Sprint 1: Prioritization Techniques for Product Managers
As a Product Manager, you are always making decisions and prioritization is and should be one of them. There are so many things to execute, you are constantly getting asked, "What should we do? where should we start?".
Person 1: What should we prioritize?
Person 2: EVERYTHING!
I am pretty sure you have had or overheard this frustrating conversation before and you are left super confused. This is a Hard NO! Everything cannot be a priority, it may be important but not a priority and it's important to understand and categorize both. As a PM, you don't always have the answers to everything, however, one of your primal skills should be to acquire important information and work together with your team to help you make and execute important decisions.
When it comes to your prioritization strategy, there are so many tools and frameworks to help you out. But before using these tools, you need a reference point for your strategy.
Where to start
Your prioritization strategy should always be in reference to your product strategy while highlighting and defining a clear way to meet the product goal, as well as maximize value for the user and for the overall business. Without a well-defined product strategy, it may be challenging to make objective prioritization decisions. My suggestion is that you work on a clear product strategy and understand the product vision before you begin to prioritize, as this will be your North-star for a lot of decisions you will be making as a PM throughout the product development cycle.
One of many reasons prioritization within your product (most especially your product-backlog) is an important exercise is because it plays a huge part in market positioning among others. At the end of the day, your product will eventually ship into the market and needs to grow, compete and generate revenue. Prioritization is an important process that should happen as often as possible while reviewing your product roadmap as new information surfaces. This information can introduce a curveball in your roadmap such as:
A new competitor in the market/ a competitor has introduced a new feature that has increased customer acquisition or has put them far ahead in the market and you need to catch up,
New regulations have been introduced and are getting tighter,
A pandemic is happening and your customers are no longer paying for your product,
The technology you are currently using is outdated and many more
The market needs are always changing and being in the know can really influence how you prioritize to take advantage of the ever-growing and changing market needs.
I can't emphasize this enough, always review your product roadmap as often as possible. If working in an agile way, remember your priority list is not set in stone and can change when new information is introduced.
Who should be part of the decision-making?
Prioritization is oftentimes a team effort, as it requires buy-in from all the different stakeholders involved in your project. Deciding who will be part of your prioritization meeting is a balancing act between having a small enough group and a good representation of the client and/or the business itself.
Product Manager\Owner
Client
Tech-lead
Leadership
The meeting is very important as decisions made in this meeting can have a huge impact on the product direction and so don't complain if you don't attend. It's very important as a stakeholder to respect the process and understand that having to redo the prioritization meeting again may have an impact on time and other resources. In this regard, as a PM, you need to understand who will "complain" due to their strategic stake in the project and ensure that they make it to the meeting.
There are two animals that you need to be aware of during these meetings, yes, I did say animals but not in the real sense, hear me out.
The HIPPO - Highest Paid Person's Opinion, it's very easy and tempting to please and satisfy the highest-paid person in the room, oftentimes it's the CEO, founders, or the client you are building the product for. Remember to bring everything back to the product vision and goal, if the HIPPOs are not aligned with those, then you might be headed into dangerous waters.
The ZEBRA- Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant, they think they know everything but really their opinions are based on gut feeling and lack actual evidence. Decisions made in Prioritization meetings should be data-driven, in this case, you can decide to run quick experiments to test ideas and gather evidence, that is if your roadmap allows for it.
With that said, prioritization decisions should be done collaboratively with all the key internal and external stakeholders, encouraging open and honest conversations, listening attentively, and building buy-in as much as you can. Don't please everyone and forget about the product vision but don't avoid difficult conversations either.
A few questions to ask when prioritizing
What is the product meant to be solving?
What is the customer (or business) trying to achieve?
What is the most important problem you are trying to solve now and why?
If we solve for x, how does it allow the customer to reach their goal?
How does fixing this problem contribute to the product and business strategy?
How will we know when we have solved this problem?
What external factors should I consider?
Prioritization methods to use (Attached links)
Here are a few links to my favorite and easy-to-use resources, there are many more prioritization methods to use, however, I recommend these, especially for beginners. (Hover or click on any items on the list below to access the link)
Tell me what you would like to see more
This newsletter should be able to address your most pressing issues around product management. I will do my best to answer the questions as well as loop in my more experienced PM friends to contribute.