People who’ve worked with me know I’m a big analogy guy. I see patterns in all walks of life, and find parallels in my PM & marketing approaches. This post applies Marie Kondo‘s organizational rules in the context of #pm & #Strategy (Product version follows each tip)
Marie has six basic KonMari tidying rules so that you can organize like her. They are:
1. COMMIT YOURSELF TO TIDYING UP
Set aside time and space to tackle a tidying job and then committing to complete it.
#product version:
1. COMMIT YOURSELF TO PLANNING
Set aside time to tackle planning and commit to it. As PMs we are pulled in so many directions, with customer issues, sales needs and more, #planning never gets the attention it deserves.
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2. IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL LIFESTYLE
Marie really focusses past the decluttering job itself and asks you to consider how positive you will feel once its done.
#product version:
2. IMAGINE YOUR IDEAL ROADMAP
Focus past the planning itself & consider how positive everyone will feel once its done. Picture #crossfunctional alignment, customers that will be delighted, revenue that will flow, and the accolades in the market when you overwhelm the competition.
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3. FINISH DISCARDING FIRST
She suggests that the sorting through and discarding part of the decluttering should be done all at once. Then you can move on to sorting.
#product version:
3. FINISH SAYING NO FIRST
Sort through and discard requests that are clearly not going to make it. Make it clear, with documented justification, & leave no zombie requests. Then move on to prioritizing those that make the cut.
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4. TIDY BY CATEGORY, NOT LOCATION
Tidy all your Tupperware first, then move on to cutlery, then to china (and so on).
#product version:
4. PRIORITIZE BY USE CASE AND PERSONA, NOT FEATURE
Even though you are releasing features, they should be grouped to collectively address a set of problems, for target user personas of your product. This should come naturally if you make value the key metric
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5. FOLLOW THE RIGHT ORDER
Make things we use regularly or like to see on display are very much to hand, while items we don’t need often are stored in a less convenient place, purely because we don’t need them as often.
#product version:
5. FOLLOW THE AGREED ORDER
Actual prioritization and justification should be transparent, and kept in a central tool, like AHA or ProductBoard. Revisiting prior assumptions, aka second guessing, unless something has dramatically changed, wastes precious time & resources.
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6. ASK YOURSELF IT IT SPARKS JOY
Having trouble parting with something? If it really doesn’t spark joy, that’s a good starting point for your rethink.
#product version:
6. ASK YOURSELF IT IT ALIGNS WITH YOUR OKRS
Trouble prioritizing? Use a consistent framework for every feature that aligns with meeting the companies goals & OKRs.
Hope you found this useful in organizing your #productstrategy.
#workwiser my friends