Presented at ProductCamp Silicon Valley 2015 by Jim Semick, Co-founder, ProductPlan. Get a free 30 day trial at http://www.productplan.com Prioritizing initiatives is difficult when there are too many opportunities to choose from and different stakeholders to satisfy. In this session we discussed: - 7 different techniques to prioritize initiatives for your product roadmap. - How to align strategy with company goals, and then get stakeholder buy-in. This was the top-voted session at ProductCamp SV 2015 ---

1. How Product Managers
Decide What to Build
7 Ways to Prioritize
Jim Semick
ProductCamp Silicon Valley – March 2015

2. So many
opportunities.
How do you decide
the right ones for
your product
roadmap?

3. Challenges
Prioritizing details, not the big picture
Priorities not tied to strategic goals
Priorities driven by loudest execs
Priorities determined by sales
prospects
Stakeholders question priorities

4. Before You Start
Think high level and categorize
Be Strategic (growth, satisfaction, etc.)
Group smaller initiatives into themes
Bring customer evidence to the table
Understand customer value
Have rough cost/effort

5. 7
Prioritization Techniques

6. Value Versus Complexity
Complexity / Effort
Business
Value
High
High
Low
1 2
?

7. Value versus Complexity +
Weighted Scoring

8. Product Function
Customer
Delight
High
Fully Implemented
Low
Absent
Kano Model
Customer Delight versus Product Function

9. Buy a Feature
1. List features
2. Assign a price
3. Hand out cash
4. Customers “buy” features

10. Gap Analysis /
Opportunity Analysis

11. Affinity Grouping
Photo credit: Doctordisruption.com

12. Story Mapping
Image credit: AgileBuddha.com

13. The technique you choose is not
as important as…
…the conversation about priorities
…agreement on the criteria
…your product management skills
…helping others arrive at the same
conclusion based on evidence

14. Getting Executive Buy-In
• Be transparent with execs about
your process - involve them
• Get agreement up front on
framework and goals
• Involve multiple stakeholders to get
different viewpoints on prioritization

15. 30 Day Free Trial
www.productplan.com
@productplan
Thank You!