6 Things I Learned About Prioritization From Pandora
In a recent podcast episode, Receptive spoke with Kayvon Ghaffari, Senior Program Manager at LiquidPlanner, about how he implemented the Pandora Prioritization process to help create buy-in across the organization when it came to important product roadmap decisions.
It’s a great conversation and you can hear the podcast in full here.
I learned so much that it’s hard to distill it into a blog post — but we like to challenge ourselves here at Receptive, so that’s exactly what I’ll attempt to do.
I’ve taken 6 key points about prioritization so that if you haven’t listened to the podcast (shame on you!) that you can still learn something. Sound good? Awesome!
1 — How Long Should My Roadmap Be?
This is a question we get asked a lot. Too short and there’s really no point in having a roadmap. But too long and you start delving into the murky waters of the future — and no one can predict the future. Except Derren Brown. Probably.
Kayvon explained that at Pandora, their roadmap would last 90 days. This is a pretty nifty length of time to cover, as it lasts approximately a quarter of the year.
This is a sufficient amount of time to plan product features for, without getting so far ahead of yourselves that things are likely to change by the time you get there.
When it comes to designing your roadmap, aim to plan out the next 90 days, so you have an overview of where you’re headed, but not so far that you get lost in the future.
Too much new information becomes available over time so committing to deliver features 6 months down the line isn’t feasible.
2 — THE Question Product Managers Should Be Asking
Kayvon gave us one hell of a question, and he really should charge people to hear it, because it’s the definitive question that product managers should be asking when it comes to deciding on features.
“What would be stupid for us NOT to build within the next 90 days?”
This frames the age old dilemma of deciding on which features to build in a whole new light.
Rather than trying to determine what you should be putting on your roadmap, figure out what you’d be stupid not to do.
By flipping things upside-down like this, you’re asking a more meaningful question. Once you start answering it, you’ll soon discover key features that are essential, and really begin to separate the wheat from the chaff.
3 — Who Gets An Invite?
Figuring out which team members have a say in the prioritization process is a difficult step. Fortunately, Kayvon is on hand to save us all again.
Whilst everyone at Pandora had a say in the overall process, the initial discussions and final decisions were made by a group of key figures — kind of like The Illuminati but not nearly as mysterious or threatening.
When it came to deciding on who these key figures would be, they chose people based on a crucial criterion.
The people invited to these meetings were the people who had the company’s values and future at heart.
If you’re having trouble deciding who should get an invite to your prioritization and product development meetings, then consider introducing Kayvon’s criterion into your choices.
4 — It’s All About The Price Tag
Pandora’s Prioritization system relies heavily on assigning values to every feature idea. These values are not calculated amounts, rather, they are simple figures used to show how some ideas would cost more than others in time and effort.
By assigning these values to features, and setting an overall “budget” to spend over the next 90 days, everyone can see how prioritization is super important when making product roadmap decisions.
As Kayvon said in the podcast, “Every yes is ten thousand no’s.” And if that shouldn’t be a fortune cookie phrase, then nothing should be.
If your employees understand that all of their ideas are good, it’s just that you simply can’t produce them all, then they’re far more likely to be on board with your roadmap going forward.
5 — Always Keep Your Strategy In Mind
Kayvon warned against becoming a “feature factory”.
It’s easy to be inundated with feature ideas, and even with the most efficient prioritization and product management systems, you can be left with more features than you can possibly implement.
You also have to be careful not to put out feature after feature as this could lead to distancing yourselves from your company’s original strategy and mission.
When you decide on features to implement, always keep your ultimate strategy in mind and ensure the features you choose are aligned with that strategy.
6 — Why Prioritization Is Super Important
I’ve discussed a lot of prioritization tips in this post, and my final point is to really hammer home why it’s so, so, so important. I can’t stress that enough.
Kayvon spoke of different sized rocks. You have the smaller pebbles which are quick and easy to implement, but only add a small value, and you have the large boulders which take more time and effort to create, but offer a bigger payback.
If you don’t prioritize, you end up with a load of pebbles and a load of boulders. But it might be the rocks in-between these that are the best features to focus on.
Prioritization allows ideas that may normally be ignored bubble up to the surface, offering a wealth of features that you should be considering for your roadmap.
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Thus concludes my 6 takeaway points from our discussion with Kayvon. You should now be able to go away and create your own prioritization system, plotting your roadmap with ease.
Have a good one!
Related Articles:
How We Say No To Feature Requests At Receptive
