Cross-team Product Development & Delivery Process: Context Initiation Phase. (Part 3)
Table of Contents
- Intro & Definition
- Pipeline Success Metrics
- Context Initiation Phase
- Discovery Phase
- Development Phase
- Go-to-Market & Release Phase
So now we have defined the overall pipeline and identified key indicators we should take care of during the implementation of the process. It’s time to take a more profound look into each phase and see what should happen there.
Context Initiation
Everything starts with an idea. To initiate the product definition process, a stakeholder (end-user, focus group, c-level executive, architect, etc.) reaches out to the product management department and asks for a dedicated person to convert an idea into a vision of a product or feature with added business value.
The goals and desired outcomes of this phase are the following:
- Identified product vision. You should be able to answer “what” and “why” questions here. At least on the high level. The product manager is setting up the transparency fundamentals for the rest of the departments at this point.
- Added value. The stakeholder and product manager should agree on the objectives and how they will affect the business.
- Defined product-market fit. How to make the most of the following implementation.
- Identified ability to implement the product. No matter how valuable the opportunity is, you have to make sure that the company is possibly capable of bringing the idea to life.
Here’s what the process might look like to fulfill the requirements outlined above:
The identification itself is an iterative process and should be handled with some sort of PDCA or DMAIC implementation and product discovery techniques. (I’m not a product manager, so you better rely on the competencies of one to choose the better way to approach the identification process).
Here another indicator comes into play — ease of communication. The better the stakeholder and the manager communicate — the more precise vision of the product will be defined.
In addition to the diagram above, we will also depict the level of involvement of key persons in the process. This will help us understand the cooperative effort better:
Exit criteria
After you’re done with the vision, now it’s time to “carve it in the stone”. The product manager should do some paperwork and get ready to present the vision for the initiative group to kick off the discovery phase. It will be a good idea to, actually, make a presentation, but we also need to establish a single source of truth for the product definition. Think of the following:
- Presentation with a high-level overview of what and why you’re going to build.
- JIRA initiative (split up by epics)
- Confluence page outlining the vision, objectives, and success metrics.
It is not an exhaustive list of “must-have” items, but rather a recommendation. The granularity of the documentation may solely depend on your actual needs. Either JIRA or confluence page may act as a single source of truth in terms of objectives and success metrics definition, as well as the overall high-level requirements outline.
What’s next?
Finally, when the product manager has everything set up, final approval should be conducted by the stakeholder. At this point, you should be all set to kick off the discovery phase.
In the next post, we’ll take a look at what should happen in the discovery phase of the process.
