curating a product backlog - sriram narayan, thoughtworks
DESCRIPTION
For any product that has users and a future, inputs for product direction come in from different quarters. - Product marketing and sales guys - Senior management - Product manager's vision - Existing customers - Prospective customers - End user input via support channel - End user feedback via social media - Competition - Industry trends - Product development team These inputs may be at the granularity of feature requests or more strategic. If these inputs are collected and curated carefully, it can be an invaluable basis for prioritizing the backlog. But this calls for a fair amount of effort and typically, the product owner or product manager don't have the time to do justice to this job. As a result, we end up with a uncurated backlog that is scattered in people's minds, emails, ticket management system, project management tool, presentations etc. This leads to somewhat unscientific prioritization. There is a role of backlog curator lurking in here. Need not a full time role but something that a product analyst (BA) can do for say one-third of the time. In the talk/workshop we'll explore some techniques for effective curation and retrieval that enable a more data-informed approach to backlog prioritization.TRANSCRIPT
Workshop on Cura-ng a Product Backlog
Sriram Narayan BAconf Aug-‐2013
Quick audience poll
Timely
Early entrant Stable product business – many customers Challenges to sales growth Increasing compe--on
Product backlog = story (requirements) backlog
What are sources of valid input?
Sources Marke-ng
Sales Product Vision
Execs Prospects Customers End users
Compe--on Industry trends Prod dev team Other internal
users
Channels Email
Mee-ng Social Media Blog post Support
Call center
VoC interviews Surveys
How do we keep track of all this informa-on?
What fields to track?
To what end?
What insights do we want?
• Top missing features/capabili-es leading to opportunity loss
• Our weaknesses compared to compe--on • Our strengths compared to compe--on • Overlap of vision with demand • Top missing features/capabili-es leading to customer aVri-on
• Most used features • Most un-‐used features • Most liked features • Most requested S/M/L features, by user segment
• Top usability complaints • Most under-‐documented features
What fields to track?
Date
Name
Org Name
Source Type
Channel
Area
Insight
Form teams of 4-‐6 45 seconds per card Ques-ons welcome
Tips
• Cura-on, not priori-za-on • Don’t think about accep-ng/rejec-ng the input
• Rota-ng scribe • Use the bigger s-cky to copy the descrip-on • Curate on the fly • First one -‐ sample
14-‐Mar-‐13 Who: ITC Via: f2f Allow me to add resources (rooms, projectors) to meeEngs created by others
1 of 20
Date Who: Customer/other
Via: email/social media/f2f…
DescripEon of input
01-‐Jan-‐12 Who: Pd Mgr Via: Vision 2 way sync with mobile
2 of 20
01-‐Feb-‐13 Who: Pd team Via: Show room in weekly summary
3 of 20
19-‐Oct-‐12 Who: Flipkart Via: SF-‐lost prospect fdbk
Migrate entries from Google calendar
4 of 20
10-‐May-‐13 Who: Tata Motors Via: SF-‐lost prospect fdbk
Ability to toggle-‐view all events that I haven’t responded to
5 of 20
21-‐Jan-‐13 Who: Google Via: CompeEEon Integrate todo list with calendar
6 of 20
22-‐Jun-‐13 Who: ITC Via: Support Support offline mode so that I can see details en-‐route to room without wifi
7 of 20
12-‐Dec-‐12 Who: Sr.Mgmt Via: f2f Quickly see if I am required or opEonal
8 of 20
06-‐Apr-‐13 Who: Rita (free user)
Via: twi]er
I wish Emely would also let me manage my todo list
9 of 20
10-‐Oct-‐12 Who: Pd Mgr Via: Vision Provide stats of Eme spent in meeEngs. Break down by f2f, web conf, tele con
10 of 20
23-‐Jan-‐13 Who: Redbus Via: SF-‐lost prospect fdbk
Create meeEngs from mobile
11 of 20
22-‐Sep-‐11 Who: Google Via: CompeEEon Agenda view
12 of 20
12-‐Feb-‐13 Who: Amit (free user)
Via: blog post
Too many steps to create an event and send invite
13 of 20
27-‐Jan-‐13 Who: Axis Bank Via: Sales current prospect
Migrate entries from Lotus Notes
14 of 20
16-‐Aug-‐13 Who: Rang De Via: f2f Show venue in weekly summary
15 of 20
13-‐Mar-‐13 Who: Goonj Via: Sales Ability to mark a meeEng as f2f, web conf or tele conf
16 of 20
14-‐Dec-‐12 Who:Industry Via:HBR blog Shorter meeEngs. Default to half hour
17 of 20
18-‐Mar-‐13 Who:Tyto soeware
Via: Support
Please add support for changing Emezone. (resolved by showing them how)
18 of 20
15-‐Nov-‐12 Who:MarkeEng Via: (Opt-‐out) Ability to auto-‐schedule promoEonal events into the calendars of free users
19 of 20
09-‐Jun-‐13 Who:Zinnov ConsulEng
Via:Support
Why isn’t it possible to change from 24 hr clock. (resolved by showing them how)
20 of 20
Time to test our cura-on
Select, organize, and look ager the items in (a collec-on or exhibi-on).
Good curator types Type CharacterisEcs VocaEons
INFJ Observer, organized, values solitude
Art/museum curator, archivist, librarian, art historian
INTP observer, relies more on mind
Researcher, historian
INTJ observer, orderly, clean, organized
Researcher, curator, librarian
Source: similarminds.com
What next?
• A curated backlog can be used as a sound basis for – Valida-ng, tweaking the roadmap – Deciding the next set of features to work on – Data-‐informed priori-za-on
Thank you @sriramnarayan
comments, ques-ons, feedback?