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Using Business
Objectives to Kill
Scope and
Launch Better
Products
Joy Beatty
Vice President of Blue Ocean Services
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A long time ago in a galaxy far,
far away…
Project Managers and Product
Managers focused their battle
strategies on on-time delivery!
So Now What?
• Does the squeakiest wheel get to build their features?
• Does the most senior member of the team pick?
• Why don’t we roll the dice?
• Can you justify the value of your most needed features?
How do we decide what features to cut?
Proposal: Select features
that add the most value
by using ….
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES!
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Activity
The
Best &
Worst
of 2011
October. Issue 007
Cover story: Look at what companies set
as the best business objectives of the year
and where they simply fell flat
See inside
for “Our
Top BA
Model”
Popular
Product
Manager
Attire
Work with a partner
to identify your best
and your worst
business objectives
PDM Secrets
Revealed
Inside!
Monkey
Wins
Elicitation
Contest
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Typical Product Definition Approach
SUCCESS
METRICS
PRODUCT
FEATURES
PRODUCT
QUALITIES
PRODUCT
CONCEPT
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Product Concept
may have changed
Features may
have changed
A Business Objectives Approach
BUSINESS
PROBLEM
FEATURES
BUSINESS
OBJECTIVES
QUALITIES
SUCCESS
METRICS
GUIDING
PRINCIPLES
PRODUCT
CONCEPTPRODUCT
CONCEPT
BUSINESS
STRATEGY
FEATURES
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Product Concept
Success Metrics
Guiding Principles
Using Business Objectives
BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
FEATURES
FUNCTIONAL
REQUIREMENTS
QUALITIES
Business Problems
Business Strategies
PERFORMANCE USABILITY SECURITY …
“Non-Functional Requirements”
LEGAL
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Why Don’t We Have Them?
Why Don’t You Have Business Objectives?
• Confusion about what business objectives are
• Management won’t tell
• Stakeholders don’t want to be measured
• Stakeholders don’t actually agree on the
objectives
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Identifying Business Objectives
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
WHY?
• Interview key business and IT stakeholders
• Confidently ask “why” – it’s okay to not know!
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Focus on Money
Business Objectives relate to “money”
• Reduce Costs
• Increase Revenue
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Example
NINTENDO
WII GAME
Why would you
build a Wii Game?
GAMES ARE
COMPLICATED
NOT SELLING
OUTSIDE 15-30
YR OLD
Why do you care if
your games are
complicated?
Why do you care if
the rest of the
market buys?
15-30 YR
MARKET
SLOWING
Why are you
concerned about
that growth?
COMPETITION
IS STILL
GROWING
OH! What kind of
growth do you
want?
25% GROWTH
IN OTHER
MARKETS
BUILD A GAME
FOR
7-13 YR OLDS
ADVERTISE TO
RETIREMENT
AGE
How can we target
growth in other
markets?
Business Objective
Business Strategies
Business Problems
Product Concept
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Selecting Features
OBJECTIVE FACTOR
INCREASE REVENUE/DECREASE COSTS
OBJECTIVE FACTOR
OBJECTIVE FACTOR
OBJECTIVE FACTOR
OBJECTIVEEQUATIONS
DATANEEDS
FEATURES
FEATURES
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Evaluate the value of
features or sets of features
Current state:
100 tests passed/wk
Sales/avg user = $1000/wk
Sales/passed user = $1200/wk
Feature Value Example
INCREASING # PASSED TESTS
INCREASES REVENUE
INCREASE REVENUE
PROVIDING TRAINING
BEFORE TESTS INCREASES
# OF PASSED TESTS
PROVIDING OPTIONS TO
COMPLETE TRAINING ONLINE
OR OFFLINE INCREASES
# PASSED TESTS
CREATING BETTER TESTS
INCREASES # OF
PASSED TESTS
GETTING USER FEEDBACK ON
TESTS HELPS CREATE BETTER
TESTS
DOWNLOADABLE
TRAINING
TRAINING
TRAINING
SURVEYS
Training increases passed # tests by 50%
(=50 new people pass/wk)Passed tests increases
revenue by 20%
(=$200 sales/user each
week)
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Downloading increases passed #
tests by 2%
(=2 new people pass)
Challenges in Measuring Value
Common difficulties in assigning
value to features:
• Complaints about time to write
and evaluate
• Data isn’t collected today
• Organizations don’t want to take
time to measure
• Business objectives aren’t
defined to use in prioritization
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Questions?
Joy Beatty
Seilevel
www.seilevel.com/blog
www.seilevel.com/resources
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