How a Product Leader Can Make Better and Faster Decisions
Very often decision making is a complex and complicated process, especially if a Product Leader does not only sustain existing functionalities but also develop and roll out new ones. There are many factors that affect a decision on a solution of a problem or fulfilment of a need. Those factors should be taken into consideration while the decision is made. I always take the two basic steps in order to make the quick decision on whether I should invest resources and time in fixing a bug or developing a new feature. If I am not in a rush with taking an action, the third and forth steps help me to make the educated decision on the best time and way to realize that, taking into account constraints, such as cost, time, capacity, feasibility, etc.
Step 1. Validate a Problem or Need Against a Vision
A vision captures the essence of a product and describes its main idea, features, and key needs of customers. Each feature has to fulfil a certain need and generate value. There is no sense in sustaining and building features that do not maximize the value of the product. In my previous article, I explained why the vision is crucial to your product.
If decisions on building new features are not validated against the vision, it is likely that at the end of the day you will create a “feature soup” instead of the valuable product. I believe that all requests that do not support the vision should be rejected.
Step 2. Assess Criticality of a Problem or Need
There are many minor problems that do not need immediate action. However, some of them can develop into those which have adverse impact on operational stability of a product or disable its key functionalities. Those may be considered as mission critical problems. I tend to prioritize the effort needed for a fix of such problems without taking any time to consider the consequences on other development activities.
Very often the minor problems or needs are escalated by customers because of various reasons. A Product Leader should know the product well in order to be able to find a difference between the escalated problem and severe one. The escalation of the minor problem does not increase its severity unless it leads to business loses.
The diagram below shows how I handle a new request about the fix of the problem or fulfilment of the need.
If a non-critical item is on the backlog, it needs to be properly prioritized. The further steps help me to manage it.
Step 3. Estimate Cost and Time of Effort Towards a Solution (Only Applies to Non-Critical Problems and Needs)
Estimation of how much time and effort is supposed to be invested in a certain solution is extremely crucial.
I believe the best approach is to ask a development team to do it for you during the Refinement event. Usually I take advantage of Refinements because I have a chance to discuss some items within the team, understand a level of their complexity and ask for estimation. Also, you can try to estimate the effort on you own or ask a teammate for ad hoc support.
This knowledge can help you to make an educated decision on when is the best moment to put the effort into a fix or development.
Step 4. Make a Decision Based on Developed Strategy and Tactics
A role of a Product Leader is demanding because it forces to make decisions operating in an environment of uncertainty. The task gets more complicated if your backlog is full of non-critical items that are expected to be done as soon as possible. You should be good at prioritization and negotiations to order the backlog items in a way to generate the highest possible value and allocate the resources to what is needed at a specific moment of time.
A decision on the priority of an item should be based on strategy and tactics. For example, you might decide that some functionality is not crucial but still generates value, and you want to fix and develop it putting the lowest possible effort and not spending much time. You might decide to keep the main focus on key functionalities and develop them actively because they bring the major value. Therefore, you will likely prioritize the effort towards their successful maintenance and development.
The following examples show how the knowledge about estimated cost and time, and developed strategy and tactics can help to solve a potential problem of a Product Leader — prioritize the tasks properly in a case when capacity of the development team is a main constraint.
The Example of Strategy (outputs)
Do not develop new features for a functionality X, keep it alive, and retire it by Q4/2021.
Develop a new functionality Y and launch it by Q2/2021.
The Example of Tactics
Support customers and explain to them how to use the functionality X. Put the low effort of a subject-matter expert/business analyst into this activity.
If a minor problem with this functionality is identified, create an item and put it in backlog.
Prioritize the effort towards the fix of the problem if it
- does not have workaround;
- costs fewer than 3 story points;
- brings value to a customer.
If the minor problem has the workaround, ask the customer to use it. If the fix of this problem costs more than 3 story points, try to avoid doing it.
If the customer escalates the solution of the problem, try to negotiate its release in a way to achieve planned goals at first.
Spend at least 80% of total resources for implementation and launch of the functionality Y.
Spend no more than 10% of the total resources for fixing bugs of the functionality X.
The Example of a Problem
Some time ago a customer reported a problem with some feature of the functionality X. A business analyst analyzed the problem and suggested the customer use a workaround to avoid the problem. The customer was happy.
Yesterday the customer requested an immediate fix of the problem within the next 14 days because usage of the workaround takes much time and generates additional effort that leads to business loses.
Meanwhile, you as a Product Leader committed to the implementation of some feature for the functionality Y. You need to finalize this implementation by the end of the month and you do not have the capacity to fix the bug of the functionality X within the next 14 days.
The example of a Solution
According to the strategy, you need to keep the functionality X alive and develop the functionality Y actively.
According to the tactics, development of the functionality Y has a priority over fixing the minor problems with the functionality X.
According to the problem, it seems that you do not have the capacity to fix the bug and finish the implementation of the feature at the same time within the next 14 days. Nevertheless, you need to make all stakeholders satisfied.
Let assume during Refinement, the development team estimated that the effort towards the fix would cost 3 story points. Taking into account this fact in addition to the escalation of the problem by the customer, you decided to prioritize this effort.
Since the effort towards the bug fix has lower priority than the implementation of the feature, you may try to negotiate the new deadline of the fix with the customer. If you have good negotiating skills, you will likely agree to a new deadline and make some time to achieve planned goals at first.
Summary
A decision making process can be a challenge for each Product Leader. There are many factors that influence decisions on the development effort. Immediate validation of a problem or need against a vision, assessment of its criticality, further estimation of the necessary cost and time, and usage of strategy and tactics can help to make the decision on prioritization of the effort better and faster.
My approach to handling customers’ critical and non-critical problems and needs makes my professional life easier. I believe you will find it beneficial and try to take advantage of it as well.
