| Aspect | Question | L1 STARTING | L2 PRACTICING | L3 SYSTEMATIC | L4 MEASURING | L5 INNOVATING | Level | Discussion comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Product Vision, Strategy and Product Roadmap |
- Product vision & strategy does not exist - Prioritization decisions are made by other departments (ie Ops, engineering, sales etc.) - Roadmaps do not exist - Teams use project plans to deliver outputs |
- Product vision exists for Tribe and in some product areas - Product vision is short term & product strategy covers delivering on stakeholder asks. - Struggle to align stakeholders to a common vision or prioritization - Roadmaps exist for the Tribe and some product areas - Roadmap is driven by stakeholder requirements with frequently changing priorities |
- Product vision and strategy is well defined at all levels and is driven by customer needs - Leverages understanding of the Business Strategy, Outcomes and Customer Journey to create the product strategy, vision, and roadmap - Articulating vision is a core competency & strength - Roadmaps exists for Tribe and every product area - Roadmap is driven by customer needs leveraging understanding of customer journey and customer research - Roadmap exists with a healthy balance of product growth and BAU initiatives. - Roadmap creation and maintenance is practiced across all product areas with a standardized format - Visibility of roadmap at all levels |
- Product vision is based on market research and insights - In depth research and analysis of competitors, business models informs product strategy and priorities. - Product strategy supports business goals - Articulating vision that is differentiating and motivates the team - Product strategy defined based on time horizons from near to longer term strategy. - Roadmap is driven by market needs and responsive to market changes. - Stakeholder "buy-in" to the overall Product vision, short-term, mid-term roadmaps based on market needs. |
- Product vision & strategy drives business goals - Developing vision that is inspiring and anchor point for the company vision. - Executive Leadership is aligned on Product strategy - Outcome driven Long term roadmap for 24-36 months exists for all product areas and is aligned to the overall product vision - Everyone across the organization rallies around the roadmap |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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| Data driven decision making |
- Feature Requests are accepted at face value with no data to support - Focus is on output rather than outcome |
- Feature requests are accepted with minimal due diligence on priority or need - Ownership of defining goals and measure of success is outside the Product team - Data driven decision making is practiced but not used consistently |
- Data forms the basis for decision making across all product areas - Prioritization is based on simplistic methods - Outcome is measured but post launch |
- Data insights drive efforts for product development & priority - Clear and achievable goals and metrics defined for every initiative - Metrics and KPIs are defined for every product area and has clear traceability to overall product and company goals |
- Data trends leveraged to uncover new needs or new markets - Experimentation is supported cross-org and actively undertaken as means for growth and innovation |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Technical Acumen |
- Defines solutions without understanding of technical capabilities and challenges resulting in tech debt - Missed commitments on release or additional resources needed to meet time constraints due to not fully understanding the technical feasibility and complexity of defined features. |
- Liaisons with shared services to understand technology capabilities and its impacts on roadmap |
- Relentless about uncovering and mitigating technology-oriented risks and associated impacts to product strategy, vision, and roadmaps - Understands and balances technology requirements against stakeholder requests and market’s wants and needs |
- Understanding the technology capabilities of the company, ability to present technology-based decision to business stakeholders - Knowledge and understanding of current and future technology capabilities, trends and systems |
- Able to identify and communicate key technology trends shaping the Business domain and & how technology can empower Business through specific product capabilities/features |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
User/ Customer Research |
- User research is minimal to non-existent - Lack of understanding and user research |
- User research performed in silo by Design teams to inform UI/UX deliverables - Product not involved in the process and utilizes research insights to develop roadmap - Product does not seek insights from research - User experience is often sacrificed for expediency. |
- Product closely collaborated with Design on user research. - Design thinking approach is piloted - Applies customer focused product mindset principles, frameworks and methodologies (Personas, JTBD, customer journeys) - Implements, supports and advocates the voice of the customer, balancing it with business objectives and technology requirements - Ability to perform customer-facing activities – interviews, surveys, demos, participate in sales, onboarding and support calls |
- User research is the base for a personalized product - Implements, supports and advocates the voice of the customer, balancing it with business objectives and technology requirements - Conducts market and user research and advocates for their value - Solid understanding of design thinking tools and ability to communicate users needs, their overall service journey, and how they use and leverage technology - Liaison with marketing and sales on prep, launch and post launch support - Understanding of go to market strategy, required steps etc. |
- Focus on the product but also other elements in the ecosystem that impact the customer experience, to uncover new ideas or solutions - covering the complete end-to-end journey - Able to improve the processes around the user research - Leverage advanced technologies (e.g. AI, ML, VR, etc) to uncover customer needs and create delightful experiences - Follow consistently a well-defined go to market strategy plan |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Product portfolio management |
- Lacks clear overall vision strategy and alignment across product families - Every product team/area have independent goals that often lack alignment to overall business goals sometimes even conflicting with overall vision |
- Certain product families/areas are somewhat aligned more than others - Able to manage cross-dependencies, priorities and requirements within same product family |
- Able to manage out of family dependencies and establish partnerships with other product teams - Ensures collaboration and communication across product teams - Monitors and leverages customer feedback to align on key features and functions |
- Identify objectives and key results (OKRs) to be monitored for each product/stream, align and track them towards the product’s strategic goals - Build or manage portfolio based on solid understanding of competitor landscape |
- Set the trend for market by adding innovative products to portfolio - Clear framework and decision making process for product phase-outs and new product additions to portfolio - Focus is on building an ecosystem vs single product offering |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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| People |
leadership: - Lacks leadership - Tactical focus - Executes on asks |
leadership: - Collaborative and comfortable engaging at different levels of the organization - Exhibits ownership of business outcomes in some instances |
leadership: - Exhibits ownership of business outcomes consistently at all levels and able to negotiate, challenge conflicts and bottlenecks to successfully deliver on them. - Facilitates/Supports quarterly strategic review sessions with the business to discuss product performance, delivery health, customer insights, and outcomes - Evangelize product mindset across the org |
leadership: - Brings evidence-based decision-making and associated communication as needed - A strategic thinker with a bias for action and continuous improvement - Product is well-respected and seen as the voice of customer across the org |
leadership: - Proactively engage and influence the Business with ideas and recommendations that shape product strategy and technology direction - Multiply impact by enabling people around them to contribute to and own business impact necessary to achieve the company’s strategy - People in different roles understand product mindset and nurture this in the organization |
People: - L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
cross-functional team collaboration: - Hand off requirements to team for development with no further involvement |
cross-functional team collaboration: - Team collaboration is on a sporadic basis - Struggles to communicate & create buy-in from team on agreed upon Product vision |
cross-functional team collaboration: - Cadence based communication established with team for 2-way information flow - Able to communicate and get buy-in to the agreed upon product vision - Cross functional teams understand how they contribute to product success - Knowledge sharing sessions to discuss current challenges, share ideas on resolutions and ways of working |
cross-functional team collaboration: - Invites ideas and opinions from team on emerging opportunities and problem statements - Knowledge sharing sessions take a form of sharing insights, new ideas and latest trends around the product and market., improve ways of working |
cross-functional team collaboration: - Collaborates with team to identify and run experiments, POCs etc. - Knowledge sharing sessions becomes a place to discuss innovative product ideas, & share ideas on defining new ways of working |
People: - L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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managing up: - Lack of visibility and gaps in communication to senior leadership and management |
managing up: - Management and senior leaders have to pull information continuously to ensure progress and alignment to overall strategy and vision |
managing up: - Senior leadership and management is kept in the loop with overall progress and major decision points - Brings evidence based decision making and associated communication as needed - Check-in with management on alignment to overall strategy |
managing up: - Leverage senior leaders in the organization to help achieve goals, deliver meaningful outcomes |
managing up: - Supports strategic review sessions with leadership to discuss product performance, delivery health, customer insights and outcomes - Leverage senior leaders to positively influence the strategic direction of the team and the company overall |
People: - L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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stakeholder management: - Stakeholders not identified - Lacks understanding of stakeholder engagement - Ineffective in saying "no" or prioritizing requests |
stakeholder management: - Engagement at appropriate stakeholder level is missing - Stakeholder communication occurs in an inconsistent manner |
stakeholder management: - Stakeholders identified and mapped based on influence, impact - Communication plan is consistent across the team - Is able to say “No” to stakeholders and those driving product development priorities, but explains “Why” in terms that Stakeholders understand |
stakeholder management: - Willing and able to make hard product decisions and able to align everyone to those decisions including the dissenters |
stakeholder management: - Proactively engage and influence the Business with ideas and recommendations that shape product strategy and technology direction - Consistently push relevant information to leadership and management and proactively align work to business objectives |
People: - L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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Tools & Artefacts |
- Absence of PM tools needed to track and manage work effectively - Artefacts generated are difficult to update and consume. |
- A wide range of tools used by different teams or individuals making it difficult to collaborate - Inconsistent usage of tools with limited or no training - Artefacts created only on request and often not maintained with latest information. |
- Identified and agreed on specific tools to be used across teams to track and manage work for PMs - Defined set of artefacts generated at each stage of the product development lifecycle(Customer Journey maps, product strategy and vision document, roadmap and supporting documentation) - Holds annual strategic planning and quarterly strategic reviews - Holds biweekly/weekly PO sync and team check-in meetings |
- PMs are skilled at tools needed to manage work and leverage advanced options to become efficient in operational tasks - High- quality artefacts, checklists generated across all teams leveraging templates. |
- Automate operational tasks where possible - Experiment and innovate using tools to become efficient, communicate effectively and provide visibility on product planning and execution at all levels |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Product Creation – Identify Phase |
- Product ideation driven more by instinct than data - Lack of customer focus in driving new ideas - Lack of effective triaging of new ideas - Extensive governance and business case required |
- Some focus on customer problem but lacking data to prove impact. - Use of Lean Canvas as lightweight business case - Effective triage of new initiatives in place |
- Focus on customer problems and pain points to generate new product ideas - Data driven decision making - Idea generation is outcome focused. - Effective Customer, Competitor and Technology research in place. - Key commercial drivers are understood. - Pipeline of work visible and managed from identify through to land. - Relevant exit criteria artefacts consistently produced |
- Customer focus combined with competitor awareness drives idea generation - Initiatives linked to OKR’s and business metrics with clear relationship to strategic outcomes |
- Very strong focus on customer problems leads to game changing product ideas. - New ideas are driven by outcome of experimentation and associated product metrics |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Product Creation – Validate Phase |
- Minimal product discovery where hypothesis are not identified/tested prior to development - Product discovery comprises of compiling second or third hand information or knowledge around problem statement - Requirements are generated by PM/POs in silos |
- Some initiatives with effective discovery but not widely adopted. - Feature factory approach with handover of features from product to delivery - Limited collaboration across product, design and technology |
- Widespread adoption of effective Product Discovery sessions - Techniques such as Customer Journey mapping adopted - Hypothesis driven approach and associated hypothesis testing (such as UX research) - Strong collaboration between product, design and technology - Engagement with relevant external teams such as Architecture and Infosec. - Relevant exit criteria artefacts consistently produced |
- Effective customer research - Experimentation mindset embedded - Squads acting as cross functional product teams - Initiatives routinely assessed for feasibility, desirability and viability |
- Outcome of discovery efforts leads to noticeable improvements to product outcomes in line with business strategy. - Discovery is viewed more as a mindset rather than a phase. Discovery and delivery are continuous activities powered by experimentation and learning. |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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| Product Creation – Plan Phase | - Project style planning with fixed scope, budget, timelines (iron triangle) | - Some collaboration in planning but contributors not fully engaged. Deadlines might be ‘handed down’ to squads. |
- Planning used to identify dependencies and delivery approach but understood to be a forecast/guide rather than commitment. - Plan adapted as initiative proceeds - All contributors to delivery collaboratively create the delivery plan. - Relevant exit criteria artefacts consistently produced |
- Transparent reporting to governance allowing early decision making – especially around areas such as scope. - Plan is regularly updated taking into account reality on the ground and associated learnings as initiative progresses. |
- Plan is viewed as a tool towards more effective product outcomes. - Widespread adoption of Agile planning and governance. |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Product Creation – Build Phase |
- Project driven approach with teams siloed into functional areas - Focus is on output and activities driven by project mindset - No clear process defined for product development |
- Initial adoption of iterative development approach (Scrum / Kanban) - Some collaboration between tech, product and design but still a ‘handover’ mindset. - Product development process is defined - Adoption of product development process is inconsistent and varies by teams/initiatives - PMs are able to clearly communicate what the team needs to build and why - Testing is rushed due to unpredictability in team delivery capacity causing higher number of post launch issues |
- Team are cross functional - Iterative development approach adopted - High levels of collaboration between tech, product and design - Relevant exit criteria artefacts consistently produced - Product development process is well defined and adopted across all teams - PMs work effectively with teams to turn requirements into working products in an iterative manner, learning and adapting based on the learning to deliver the best product - Predicable velocity and capacity planning for error correction allows better quality experience post launch |
- Product Team is a cross functional team including Tech, Product, Design. - Team feels empowered and have a sense of ownership towards their product area - Product development process is consistent across all teams and efficient ensuring optimum velocity - PMs work with team to iteratively and quickly deliver product functionality against pre-defined goals - Minimum post launch critical issues or hotfixes needed |
- Learnings from ongoing Product development result in improved product outcome - Product mindset is in the DNA of Agile teams - PMs work with teams to improve the product development process and enable achieving high performance high value per sprint |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |
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|
Product Creation – Land Phase |
- Initiatives are released to production but there is a lack of data around impact - Quality of product sometimes suffers due to deadlines |
- Some key metrics captured but not effectively monitored or acted upon |
- Key metrics captured and monitored. Associated dashboards available. - Relevant exit criteria artefacts consistently produced |
- Metrics are defined and monitored across the product lifecycle with traceability from strategic to business to product level metrics |
- Metrics are used to drive next future product features - PMs consistently communicate clear spec and set goals in a clear actionable format that can be used to communicate with team and drive product delivery - Quality is product’s most important feature and PMs are able to identify, prioritize and resolve quality issues. - Post-launch critical issues are very rare. |
- L1 - L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - Skipped |