The Context MatrixDear Reader, Every level of product management involves two areas: creating context and making sense of it. While creating the context partially depends on the environment you work in, making sense of the context mainly depends on the hard skills a product team has. For Product Strategy, the context consists of internal and external data points about the market, your capabilities, how you plan to differentiate, your mission, and long-term goals. Making sense of it means forming the right relationships between these areas, making choices, and communicating and executing these the right way. For setting Product OKRs, the context contains inputs such as the purpose/mission/vision, Product Strategy, Company OKRs, and Roadmaps. Making sense of these means identifying KRs that capture the product from as many angles as possible, describing changes in behavior (Outcomes), and allowing the team to adjust their actions (leading indicators). The context of Product Discovery results from defined goals and strategic priorities, as well as existing qualitative and quantitative insights about your customers. Making sense requires creating a narrative around the problem space, prioritizing the right research questions and interpreting insights, ideating solutions based on proven challenges, and validating before building. Thank you for practicing Product, Tim What did you think of this week's newsletter?
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Product Practice #345 Four Decision Tree Frameworks Product Managers Need to Know READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Dec 6, 2024 READING TIME 2 min & 54 sec Dear Reader, As a highly visual thinker, decision trees are one of my favorite ways to support product teams in making real progress and bringing structure to my thinking. Today, I want to share four of my favorite tree structures and use an outside-in view on Eventbrite to illustrate their usage. MECE Trees The MECE tree structure, invented by...
Product Practice #344 Product Strategy Stackvs. Decision Stack (Part 2) READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Nov 29, 2024 READING TIME 4 min & 49 sec Dear Reader, This is part 2 in my mini-series on putting the Product Strategy Stack and Decision Stack side-by-side. You can read part 1 here. Measuring Progress Here's where the frameworks diverge more significantly. The Decision Stack uses "Objectives" as its connecting measuring element between "the work" and Strategy. At the same time, the Product...
Product Practice #343 Product Strategy Stackvs. Decision Stack (Part 1) READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED Nov 22, 2024 READING TIME 3 min & 01 sec Dear Reader, Everyone loves a Product Strategy framework. But choosing between the Product Strategy Stack and Decision Stack isn't straightforward. Both put long-term artifacts like a Vision and Mission at the top and link their different elements. But knowing which works best for you requires decoding their layers. Long-term Ambitions Both stacks agree:...