The GIST Planning framework, a lightweight, agile alternative to roadmaps, product backlogs and project plans.

1. GIST Planning
Itamar Gilad
Itamargilad.com
@itamargilad

2. Product, strategy and growth
consultant with over 20 years'
experience in product
management, lean startup, agile
development and design
thinking.
Previously held senior product
management and engineering
roles in Google, Microsoft and
other companies. @ Google
launched Gmail's Tabbed Inbox
and lead Gmail's growth team.
@itamargilad
Itamargilad.com
Itamar@itamargilad
Product & Strategy Newsletter

3. Planning Waterfall
Mission
Strategy
Roadmap
Project plan
Leadership
Product Management
Vision
Requirements
itamargilad.com

4. Planning Waterfall
Mission
Strategy
Roadmap
Project plan
Leadership
Product Management
Vision
Requirements
itamargilad.com
Lotsof time and
effortspent here

5. Issue#1: We’re Terrible at Planning

6. Classic Planning
1.
Collect
information
& Analyze
2.
Create plan
3.
Implement Plan
4.
Measure against
plan & adjust

7. “No plan survives
first contact with the
enemy”
Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke
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8. Gaps b/w Plans and Reality
1. Information gap - We always plan with
incomplete information
2. Alignment gap - Execution doesn't accurately
follow the plan
3. Effects gap - Our actions don't always
generate the expected outcomes
The longer the plan, the bigger the gap
Source: Stephen Bungay, The Art of Action

9. The Planning Fallacy
When planning, people and teams
tend to be overly optimistic -
underestimating the time, costs, and
risks, and at the same time
overestimating the benefits.
Daniel Kahneman Amos Tversky

10. Planning Waterfall
Mission
Strategy
Roadmap
Project plan
Leadership
Product Management
Vision
Requirements
itamargilad.com

11. Issue#2: Waterfall Effects

12. Little or No Agility
Mission
Strategy
Roadmap
Project plan
Leadership
Product Management
Vision
Requirements
itamargilad.com

13. Changes Cause Re-Planning
Mission
Strategy
Roadmap
Project plan
Leadership
Product Management
Vision
Requirements
itamargilad.com
Guess what?
Change of strategy
Re-planning

14. Issue#3: Idea Deathmatch

15. Idea Flow
Product backlog
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Roadmap
Ideas

16. Prioritization
Product backlog
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Roadmap
Ideas

17. Idea Failure Rate
“The vast majority of [ideas] fail in experiments, and
even experts often misjudge which ones will pay off.
At Google and Bing, only about 10% to 20% of
experiments generate positive results. At Microsoft as
a whole, one-third prove effective, one-third have
neutral results, and one-third have negative results.”
Ron Kohavi and Stefan Thomke / Harvard Business Review

18. Are We Killing the Right Ideas?
Product backlog
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Roadmap
Ideas
? ?

19. GIST

20. GIST - Goals, Ideas, Step projects, Tasks
“User Onboarding:
To keep users active we
will develop an onboarding
flow that will teach them
how use the product.”
Goal: improve retention
Idea: teach people how to use the
product when they onboard
Project: onboarding wizard
Task1, Task2, ...
itamargilad.com
Why
What
How

21. Goals

22. Goals
“If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there,
you’ll be amazed at the results”—George S. Patton.
“I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing
a man on the moon and returning him safely to the
earth.” - John F. Kennedy

23. Qualities of Good Goals
● Ambitious
● Achievable
● Measurable
● Time bound
● Of high priority
● Does not dictate a
solution

24. Objectives & Key Results

25. Ideas

26. Ideas
“If you want to have good ideas you
must have many ideas. Most of them
will be wrong, and what you have to
learn is which ones to throw away“—
Linus Pauling

27. Ideas
Idea Sources (Inspiration)
● Business Goals
● Opportunities
● Threats
● New Technologies
● Customer Feedback
● User research
● Learnings
● Processes
○ Impact mapping
○ Design sprints
○ Brainstorms
Idea BankIdeas

28. Idea Prioritization

29. Evidence-Based Confidence

30. Step Projects

31. Breaking long projects into step projects

32. Quarterly Status Tracking

33. Tasks

34. Planning at Step-project level
Step-Project
Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3 Sprint 4
Moving
planning focus
to the project
level

35. Cadence

36. Multiple Goals, Ideas, Projects, Tasks
Goals Goal 1: Improve Retention
Ideas Idea 1 Idea 2
Steps 1 4✔ ✔ 3 X 2 3
Idea 3
Tasks
Idea 4
Goal 2: Reduce Operating Costs
1 22
itamargilad.com

37. The GIST Planning Cadence
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Year 1
Goals
Step-
projects
Tasks
Year 2
Ideas
Tool: OKRs
Cycle: planned yearly and
quarterly. Reviewed quarterly.
Tool: Idea Banks
Cycle: continuously reviewed
and prioritized
Tool: Project plan
Cycle: Planned quarterly,
reviewed every 1-2 weeks
Tool: JIRA/other
Cycle: Planned every 1-2
weeks, reviewed daily itamargilad.com

38. GIST Outcomes
Velocity - no sequencing of ideation, planning and execution
Innovation - testing many ideas and funding the ones that work
Agility - we revisit every part of the plan regular cadence
Team empowerment and sense of ownership
Lower management overhead
Transparency
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Itamar Gilad is a product, strategy and growth consultant with
over 20 years' experience in product management, lean startup,
agile development and design thinking. He held senior product
management and engineering roles in Google, Microsoft and
other companies. @ Google he launched Gmail's Tabbed Inbox
and lead Gmail's growth team.

40. Thank You

41. Early 1900s - Work efficiency improvement
1. Collect
information &
Analyze
2. Plan &
set goals
3. Implement
Plan
4. Measure
performance
againstplan &
adjust