Product Planning
Product Roadmaps
In the “plan” phase of the 9II9 product lifecycle, the product manager defines and prioritizes the thoughtful execution of products and features according to strategic business objectives. One tool that can be used to communicate the high level plan is as a strategic product roadmap. There are multiple types of roadmaps, with some being theme-based and time-based.
In the two examples below, a product portfolio roadmap is being communicated to show expected releases of products and features over time. The first example also includes the necessary resource allocation needed in order to deliver according to the target release dates. Given that a product manager needs to rely on other stakeholders to execute on a product strategy, showing resource dependencies is a great way to manage expectations and also highlight risks upfront.
A second roadmap example below combines time, product category, theme, and preliminary developer estimates to show planned quarterly allocation of engineering resources. Each card is labeled to a theme that ties to a business objective. This forces every roadmap item to align with the current strategic business objectives.
Sprint Planning
For the sake of simplicity, a detailed breakdown of a sprint planning process won’t be given here. Planning in the current context is primarily the strategic aspects that feed into the technical execution. In the later “build” phase of the product lifecycle, the product manager assumes the role of “product owner” and has several key functions leading up to the actual development.
First, the product manager is responsible for ensuring that user stories are documented with enough detail such that they are ready for development. In some media organizations, the responsibility for writing user stories is shared with the technical lead, “scrum master” or another person from the project team. However, the product manager is held accountable for making sure that user stories are ready for development and needs to be able to jump in and write user stories when necessary.
Product managers must work closely with editorial and technical leads to decide on which features from the backlog should be assigned to a particular sprint. This activity is highly collaborative with the product manager coordinating and leading these exercises to get relevant stakeholders aligned and clear priorities set for the development team.