How Product Managers Decide What to Build 7 Ways to Prioritize Jim Semick ProductCamp Silicon Valley – March 2015
Jul 14, 2015
How Product Managers
Decide What to Build7 Ways to Prioritize
Jim Semick
ProductCamp Silicon Valley – March 2015
So many
opportunities.
How do you decide
the right ones for
your product
roadmap?
Challenges
Prioritizing details, not the big picture
Priorities not tied to strategic goals
Priorities driven by loudest execs
Priorities determined by sales
prospects
Stakeholders question priorities
Before You Start
Think high level and categorize Be Strategic (growth, satisfaction, etc.)
Group smaller initiatives into themes
Bring customer evidence to the table
Understand customer value
Have rough cost/effort
7Prioritization Techniques
Value Versus Complexity
Complexity / Effort
Business
Value
High
High
Low
1 2
?
Value versus Complexity +
Weighted Scoring
Product Function
Customer
Delight
High
Fully Implemented
Low
Absent
Kano ModelCustomer Delight versus Product Function
Buy a Feature
1. List features
2. Assign a price
3. Hand out cash
4. Customers “buy” features
Gap Analysis /
Opportunity Analysis
Affinity Grouping
Photo credit: Doctordisruption.com
Story Mapping
Image credit: AgileBuddha.com
The technique you choose is not
as important as…
…the conversation about priorities
…agreement on the criteria
…your product management skills
…helping others arrive at the same
conclusion based on evidence
Getting Executive Buy-In
• Be transparent with execs about
your process - involve them
• Get agreement up front on
framework and goals
• Involve multiple stakeholders to get
different viewpoints on prioritization
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