Strategic Framing
To set the strategic frame for the development of the future offerings we use something we refer to as "Generation Planning".
The name "Generation Plan" is simply a reference to our next generation of products, solutions, and offerings.
Why Generation Planning is Important
The essential goal of a generation plan is to ensure that products are built to deliver business value to a specific set of customers, meeting certain financial goals based on a defined corporate strategy. These plans should increase effectiveness in achieving these goals.
A generation plan outlines market opportunities, profiles target segments, and indicates key priorities for development and enhancements. This is then used to create roadmaps for delivery for at least the next year.
Why Not Just Roadmap?
Assume product management is already managing several products currently serving customers. After gathering feedback from customers, speaking with sales teams, obtaining a list of top technical support issues, surveying competitor positions and features, and receiving new ideas from development teams, product managers generate a list of potential product enhancements and new product ideas. They create a roadmap, and development can begin, right? No, it certainly is not!
This plan is merely a reaction to a somewhat random set of market facts and events. So how exactly does the company strategy relate to the roadmap? The goal of almost any technology company is to increase revenue.
Strategy to Generation Plans
With a strategy that specifies how new revenue will be generated, a generation plan tailored to support that strategy can be developed. For example, your company could plan to grow revenue by selling its flagship product into new geographic regions or by establishing a new reseller channel. Selling into new geographic regions would require local language support and may have other specific regional requirements. Selling through a new channel may require a new administration model and branding.
Thus, each of these strategies would result in different prioritization of the projects on the product manager’s candidate list and a different allocation of resources. Going directly to a roadmap is reactionary, while a product plan that responds to corporate strategy is directed and intentional.
Practical Approach to Strategic Generation Planning
A practical approach to strategic generation planning should involve a series of meetings where product management presents their market and customer information to executives and the product council. They then have a chance to discuss what they have heard and how they think it should apply to the future of the company. The product managers are key executors of the strategy. They will translate the strategy into generation plans and create roadmaps, significantly improving the odds of successful execution.
Workshop guide
Input Needed
CURRENT PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE METRICS
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How is the product portfolio performing
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The Good & The Bad
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What is the key values you deliver
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To Whom do you deliver that value
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Key Personas
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
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What are your customers happy with
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And what are they dissatisfied with
COMPETITION
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Who are the main competitors
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Why do customers choose them
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Are there any interesting start ups
INTERNAL PROBLEMS
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Quality concerns
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Deviation from standards
Step 1: Current Conditions
Workshop 1: Stakeholder Analysis
WHY?
To map out the key personas the business is currently serving, and why the buy from us creates a baseline against which you can assess your portfolio.
WHAT?
Personas are fictional characters, which you create based upon your research in order to represent the different user types that might use your service or product.
HOW?
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Prepare Board
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Use a printed matrix or a flipchart
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Define the main stakeholders
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List, per stakeholder the different product qualities that:
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delight them
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the unexpected features that the customer doesn’t even know the needed
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they actually asks for
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What they get upset of
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Add unique selling points that is working today
Objective: Understanding and prioritization of who we serve today
Duration: 45 minutes
Material: Flip chart, whiteboard or printed poster and Post-its
Tool 1: Stakeholder Analysis
The KANO Model
The stakeholder analysis columns are based on the Kano model. The Kano model is a tool to analyse customer needs in relation to expected satisfaction/excitement. It helps prioritizing features, and identify excitement attributes which are great to emphasize in marketing messages. Kano differentiates four types of customer preferences:
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Delighters – provides satisfaction if achieved fully, do not cause dissatisfaction if not fulfilled
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Performance features – satisfaction if fulfilled, dissatisfaction if not fulfilled
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Basic quality – taken for granted if fulfilled, dissatisfaction if not fulfilled
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Reverse quality – High degree of achievement results in dissatisfaction (e.g. due to feature overload)
Using the Kano model can help us predict why users are initially delighted over a certain feature or benefit, and why that delight fades over time.
The Kano model can be described as a two dimensional grid. The horizontal axis represents the investment the organization makes. As investment increases, the organization spends more resources on improving the quality or adding new capabilities.
The vertical dimension represents the satisfaction of the user, moving from an extreme negative of frustration to an extreme positive of delight.
It’s against the backdrop of these two axes that we see how the Kano Model works. It shows us there are three forces at work, which we can use to predict our users satisfaction to the investment we make. One of the predictions that the Kano Model makes is that once customers become accustomed to the Delighters, those features are not as delightful. These features become part of the performance needs and then eventually migrate to basic expectations.
Workshop 2: Strength & Weaknesses
WHY?
We need to understand what is possible to achieve with the skills and resources that currently exists within the organization.
WHAT?
Using the Strength & Weakness part of a SWOT analysis. The Strengths & Weaknesses is used to assess the internal company culture, climate and structure.
HOW?
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Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 per group and request them to use the information and data collected during the preparatory work to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization
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Ask participants to focus on the questions in the matrix, with the goal of identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. Allow 60 minutes for the exercise. Participants should work on a large paper (flip chart) or a printed version of the table.
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The teams presents their findings to each other.
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Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
Objective: To reach a common understanding of the organizations capacity
Duration: 60 minutes
Material: Flip charts, whiteboard marker & Post-its
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Rules: All strength and weakness statements must be explained with WHY that statement is true or correct!
Objective: To reach a common understanding of the organizations capacity
Duration: 60 minutes
Material: Flip charts, whiteboard marker & Post-its
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Rules: All threats and opportunities statements must be explained with WHY that statement is true or correct!
Workshop 2: Threats & Opportunities
WHY?
We need to understand the changes in the market, the changes in customer behaviour and what goes on in the society around us so we may identify possible opportunities and threats.
WHAT?
Using the Threats & Opportunities part of a SWOT analysis. The Threats & Opportunities is used to examine the external world, and is best done by analysing trends, preferably from a PESTLE perspective.
HOW?
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Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 per group and request them to use the information and data collected during the preparatory work to identify the threats & opportunities the organization faces.
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Ask participants to focus on the questions in the matrix, with the goal of identifying the threats & opportunities to the organization. Allow 60 minutes for the exercise. Participants should work on a large paper (flip chart) or a printed version of the table.
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The teams presents their findings to each other.
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Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
Tool 2: SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is a technique for understanding your Strength and Weaknesses, and for identifying both the Opportunities that is open to you as well as the Threats you face.
What makes SWOT especially powerful is that it can help you uncover opportunities that you are well equipped to exploit. And by understanding the weaknesses you have you can address those and thereby eliminate possible threats that would otherwise cause you harm.
Strength and weaknesses are often internal to your organization, while opportunities and threats are external. For this its SWOT is sometimes referred to as an Internal-External analysis.
In its most simple its a SWOT analysis is carried out as a four square with one box per area. But to use it to its full capacity each category should have a list of questions to answer.
The Power of Focus
"If you chase two rabbits, both will escape!"
This saying highlights a common reason for failure in any area of life: lack of focus. Without a laser-like focus on your goals, achieving them becomes either very difficult or takes much longer than necessary.
Focus means identifying your most important task and giving it 100% of your attention. By using insights to identify this task and dedicating all your efforts to it, you create focus areas that drive success.
Attaining and maintaining this state of laser-like focus requires discipline, skill, and time. Many people think they are focused, but often they are not. Before you can apply such focus, a few prerequisites need to be addressed:
Get a Vision
First, you need a clear vision of what you want. This playbook is designed to help align the organization around a shared vision that motivates and enables focus.
Create a Plan
Once you have a clear vision, you can start creating a plan to achieve it. Your initial plan won't be perfect, but it will be good enough to get you started. Don't worry about getting everything perfect from the start—it's impossible. Keep learning, taking action, moving forward, and adapting your plan as you go. As your focus grows stronger, more ideas, people, actions, and steps will come together to help you achieve your goal.
Identify What's Important
With a plan in place, identify the most important steps and tasks. These are the tasks you need to focus on. There will be a few major tasks and perhaps hundreds of minor ones, and you won't be able to do everything. That's okay. Focus on the most important things that provide the quickest path to your goals.
At this stage, you should have a good idea of what needs to be done and what should be avoided. Direct your focus towards tasks aligned with your goal and retract it from everything that isn't.
Stay Committed
The more you focus, the faster you'll reach your goal. It may be uncomfortable at first, but soon it will become a habit, and you'll be "flying" towards your goal. Don't get discouraged if things don't work out immediately. Simply commit to giving your best, keep going, enjoy yourself, and be proud of your efforts. That's all you need to do to achieve your goals.
Step 2: Extrapolate
Workshop 3: Short Term Focus Areas
WHY?
Short-term planning looks at the characteristics of the company in the present and develops strategies for improving them.
Product enhancements and product quality problems are short-term concerns. To address these issues, you put in place short-term solutions to address problems. Employee training courses, equipment servicing and quality fixes are short-term solutions. These solutions set the stage for addressing problems more comprehensively in the longer term.
WHAT?
Based on the insights created in the previous workshops, brainstorm ideas to strengthen your portfolio.
HOW?
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Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 per group and request them to use the information and data collected during the previous workshops to identify the enhancements, fixes, and new products to satisfy current customer needs
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The teams presents their findings to each other.
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Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
Step 3: Future Scenarios
Scenarios are alternative futures in which today's decisions will play out. They are stories with beginnings, middles, and ends. Good scenarios have twists and turns that show how the environment might change over time.
A good set of scenarios will contain two to five different narratives or versions. Each scenario should provide enough detail to assess the likelihood of success or failure of different strategic options. For example, will there be sufficient demand for a new product? Are supply chains likely to remain intact? How much competition can we anticipate? Have new technologies rendered a product obsolete?
Scenarios should always be customized to a particular context. Each organization needs its own scenarios to face its unique challenges.
The purpose of scenarios is also important. Sometimes, the point of a scenario is to pry attention away from the ordinary. The very process of thinking about a range of possible futures can be a useful opportunity for addressing issues that might otherwise be neglected.
Alternative scenarios can serve as a relatively low-cost insurance policy. You are less likely to be blindsided if you've taken the trouble to imagine some unwelcome surprises. On the upside, scenarios can identify white-space opportunities that remain unfilled until a first mover occupies the space that less imaginative competitors never knew existed.
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Benefits of Scenarios
1. Enhances insights into how the future is unfolding: You don’t know what you don’t know. When done right, future scenarios can help you uncover the major variables that could shape the future of your business and better understand what’s already in motion.
2. Helps focus attention on the trends and issues that are material to your business: No two companies face the same business and environmental challenges or risks. As a result, you need a tailored strategy. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but by using future scenarios, we can anticipate the factors that are most relevant to the business now and in the future.
3. Prevents surprises and blind spots: It is difficult to be accurately prepared for the future. As a result, it’s almost impossible to adequately address challenges or take full advantage of opportunities. Future scenarios help manage future risks.
4. Serves as a simple tool to use before taking big business decisions: No one wants to be forced into making quick and potentially costly business decisions. With a proactive and adaptable plan in place, you can make informed decisions as the future unfolds.
Workshop 4: Key Assumptions
WHY?
As thingschange,e we need to be prepared to address those changes
WHAT?
Key assumptions is used to assess the possible changes in culture, society regulations, etc.
HOW?
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Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 per group and request them to use the assumptions to work out possible business impact and how to turn that into an opportunity
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Ask participants to focus on the assumptions in the matrix, with the goal of identifying how these may change the market. Allow 60 minutes for the exercise. Participants should work on a large paper (flip chart) or a printed version of the table.
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The teams presents their findings to each other.
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Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
Workshop 5: Long Term Focus Areas
WHY?
Here we create a long term plan to face the future market. It outlines the ideas, the problems to solve, to outline the ideal portfolio, and how to put it into the market, to be the true leader.
WHAT?
Long-term planning reacts to the competitive situation of the company in its social, economic and political environment and develops strategies for adapting and influencing its position to achieve long-term goals. For short-term and medium-term plans to be successful, it needs a long-term direction to aim for.
HOW?
Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 per group and request them to use the information and data collected during the previous workshops to identify the “ideal state” of operating in the future market.
The teams presents their findings to each other.
Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
Step 4: Bridge the Gap
Workshop 6: Mid Term Focus Areas
WHY?
Here we create a mid term plan. It outlines the ideas of what would be the possible portfolio in the next coming years.
WHAT?
Based on the long term and short term focus areas we create a mid term plan, a “stepping stone” between the both. If there a short term activity is to fix a specific quality concern, the mid term response is to revise and strengthen the company's quality control program.
HOW?
Divide the participants into groups of 4-5 persons per group. Ask them to come up with a description of the portfolio that shows the mid ground, the half way point between where you are and the ideal state.
The teams presents their findings to each other.
Cluster and prioritize the findings on one chart.
