Main Takeaways: 1. How to plan for outcomes and not output 2. Empowering your team: Players, not pawns 3. Good execution = good discovery

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Empowering Outcome-Driven Teams
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5. Jake Werlin
T O N I G H T ’ S S P E A K E R

6. Empowered Teams
Jake Werlin
Product Manager, Redemption Experience @ Ibotta
October 16, 2019

7. Who am I?

8. Outcome-based planning
empowers teams to
discover & deliver quality product

9. What’s on tap
1. Outcome-based planning
2. Empowering your team
3. Executing on Discovery

11. It starts with how to talk about goals
Solid foundation

12. Features are solutions to problems
● Easier to communicate
● Stakeholders prefer it
● Feels more transparent
● Risk appears to be distributed
We talk about what we’re going to build, not what we’re going to solve

13. Features are solutions to problems
● ROI is a mirage
● Is it the right solution?
● Assumes conditions remain constant
● Risk is higher
We talk about what we’re going to build, not what we’re going to solve

14. Autonomy = trust

15. Leadership will run out of patience before
the company runs out of money.

16. Leadership will run out of patience before
the company runs out of money.
Takeaway: Build trust with senior stakeholders

17. ROI is important. Measure the impact of the
outcome instead of the feature and
prioritize accordingly

18. ROI is important. Measure the impact of the
outcome instead of the feature and
prioritize accordingly
Takeaways:
Lean into OKRs (notice there’s no ‘I’ in OKR)
Attach biz value to every feature
Measure impact of Biz Outcome, not the feature

19. Leadership is most concerned that
teams are working on the right things and
critical dependencies can be planned

20. Leadership is most concerned that
teams are working on the right things and
critical dependencies can be planned
Takeaway: Communicate early and often
Talk about impact before features in launch
comms

21. Outcome-driven conversations
● Build relationships (trust) with senior stakeholders.
● Prioritize business outcomes, not features.
● Measure discreetly and comprehensively.
● Communicate learnings and outcome wins early & often.
Build a solid foundation to unleash your team

22. Empowering your team
A solid foundation makes possible:

23. What empowered teams look like
● They tell you what needs to be built, not the other way around
● They are fully (emotionally) invested in the problem
● They do not see feature ideas for the first time in sprint planning
● They fill in the gaps on their own and hate being separated
● They press you for strategic justification
Your best ideas will come from your squad (engineering)

25. What your planning meeting(s)
hopefully look like

26. Not this.

27. Strategic Objective -- The Most Important Problem to Solve
How to get there -- The results by which we’ll measure progress
Product-led
Team-led

28. “Be firm on the vision,
but flexible on the details.”
- Marty Cagan

30. Discovers & Delivers the
best products
An empowered team

31. “Discovery, by definition, means you don’t
know the answer before you start.”

32. “Discovery, by definition, means you don’t
know the answer before you start.”
-Silicon Valley Product Group

33. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like

34. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
best problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like
1. What business objective are you shooting towards?
2. How will you know if you’ve succeeded?
3. What problem are you solving for savers?
4. Who are you solving the problem for?

35. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like
Write the #launches post before you pitch the squad
(with an FAQ to get ahead of stakeholder objections)

36. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like
With the whole squad: Story-mapping, Journey Maps,
Reference Customers & User Research are options

37. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like
Solving the right problem
& defining the problem

38. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like
There are 4 risks to manage.

39. 1
2
3
4
Value: Will savers use it?
Usability: Can savers figure out how to use it?
Feasibility: Can we build it?
Biz Viability: Can we launch it?
The 4 risks

40. 1
2
3
4
Value: Will savers use it?
Usability: Can savers figure out how to use it?
Feasibility: Can we build it?
Biz Viability: Can we launch it?
The 4 risks
Product
Design
Engineering
Product

41. Credit: Silicon Valley Product Group

42. Assess
Opportunity
Visualize
Are we solving the
correct problem?
What does success
look like?
Identify user
context
Risk
Management
What are savers
doing today to
solve this problem?
Are we solving the
problem correctly?
What Discovery looks like

43. Why is all this important?

44. 1. We don’t know what the problem is yet -- hence ‘Discovery’
2. Your best ideas often come from engineering, not product
3. Everyone needs to understand the problem because...

46. It is often thought that an architectural plan is the
representation of something that will be built or
that has been built. Ultimately, the opposite occurs
and it is the built object that is a representation of
the drawing. Plans are instructions for fabrication, a
tool to anticipate reality — to think about it,
organize it, and control it. Nonetheless, what is built
is not the exact materialization of the plan. It is an
interpretation, an exercise of transfer, a
consequence.

49. 1. Outcome-based planning
2. Empowering your team
3. Executing on Discovery
● Prioritize and communicate impact > output
● Increased autonomy = increased trust

50. 1. Outcome-based planning
2. Empowering your team
3. Executing on Discovery
● Prioritize and communicate impact > output
● Increased autonomy = increased trust
● Prompt squad with problems then give space
● Designate a tech lead
● Frame problems comprehensively

51. 1. Outcome-based planning
2. Empowering your team
3. Executing on Discovery
● Prioritize and communicate impact > output
● Increased autonomy = increased trust
● Prompt squad with problems then give space
● Designate a tech lead
● Frame problems comprehensively
● Define the right problem
● Prototype and iterate at light-speed
● Manage all 4 risks

52. Outcome-based planning
empowers teams to
discover & deliver quality product

54. www.productschool.com
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