Problem Statements

Over on the Requirements Defined blog, Joe writes:

A clear problem statement is, in many cases, just as important as the requirements themselves.

I agree completely that clear problem statements are of utmost importance in product management. However, I don't think Joe shares my view that problem statements are requirements, or at least are logical transpositions thereof.

If the problem is

It takes more than five seconds for a user to make a reservation.

Then the requirement is

The total amount of time it takes for a user to make a reservation shall not exceed five seconds.

Joe goes on to explore how you can further analyze and decompose problem statements:

For example, a company may know that their overall processing time for orders is too long. They may not, however, understand all of the individual problem statements that add up to that company-wide issue. Breaking this problem down into individual subcomponents for analysis and definition requires the exact same skill set used in solution analysis.

Again, I agree that problem decomposition is an essential product management activity. Where Joe and I seem to disagree here is over whether "subproblems" serve as the foundation for requirements - or for design.

Typically, customers do not care about "subproblems" except insofar as they contribute to the larger problem they want to solve. "Subproblems" contain assumptions about the way the product or organization currently operates. A new product will often dispense with at least some of these assumptions. Therefore, which "subproblems" you choose to address is a matter of design.

Part of a product manager's role is to find the right place to fit into, or even transform, customers' processes. In this sense, a product manager engages in some of what we might call "business process design". However, the product manager should always strive to select the highest-level problem to solve, to the extent feasible.

Comments

Why Spreadsheets Suck for Prioritizing

The Goal As a company executive, you want confidence that your product team (which includes all the people, from all departments, responsible for product success) has a sound basis for deciding which items are on the product roadmap. You also want confidence the team is prioritizing the items in a smart way. What Should We Prioritize? The items the team prioritizes could be features, user stories, epics, market problems, themes, or experiments. Melissa Perri makes an excellent case for a " problem roadmap ", and, in general, I recommend focusing on the latter types of items. However, the topic of what types of items you should prioritize - and in what situations - is interesting and important but beyond the scope of this blog entry. A Sad but Familiar Story If there is significant controversy about priorities, then almost inevitably, a product manager or other member of the team decides to put together The Spreadsheet. I've done it. Some of the mos...

5 Ways Companies Make Product Decisions

In the last blog entry, we reviewed the four problems that companies face, or are trying to overcome, as they make product decisions . Now we'll look at the ways that most companies make their product decisions. Companies that develop, market, and sell products and solutions make strategic and ongoing tactical decisions. They decide what features to include in their products, what messages they will use to communicate the value of their products, what marketing tactics they will use, what prospective customers they will target, and many day-to-day choices. Whether or not these decisions are deliberate or ad hoc, most companies use some combination of the following ways of making product decisions. (A downloadable "map" that summarizes the product decision landscape is included at the end of this article.) Customer Wants Product decisions based on feature requests, focus groups, and what prospects and customers say they want. Companies are selling products to ...

Is Customer Development Pseudoscience?

The “Science” of Lean Startup Lean startup practitioners embrace the scientific method, seeking the "truth" about what business model and strategy will lead to product success. We do so by: Formulating hypotheses Crafting and running experiments to test them Learning from the experiments Iteratively feeding our learnings back into revised hypotheses Sounds pretty scientific, at least in spirit, doesn't it? Yet this process actually neglects a key ingredient in the scientists' mode of operation. To identify what’s missing, let’s examine “customer development”. Customer Development Steve Blank is one of the pioneers of the lean startup movement. He introduced into the lean startup lexicon the term “customer development”. Customer development consists of sessions and interactions with customers to test hypotheses. For example, a product manager might interview a prospect, asking if she agrees with the product manager’s hypotheses about the problems she faces or the ...

Cauvin

Search This Blog