From our experience of working with various clients, we would like to share the various innovative methods the Product/Project directors use to prioritize the feature/product backlog and how it varies from business to business. For eg: Concept triage, Email campaigns etc.

1. Rajiv Nair - @rajeev_nair_tw
Adarsh - @aadarsh__

2. What forms your Backlog?
ü New Features
ü Defects
ü Code Refactors, Redesigns, Technology Upgrades

3. Backlog - Challenges
Flickr photo courtesy - Jaaron

4. Backlog - Challenges

5. Backlog - Challenges

6. Need for a Refined Backlog
ü Value Maximization
ü Balance
ü Business Alignment

7. Steve Scale
Research
Intuitive

8. Concept Triage

9. Concept Triage - What?
ü What ?
Product Sponsor/Owner is responsible
for creating a business case that
demonstrates why we should do a
project and where the business value is
derived from.

10. Concept Triage - How?
ü How is it done ?
PO/Business presents the case to a larger
audience. Like pitching a new Idea to a
bunch of VC’s…

11. Concept Triage - Who?
ü Who is involved?
– PO’s,
– Tech leads,
– BA’s,
– QA’s,
– Marketing,
– Ops,
– IS
– Legal
– Compliance

12. Concept Triage - Key Inputs
ü Problem/Opportunity Statement
– Implementation approach should be avoided as much as possible.
ü Financial (Business Case & Business Value)
– Regulatory/Mandatory
– Maintenance/Replacement
– Enhancements
– ROI Projects
– Risk Mitigation
– Client Funded

13. Concept Triage - Key Inputs
ü Key Drivers
– Why should this feature be in our Product
ü Benefit Analysis
– Increases or protects Revenue
– Increases or protects Cash Flow
– Decreases or protects Cost in line with Company Strategy
ü Success Criteria
– how would we define success
– This should tie directly back to the benefit analysis

14. Concept Triage - Key Inputs
ü Trade Offs
BudgetMost
negotiatiable
Least
negotiatiable
TimeMost
negotiatiable
Least
negotiatiable
Most
negotiatiable
Least
negotiatiable
Scope
Most
negotiatiable
Least
negotiatiable
QualityMost
negotiatiable
Least
negotiatiable
Customer Experience

15. Concept Triage - Key Outputs
ü T-Shirt Size(s)
ü Concept Evaluation Recommendation
– Can this concept go to discovery
– Back to the customer for more feedback
– If the business case doesn't match the high level T-Shirt size, call it out now, rather than
recommending a full discovery.
T-Shirt Cost (Lower) Iterations Cost (Upper) Iterations Band Size
XXS < £25,000 0.5 £25,000
XS £25,000 0.5 £50,000 1 £25,000
S £50,000 1 £100,000 2 £50,000
M £100,000 2 £250,000 5 £150,000
L £250,000 5 £500,000 10 £250,000
XL £500,000 10 £1,000,000 20 £500,000
XXL £1,000,000 20 £2,000,000 40 £1,000,000
E > £2,000,000 40

16. Concept Triage
ü Ideas get questioned
ü Business case gets validated
ü Involvement of business, IT,
compliance, IS
ü Rough idea of size & cost
ü Collective Wisdom!

17. Concept Triage
ü Good ideas may get trashed
due to cost
ü Another process before
development

18. Customer Insights

19. Customer Insights - What
ü What ?
– Include customers in the process
of Refining Backlog. Engage
customers until you get to
understand the minimum set of
features required to satisfy what
you try to achieve/what the
customer need.

20. Customer Insights - How
ü How is it done ?
– A simple communication is sent to customers
briefing them about the new product/
Feature - what the feature does and why
it exists - what are the features and
benefits
– Ask for their interest or feedback about a
product (yet to be launched).
– A twitter handler is created and
circulated to understand market sentiments

21. Silver
Users
Platinum Users
Gold Users
48+ tx in
12mnts6 - 12+
trxn in
12months
12 - 48+
trxn in
12months
ü Who is involved?
– PO's.
– Marketing Team
– Customers (Platinum or gold customers)
– Internal Employees
Customer Insights - How

22. Customer Insights - Pros
ü Tap the loyal customer base who
are power users
ü Feedback valuable and as they
will use n market the product
ü fleshing out the concept and
achieving clarity of thought
about what we will ultimately
go off and build

23. Customer Insights - Pros
ü One section of users are
ignored
ü Customers do not like to fill
surveys without incentive
ü People may not really know
What they want

24. The Systemico Model
Source : http://barryoreilly.com/

25. Common anti patterns
ü
Focus on managing cost and
not value.
ü Prioritize with size as the
most important input.

26. We create value !

27. But
how do we prioritize value ?

28. Sytemico model

29. User goals
“I want to login”
“I want to search for tickets”
“I want to select different delivery options”

30. User engagement
ü Core
– Functionality that satisfies users’ basic needs
ü Use
– Enhanced functionality that increases the usability of the product
ü Engage
– Functionality that draws the user to interact with the product
ü Explore
– Functionality that entices the user to go beyond simple interactions

31. Applying user stories to the Systemico model

32. Example

33. That’s what we need to build !!

34. That’s when we will build !

35. Systemico : Pros
ü Provides additional dimensions
which helps in prioritization
ü Very useful when there is little
validated learning in the product
space

36. Systemico : Cons
ü May not be the best framework
for matured products

37. Lets recap..
Concept Triage Customer Insights Systemico Model
What ? Present the business
case
Seek feedback
from actual users
Prioritize value
How ? Like you pitch to a
VC
Email campaigns,
Social media
User goal & User
engagement
Ideas gets
questioned & sized
Feedback from
early adapters/power
users
Additional dimensions
Too much focus on
cost
Feedback limited to
the chosen customer
set
Matured products ?

38. Thank You!
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-05-10/