THE PRODUCT VISIONING WORKSHOP

A Proven Method for Product Planning and Feature Prioritization

CHRISTINE PERFETTI PERFETTI MEDIA @CPERFETTI

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The Product Visioning Workshop

WHAT IS SUCCESS?

Create a 3-5 year vision of the experience users will have with your product

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THE IMPORTANCE OF A VISION

• Drives product decisions• Provides a destination for the team to stay

on-course• Gets the entire team on the same page• Inspires and motivates

HOW DO WE GET THERE?

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THE PLANNING STAGE

Start with Research

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INVOLVE THE STAKEHOLDERS

• Senior management• Product• UX• Engineering• Marketing• Sales • Support

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WHAT DO THEY KNOW TODAY?

• Strategic objectives• Short and long-term business goals• User data• Competitive research• Market size• Vision

USER RESEARCH

•Observe users in the natural environment•Understand users’ pain points•Get the team immersed

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CREATE PERSONAS

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THE PRODUCT VISIONINGWORKSHOP

GOALS OF THE WORKSHOP

• Establish a product vision

• Align roadmap or sprint investment with user needs and business goals

• Enables the product team to say, “NO,” to features that don’t align with the vision

• Brainstorm and prioritize the requirements and strategies for delivering on the product vision

• Prevent silos across product lines

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THE LOGISTICS

• Invite all product stakeholders

• Set aside a minimum of three days to conduct the workshop

• Set expectations for workshop attendees

• Assign homework• What are the business goals?• What do you currently know about the target audience?• What are the pain points with the product?

THE AGENDA

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THE WORKSHOP AGENDA

Day 1: Set the context

Day 2: Establish the product vision

Day 3: Identify business and user opportunities to achieve the vision

Day 4: Prioritize the roadmap opportunities

DAY 1:Set the Context

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SET THE CONTEXT

• Review 3-5 year strategic objectives• Present the competitive landscape• Summarize the user research

SET THE CONTEXT

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THE PERSONAS

Attributes of the persona

THE JOURNEY MAPSTEPS IN THE USER JOURNEY

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DAY 2:Establish the Product Vision

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ESTABLISH THE PRODUCT VISION

• Converge on a 3-year product vision

• Prioritize opportunities to improve the user experience

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IDEATING ON A PRODUCT VISION

• Brainstorming technique modeled after the design studio methodology

• Teams ideate in short time boxes to generate a product vision with rapid rounds of sketching and critique• Sketch • Present• Critique• Iterate

THE INSTRUCTIONS

• Break group into cross-functional teams of 5-6 people

• Distribute 8-up to each member of the team

• Instruct each attendee to sketch their vision of the product in 3 years

Source: Todd ZakI Warfel.. in only 10 minutes!

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PRESENT & CRITIQUE

• Each member of the team has 3 minutes to present their vision with no interruptions

• Team critiques for 2 minutes• What do you like?• What would you like to see

improved?

ITERATE FOR 2-3 MORE ROUNDS

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THE RESULT: CONVERGENCE OF TEAMS

DAY 3:Identify the Opportunities for Achieving the Vision

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IDENTIFY THE BUSINESS AND USER OPPORTUNITIES

• Based on the best ideas from the visioning exercise, create and prioritize a list of opportunities and pain points to tackle

• Don’t jump to features too quickly!

THE FOCUS QUESTION

In order to reach our vision, what do we need to provide to our users to achieve a best-in-class experience?

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THE KJ

STEP 1: LIST OPPORTUNITIES

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STEP 2: GROUP THE STICKY NOTES

No talking

STEP 3: NAME THE GROUPS

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STEP 4: RANK THE GROUPS

STEP 5: VOTE

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STEP 6: ORDER AND DISCUSS GROUPS

ADVANTAGE OF METHOD

• All stakeholders contribute

• Prevents too much influence from select team members

• Identifies top product priorities that align with the vision

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DAY 4:Prioritize the Product Opportunities to Tackle

PRIORITIZE THE ROADMAP OPPORTUNITIES

• MoSCoW voting

• Rate the opportunity or feature

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MoSCoW Voting for High-Level Priorities

Voting on features and priorities

Business valueUser valueEffort

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NEXT STEPS

• Product team reviews findings • Prioritize opportunities in a product roadmap, if they have one• Allocate resources to the opportunities in upcoming sprints

• Product team creates a deliverable to communicate the vision out to the team

THE PRODUCT VISIONING WORKSHOP

• Aligns the team around a shared vision

• Gains consensus on user needs and goals for the product

• Prioritizes the requirements for delivering on the product vision

• Aligns the product priorities with the vision for the ideal user experience

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THANK YOU!

• Product and UX coaching• Product ideation and strategy

workshops• Consulting

Twitter: @cperfettiWeb: perfettimedia.com

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