FY2021 Annual Planning Cycle - Product

This issue is meant to facilitate and track the Product Management team's contribution to the FY2021 annual planning cycle.

Goals

We should use this exercise to review and correct our gearing ratios (PM to EM and total number of BEM/FE/UX/Quality and other counterparts). We should also use this exercise to make sure we are investing our engineering effort in categories and stages that will result in the highest return on investment.

Output

Tasks

Divergent Thinking on Categories to Include - we should review the categories we have selected now and ensure they are appropriate going forward.

Review Gearing Ratios - we are trying to ensure our current team gearing ratios are correct.

Tops Down Market Assessment - we are trying to evaluate the addressable market for DevOps tools within our categories and stages and ensure we are appropriately allocating investment across categories, stages and groups.

Bottoms Up Investment Assessment - we are trying to determine the number of groups needed to make a reasonable dent in our category maturity plans for the year. Due Date - 11/8 for Leadership Review

  • Create spreadsheet
  • Dev - @ebrinkman
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • CI/CD - @jlenny
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • Ops - @kencjohnston
    • Provide initial proposal
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • Secure/Defend - @ddesanto
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • Enablement - @joshlambert
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • Growth - @sfwgitlab
    • Solicit inputs from PMs and EMs, UX Managers
    • Review inputs with Directors of PM/Eng
  • Review with Product Leadership Team - 11/8
  • Review with R&D Leadership Team - WO 11/11

Bottoms Up to Tops Down Rationalization - compare the bottoms up and tops down assessments and determine a concrete FY2021 R&D investment proposal.

  • Compare bottoms up with tops down proposals
  • Make appropriate adjustments to bottoms up proposal - rationalize against overall R&D investment by stage, standard gearing ratios, and team counts

Due Diligence on Growth Model - we should evaluate our assumptions on HOW we plan to grow. If we are proposing large investment in a specific stage or category we should ensure we've evaluated acquisition and other options before proposing it all come in the form of hiring.

  • Review proposed growth by category with regard to acquisition appetite
  • Review M&A landscape and opportunities and develop a strong point of view on investment areas and potential target companies

Create "How will we Accomplish This" Plan - we should review our hiring process and key metrics to ensure we stay ahead of our hiring plan this year.

References

Section Planning Issues

Edited by Jason Yavorsky