Feature maturity framework using category maturity framework
Overview
Opportunity canvases have historically been justifications for adding features that help contribute to the category maturity. In an effort to focus on the depth and usability of categories, opportunity canvases become less relevant. We can establish an lightweight approach for product managers to prioritize feature enhancements rather than adding new functionality.
Proposal
We can abstract the category maturity to evaluate features depth/maturity.
Proposal 1
Instead of using the UMUX Lite Scoring we could look at this from a GMAU adoption perspective, for example, minimal would be less than 5% adoption, with lovable at 100% adoption
Feature Maturity | Impact | Feature Lifecycle |
---|---|---|
Planned | No adoption | Year 0 - Not yet available |
Minimal | up to 10% | Year 1 - Not used at GitLab Inc |
Viable | up to 50% | Year 2 - Dogfooding |
Compete | up to 75% | Year 3 - External Users |
Lovable | up to 100% | Year 4 - Usable for most users |
Year 5 - Switching reason for Category | ||
Year 6 - Entry Point for Category | ||
Year 7 - Differentiator in Category |
Proposal 2
We could look at JTBD and features completely delivering on primary JTBDs. For example, Deploy Freezes has three primary JTBDs, and 2 of the 3 are delivered making it 66% complete - or "Viable"
Proposal 3
PMs can choose to do a full opportunity canvas review, or to instead follow an "Opportunity Canvas Lite" process. This process will involve leveraging data already available from the PM's sensing mechanisms to fill out an issue template that is then presented to PM leadership for review.
The proposed Opportunity Canvas Lite issue template would include the following headings: (open to feedback on this template)
- Problem Summary
- User problem (rooted in JTBD - describe the pain the users face)
- Hypothesis
- What is Expected outcome if the hypothesis proves true
- What is Expected outcome if the hypothesis proves false
- Define your success metric - define 1-3 of these and stick to them.
- Supporting data
- Customer calls, other anecdotes, analyst opinions
- RICE score
- Known assumptions
- Next steps
- What is the minimal change to make progress
- What are the next steps needed to address the problem?
The primary change in this process is not the questions that are answered in the opportunity canvas review process. Rather the primary change is eliminating the 2-3 months of targeted research and replacing it with information that is already available to the PM.
Proposal 4
Create an issue template that answers:
- Exactly what problem will this solve? (value proposition)
- For whom do we solve that problem? (target market)
- How big is the opportunity? (market size)
- What alternatives are out there? (competitive landscape)
- Why are we best suited to pursue this? (our differentiator)
- Why now? (market window)
- How will we get this product to market? (go-to-market strategy)
- How will we measure success/make money from this product? (metrics/revenue strategy)
- What factors are critical to success? (solution requirements)
- Given the above, what’s the recommendation? (go or no-go)
Assign issue template to manager and for review and approval