How can you prioritize features and functions in complex product design projects?

Leverage the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) framework alongside usage analytics for feature prioritization. JTBD helps by: - Identifying the core jobs users want to accomplish. - Segmenting users based on these jobs. - Prioritizing jobs that align with business goals. - Mapping features to these high-priority jobs. - Continuously validating and iterating for user-centric success. - Usage analytics provide data on how existing features are used. This combination lets you prioritize based on both user needs and actual usage patterns, ensuring a user-centric approach.

Some tips to define problems better: 1. Use data and analytics. 2. If you don't have the first one, go and find it by talking to the customers, running experiments, analysing behaviours, etc. 3. Support yourself with different frameworks and methodologies, but don't use them mindlessly. Remember that every situation is different and may require some juggling with tools and frameworks. 4. Validate your problem statement several times to ensure you solve the right one. And don't hesitate to go back and start from scratch if needed. The key thought is that a wrong or weak problem statement can put everything down.

Products out in production with real users have a life of their own. With data analytics and monitoring tools, you can get an understanding of what the users need. Combine that with what the business needs are, and what the management's vision is. Your path is in the middle. On a grander scale, figure out with senior management what this product's current priority is. It can be – gaining traction, monetization, increasing user engagement, and other goals. Align your goal setting with senior management's strategic direction to get the best results.

If you start with curiosity and are willing to frame or reframe the problem, you are eager to work across disciplines in your organization and collaborate radically. You have a bias to action; you are essentially implementing the Design Thinking mind. Design Thinking is crucial to defining problems or ensuring you handle essential problems first. The product design process seldom follows a happy path of sequential steps. But depending on your role in the product design process, you can influence when faced with uncertainty and the need for novel solutions is there. Examples of other frameworks to define the problem Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) 5 Whys Technique User Story Mapping Affinity Diagramming Kano Model

Establish SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals. These goals should align with your problem statement and provide a quantifiable way to measure the success of your product. SMART goals bring clarity and focus to your project. Ensure that your team and stakeholders are aligned on the vision and scope of the project. Clearly communicate the overarching purpose of the product and the boundaries within which the team will operate.

One of the best principles I learnt is being used by Intercom: Think Big, Start Small. Before generating ideas and features, apply this principle to build a foundation for your product solution. When you have your problem statement, start thinking as big and broad as possible to define the vision and strategy for your potential solution. It should involve the system of all neighbour products and features, and also, the goal of the product, the company mission& vision, the business outcomes and customer feedback should be carefully considered. Then, you can start narrowing everything down and higgling the first version/iteration/MVP (whatever you call this). Ensure that you're solving customer problems and making outcomes for business.

Add size tags on features in terms of development and design work that is needed to accomplish them. A simple system like small-medium-large can be used. Together with a CTO and a design lead , you can quickly figure out how "expensive" some features are. This will help you figure out the impact vs. price of each feature.

Having a mindset of measuring the problem outcome helps. Try to categorize features based on how they impact user satisfaction. 1. Basic Features (expected by users) 2. Performance (can satisfy or dissatisfy users if present or absent), 3. Delights a user (unexpected but can greatly satisfy users)

Create a comprehensive list of all identified features. Include a brief description and categorize them according to the established criteria. Visualize the relationships between different features using feature maps. This can help in identifying dependencies and hierarchies. Develop hierarchical structures that represent the relationships and priorities of features. This aids in understanding the overall feature landscape.

The list of frameworks is already excellent. I would only add that value/impact are the most crucial ingredients in prioritisation. Remember that every business, engineering org or product will always try to descope the solution, remove features, etc. And it's because all the businesses need things to be shipped faster, easier, right now. So designers should think in advance about how they can defend and rationalise their ideas and solutions. The more pieces of evidence you have, the stronger your position is.

One factor I would like to add to this already impressive list is - "dependency". If you are managing a product that is integrated to a larger ecosystem, don't ever lose sight of your critical "dependencies" on other products. Simply put a stand-alone feature with same criticality will automatically go higher in the priority list, compared to an external-dependency impacted feature having the same criticality (if dependency starts sliding to culminate into a potential delivery risk).

Once you are done estimating the price tags on each feature or idea senior management will help you decide where you should put your efforts. In small-scale start-ups it's usually based on hunches and personal goals and inspirations of the management. In bigger companies, these decisions are more weighted and calculated.

Prioritization of features is a key activity to be done with the team. All features sound great and important but which ones will actually move the needle. A simple technique is to prioritize using an Impact vs. Effort scale to make sure your team focuses on quick wins and get some things out sooner rather than later.

Faster Time-to-Value: Users experience the product's value faster when the team rolls out high-priority features sooner. Effective feature prioritization ensures resource allocation to areas that provide the most value, leading to products that resonate with users and fulfill their needs effectively.

Validate and iterate features. This should be considered as a duo. Ensure you're not dropping the "iterate" part because it breaks the entire product development process. Of course, every situation and every problem is different. But in general, after validating the features, we should iterate on them. Without iterations, our product is aiming to remain as an MVP forever. But one of the core elements of a product is iterations and evolution to suit customer goals better and better. One piece of advice I have here is don't drop your iterations, don't drop your customers.

In early-stage start-ups, when there are no resources for user testing or even A/B testing – designers come to the rescue. The way to get real feedback regarding some features or functions is to have 5+ user interviews with clickable prototypes. This allows interviewers to see the users' reactions and understand the desirability of certain features without the need to develop them.

Validating and iterating on features ensures that the product addresses user needs and evolves with them, leading to long-term success and user satisfaction. Risk Mitigation: Validation can capture potential issues before a full-scale release, saving costs and protecting user confidence.

- Employ Usability Testing: Assess the ease of use and overall user experience through structured usability tests. Identify any usability issues and gather insights for improvement - Leverage Analytics Tools: Utilize analytics platforms to gather quantitative data on user interactions. Analyze metrics like bounce rates, session duration, and user journeys to gain insights into feature effectiveness. - Embrace an Iterative Approach: Based on feedback and data, iterate on features and functions. Prioritize enhancements or adjustments that directly address user needs and contribute to the overall product goals.

It's a good practice to pick one methodology and stick to it for a while. It takes about 3 month to figure out if a certain methodology works for your team. Don't jump from one to another too often as it will confuse and discourage your team. The most common methodologies in early stage start-ups today are Agile and Scrum for development, and roadmaps for product strategy. But every company and team is different to experiment and find out what's best for you.

We use methods like agile, scrum, kanban, or waterfall to plan and execute your features. These approaches help manage things like budget, time, and quality. Tools like roadmaps, backlogs, and milestones are handy for keeping things organized. It's about getting your ideas into motion with a clear plan and the right tools.

Building a product is keeping thousands of things in your brain. Fitting the concepts together and pushing them to fit together in new ways. Every day, you discover something new, a new problem or opportunity. Look at the core values that go into the product development. 1. Focus on the user 2. What is 10X (10x better, faster or cheaper) 3. Launch and Iterate

Launch and iteration are distinguishing factors of innovative tech products. Produce an early version as soon as possible - (if possible) purely as a learning process. This helps you solve a few problems. At the same time, you will face many new problems you didn't even know existed. If things break, people probably have yet to test it. Think through the viability of the product. Look for big hairy problems, confront the big technical questions and get that out there first. Combining these lessons can help you take your product out early to test.

In the end, when things get complex, it's useful to boil it down to *the one most important thing* That's the compass you want to use, at the end of the day *The one most important thing* for any product basically is the end-user Start with their interest in mind, and reverse-engineer everything from there!

The old phrase of eat your own dog food. If you are producing a product, you would better use it. If you are working on problems that are outside your comfort zone - it's good! Even if some of them are not seeing the light of the day - you would produce better products the next time.

Always keep the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concept in mind as you focus on creating the basic, most essential functionalities. Technical feasibility, market analysis, risk management, resource availability, and input from stakeholders all play a role in making these decisions. Adaptability and ongoing review are key to keeping the process flexible and responsive to changes as your project unfolds.

The methods and tools are good, but the most important thing is to really understand the people who will use your product. That's why spending extra time in the beginning to learn about them is very important for complex products. Even if the tasks and features in the product are complicated, it doesn't mean the user experience has to be hard to understand. The only way to make this happen is by truly knowing your users. If you don't, your product might try to do too much, but not do any of it very well.