Prioritisation

The rollercoaster ride that is product development is inherently chaotic and ever-changing. So, as process-oriented professionals, we product managers look to the structure and predictability of a scientific approach for certainty. Our inputs into such a scientific approach, however, are based on assumptions – either individual or corporate – that contain significant amounts of uncertainty. Read more »

As a product consultant and trainer, I hear a lot of similar questions over and over. Many are what you might expect and are regularly debated on Twitter: “What’s the difference between a product manager and a product owner?” “How should I manage my roadmap?” “Do product managers need to know how to code?” But Read more »

Before financial software provider Aquila Heywood transformed how it approaches prioritisation, it had a backlog that was more than 20 years long and its projects took about seven years to release.  Product Director Holly Donohue was part of the team that changed how the business approaches its work, so that it now sees value being Read more »

Bruce McCarthy was the president of the Boston Product Management Association, is the founder of consultancy Product Culture and co-wrote the book on roadmapping, Product Roadmaps Relaunched.  He joined us live at the Mind the Product Leadership Forum to chat about how he builds his own roadmaps, prioritisation, product vision, OKRs and quite a bit more. Quote Read more »

Prioritization is challenging and stressful. Sometimes it’s because of micro-prioritization such as bug triage and moving one small fix in front of another. Other times it comes from the macro level: deciding to target new user growth versus lifetime value; spending time on user research or analytics; handling your manager’s feature request versus the tech Read more »

Prioritization of work is hard: it’s often more an art than a science. Unless you work in an organization that has mastered the delicate balance of work from a prioritized roadmap as well as customer requests, you too may often be faced with squeaky-wheel prioritization: The customer yelling the loudest (or the one who last Read more »

Do you start with a “No”?  Defining your process for feedback will save time and improve feedback quality. My seven-year-old son has the gift of positioning, a trait he comes by honestly as his mother is a sales professional.  He knows that, given the opportunity to present his case the likelihood of approval increases.  Lately, Read more »

Accept that a lot of things you do are throwaway. They’re a means to an end, not the final output. Marcel Britsch is a consultant with Equal Experts. In this ProductTank London talk, he covers the complexities of prioritisation when you’re starting from scratch. Using examples from his work with Barclays Bank on a greenfield Read more »

Have you ever worried about knowing what to do next for your product?  Often, the qualitative and quantitative data you have on hand about your product can provide only a fuzzy outline of what is happening and it can be challenging to know if you’re heading in the right direction. While product managers have a Read more »

Making sure that you and your team are working on the most important thing at any point in time is part of the fun and headache of being a product manager or a product leader.  Many times looking at the backlog list or strategic priorities will just cause your eyes to glaze over as you Read more »