight the effectiveness of the squad on moving the numbers, highlight anything that didn’t produce the desired outcome, and highlight any product failures… Uber important for transparency. It’s also a great way to suggest any further work that can be done to improve the metrics further.
6. The discovery : Again – A chance for the squad, the ux bod, to showcase their skills. To take the participation through what we were testing for, the key themes, and the designs which we have for the future. Not forgetting what’s coming up on the existing roadmap to test.
7. Competitor research : Either you or your ux bod to talk through what the competition are doing, anything unique, new, or different they are doing, and any key points we could borrow or build on.
8. The tree of opportunity : (said in a game show type voice) is where the fun begins. The tree of opportunity comes from a knowledge sharing session we had at World First with Jenna Bastrow. Whereby we list the topics which are relevant to the product / company. Things such as the security, the accessibility, the functionality, and the love-ability. It’s always good to have a bit of a workshop around this bit, to make sure all the things are captured here.
9. Dot. Vote. Time : Everyone gets a certain amount of votes to use as they see fit… e.g. all votes go on the one topic, or distributed evenly. This is where the benefits of the competitive analysis and the consumer research comes in : To provide a basis for guidance on where people could vote.
10. Roadmap building : Take the dot votes… the highest dot votes place these into the now section and so on. There are 3 rules with this…
- If one thing works, we keep at it
- Anything can change with data (customer attitude, behaviour, or business priorities)
- This is a guide, not a commitment (coz: see points above)
It’s really important that your stakeholders understand this and that this is reiterated many times over.
11. The write up : As always, it’s great to circulate this post the session, writing up any actions, the roadmap, and the parking lot. Input any follow up conversations, or meetings.
Your turn:
These are just 11 suggestions of creating inclusive and collaborative roadmap sessions. Pick and choose depending on your squads / businesses openness to product ways of working. Or the amount of time you have to hold everyones attention :)
How did it go? Anything you’re looking to amend? What worked well? What didn’t go so well?
