Most important PM document
Tami Reiss is the founder of The Product Leader Coach where she works with product leaders and teams to realize their potential by focusing on their strengths.
I’ve shared this document more than any other template I’ve ever created. It’s call the Product Initiative Summary. The goal is to get the core details of a product initiative onto a single page so that everyone (developers, designers, stakeholders, sales, marketing, etc.) can have the most important info available in a single place.
Anatomy of the document:
- Initiative Name — the title the company will use to refer to the product initiative
- Goals — the desired outcomes of the initiative and how are they related to company objectives
- Customer/User Groups impacted — the segment will this initiative serve, quantify when possible
- Current Issue / Situation — the problems you want to solve
- Proposed Solution — the current idea you have about how to solve the problem (it is open to discussion and change)
- Prioritization Reason — the thought process behind choosing to invest in this initiative over other options
- KPIs — the metrics you’ll monitor to know if the initiative is a success
- Milestones / Roll-out Plan — the high level outline of who will get access to the parts or all of the solution and when.
- Screenshots / Mockups — the visual representation of the initiative which could be a wireframe, a clickable prototype, a system diagram, or a user flow
Please note that all portions of the document may not be ready at the outset of a project, but hopefully they are all filled in before the Kickoff meeting for the initiative. Also, this document is 100% designed to be edited post-kickoff as you and the team learn new things throughout the development and launch process. Therefore share and save it in a way that you are sharing a link to the document instead of a hard copy… and keep sharing the link as things advance and more stakeholders get involved.
Hope you love this document as much as I do. What can I do to make it better for your needs?
Hi! I’m Tami, the founder of The Product Leader Coach where I work with product leaders and teams to realize their potential by focusing on their strengths.
If you enjoyed this post, I am available for product leadership coaching or team training. Learn more about my services and upcoming children’s book.
