What I learned as a Product Manager while creating my product
Tags: product, photoorganizer, search, roadmap
Published: 2023-03-03 11:16:37

## Design Thinking
The first product I was thinking about was "FVA Tool Set".
Subsequently, another product came to my mind. As a result, a Product Line came about.

- "Hold on, you started from thinking of products, right?", - you will ask me.
- "Nope, I started from... It was ages ago and a whole [history](https://github.com/dimanikulin/dimanikulin/blob/master/WhyCreatedPhotoOrganizer.md) is quite big. Being a developer, I started from coding".
- "Was it a good idea to start from coding?", - you will ask me. 
- "Again no. I would have started from Design Thinking, if I was familiar with it." 

Design Thinking is a process of preparation, which consists of seven stages of creating a product:

- **Empathize-who, goal, do** Here you need to create an artifact called "Empathy Map" with a formula - who, goal, do;
- **Empathize-see, say, do, hear** Here you need to create an artifact called "Empathy Map" with a formula - see, say, do, hear;
- **Empathize-think and feel** Here you need to create an artifact called "Empathy Map" with a formula - think and feel;
- **Define: Problem Statement** Here you need to describe a problem basing on the "Empathy Map";
- **Ideate** Here you need to nave a list of raw ideas to explore.
- There are also other stages not mentioned here.

## High-level product documentation
Once I came up with product ideas to implement, I realized that a set of documentation artifacts to keep high-level product knowledge had to be established.

### Value Propositions
The first artifact to consider was Value Proposition.
which has the following components:
- **Mapper** for Products and Services to Customer Jobs;
- **Mapper** for Gain creators to Gains;
- **Mapper** for Pain relievers to Pains;
- **One Pager** with Value Proposition. 

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ee2r064rtlhmt7l2lu0u.png)

### Business Model Canvas
The next artifact was Business Model Canvas. 
I downloaded a template [here](strategyzer.com) and filled in the following fields:
- **Key Partners** to answer the questions: **Who are the key partners? Who are the key suppliers?**
- **Key Activities** to answer the questions: **What are the main tasks that the company must do well to deliver its value?**
- **Key Resources** to answer the questions: **What are the most important physical, financial, intellectual or human recourses the company has?**
- **Value Propositions** to answer the questions: **What value do we deliver to the customer? Which customer needs do we want to satisfy?**
- **Customer Relationships** to answer the questions: **What type of relationship does each of the customer segments expect us to establish and maintain with them?**
- **Channels** to answer the questions: **Which channels do our customer segments want to be reached through? How do we reach them now?**
- **Customer Segments** to answer the questions: **Whom are we creating value for? Who are our most important customers?**
- **Revenue Streams** to answer the questions: **What value are our customers willing to pay for? What do they currently pay for? How do they pay? How would they prefer to pay?**
- **Cost Structure** to answer the questions: **Where do the costs come from?**

### Product Vision Board
The third artifact was Product Vision Board.
I downloaded a template [here](https://www.romanpichler.com/) and filled in the following fields:
- **VISION** to answer the questions: **What is your purpose for creating the product? Which positive change should it bring about?**
- **TARGET GROUP** to answer the questions: **Which market or market segment does the product address? Who are target customers and users?**
- **NEEDS** to answer the questions: **What problem does the product solve? Which benefit does it provide?**
- **PRODUCT** to answer the questions: **What kind of product is it? What makes it stand out? Is it feasible to develop the product?**
- **BUSINESS GOALS** to answer the questions: **How is the product going to benefit the company? What are business goals?**

### Competitive Analysis Matrix
The last artifact in High-level product documentation was Competitive Analysis Matrix
I filled in the following rows for several products:
- **Vision** with **Goal and Target segment**;
- **Marketing** with **Pricing and  Unique value proposition**;
- **End user support** with **Trainings, User guide and Help desk**;
- **Features**.

## Product from user prospective
As soon as high-level product documentation was ready, I decided to go deeper with more detail from the user's point of view.

### Persona 
The first artifact I created was Persona
I downloaded a template [here](https://www.romanpichler.com/) and filled in the following fields:
- **PICTURE & NAME** to answer the questions: **What does the persona look like? What is his/her name?** I chose a realistic and plausible picture and name.
- **DETAILS** to answer the questions: **What are persona’s relevant characteristics and behaviors?** I wrote in demographics, such as age, gender, occupation, and income; psychographics, including lifestyle, social class, and personality; and behavioral attributes like usage patterns, attitudes and brand loyalty.
- **GOAL** to answer the questions: **What problem does persona want to solve or which benefit does the character seek? Why would persona want to use or buy the product?**


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/v8bpu98k3tpnj7qm1blh.png)

### User Journey and User Scenarios
Then I tried to restore user way to achieve the goals. 
And I came up with User Journey.

To show the value of the product, I created three user scenarios and posted them on YouTube. Please see the reference to watch them.

### Stakeholders
Honestly, a bit later I realized that end users are not the only target audience for this product.
And next artifact - Stakeholders - came into sight.
It looks like a table with the following columns: Group, Stakeholder Role, Concerns, View.
Table rows contain as follows: End users, Suppliers and Team members.

## Product requirements 
Having defined everything from the user's point of view, I started thinking what exactly the product will implement.

### Questionnaire
Having no clue what is important for the user and what is not, I created a [questionnaire to clarify user needs](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EI3oOumRnHxDjEYgV6PFB-AMfV5plLtuV2r5S8BYn_g/).
It is a form to gather information on what capabilities, functions and scenarios are important. 


![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/05nqhq7ihfv33vvxn6y8.png)
 
### Capabilities
Having gained an understanding of user needs, I started describing [Capabilities](https://github.com/dimanikulin/fva#capabilities)
Literally, Capabilities describe key requirements.

### Features
Having capability list defined, I started preparing features.
They represent significant, central functionality of the final system. 
I put them into the table with the following columns: Name, Clarification, Business Value.
The feature set helped me to create a project plan and a road map. 

### Functional Requirements
Last but not least step in defining product behavior was a list of **Functional Requirements**, that define system detail behavior.
I settled them into the table with the following columns: **Name**, **Architecture complexity**, **Business Value**, **Component**, **Phase**, **Feature ID**.

## Product development documents

### Product Road Map
I believe, **Product Road Map** is the most important document for a product at the development stage. 
I downloaded a template [here](https://www.romanpichler.com/) and filled in the following fields and rows:
- **DATE** with **Release date or timeframe**;
- **NAME** with **Name of new release**;
- **GOAL** with **The benefit a product should provide**;
- **FEATURES** with **High-level features necessary to meet the goal**;
- **METRICS** with **Metrics to determine if the goal has been met**.
Columns there are the product different version.

On the top of that, it is quite convenient to keep an [online roadmap](https://github.com/dimanikulin/fva/projects/4).