Back before we were all online all the time, I kept a notebook of all the living documents for my product. Nowadays I keep these documents in a shared folder but sometimes I miss the old notebook. It held my positioning, pricing, and personas; it had my business plan and the requirements for the next release of my product. My product notebook had every answer to any question. And when I was in a meeting or just walking down the hallway, people would stop me with a question and I always had the answer somewhere in my notebook.
How does a new product manager or product owner get up to speed in your organization?
Imagine you’re a new product manager. What company-specific knowledge do you need? Is there a standard template for positioning or for a business case? Where is it? Once you fill it out, how do you share it and store it? And with whom?
What you need is a product management playbook, a collection of the templates and tools tailored for your organization.
You’ll want to create company-specific versions of all your planning templates including “institutional knowledge” like where templates can be found and stored online, the key contacts in each business area, the standard distribution techniques such as distribution lists and discussion forums.
Here’s a list of fewer than 10:
- Portfolio roadmap
- Buyer profiles
- Product profile
- Financial plan
- Product backlog
- Marketing backlog
- Launch plan
- Profitability retrospective
Plus
- Distribution lists
- Discussion forums
- Online locations for storing development, marketing, and sales information
- Key people you need to know with contact info
The trick is to make sure the procedures and methods are grounded in reality. Some teams create “ideal” processes that don’t work in real life. They tend to favor cross-functional teams from all areas of the organization rather than just a few key decision makers. They prefer perfect information—and who doesn’t? But getting precise information isn’t always possible.
What would you put in your product management playbook?
About the author
Steve Johnson is a recognized thought leader and storyteller within the technology product management community. As founder of Under 10 Consulting, he helps product teams implement strategic product management in an agile world. Sign up for his newsletter and weekly inspirations.