Roman Makedonov’s Post

The Most Important Thing You Can Do as a Product Guy Before Starting to Solve the Problem Statement I hear this a lot from leaders and successful product builders, most important thing is to understand and ask as many questions as possible. I think that 50% of the work is done before starting to write the first line of code or designing the first wireframe. Asking the right questions will ensure that you have the correct context and will help you with planning. (Save this post for future reference!) Here are 27 questions to ask the stakeholders or team members: 1. What is the problem we're trying to solve? 2. Why is it important to solve this problem? 3. Who is the target user for this solution? 4. What are the key performance indicators (KPIs) for this solution? 5. How does this solution align with the company's vision and goals? 6. What are the key features and functionalities required for this solution? 7. How will we measure the success of this solution? 8. What are the potential risks and constraints associated with this solution? 9. Are there any regulatory or compliance issues to consider? 10. How will we prioritize the development of this solution? 11. What are the key dependencies and critical path items? 12. How will we communicate the value of this solution to our users? Here are questions to ask yourself or discuss with fellow product team members: 13. Can we validate the problem statement with user research? 14. Is this solution feasible and possible to implement? 15. Do we already have something similar built and we can reuse it? 16. How can we efficiently test the solution with users? 17. How can we reuse as many as already made components? 18. Does it fit with the vision of our product roadmap? 19. Can we add new functionalities to it later? 20. How easy would it be to maintain it after launch? 21. How can we split the functionality into smaller, more manageable pieces to 22. deliver value to users as soon as possible? 23. How to make sure that everyone in the team understands and has the context of the functionality 24. What are the technical risks and constraints associated with the implementation? 25. Is this going to affect the user experience? And can this functionality be built in a user-friendly way? 26. What does it mean for the infrastructure? Will our infrastructure be able to support it? 27. How can we make sure that the solution is working as it should? - How can we properly set the metrics, logs, and alerts to notify us if something goes wrong? What questions would you add? Found this helpful? Follow Chaitanya Athukuri to not miss such posts. #ProductManagement #ProductDevelopment #ProblemSolving #QuestionEverything

What is a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? (And How to Build it?) Are you familiar with the concept of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)? No worries if you're not, I've got you covered. To put it simply, MVP is the most basic version of your product that still delivers the core functionalities needed by your customers. When it comes to building an MVP, it's all about prioritizing the essential features that provide the most value. It's a smart strategy that allows teams to: • test,  • learn,  • and iterate based on real customer feedback, without spending time and resources on the full product development upfront. So how do you actually build an MVP? Start by identifying the problem you're solving and the key features that directly address this problem. Then, design and develop a simple version of your product that includes these features, and nothing more. This will be your MVP! Finally, release your MVP to a segment of your audience, gather their feedback, and refine your product accordingly. This way, you’re continually improving your product based on what your customers actually want and need. --- FREE Cost Calculator for your idea: https://lnkd.in/dq4sCCEq Find out how much it would cost to turn your idea into a software product. ---

Teresa Torres' recent article( https://lnkd.in/gXer_ZKs) from her excellent newsletter / blog, aligned to her outstanding book _Continuous Discovery Habits_ inspires a quick thought for product folks. Using an example from her post - Given an identified customer problem - "I cannot find my daily puzzles (on the New York Times website) easily." As a product manager, what do you do? There are two paths you need to pursue from this seed.  The first path - figure out how to solve the problem. We immediately jump into devising solutions, it's human nature. However, as the mantra from my early days states, "you are not your user." So - we need to understand the customer's problem. Which customer group are we serving (not all NYT puzzle players are identical clones), and how do they define "easily"? There's a lot in the crafts of product management and ethnography which we do to shape our understanding about why this is hard for some people, and our beliefs about what would be good enough about a possible solution. This is the execution-oriented path. Define the problem and what it means to solve it before imagining a potential solution. Then estimate the cost of developing this solution. The second path - figure out if solving the problem moves the needle for the company. We love our users, we learn that they struggle with something, and we want to help. That's why we build things in the first place. What we have to figure out is if helping with this particular problem matters. For the business, I would start with an approach like this one (generally, since I am not in the weeds). Assuming the NY Times revenue is based on subscriptions (either to puzzles, or the entire offering), there are 3 populations of people. People who already subscribe, people who will never subscribe, and people on the cusp of subscribing but reluctant for some reason. Estimate out how many people are on the cusp. Then estimate how many of those 'cuspers' would be convinced to subscribe by this improvement. Given a model for customer lifetime value (based on revenue and retention data), this yields the value of making this easier. With an estimate of cost and an estimate of benefit, you can now decide if you want to make it easier for people to find their daily puzzles. Product Managers must pull both threads. Neither without the other is sufficient alone. Also, shout out to Steve Klein at Vistaly for building a tool to help with this work.

Do you struggle taking ideas from product strategy to backlog and then figure out how to prioritise what to improve next? I've published this template on Miroverse to guide you from big idea through to minute in delivery: https://buff.ly/3ZWqjgb I call this the "Product Paradox" because there is a tension between having a simple strategy and managing the complex details of product implementation. Bridging this gap requires a structured approach. Taking Design Thinking/Agile/Lean Startup into account, product development stages are: - Discovery: Understanding the problem space. - Ideation: Generating potential solutions. - Prototyping: Creating low-cost representations of solutions. - Development: Building the product based on user and technical requirements. - Testing: Validating the technical and business viability, including alpha and beta testing. After launch/release, products undergo further improvements through feature requests, planning, building, testing, and deployments, which are key to continuous development. Steps from Strategy to Backlog: 1. Product Vision: Align with the company’s strategy using tools like canvases and "How Might We" questions. 2. Challenge Identification: Define customer pain points and set SMART objectives. 3. Capabilities and Features: Break down objectives into user stories, mapping the customer journey. 4. Initiatives: Structure work to deliver value incrementally. 5. Prioritisation: Evaluate features based on value and effort using frameworks like RICE or Kano. And Beyond: Roadmap and Iteration: 1. Build a timeline to outline MVP and future releases. 2. Organize work into epics and tasks, and use tools like Kanban or Jira to track progress. 3. Measure outcomes against goals using KPIs and OKRs, adjusting based on feedback. 4. Regularly iterate based on user feedback and product analytics, with continuous releases to refine the product. These steps help create a transparent process from strategy to backlog, ensuring alignment between vision, customer needs, and implementation.

A roadmap for business works in a similar way – it is vital, it will help you get to your destination without complications. A product roadmap is not a to-do list or a wish list, it is a reliable “GPS” of your product's journey. And we'll tell you how to set it up correctly below:

I recently finished reading Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres. In this book, Torres discusses how the user experience and product team can research, develop, and implement features sustainably. One of my key takeaways is how product teams should shift from outputs to outcomes. Instead of considering what feature we need to develop, we as product teams should focus on how we want the product to impact the users. Torres recently published a blog that dives further into this topic if you want to check it out! https://lnkd.in/eaR97Erc

A product roadmap is more than a plan—it’s a strategic tool that aligns teams, prioritizes efforts, and drives product success. Our latest blog article, "How to Create an Amazing Product Roadmap Template", offers actionable insights to help you craft an effective roadmap. From setting clear goals to fostering stakeholder alignment, we cover everything you need to know to create a roadmap that balances strategy and adaptability. Key Takeaways: 🔹 A product roadmap aligns teams and stakeholders around shared goals. 🔹 Clear milestones and priorities ensure efficient resource allocation. 🔹 Flexibility in roadmaps is vital for navigating dynamic markets. 🔹 Using templates saves time while maintaining professional structure. 🔹 Regular updates foster transparency and trust. Read the full article to learn how roadmaps can transform your product development process. #ProductRoadmap #StrategicPlanning #ProductDevelopment #TeamAlignment #BusinessGrowth #RoadmapTemplates #ProjectManagement #AgilePlanning #StakeholderManagement #ResourceAllocation #Iterators

The ultimate guide to product roadmaps: strategies, templates, and best practices

Building a product roadmap can be difficult for many reasons. There are so many types of roadmaps, and it’s easy to get lost in the details. We’ve created this ultimate guide on how to build a product roadmap that will help you create an effective one faster. It includes everything from how to identify your business goals, what type of product roadmap best suits your needs, and more! What is a product roadmap? A product roadmap is how you communicate your business goals in terms of what needs to be built and when. This document should include how your team will create each item, how long it will take your team to build, how much it’s going to cost you, and how each item ties back into the overall business goals. Why is roadmapping important for a business? Roadmapping is how you communicate your product strategy to everyone, both internally and externally. This should be how the entire company knows what’s happening with the product. Your sales team, support re... Read the full post: - https://lnkd.in/dcCPjs8K Written By George Petropoulos at Inorigin. - #ProductEngineering

🗺️ Understand the concept of a product roadmap and how it helps teams visualize and plan the development of products and features over time. #ProductRoadmap #ProductDevelopment #Planning https://hubs.la/Q02snQYm0