Product specification dimension
1 - Reactive
Description
- There’s little to no alignment on the product vision.
- Product specifications ** are informal, often undocumented, and may frequently change without thorough analysis.
- Product discovery is often reactive, based on immediate needs rather than a longer-term vision.
- UX considerations are an afterthought, and there's minimal to no user feedback*** integration.
Improvement focus
- Establish clear product vision and goals.
- Start gathering user feedback for insights.
- Create basic templates and guidelines for product specifications.
2 - Managed
Description
- The product vision is defined but is not consistently communicated or understood across the tribe.
- Product specifications follow a structured format, but they may not be consistently refined or followed.
- Some mechanisms for continuous product discovery exist but may not be consistently applied.
- Some effort in UX design is evident, but it's not consistent across the product.
- User feedback is gathered but not systematically acted on.
Improvement focus
- Implement a systematic process for incorporating user feedback.
- Enhance focus on user experience design.
- Standardize the depth and clarity of product specifications.
- Ensure the product vision is clear and well-understood across teams.
3 - Defined
Description
- There's a clear product vision shared and understood by all tribe members.
- The product specification is comprehensive, updated regularly, and aligned with the product vision.
- Technical, scalability, performance, security, and user experience (UX/UI) specifications are comprehensive and well-documented.
- Continuous product discovery and refinement processes are in place and actively used to ensure the product continues to stay relevant in the market.
- Regular market analysis is conducted to maintain a clear understanding of market dynamics and to ensure differentiation from direct competitors.
- UX design is consistent and is grounded in research and user testing.
- User feedback is systematically gathered and starts to influence product decisions.
Improvement focus
- Streamline the process of integrating user feedback into the development process.
- Enhance collaboration between product, design, development, and test teams to ensure a cohesive approach to product specification and validation.
- Work on ensuring the product vision remains agile and adaptable to changing user needs and market dynamics.
- Ensure the product vision is clear, communicated to, and understood by all team members.
4 - Measured
Description
- The product vision drives every team's decisions, and teams collaboratively refine specifications.
- Product specifications, continuous discovery, and refinement are seamlessly integrated into the SDLC.
- UX is deeply embedded into the product lifecycle, with design thinking principles adopted.
- User feedback is not just collected but analyzed for deeper insights and trends, driving product decisions.
- The tribe consistently engages in continuous product discovery, swiftly gaining insights from the field on how users and customers interact with their applications
Improvement focus
- Implement metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of product specifications.
- Implement A/B testing and other quantitative methods to inform UX decisions.
- Ensure that new team members are onboarded with a strong understanding of the product vision and specification practices.
5 - Optimized
Description
- The product vision is both forward-looking and flexible, allowing for agile shifts in direction.
- Product specifications are not just documents but living entities, continuously evolving based on changing user needs, market conditions, and technological advancements.
- User experience design is cutting-edge, and feedback loops are near real-time, ensuring immediate integration of user insights.
- UX and user feedback have a bi-directional relationship, where the product evolves based on user feedback, and users feel a sense of co-ownership.
- Tribe members dogfood what they build on a regular basis, making it an integral part of their culture and workflow.
Improvement focus
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging teams to challenge the status quo and strive for even higher levels of excellence.
- Continuously challenge and evolve the product vision to stay ahead of market needs.
Generics
** Product specifications (often referred to as "spec" or "software specs") are detailed descriptions of the software's requirements, features, behaviors, and constraints. They provide a clear and agreed-upon blueprint for both the developers and stakeholders, ensuring that the end product meets the intended design and functionality. Here's a brief overview:
- Requirements: What the software must achieve. This could be in terms of functionalities, capabilities, and supported platforms.
- Features: Detailed descriptions of functionalities, which often include user stories or use cases to depict how an end-user will interact with the software.
- Behavior: Descriptions of how the software should react to different inputs, scenarios, or events. This can also encompass error handling and expected performance metrics.
- Design Constraints: Limitations or conditions that the software must operate within. This might include hardware limitations, operating systems, or third-party integrations.
- Interface Descriptions: Details about how the software will interact with other systems, APIs, or modules.
- Performance Metrics: Expected response times, throughput rates, and other performance-related criteria.
- Safety and Security Requirements: Standards and protocols for ensuring the software is secure from threats and operates safely without causing harm or data loss.
A well-defined product specification ensures that all stakeholders have a shared understanding of the software's goals, thus reducing ambiguities and potential misalignments during the development phase.
Guiding questions
- Are we staying focused on delivering value, or are we being sidetracked by "nice-to-haves"?
- Does the product specification concisely define its scope, objectives, and measurable goals?
- Who are the primary users, and how does the product meet key market needs and stand out from competitors?
- Are technical, scalability, performance, security, and user experience (UX/UI) specifications comprehensive and well-documented?
- How is customer feedback incorporated to enhance the product, and how does the product align with broader business strategies and market trends?
- How does the tribe maintain ongoing product discovery and market monitoring to ensure our product continues to stay relevant in the market?