Methods & Frameworks Product Managers Should Know: Part 1 of 2
A lot of today’s successful companies such as Amazon, Spotify, and Google have a secret of streamlining processes. This is especially important because the entire product development process requires effort from multiple stakeholders, a huge investment of capital, and the time needed to develop these products. This is where frameworks come into the picture.
What are the product frameworks?
Frameworks in business provide the sets of steps for creating new products or improving the performance, cost, and quality of existing products. Frameworks enable designers, project and product managers to achieve business goals, such as entering new markets and selling more to existing customers.
Product management frameworks provide a process for product teams to make strategic decisions, prioritize features and backlog items, and discover and evaluate product ideas or problems. Those frameworks are designed to help product teams improve and refine their approach to product development.
Heads up! But, while frameworks can be very helpful, they can’t be applied blindly! Judgment needs to be applied about which framework is appropriate to use in your unique product situation. You need to analyze and evaluate your product management process, the internal political culture in your company, and the capabilities you possess.
1. CIRCLES Method
What is it?
The CIRCLES method is a problem-solving framework that helps product managers (PMs) make a thorough and thoughtful response to any design question. CIRCLES stands for,
- Comprehend the situation;
- Identify the customer;
- Report the customer’s needs;
- Cut, through prioritization;
- List solutions;
- Evaluate tradeoffs;
- Summarize your recommendation.
Why use it?
This method primarily focuses on the users and the pain points as a starting point. Which is one of the most impactful ways for a product manager to build solutions that have a higher chance to be accepted by users.
How to use it?
Let’s see an example to understand how to use the CIRCLES method. Consider that we need to design a bookshelf for children. If we apply the CIRCLES method, here’s how we will proceed -
- Comprehend the situation;
We first comprehend the situation meaning, we first understand why we need to design a bookshelf and what’s the objective behind this product. Let’s consider that the objective is to come up with an innovative bookshelf for kids aged 5–10 years in the US.
- Identify the customer;
Even though we said above that the bookshelf is for kids, we need to understand that the customers of this product would not only be kids but the parents. Since they would be the ones using buying this product for their kids. So interestingly, there is a distinction between the customers who will use this product vs the customer who will buy this product. And in this case, we need to consider both of them.
- Report the customer’s needs;
- Since children grow up quickly, a height-adjustable bookshelf would be useful.
- A bookshelf could be used as a desk with a top.
- It is always a pain to dust bookshelves, so perhaps the bookshelf could be self-dusting.
- Children love songs, so maybe the bookshelf could play a song with the play of a button.
- Children love to play with the see saw, so if the bookshelf is designed that way, it would be interesting to use.
- Cut, through prioritization;
We can list a lot of features and prioritize them, but let us go back to the ‘Comprehend the situation’ section where we listed the objective which was to design an innovative bookshelf. Considering this objective, we can prioritize a use case based on whether a solution could be highly original; whether it targets children; whether it is easy to build; and whether it is a frequent use case. Of all the use cases, the one that would spark an original design is the “See saw” bookshelf, which children could use for shelving books and for fun. It is not complex to make, and children would use it often because having a see saw is like having a playground available 24x7.
- List solutions;
Since we figured out which use-case to tackle first, we will now work on listing solutions. One of them could be to build an electronic sensor that detects the weight on the two sides and automatically controls the speed of going up and down. Another one would be a manual wooden see-saw with a bookshelf in the middle and some space on both sides for kids to play see-saw.
- Evaluate tradeoffs;
In case of trade-offs, if we go ahead with an electronic sensor see saw, it will take more time and capital to build. While a manual wooden see saw would be much faster and easier to build. And hence, in this case, it would make sense to go ahead with a manual wooden see saw first, evaluate the market response, and then build an electronic see-saw.
- Summarize your recommendation.
In summary, we identified parents and kids as two of the bookshelf’s main users. We came up with multiple problems for these two user groups and prioritized a see saw bookshelf as the first one to tackle. We later came up with a couple of solutions — manual and electric to build a see saw bookshelf and prioritized the manual see saw bookshelf initially, followed, by an electric bookshelf.
2. The Five Whys
What is it?
Five whys (or 5 whys) is an iterative interrogative technique used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem in the product. The primary goal of the technique is to determine the root cause of a defect or problem by repeating the question “Why?” five times. The answer to the fifth why should reveal the root cause of the problem.
Why use it?
Five whys can be very useful during the root cause analysis process. Unfortunately, it’s not the most effective method, since a problem might have multiple root causes, but five whys can help you discover insights and bring you closer to the root cause.
How to use it?
Start with a problem and ask why it is occurring. Make sure that your answer is grounded in fact, and then ask the question again. Continue the process until you reach the root cause of the problem, and you can identify a counter-measure that will prevent it from recurring. Here’s an example,
- Why do we have that bug in the payment gateway? There’s an issue with the new code we pushed.
- Why? We wrote it in a hurry.
- Why? We didn’t have much time to release the new feature.
- Why? We kept changing what we wanted to build.
- Why? We didn’t have a deep understanding of our customers’ problems.
3. North Star Framework
What is it?
Originally introduced by Amplitude, this framework centres on the single most important metric — the North Star Metric. Ideally, this metric captures the core value the product delivers to its customers.
Why use it?
Anyone who is into product management understands all the noise that keeps the PMs away from the core of the product. This is where North Star Metric comes into the picture. It helps to give one single direction to all the respective teams involved in the product creation process.
How to use it?
The below example will help you to understand how a North star metric for Netflix (Time spent watching streamed content) directs to other important metrics.
4. Working Backwards
What is it?
The “working backwards” method, also known as the Amazon method, is a methodology pioneered by product teams at Amazon. Its unique take on product development suggests that teams start at the end, by drafting an internal-only press release announcing the final product. A thorough “working backwards” press release has the following structure -
- Heading — This could be the product’s name, preferably framed in a way that makes it appealing to customers.
- Subheading — What is the core benefit of the product in a single line? (This can be a tough one, but it’s a very powerful way of refining a product vision).
- Summary — As the name suggests, simply summarize what the product does along with its main benefit.
- Problem — What is the specific problem this product exists to solve?
- Solution — How does the product solve the problem? Quote from you. Create a fictional spokesperson and ask for a one-liner explaining why this product is a must-have.
- How to get started — Explain why it’s so easy to hit the ground running with this product. Customer quote — Break the cardinal rule, and knowingly invent a customer testimonial.
- Closing and call to action — Finish up the press release by letting the reader know how to find out more or start using the product.
Why use it?
- It keeps the team focused on the customer experience.
- It sums up the goals of a product in a concise way.
- It serves as a guiding light during development.
- It’s a quick way to assess product/market fit.
How to use it?
Here’s an example of what a good working backward press release looks like -
the Voin App alerts shoppers when the products and services they want drop in price. If a product or service isn’t available today at the right price, Voin helps shoppers buy it later, for less.
Dubai–July 12, 2022 — Voin, a Dubai company, today launched a new application for iOS that helps users in MENA to set price alerts for their favourite products. The app sends a notification whenever the price goes below the specified price. No more missing out on a product just because the price wasn’t right. You can even choose the frequency of the notifications. Just open the app, choose the product you want to set the price of, and leave the rest to us.
If you want to save money, don’t forget to visit voin.com, and download the app now.
Once the project moves into development, the press release can be used as a touchstone; a guiding light. The product team can ask themselves, “Are we building what is in the press release?” If they find they’re spending time building things that aren’t in the press release (overbuilding), they need to ask themselves why. This keeps product development focused on achieving the customer benefits and not building extraneous stuff that takes longer to build, takes resources to maintain, and doesn’t provide real customer benefit (at least not enough to warrant inclusion in the press release).
Final Words
There are dozens of product management frameworks available. Depending on your company’s needs, one framework may provide the result you need while others may not be the right fit. Have you used any of these frameworks or plan to use them? Let us know in the comments.
