How to advance your Product Backlog — Part 1: Product Vision
In this mini series, I will be guiding you through how to bring your product backlog to the next level. Backlog refinement is an important continuous task, whether you are in the early stages of product development, drifting away from the key strategy, or stakeholders are feeling uninspired and face a lack of engagement in meetings. Part 1 is all about the product vision which should be the heartbeat for your strategy; necessary to advance your product backlog.
Product Vision
The product vision very simply (as explained in Inspired):
‘describes the future we are trying to create, typically somewhere between two and five years out’
The vision should be concise (for quick and easy understanding) but also inspirational so that stakeholders can be easily persuaded and optimistic about the long term goal for the product.
The product vision should be at the core of every product strategy and considered in all decision making. It helps bring teams back on track, but can also provide direction to stakeholders indicating where the product is going.
For more information of the product vision read through this helpful article from Product Plan.
The product backlog starts with the product vision, without a product vision key aspects of the product role will be a challenge (prioritisation and communication), leading to your product backlog to stagnate. There are multiple techniques to creating a product vision which will ultimately come down to the Product Owner. the following techniques will help you refine and define the product vision.
- Product Vision Statement
Lets start with the vision statement, which is heavily influenced and often created by the product team. Roman Pichler outlined the following points to understand and create the product vision:
- Who is the target audience?
- Which customer needs can the product satisfy?
- Which product attributes determine the satisfaction of those needs?
- Who is competing and how do they perform? (internal, external competitors)
- What timeframe and product development budget determine the project?
Geoffry Moore suggested using this template for the vision statement which covers all areas and is an easy to use guideline, for more information this article provides some useful guidance.
It is worth bearing in mind that for every company, product or team, the format for the product vision can be different from the short and snappy:
Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy
Quantitative:
Microsoft: Empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more
Or more comprehensive:
Apple: To produce high-quality, low cost, easy to use products that incorporate high technology for the individual
No two visions are the same….
2. Build on the vision statement
Whether you use this technique to create the product vision, or refine the vision and help the team understand the problem you are trying to solve — it doesn’t matter. It is a very good technique to get all of your team on board taking the product, vision and the backlog to the next level.
First bring the team together, ideally in small numbers such as the lead developers and QA Engineers. The specific framework will depend on whether you are working remotely or in person; both are effective.
First we can start with either flip charts around the room, or one large Miro board. The initial product vision should be placed in the centre in a large font clear for everyone to see. Then, each flip chart page, or section of the Miro board should be split into the below:
- Users and customers (separate if these are different)
- Key features
- Business goals
- Customers: how are they impacted?
- Users: why do they use it?
Ask your team to use sticky notes and markers to fill in each flip chart/ Miro segment to rapidly create new ideas and build on existing ones. This exercise will help create focus and direction for your product. This is also an opportunity to create new exciting ideas which can help with feature development down the line.
3. Trade Journal Review
This is another fun exercise to bring your product vision into a reality and help increase that understanding.
Have you ever read a review which could be in a magazine for the latest Tesla model or a blog post highlighting the functionality for the upcoming iPhone?
How do you want your product to be reviewed once it has been released, what do you want customers to see in your product? This technique is all about thinking where you want to go with your product and how you want customers to view it. It can be used to test if there is a commonly understood and shared vision amongst the team or with stakeholders.
4. Trade Off Sliders
Trade off sliders are a visual and simple guide to show the priorities and direction for your product. It is a useful tool to present back to stakeholders so that everyone from developers to the CEO is aligned on what the goals of the product will be.
To start with, the team has to consider the key metrics for the product in a holistic sense and using a scale most attributable to the team from Unimportant to Critical, each with a number score (X).
After this, the team has to create rules so that they can easily prioritise what trade offs are being made:
- A maximum score of 18
- Only one label can be Critical (5)
- Only one label can be Important (4)
On completion of this, there should be a clear theme showing which trade offs need to be made, and where the focus should be when prioritising user stories/ new features.
Conclusion
These techniques will provide context on the opportunity of the product, who the users are and the value which can be provided. Some describe establishing the product vision to be the most challenging work in product development as the scope is so wide and could go in a multitude of directions. However, for development it is essential and helps advance product discovery so that you can funnel onto the next stage in the process.
Although potentially challenging, these techniques should be fun and engaging for all of the team, increasing team moral, but also focus around the problem and where the team should be aiming for. Thank you for taking the time to read Part 1 for this series, please comment below if you have any further suggestions.
