The Product Canvas www.ciandt.com { a kanban for mobile product development Inspired by Forrester’ s POST method
The Product Canvas
Nov 14, 2014
A simple visual tool (kanban-like) to bring product vision to Agile Development Teams
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The Product Canvas
www.ciandt.com
{
a kanban for mobile product development
Inspired by Forrester’s
POST method
This is the way teams are usually organized
Product Creation /
Management
Design
Development
QA / Deploy
Sometimes – at some extent – you need to do this!
the web
the websites belong to the web and users go there at their convenience.
apps ecossystems
the apps belong to the users who will decide to use them, keep them or to delete them. Once deleted…
Why do we need a development mindset shift for mobile?
UX is important UX is fundamental!
You’d better do it right or you are out!
the most valuable real estate in your personal digital life
How to bring product mindset to developers using Agile?
How to bring product mindset to Agile developers?
kanban meets POST = the product canvas
peopleobjectives
strategytechnology
Who are they?Main user types (personas)(one post-it per user)
How will the app help them?
How are we
going to listen to
the users?
(existent and
new channels)
How will they find about the app?
What future features could make us need to move to another direction?
How does the
app help the
business?Main expected
economies if any
The most important indirect gains for the business?
This app should be:• <awesome>• <cool>• <easy to use>
What’s the distribution strategy?
Most
important
metrics we
MUST collect
from users
Is there a
monetization
strategy?
(profit versus
cost)
What does our next MVP (minimum viable product) deliver?“Cupcake first, cake along the way”
How do we make people come back to the app?
IMPORTANT DATES:
Why we believe
this is the best
option?
What motivates people to engage?
App’s Value
Proposition
What are the
most important
contexts the
app will be used
in? (one post-it
per context)
PROSCONS
peopleobjectives
strategytechnology
Who are they?(Main Personas, their Perspectives andExpectations)
How the app will help them?
How are we
going to listen to
the users?
(existent vs new
channels)
How will they find the app?
What future features could make us need to move to another direction?
How does the
app help the
business?Main expected
economies if any
The most important indirect gains for the business?
This app should be: (top 3)• <awesome>• <cool>• <easy to
use>
What’s the distribution strategy?
Most
important
metrics (top5)
we MUST
collect from
users
Is there a
monetization
strategy?
(profit versus
cost)
Do we have a MVP (minimum viable product)?
Cupcake first, cake along the way
How do we make people come back to the app? Top 3 features that will engage users
IMPORTANT DATES:
Why we believe
this is the best
option?
WHAT MAKES THEM ENGAGE?
APP’s VALUE
PROPOSITION What are the
most important
contexts the
app will be used
in?
PROSCONS
These are the post-its that talk about the people who will be using the app.
When you write the answers, you should put yourself on the shoes of the users.
Think about the most common contexts, needs, feelings and expectations
These are the post-its that talk about the business objectives our client wants to
achieve with their app.
They must take into account the users needs
These are the post-its that talk about the strategy we will put together to make this app
reach the audience and potentially achieve business objectives
These are the post-its that talk about the technology we chose and considerations
about it
We cannot make decisions on technology before answering the questions on the
previous 3 quadrants!
peopleobjectives
strategytechnology
Who are they?(Main Personas, their Perspectives andExpectations)
How the app will help them?
How are we
going to listen to
the users?
(existent vs new
channels)
How will they find the app?
What future features could make us need to move to another direction?
How does the
app help the
business?Main expected
economies if any
The most important indirect gains for the business?
This app should be: (top 3)• <awesome>• <cool>• <easy to
use>
What’s the distribution strategy?
Most
important
metrics (top5)
we MUST
collect from
users
Is there a
monetization
strategy?
(profit versus
cost)
Do we have a MVP (minimum viable product)?
Cupcake first, cake along the way
How do we make people come back to the app? Top 3 features that will engage users
IMPORTANT DATES:
Why we believe
this is the best
option?
WHAT MAKES THEM ENGAGE?
APP’s VALUE
PROPOSITION What are the
most important
contexts the
app will be used
in?
PROSCONS
Tip: Try to write on the post-its in a way that, when you read them, you
understand what’s there without the need to add the question.
Bear in mind that the section already gives you context!
people
Who are they?Main user types (personas)
(one post-it per user)
Age, gender, personality, whatever makes us understand who the target audience is.
Building a mobile app for a teenager is completely different than building an app for a mom.
You can use separate post-its for different people who will be using the app
people How will the app help them?
Why you as a user would use this app?
Does it simplify something, is it easier to use the mobile app than the web? Is it useful? Is it fun?
people
What are the
most important
contexts the
app will be used
in? (one post-it
per context)
Context gives us the opportunity to explore feelings and so, to leverage user experience.
Imagine that the app is to log a baby’s development, a context could be “when parents are strolling with their baby”
people
What motivates people to engage?
Why should I, as a user, keep the app in my phone and come back to it from time to time?
What draws me back to open that app over and over?
people
How will they find about the app?
Who will tell me about the app?
Am I going to find it in sites I usually go? On ads? By searching the app store?
people
How are we
going to listen to
the users?
(existent and
new channels)
The app should open a communication channel with its users
What could we do to make this happen inside and outside the app?
Are there any existent channels that could be leveraged?
objectives
App’s Value
Proposition
In a few words, what does this app intend to be or to do?
Examples:
“making running social”
“allow parents to follow and share the experience of raising a child”
objectives
How does the
app help the
business?
Direct benefits of this app to the business.
Generate revenues?
Learn about customers?
Sell products?
Promote the brand?
objectivesMain expected
economies if any
Is the app replacing a service that cost more to the business?
Is it going to be a cheaper way to advertise the brand?
Is it replacing manual work?
objectives
The most important indirect gains for the business?
The intangible gains, like “create a better relationship with customers”, “association of the brand to sustainable production”, etc.
objectives
IMPORTANT DATES:
All the most important until the roll-out of the product.
Is there any marketing campaign associated with it?
Important milestones for the business?
A good practice is also to put all those dates in all team member’s calendars.
objectives
This app should be:• <awesome>• <cool>• <easy to
use>
Ask the client to think about 3 attributes of the app that they would love to hear from the users most of the time.
It can be something like “reliable, sleek, easy to use”.
strategy
What’s the distribution strategy?
Every app biggest challenge is how to make itself visible inside an ocean – literally – of apps on the app stores. How can we make it possible to users to find the app (and the app to find its users?)
Some directions are: ad networks, publishers, blogs, webpages, Facebook fan pages, direct marketing, PR pushes, etc.
strategy
Most
important
metrics we
MUST collect
from users
We need to code the app so that important metrics are collected.
What would be the most important ones? E.g. “number of people who completes the app’s main flow”, “number of users that open the app more than once a day”, etc. Metric collection is a crucial part of evolving the app in the right direction.
The objective of the product canvas is not to mention all of them but to give emphasis to the most important ones
strategy
Is there a
monetization
strategy?
(profit versus
cost)
Does the client think about charging for the app? Did they settle on a price already? Is the app starting as paid and then becoming free at some point? Will it be free with ads? Free without ads? Are in-app purchases going to be available now or in the future?
strategy
How do we make people come back to the app?
What are the main features we believe will make people come back to the app very often?
strategy
What does our next MVP (minimum viable product) deliver?“Cupcake first, cake along the way”
Make no mistake: it’s better to build a small app that will evolve with real users’ feedback than trying to build a full-fledged one before users see it. Your minimum viable product is the app that validates your basic business assumptions or people’s interest in your app.
Think about the iPhone when it first launched: it didn’t have apps. Copy & Paste came along the way as well as the ability to keep your data if you received a call while running an app. The iPhone was hugely popular even without those features.
technology
Depending on the balance between budget, user experience goals, reach of the solution and agility to bring the app to the market, different technological solutions cam be picked. Use the diagram to clearly mark what was chosen.
In the example, we have a native app for iOS and Android devices. If there’s custom work to differentiate the app for tablets and phones, make an annotation mentioning that.
technology
Why we believe
this is the best
option?
In a few words, list the main drivers that made you decide upon a platform in detriment of other options.
If it’s too hard to explain, then maybe you haven’t picked the right option
technology
What future features could make us need to move to another direction?
Sometimes the current set of features and value proposition point to a certain technological solution. However, when you think about future potential paths of the app, it might need to include some features that are not available in the chosen platform.
One example could be a video app that in the future may need to include higher interactions with low level APIs of the phones to optimize video streaming. If this app started as a hybrid solution, this future vision of the app can potentially be very challenging.
technology
PROS
What are the pros of the chosen platform as opposed to the other options?
technology
CONS
What are the cons of the chosen platform as opposed to the other options?
Checklist to use The Product Canvas
• Interview the client without showing the canvas, get as much information as possible for each set of questions
• Summarize the answers into the post-its• Validate the canvas with client• Present it to the entire team• Print it and use it as a kanban, keep it visible to
everyone in the team throughout the project• Update it whenever necessary• Iterate!
peopleobjectives
strategytechnology
Who are they?Main user types (personas)
(one post-it per user)
How will the app help them?
How are we
going to listen to
the users?
(existent and
new channels)
How will they find about the app?
What future features could make us need to move to another direction?
How does the
app help the
business?Main expected
economies if any
The most important indirect gains for the business?
This app should be:• <awesome>• <cool>• <easy to
use>
What’s the distribution strategy?
Most
important
metrics we
MUST collect
from users
Is there a
monetization
strategy?
(profit versus
cost)
What does our next MVP (minimum viable product) deliver?“Cupcake first, cake along the way”
How do we make people come back to the app?
IMPORTANT DATES:
Why we believe
this is the best
option?
What motivates people to engage?
APP’s VALUE
PROPOSITION
What are the
most important
contexts the
app will be used
in? (one post-it
per context)
PROSCONS
Be creative: use extra elements, backgrounds, arrows, connections, icons, whatever makes this a great
communication tool!
Thanks!
www.ciandt.com
{
if you are interested in seeing real cases of the product canvas, drop me a line [email protected]
@cyrillo
@uxmindset
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