How the red path helps you manage your product follow-up plan

Red routes how to help you manage your product follow-up plan (products backlog)

In most development methodologies, there is always a consultation around what is needed to be developed first. For example, scrum (rapid development method), its product owners and teams in each of the secondary sprint, the concept and use of scrum and sprint, you can see "in the Smoke of scrum and XP"), The core issue is to negotiate which follow-up project will become the development focus. Product owners should be guided by a business goal when prioritizing, but the development team has to determine how much work they can accomplish within the time frame.

In fact, it is difficult for product owners to gather all the information they need to prioritize. Some atypical users may require atypical functionality. Maybe a sales really need a certain function to do the promotion. The development team may suggest a series of functions that can be executed quickly, but these features do not meet the customer's maximum value. A better way to focus on development is to use a red path to prioritize product follow-up plans.

Red path

A red path is a key task that a user wants to accomplish with a product. Most systems have only a small number of red paths, some of the key activities that people want to do with the system: This is why people buy this product. However, while you can get most people to start using your product, people won't keep using it unless the red path is well done. If the obstacles on the red path cannot be cleared away, persuading users to continue using the system will become difficult.

By asking two simple questions, you can determine whether a product follow-up plan is included in the red path:

How many users need this feature?

How often do users need to use this feature?

This can be better explained by example, and now we're going to look at one.

A feasible case

I examined a car-mounted satellite navigation system called Tom Tom to consider how it supports different functions through these dimensions. Before looking at the form below, wait and think about designing a satellite navigation system. What do you think is the red path of it?

When I ask people this question, they tend to give me a variety of answers, which in essence can be reduced to a task: planning a route. People tell me, "I want to go from a to B." ”

In the chart below, I've got some features from Tom Tom's system based on the two dimensions mentioned above. For each feature, I asked first: "Is there a lot of frequency to use this feature?" I divided my answers into four categories: "At any time", "most of the time" and "sometimes" "rarely used". And I'm going to ask, "How many people use this function?" Then classify "very few people use", "Some people use" "Most people use" "Everyone uses".

The answers to these two questions determine the position of the feature (similar to our product successor program) plotted in the chart. For example, "Planning a line" is a function that everyone wants to use at any time, and indeed, why do you have to install a satellite navigation? Also "Add Favorites" is a feature that everyone wants for most of the time, and "Find replacement lines" is what most people want at any time. So these features start plotting from the top right corner of the chart, and I set the color to red.

But there are other features, like "Set flight mode." This feature allows you to turn off the system's GPS. I've been trying so hard to think for a long time why you want to do this, I must admit it's a bit confusing. Who's going to put his satellite navigation on the plane and turn off the GPS? (It may be interesting to keep a GPS connection and then open the flight map to see the route in front of you, but a satellite navigation without a GPS signal is completely useless.) So I think this function is for a very small number of people, almost no use, I marked it in the lower left-hand corner.

Another example, let's take a look at "uploading pictures." This function. Did you know you could upload a picture to Tom Tom's satellite navigation system? But I'm not sure when you're going to take the time to see your photos. Traffic jams do happen, but it's not boring to let the driver find some distraction in the car. So I think this is a feature that some people rarely use, and I'm mapping it to the bottom left.

(Side note: Considering these two features makes me rethink the usage situation, perhaps Tom Tom's engineer has this idea in his head: you travel on a plane and want to see some pictures of your family.) You put your little smartphone in the baggage compartment, then you pull out the bulky Tom Tom from your carry-on bag and open it, and you can see the picture ... Still don't understand ... )

Now it's time for you to try.

I encourage you to do such exercises as well. Your answer may be somewhat different from mine: after all, the chart is based on a sample size. But I'm sure the features I've plotted on the top right are consistent with what you put on the top right. That's why they are red paths.

I use color to label the chart, indicating that you can use this chart to prioritize product follow-up plans. The highest priority item I marked red. A system that supports these tasks-the red path-is equivalent to the MVP mentioned in the lean community (Lean design http://book.douban.com/subject/24896848/): Minimizing viable products ( Minimum viable product).

Once these features (red path function) are supported enough, only if necessary, will those features I have highlighted in the light red. After that, consider how you can perform the features that I have highlighted with light pink.

I'm sure you've got the idea. I encourage you to use this simple visualization scheme in your next product (whether or not you use scrum) to help you define the red path in your system and tell you that it should be done first.