Opportunity mapping w/ business

Together with stakeholders, we define desired outcomes. We start with the business goal, we break it down into components, and we figure out which component the product team can influence. Then we break possible desired product outcomes down into their respective funnels to help us estimate business impact and choose the right product outcome.

This workshop takes up to 4 hours. You can also split it up into 2 parts.

Workshop

We use Miro or FigJam for this workshop (templates are WIP).

Introduction

• Set the stage: do a check-in, followed by a recap of Continuous Discovery (related to defining outcomes).
• Explain what we'll be doing in this workshop. Make sure business stakeholders understand why they're here.

Business outcome

• Discuss as a group what the company's most important overall business goal is.
• Divide the group up into teams. Make sure every team has at least one business stakeholder and at least one product team member.
• In break-out rooms, each team creates a formula of how the company makes money. They can break up the formula in as many components as they deem relevant. We're not looking for a perfect representation of reality, we're looking for a shared understanding of components that drive our business goal.
• Each team presents their formula. Others ask clarifying questions. We dot vote to choose the formula that best encapsulates reality without overcomplicating it.

Product outcomes

• In break-out rooms, each team comes up with customer behaviour that could drive the different components of the formula. The format should be: [increase/decrease] % of [user type] that [shows behaviour x].
• Each team presents their product outcomes. Others ask clarifying questions. We dot vote to choose the 3 most promising product outcomes.

If product team members struggle to come up with how they can influence the components of the formula, give some examples:

• Do we have any influence on the price of our product? Perhaps we can trigger our customers to buy more expensive products.
• Do we have any influence over the quantity of products that are sold? Perhaps we can trigger our customers to buy more products.
• Or maybe we can trigger our customers to buy adjacent services, to buy a subscription, to bring in other customers, etc.

It's important for product outcomes to be specific, but not so specific that they are essentially measuring the traction of one feature. We achieve the desired behavioural changes when the right features are delivered, and at this point we don't know yet what the right features will be.

Funnel for impact estimation

• In break-out rooms, each team breaks down the 3 chosen product outcomes into a funnel. The goal is to make more concrete what a product outcome entails so that afterwards we can find relevant data, compare impact estimations, and select the most impactful product outcome.
• Each team presents their funnel. Others ask clarifying questions. We dot vote to choose the most suitable funnel for each product outcome. The Decider gets a wild card: are there any steps from funnels that were not selected that they want to incorporate into the selected funnels?

The funnel doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to help us compare and contrast possible product outcomes. For example, if a product outcome is to 'increase % of first-time visitors that purchase a product', the funnel could consist of: 1) enter landing page, 2) go to a product detail page, 3) put a product in cart, 4) complete purchase. If a product outcome is to 'lower % of first-time visitors that bounce', the funnel could consist of: 1) see ad, 2) enter landing page, 3) engage with something on the page. A template for impact estimation is WIP – meanwhile see [Yuki Engagement](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-pvxfnYIl1rNjRlJYZLbo3O1PW92vNHu_NSyftuJ5as/edit?usp=sharing) for an example (yellow).

Next steps

• Explain next steps: plot the selected product outcomes on the customer journey map, gather data to compare and contrast selected product outcomes so we can estimate their impact on the business goal, then work toward the chosen product outcome for a few months or quarters. Shortly explain how we fill the opportunity solution tree: interviewing, opportunity mapping, assessing and prioritising, brainstorming solutions, identifying assumptions, running experiments for validation to minimise risk (and build the right thing!).
• Business stakeholders usually think they've got it all figured out: "Just build [x]". Thinking about desired outcomes and real user behaviour might help them think differently. But it's more likely that they'll still think they're right about everything. To appease them, you can end the workshop with a quick round of solution brainstorming. Make sure to have stakeholders write their names on their solutions. Later, once the opportunity space has been structured, add the solutions that might indeed address one of the opportunities. Follow up with stakeholders that came up with a promising solution.

If the team is totally new to Continuous Discovery, and they're faced with an entirely new product outcome, don't be too strict on the product outcome. If ultimately you're aiming for more engagement, you can start with a related learning goal (e.g. discover the opportunities that will drive engagement), then go for a specific performance goal (e.g. increase engagement by 10%).