prioritizing product ideas
DESCRIPTION
Lessons in early-stage Product Management.TRANSCRIPT
WIN,LOSE
ORFailLessons in Early Stage Product Management
Prioritizing Product Ideas
Recipe for a Winning Product
• Meets customers’ needs• Is better than other alternatives• Is easy to use• Has a good value/price
What does a Product Manager do?
Product Managers help companies build better products by bringing the following expertise to the early-stage product development process:
– Knowledge of how to ship higher quality products so that customers are happy
– How to determine what features to put in those products, so that you don't under-engineer or over-engineer a product
– How to spend the right amount of money on a marketing plan that ensures the highest amount of profitability
– How to plan and operationally support a product pre- and post-launch
Problem vs. Solution Space
Problem – customer problem, need or benefit that the product should address; or a product requirement (ex. ability to write in space)
Solution – A specific implementation to address a need or product requirement (ex. NASA space pen $1M verses Russian space pencil)
“Make it easy to share a link with my friends.”
“Allow me to re-use my Facebook contacts.”
Facebook Importer
Design 1 Design 2 Design 3
Design Preview with checkboxes
User can edit before import
#1 No No
#2 Yes No
#3 Yes Yes
Problem Space Solution SpaceUser Benefit Feature
VS
User benefits
• Functional Benefits– allow user to do something they couldn’t do before– deliver a benefit more quickly, conveniently, or
cheaply (ex. browse the web for less money; finding information quicker; read news on my own time)
• Emotional Benefits– Control– Feeling informed (context)– Enjoyment– Self-expression
Prioritizing Benefits vs. Features
• Need a framework for prioritization– What user benefits should we address?– Which product features should we build or improve?
• Importance vs. Satisfaction– Importance of user need (problem space)– Satisfaction with how well a product meets user’s
needs (solution space)
low
-
-
-
-
-
-
+
+
+
+
+
+
high
high
high
high
high
high
Prioritizing User Benefits
User Benefit
Importance to User
Current User Satisfaction
Upside Potential
Benefit 1low
Benefit 2low
Benefit 3low
Benefit 4low
Benefit 5low
Benefit 6
High
High
Low
Medium
Low
Low
Wow!Opportunity?
Wow!Opportunity?
Doesn’t Matter
Prioritizing Product Ideas
Idea D
Idea F
Idea C
Idea BIdea A
?
Retu
rn (V
alue
Cre
ated
)
1
2
3
4
1 2 3 4
Investment (developer weeks)
Idea C
Idea B
Idea A
Retu
rn (V
alue
Cre
ated
)
1
2
5
8
1 2 3 4
Investment (developer weeks)
34
67
5 6 7 8
Simple things should be simple, complex things should be possible.
- Alan Kay
“
”
Usability: Hard to Use ProductN
umbe
r of C
licks
/Com
plex
ity
1
2
5
8
3
4
6
7
Frequency of UseUse often Use rarely
Threshold for easily finding a feature
Makes frequent use of features harder to learn and
painful to use
Causes accidental use of lower frequency features
Usability scorecard: Hard to use product
Usability: Easy to Use ProductN
umbe
r of C
licks
/Com
plex
ity
1
2
5
8
3
4
6
7
Frequency of UseUse often Use rarely
Threshold for easily finding a feature
A more even spread allows for adaptive learning
Usability scorecard: Easy to use product