Pre-Windows Supervisor: How to make product development decisions

In product development, the product manager needs to make a number of decisions about how to develop, such as what features the product needs to include, and how to find the right marketing approach. Steve Sinofsky, former president of Microsoft's Windows business, recently said in a personal blog learning by shipping that the most important first step is to determine the "scope" of the project Stephen Sinnowski.

The following are Sinofsky's recommendations:

The first thing you need to decide is whether this is a new product, an improvement on current products, a thorough transformation of the current product, or a joint development with other products. This is because "the scope of the product is an engineering choice, not just a way of positioning the product when it is introduced."

-If it's a new product, you need to tell the team the minimum set of features and investment, but you also need to consider whether the product is new to the company or to the industry.

-If you are improving your existing product, you need to consider whether such improvements are compatible with the current product, including the user experience, data, platform, and functionality.

-If you need to reinvent your current product, make it clear which part of your product you need to change.

-If you are developing in collaboration with other products, then you need to determine how the new product will work with other products.

In addition, teams often encounter common problems in the process of product planning and execution. Sinofsky said:

-Reassess project scope during project execution. For example, if the scope of a project changes from a product to an improved one, the team schedule is likely to need to be adjusted.

-Try to do more than you can do with a certain amount of time and resources.

-When new ideas come up, it's a good idea to develop a minimized product, but you need to make sure that the whole project is not doing too little work.

-Try to solve the wrong problem.

Another issue to consider is the conditionality and strategic constraints faced by the product. "One way to treat these limitations is to consider the key variables in the scope of the project, determine the value of these variables in advance, and design the project in a reasonable manner," says Sinofsky. "Specific issues to consider include:

-How many people will work on the project?

-How long will the project be completed?

-What tools and codes are necessary?

-What are the major risks to the project?

-Who is the product user?

-What are the long-term plans and goals of the project?

This article compiles from learning by Shipping

(Weifeng)

Source: http://tech.sina.com.cn/it/csj/2013-02-21/16078078173.shtml