The Progress Wheel: My favorite Structure to Connect the Dots

​Dear 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:

1. ​Putting the value of a practice before the selection of a method or framework is crucial to avoid getting lost in chasing correctness.
2. Letting different practices reinforce each other so you don’t get lost optimizing the local maximum of a specific method.

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.

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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.​

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Who is Tim Herbig?

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.