1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes.
The Progress Wheel: My favorite Structure to Connect the Dots
The Progress Wheel: My favorite Structure to Connect the DotsDear Reader, Real Progress happens when you choose methods because they create value for you in your context, and you can use each domain to improve the others. To make Real Progress, teams need to understand and practice two core ideas:
Especially when teams treat practices as isolated activities, they often fall into the trap of Alibi Progress - optimizing the correctness of one practice while losing sight of how it connects to the overarching priorities. To counter this, these practices shouldn’t live in isolation. Each practice informs, strengthens, and enhances the effectiveness of the others, forming what I call the Progress Wheel.
The Progress Wheel is a way of thinking that strengthens your development by showing that questions in one domain often require answers from another. Useful OKRs turn strategic directions into measurable, actionable priorities for teams. They translate broad strategic choices into specific changes in customer behavior and business impacts. Example: Your strategy may focus on “Become the leading productivity solution for remote-first teams through customization,” but OKRs specify exactly what measurable change (e.g., increasing weekly active usage of collaboration features from specific types of customers) will demonstrate tangible progress. OKRs need strategic guidance to have clear meaning, or they risk being generic evergreen metrics instead of strategically aligned measures of success. Example: When strategy clearly articulates "winning through customization options," teams replace general retention goals with targeted OKRs like "increase saved custom workspace configurations by 45% among power users." Clearly defined OKRs guide Discovery efforts toward reducing the most critical uncertainties. Example: If an OKR seeks to double user activation rates, Discovery prioritizes assumptions around activation and early user engagement, streamlining efforts.
When you're stuck in isolated practices, try moving around the Progress Wheel: Strategy unclear? Look to Discovery for validated problems worth solving. OKRs not moving? Check if they connect to strategic priorities. Discovery overwhelming? Let Strategy focus your research. Did you enjoy the newsletter? Please forward it. It only takes two clicks. Creating this one took two cups of coffee. Thank you for Practicing Product, Tim PS: How do I know I’ve done enough discovery? Is exactly the type of question I answered in my conversation with Francesca Cortesi on the Tough Stuff Product Podcast. Tune in on Spotify or YouTube. As a Product Management Coach, I guide Product Teams to measure the real progress of their evidence-informed decisions. I focus on better practices to connect the dots of Product Strategy, Product OKRs, and Product Discovery. |
Product Practice Newsletter
1 tip & 3 resources per week to improve your Strategy, OKRs, and Discovery practices in less than 5 minutes.
Product Practice #365 How bol.com kills ideasbased on Discovery Insights READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED May 30, 2025 READING TIME 5 min & 18 sec Dear Reader, This is the second part of my mini-series on how bol.com, one of Europe’s largest e-commerce companies, shapes its fintech products. Last week, we looked at how they combine regulatory compliance with customer value. This week, we'll look at how they adapt discovery practices to their unique context, leading to killed ideas and adapted...
Product Practice #364 How to shape Fintech Products inside a European €5.9B+ eCommerce Platform READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED May 23, 2025 READING TIME 4 min & 48 sec Dear Reader, Better product management practices can emerge anywhere. While Silicon Valley companies have long been considered the Standard for product practices, there is immense value in understanding how companies adapt and evolve these practices in different contexts, especially in Europe. This is why I'm starting a...
Product Practice #363 How to IdentifyHigh-Leverage Impacts READ ON HERBIG.CO PUBLISHED May 16, 2025 READING TIME 5 min & 13 sec Dear Reader, An Impact is a metric that describes the achievement of a company- or department-level priority. It's a lagging indicator that changes as a result of multiple compounding efforts, but is not linkable to one individual feature or activity. Most Impacts fall into one of five categories: Growth Engagement Monetization Satisfaction Process Quality From Vague...