Slides Chris Butler recently used in his discussion w/ mentees of The Product Mentor. Synopsis: All product managers need to link the high-level challenge they are solving with the day-to-day. How do you keep them connected and in sync when there are different disciplines and stakeholders involved on each level? During this talk, we will review the process and method by which you align the three key components of product planning. The Product Mentor is a program designed to pair Product Mentors and Mentees from around the World, across all industries, from start-up to enterprise, guided by the fundamental goals…Better Decisions. Better Products. Better Product People. Throughout the program, each mentor leads a conversation in an area of their expertise that is live streamed and available to both mentee and the broader product community. http://TheProductMentor.com

1. Alignment of strategy,
roadmap, and backlog
The Product Mentor Session 11
For references and more info:
https://tinyurl.com/strat-road-back

2. Chris Butler
Chief Product Architect @ IPsoft
TBPP 2016, TPM 4/6-11
19 years of product and BD
Microsoft, Waze, Philosophie,
Horizon Ventures, KAYAK,
and started my own company (failed)
chrizbo@gmail.com
@chrizbot

3. Alignment of strategy, roadmap, and backlog
● What are these things…?
● ...and how are they done wrong?
● What is alignment…?
● ...and how do you get it?

4. What are these things?
Strategy: what is the key problem are we solving and why us?
Roadmap: how do we prioritize the sub-problems we have to solve?
Backlog: what focused work are we doing right now?

5. Strategy

8. One thing we agree on
as an organization...
...and disagree about
everything else

10. What is bad strategy?
● Failure to face the challenge
● Mistaking goals for strategy
● Bad strategic objectives - just a list of things to do
● Fluff

11. Why is bad strategy bad?
● Doesn’t link high level with day to day action
● Focuses the team on the wrong things
○ Or doesn’t focus the team
● Avoids tough decisions
● Makes the wrong tradeoffs
○ Or assumes that you have to make tradeoffs at all

12. Strategy anti-patterns

13. Failure to face the
challenge

14. Mistaking goals and
planning for strategy

15. Just a list of things to do

16. Each person’s own
strategy

17. It isn’t written down

18. About the future, rather
than the present

19. SWOT

20. Fluff

21. Our strategy is agile. We will lead a customer focused effort
of the market through our use of digital transformation and
leaders to build a big data. By being both cloud based and
disruptive, our digital first approach will drive virtual reality
throughout the organization. Synergies between our
revolution and growth will enable us to capture the upside by
becoming open in a collaborative world. These
transformations combined with design thinking due to our
social media will create an artificial intelligence through
ecosystem and data leaders.
Strategy Madlibs
https://strategy-madlibs.herokuapp.com/

22. What is good strategy?

24. Strategy kernel
A diagnosis: an explanation of the nature of the challenge. A good diagnosis
simplifies the often overwhelming complexity of reality by identifying certain
aspects of the situation as being the critical ones.
A guiding policy: an overall approach chosen to cope with or overcome the
obstacles identified in the diagnosis.
Coherent actions: steps that are coordinated with one another to support the
accomplishment of the guiding policy.

25. Example

26. Doctor’s kernel
A diagnosis: a set of signs and symptoms together with a history. The doctor
makes a clinical diagnosis, naming a disease or pathology.
A guiding policy: therapeutic approach chosen is the doctor.
Coherent actions: specific prescriptions for diet, therapy, and medication.

28. Nvidia’s kernel
A diagnosis: in the emerging 3D gaming market the more power you could
provide the more the market would buy.
A guiding policy: break out of 18 month development cycles in favor of six month
cycles, meaning that they were the newest product most of the time.
Coherent actions:
● Three development teams working in parallel
● Bad drivers created development risk, so they took control over drivers
● They outsourced fabrication; it wasn’t essential to control
● They sold to computer makers rather than board makers; concentrated
buyers helped them grow from a marginal position

29. Airbnb’s (possible) kernel
A diagnosis: there is a lack of liquidity in the short term stay market that keeps
travelers staying in high priced hotels.
A guiding policy: two sided marketplace for guest to connect with hosts.
Coherent actions:
● Simple booking experience like hotels
● Guests and hosts provide feedback on each other to keep the marketplace
fair and removes bad actors
● Ignore local tourism taxes and policies, while they can
● ...

30. Strategies as mental models

31. Your organization’s mental model
“If the facts don't hang together
on a latticework of theory, you
don't have them in a usable
form.”
- Charlie Munger

32. Compress to impress
“Getting our
house in order”
- Jeff Bezos

33. Compress further
“gentle”
- Melinda Gates

34. Strategy

35. Roadmap

37. What are the basics?
● List of (bigger) things to address
● Ordered in priority to be addressed
● Shared within the team
● More future means less certain

38. What is good roadmapping?

44. Roadmap anti-patterns

45. Conflating strategy,
mission, or vision
with roadmaps

46. Not linking strategy
with the roadmap

47. All about features

48. Inside-out thinking

49. Backlog or icebox
of ideas

50. Carefully set by the
product person alone

51. Roadmap

52. Backlog

53. The “to do” list

54. What are the basics?
● List of things “to do”
● Each item in format appropriate for your team
● Ordered in priority to be done
● Meet some definition of ‘ready’

55. “Controversial” aspects
● Includes estimates or points
● Already has acceptance criteria
● Generated before the planning meeting
○ Or drawn from another list somewhere else
● Just dev tasks

56. Backlog anti-patterns

57. It is huge

58. Generated way in
advance

59. It is full of ideas, not
qualified work

60. Items are just
research findings

61. Never changed

62. Backlog

63. Alignment

65. Strategy: timeless and forever
Roadmap: for the foreseeable future
Backlog: within this sprint

66. Alignment anti-patterns

67. Mistaking status
emails as alignment

68. ???

69. Re-alignment
(and tempo)

71. Make it part of every planning/review meeting

72. Have conversations when you detect drift

73. Ask the question:
“Do you know how
your work connects to
the strategy?”

74. Re-alignment
(and tempo)

75. In closing
● Strategy: one thing we agree on
● Roadmap: prioritization of problems
● Backlog: latest thinking
● Watch out for the anti-patterns
● Your strategy, roadmap, and backlog should always be in alignment

76. Thank you
For references and more info:
https://tinyurl.com/strat-road-back