Hey there,
Hope life (and work) is treating you good.
The last few weeks have been a little busy for me -- but the "good busy." I am transitioning to a new role. In this role, I am working on a zero-to-one data product for B2B customers.
It's exciting. But challenging at the same time. More details on that later.
I am also doing a FREE workshop on the topic - What is a "Good" Product Manager? If you haven't already signed up, you can do it here. It is scheduled for Saturday, 2nd March, 12PM GMT.
With that, let's get to today's post. (This is a long one)
How To Translate "Business" Impact to a Product Roadmap (and vice versa)
What is Impact?
Impact is the tangible positive effect you create on the most important goals for the company. The goals will always differ based on the company, stage, focus, product, etc. For example, a startup will have different goals than a large company.
What is Impact in the context of product management?
The definition remains the same as above. But, it is limited to the actions or outcomes directly attributable to the product team.
How can product managers create Impact?
PMs create impact by doing the things that have the highest positive effect on the most important goals for the business.
That is a good "theoretical definition." But what does it translate to in the real world?
To create Impact, PMs need to
- Build only those solutions that contribute to the larger goals
- Know how to measure the impact of the solutions
- Know how to translate and aggregate the impact of each solution into the larger product and business goals.
I break this process into four steps to make it logical and doable. But please note that these are not linear steps. Think of this more as a cycle that is ever going. And the product team is involved in multiple steps at the same time.
With that said, let's jump into the four steps. (A visual representation👇)
Step 1: Create or understand the business goal
To create impact, you need to have a goal in mind. Without a goal, there is no impact. In fact, "impact" does not make sense without a goal.
So, the first step is to create a goal if it does not exist or to know the goal if it already exists.
While doing this, start at the highest level. Understand the founder's or the CEO's goal for the company. It is essential to understand that goals are set at many organisational levels. Starting with any other goal than the one the CEO cares about will reduce the quantum of your impact.
Typically, the best deliverable to capture the goals at this stage is a formal document that everyone in the organisation can read and understand. It could be a presentation, word doc, or any other form the company thinks fits.
Side note: In most companies with a good culture, the leaders create multiple forums (like all-hands, town halls, etc.) where they share not only the goals but also the thinking and approach that helped them create them. The other advantage these forums provide is the opportunity for everyone in the organisation to ask questions about the goals.
Business goals (or the goals set at the highest level) are usually for long time horizons like 2-5 years. This ensures that the teams in the organisation have a coherent direction and enough time to create and execute plans that will impact the above mentioned goals.
Side note: the 2-5 year horizon is typical of mature companies. Startups or companies that have existed for less than five years might set business goals for shorter horizons.
To put the four-step process into context, let's translate this into a real-world example. Let's assume we're going through this process from the mindset of a new food delivery app (that provides the same service as Deliveroo, DoorDash, and Zomato).
One of their business goals could be to" Increase revenue by acquiring new customers."
Step 2: Translate business goals into product strategy and goals
Once the business goals are set and shared with the organisation, each department head should translate them into a team strategy.
Head of marketing translates into the marketing strategy. Head of sales, sales strategy. Head of product, product strategy. Head of operations, operations strategy. And so on.
It is important to note that Step 1 provides a limited universe within which the department heads should operate. They use this limited universe as guidance and ensure they do not go outside.
Not having a limited universe has two significant disadvantages:
- The heads of departments have a vast playing field, and it might take longer to develop effective strategies for their team.
- They might create a strategy that is not effective -- i.e. it does not contribute significantly to the business goals.
Continuing with the above example, the heads of different teams might create goals that look like this:
- Product: Enhance the mobile app to make ordering food easier and more enjoyable for users.
- Marketing: Increase digital marketing spend, leading to more app downloads, user engagement, and brand awareness.
- Sales: Onboard increased number of restaurant partners on the platform.
- Operations: Increase the number of delivery partners to ensure on-time delivery, even at increased levels. AND Increase the efficiency of customer support teams to handle the increased number of customer queries and complaints.
Other Learnings
- YT Playlist to master the basics of design
- What do PMs do when engineers say 8 weeks, but the CEO says 2 weeks
- These are the books I would read, if I were to start my career all over again.
P.S. If you liked this guide, you will love my new course (Fundamentals of Product Management.) In it I go into more details and show you step-by-step how product managers go from an ambiguous business goal to concrete product deliverables. If you haven't already, do check it out. (Price: $150, use JAPM25 for 25% OFF)
