Connecting Technical Delivery to Strategic Goals

A Way to Ensure Alignment and Value

Weaving a cohesive tapestry of plans is essential for success. These plans span various hierarchies, ranging from high-level vision to granular technical implementation. Let’s explore how and why to connect these hierarchies to create a seamless and purpose-driven strategy.

Hierarchies of Plans

1. Vision and Mission: At the highest level, define your product's vision and mission, providing the strategic orientation for your journey.

2. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results): Establish clear objectives and key results that bridge the gap between mission and tactical execution.

3. Features/Initiatives: Break down objectives into manageable features or initiatives, ensuring alignment with broader goals.

4. Epics: Dive deeper into the details with epics, outlining major components of your initiatives.

5. User Stories: Translate epics into user stories, encapsulating user-centric functionality.

6. Sub-Tasks: The technical implementation is represented by sub-tasks.

Linking Plans

Each of the above should be linked upward and downward. An initiative should be linked to a goal (Why are we planning this initiative?). An epic should be linked to an initiative. A user story should be linked to an epic.

On the other hand, each item should have downward links, indicating how you plan to achieve the goal or how an initiative should be fulfilled.

This means that each item should have at least one link upward (Why?) and one link downward (How?). You should be able to drill down into the How and to drill up into the Why.

Benefits of Linking Plans

Connecting these plans creates a web of purpose and clarity that can significantly benefit your product development process. Here's a more detailed exploration of how these connections can transform your product management strategy:

1. End-to-End Visibility: Linking plans from the highest level of vision down to the smallest sub-tasks offers end-to-end visibility. With this interconnected framework, one can drill down from a high-level goal to specific user stories, gaining a granular view of how teams plan to achieve their objectives.
   This means that everyone involved, from product managers to software engineers, gains a comprehensive perspective of how their work contributes to the larger mission.

2. Alignment and Accountability: With each component linked to a higher-level objective, alignment is not just a buzzword but a concrete reality. Every user story, initiative, or epic has a clear line of sight to the overarching goal it supports.

3. Strategic Decision-Making: The interconnected framework aids in making informed strategic decisions. If, during the development or planning process, it becomes clear that a user story or initiative does not contribute to any higher-level goal, it's a red flag. Teams can and should reassess its relevance.

4. Impact Analysis: In the software product management world, understanding the impact of each action is paramount. When plans are interconnected, you can more easily evaluate the ripple effect of changes. If you need to adjust a specific user story, you can quickly identify which initiative and higher-level objectives will be affected, allowing for more precise risk assessment and mitigation.

5. Continuous Improvement: The interconnected framework also enables continuous improvement. By regularly reviewing the links between plans, you can identify opportunities for optimization. Are there missing links between user stories and objectives that could enhance alignment? Are there redundant initiatives that could be streamlined? These insights drive ongoing enhancements to your product strategy.

6. Effective Communication: Lastly, linking plans enhances communication. When everyone understands the interdependence of their work, discussions become more focused and productive. It's easier to articulate the value of a particular task when its connection to strategic objectives is evident, and discussions about trade-offs or prioritization become more data-driven.

Cross-Checks

From time to time, especially during planning, I suggest that teams hold some cross-checks.

• Does a user story directly contribute to any higher-level goal? If not, reevaluate its importance.

• Are there unaddressed goals within your product objectives? Analyze why certain goals are not receiving attention.

• Are there too many or even competing initiatives linked to a goal?

• Does an initiative or user story try to pay in on different goals? Is this helpful? (It could be!)

Tools

As usual, it is difficult to find the right tools that cover all your needs. There are specialized tools for technical delivery and specialized tools for strategic planning.

Depending on your choice of tools, there may be technical integrations - congratulations! On the other hand, sometimes you'll have to connect them manually by simply pasting a link. Obviously, the highest level of visibility is achieved with technical integration across all hierarchies.

In essence, the power of connecting plans not only imparts a sense of purpose but also offers a systematic way to ensure that every task contributes to the overarching mission. It's a fundamental strategy that drives alignment and efficiency in software product management.

---

What I read

This is separate section of this newsletter. I will list some of the best articles I read on the internet. They may or may not be related to the topic of this article. I will keep a list of the best articles (currently >700) at https://www.digital-product-management.com. These are today’s picks:

List of all AI/ML technologies: A list of all Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning technologies, such as Deep Learning, NLP, Computer Vision, Speech Recognition and many more.

How to survive at Saatchi & Saatchi: A great list of behaviors and mindset, very suitable for product managers.

PM Salary Survey: Product Academy’s recent Salary Survey, based mainly on European data.