where the rubber hits the road: real-world stories of force ranking stuff
TRANSCRIPT
Todd OlsonWhere Rubber Hits the Road: Real-World Stories of Force Ranking Stuff
Friday, August 9, 13
Who am I?
Todd Olson
• Founder pendo.io, Product Management Consulting
• Former VP Product, Rally Software
• VP Product Development, TogetherSoft
•Other stuff...
•Developer
@tolson
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1.Have a consistent model.
2.Tie it to economics.
3.Measure & feedback.
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I think
I know
from
to
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Need a proxy
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Simple Score
User/Business Value + Time Value + Opportunity Enablement/Risk Reduction
Size
Use relative sizing, 1 ≈ $XXX
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Not so simple values
User/Business Value + Time Value + Opportunity Enablement/Risk Reduction
Size
How do I compute
this?
How can a business person even
assess this?
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For some features, time really matters...
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It’s about maximizing a company’s investment.
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Imagine marketing an app for college sports....
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Opportunity Enablement & Risk Reduction
Ask good questions!
•Which stories/epics get easier with this work?
•Does this change the skillsets we can use going forward?
•Does this reduce the number of (amount of time on) defects?
•How could this benefit customers or partners?
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“2.0”
“Super”
“über”
“Master”
All code for scope creep and general scariness.
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User /Business
Value
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But wait. Isn’t user and business
value the same thing?
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Customers pay for value. They value what they use.Generally :)
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Should I simply ask them what they
use or value?
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Ship It
Measure It
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When Office Online changed their rating system from yes/no to 5 stars, they lost over 80% of responses. It took eight months to detect, analyze, and replace that version! If a metric drops by 3%, the chances that anyone will discover it and start a project to back out a feature they proudly launched is miniscule.
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Users Buyers
not����������� ������������������ always����������� ������������������ thesame
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Example: Database Encryption
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Advertising-driven Businesses
Users matter (eyeballs)
But what else?
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Lead Generation
Lead Qualification Sales
Direct Response Marketing
PR & Analyst Reports
Advertising
Trade shows
Cold Calls
Website visits
Telemarketing
Existing customers
Referrals
Initial call
Demonstration
Evaluation
Trial
Selling Enterprise Software
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Source: Gartner
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Sales is your friend
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Internal IT Projects
Making the engine run better
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Freemium?Friday, August 9, 13
User
Business
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Name Value Cost Weighted
Epic 1 27 18 1.5
Epic 2 10 5 2
Break things down
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Name Value Cost Weighted
Epic 1: Part 1 18 6 3
Epic 1: Part 2 5 8 0.625
Epic 1: Part 3 4 4 1
Epic 2 10 5 2
Break things down
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Neutralize
Differentiate
Optimize
Competitive DynamicsFriday, August 9, 13
borrowed from G. Moore, Escape Velocity
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10%
27%
63%
Horizon 1Horizon 2Horizon 3
5%
80%
15%
Customer IssuesStrategicResearch
13%
54%
33%
NeutralizeDifferentiateOptimize
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10%
27%
63%
Horizon 1Horizon 2Horizon 3
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1.Have a consistent model.
2.Tie it to economics.
3.Measure & feedback.
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Start Collecting Real DataFriday, August 9, 13
Building Better Products.
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If we have data, let's look at data. If all we have are opinions, let's go with mine.
Jim Barksdale, former CEO Netscape
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Thanks!
@tolsonFriday, August 9, 13