Workbench

An A-Z collection of tools, techniques, and frameworks relevant for Product Managers.

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4x4 Competency Assessment of PMs

Let me share a process and template that I have been using for many years to coach my team members and help them grow. As a FREE resource.

5 Whys

Understand the underlying needs of customers rather than what they express in superficial statements.

Adaptable Product Discovery

A well-documented framework developed and published by Tim Herbig. It provides even more guidance to the various phases of Product Discovery than the Double Diamond model.

Agile Frameworks

Different from traditional waterfall-style project management, agile frameworks are more suitable for environments with a high degree of uncertainties and fast-paced innovation.

Amazon Six Pager

Jeff Bezos made the decision to ban PowerPoint (and similar) presentations, and instead move to the six-pager model.

B2B Metrics Framework

A B2B metrics framework fixing some issues of the Pirate Metrics Framework business

Business Goal Fundamentals for Product Managers

Summary of some key indicators of business success.

Continuous Discovery

We pull the entire team into Product Discovery, the loop is closed and discovery becomes a continuous process.

Crazy 8

A fast-paced, rapid ideation exercise to sketch solution ideas in just a few minutes.

Crossing the Chasm

A concept for visualizing the adoption of a new technology over time by different types of customers.

Customer Advisory Board

CABs are a great way to co-develop with customers in B2B.

Discovery Sprint

Sometimes referred to as a Design Sprint, a Discovery Sprint is a five days, time-boxed activity of the team focusing on product Discovery.

Double Diamond

Derived from earlier processes mostly in consumer-oriented, fast-moving customer goods (FMCG), the Double Diamond model provides guidance through the various stages of Product Discovery.

Feature Stages and Staged Releases

Specifically in B2B, when some customers are reluctant to change, it is important to be able to stage any major update.

Impact Mapping

Impact maps, in a highly visual manner, visualize how items from the product delivery plan connect to the high-level goals and help to align tactical work to strategic priorities.

Importance vs. Satisfaction Assessment

One of the most effective ways to evaluate product problems is through the Importance vs. Satisfaction scale because it forces teams to focus on the problem space before jumping into solutions.

Insights, Benefits, and Reason-to-Believe

A framework to find out and describe the value a product or feature brings to a user.

Jobs-to-be-done

People "hire" products and services to get a job done.

Kano Model

The Kano model helps to identify which features are key differentiators, which are table-stakes and which are a waste of time and resources.

Lean UX Canvas

The Lean UX canvas is a tool to help cross-functional teams in establishing a customer-centric conversation about the ongoing work.

Minimum Viable Product

MVP is often referred to as a version of a product with just enough functionality to be usable and of value to early customers while still being far from being complete.

MoSCoW

The MoSCoW method is a prioritization technique to reach a common understanding with stakeholders on the importance of requirements.

North Star Framework

The North Star Framework attempts to organize all product work to support a single metric which serves as a leading indicator for long-term business success.

NPS, CSAT, and CES

Different metrics exist to measure customer satisfaction. Here, we will discuss 3 of them.

Opportunity Solution Tree

A highly visual, hierarchical plan that guides through the non-linear process of product discovery.

A popular metrics for SaaS companies tracking the customer journey: Acquisition (getting users), Activation (first success), Retention (keeping them), Revenue (earning from them), and Referral (getting more users through them) - AARRR.

Porter’s Value Chain

The business structure is illustrated via a chain of activities, where each is next to their up- or downstream activity until the beginning and the end of value are depicted.

Product Market Fit

Product ideas may fail for many different reasons — but lack of market needs is by far the most important one. To avoid this, product-market fit is the first thing to achieve with any new product.

Product Requirements Document

A PRD typically is a very extensive documentation containing all the requirements on a future product.

Product-Led Growth

PLG describes a business strategy that counts on the product itself for acquiring, onboarding, and retaining customers.

Public Roadmap

Specifically in B2B, sharing a public version of your roadmap will help to align with customers.

RICE and Related Prioritization Methods

The RICE model enables Product Managers to assess competing ideas, scoring them in different dimensions and deriving a prioritization based on that.

Shape Up by Basecamp

Shape Up is a specific methodology on how to organize product development in an efficient manner, specifically when the organization grows.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning and management technique used to identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to business competition or project planning.

Usability Testing

During usability testing, a UX researcher observes users in completing tasks in order to assess easy of use of a product.

User Journey Mapping

A user journey map is a visual representation of the experience that a user goes through in order to accomplish a goal, or to complete a certain task.

User Persona

User personas are created to represent archetypal users of a product in order to summarize the goals and needs of a specific target group. The idea is to picture a typical user in order to come up with well-founded decisions for a user-friendly product.