Save Ideas from the Backlog Abyss

    Picture yourself as an explorer, maybe a rugged adventure driven sea captain from the early 1800's in search of discovering fantastical things. You captain a sail boat showing it's grit. The sails and hull are patinaed from the years at sea. Always on the hunt for the next amazing discovery. 

    Yeah, sure this is an extreme visual, but as a product manager it's part of who you are. Always looking and searching for the next great idea, to make discoveries, and tell stories so engaging they carry themselves through the imagination of your leadership teams and peers. 

    You're smart, probably smarter than most of us. We both already know that. You being smart doesn't foreshadow all of your ideas as the grandest of discoveries. Heck, most of the time you're ideas belong at the bottom of the ocean with the creatures of age old myths. So how do you continuously find great ideas? More importantly how do you make sure those great ideas don't get abandoned and left sinking to the depths of your backlog? Well lets figure out where ideas come from and what questions you need to answer to make sure the great ones don't get lost at sea.

Where Do Great Ideas Come From?

    Literally everywhere and anywhere. 

    Just like an amazing adventure, great ideas are discovered throughout the journey. In my experience most of the best ideas for features came from experienced development teams or support teams who work hands on with users. Business stakeholders and senior leadership often have ideas, but they tend to be derivatives of existing features and honestly a bit vanilla. So stay open throughout your product journey, listen to ideas, and don't be to quick to write it off as a myth, or a dud, until you've given it a serious thought. More often than not the idea is not being shared by a great story teller. Most of the time product managers should ask some questions to get the entire idea understood. As any mysterious sea captain would say,

There's more than meets the eye.

 

A Great Idea Can Be Abandoned

    We see this all the time, a great idea is abandoned. Much like a true story written off as a myth. Our imaginations cannot believe what we are being told. We make assumptions before the end of the story. We plot a new path and sail on, leaving this potentially fantastical idea to sink deeper into the clutches of the Kraken's lair from whence it came. As a product manager you should be the wise and sage guardian of great ideas. Your ability to understand the intricacies needed to tell the ideas true and full story to spark aha moments amongst your teams and leadership should be second to none.

    Product managers are story tellers. You ensure the work teams do, implements the product strategy and keeps our product as a serious value proposition to users. Story telling is an art form filled with whimsy and excitement. Bring ideas to your team with a new level of craftsmanship on behalf of their creator. You will witness their imaginations swell like the high tide. Go rescue those great ideas and stop throwing them overboard. 

Answers These Questions to Avoid Great Ideas Becoming Kraken Food

Who came up with the idea? 

    This might seem obvious, but it's critical when it comes to the story. If you leave this part out you can easily be seen as taking credit for the idea. Always give credit where it is due. Make sure people know where the idea came from. Again, we know you're smart so you don't need to take credit for other peoples ideas.

What problem does this idea solve?

    This is where some ideas slip into the abyss. Sometimes we get so excited about a cool idea or a more efficient way for the product to work, we forget to tell people about the problem the idea can solve. If you find yourself struggling to answer this question you might want to re-think the importance of this idea.

How does this idea implement the products strategy?

    You got the hook in place. You gave credit for the idea, you framed the problem flawlessly and made it clear how the idea may solve the problem. If you forget to remind your audience of why this problem is preventing the product strategy from moving forward, you could quickly find the idea sinking into the depths and out of sight in a matter of days.

What measurable impact can you expect to see?

    At this point the idea is basically a go, but if you forget to have an answer to this question the idea is comparable to a sail boat with no wind. You will be adrift with a great idea with no way to prove it was valuable. This is honestly where most product features end up. Drifting around in the sea of features with no direction and no understanding of how valuable they really are or how we expect to determine definitively if the idea did in fact solve the problem. 

    Make sure you establish metrics and benefit hypothesis statements so you know what and how to measure the impact of this idea you help discover! 

Set Sail Captain Product Manager! Find Great Ideas.