DML Product Workflow

Identify the top 2–3 competitor products and their core features comparable to the product or feature you are evaluating

Evaluate the competitors and key characteristics identified by the team, gathering online sentiment for each product. Synthesize these findings into an evaluation matrix that rates each feature on a scale from 0 to 5 (0 = missing, 1 = indirect solution, 2–5 = basic to state-of-the-art), explicitly identifying where each competitor holds an advantage.

Rate each feature or characteristic chosen in the previous step on a 1–5 scale for each competitor, highlighting where each leads.

👎1 = Bad implementation and design 👍5 = Great usability, design and implementation

Summarize how these insights impact your competitive advantage and outline next steps, identifying potential growth opportunities based on high and low ratings.

Draft a one-page summary evaluating your solution against key competitors based on identified features and characteristics. Analyze competitor strengths, strategic priorities, value propositions, and market opportunities, then publish the document to the whiteboard

Product-development teams can use story mapping to drive product discussion and align everyone's efforts at any stage of the process. Story maps can be used for new products after discovery work, or for existing products after usability testing. The user story map helps teams illustrates how the solutions can solve the problems research activities have uncovered.

Team norms: 👩‍🚀👩‍⚕‍🦸‍♂‍

Describe the high-level tasks that users aim to accomplish using the digital product. Outline 3 to 5 high-level user activities necessary to reach the primary objective, establishing the framework for user story mapping, such as 'checking the account balance' or 'depositing a check'. (Usage process)

These will potentially be transform into "initiatives or epics" or just represent certain user activities.

Below each one, describe the activity or problem if needed (Details).

Steps appear under activities and are arranged sequentially. To complete the activity above, users will go through specific subtasks in the product. In the activity, Deposit a check, the steps are: Enter mobile deposit details, Sign check, Photograph check, Submit deposit, and Confirm deposit. (user tasks)

If you are a product manager, often steps can represent some of the user stories and can help you define some of the requirements.

Thinks about all the steps and use cases.

You can add additional details by adding a sticky note (use a different color) to describe the lowest-granularity interactions the team anticipates users will experience. These are often similar to product requirements like 'Enter email' ' Enter password'

Identifying the minimum viable product (or next release) and prioritizing it based on well-informed judgment by analyzing the User story map.

Team members can use story maps to visualize what their minimum-viable-product release could or should include, along with how and when to release end-to-end product increments with specific goals and outcomes.

Think about the requirements that are:

🔴 Critical: The must-have. Non-negotiable. We absolutely need this or the user will not be able to use/understand/buy our product/service/idea.

🟠Nice-to-have: The high-value features and ideas. The user will be able to reach their objective and the product/idea will still work but adding these additional features could improve their experience, users could pay more for the same product/service or increase their likelihood of converting into paying customers.

Discuss this with your team and make the final decision based on what you want to validate first. Also consider things like costs, time, etc.

Move to the next release those that are nice to have but can't be implemented for this release.

🟣Low: Small impact features and ideas. Ideas and features that aren't necessary but adding them to the product/service will have a small positive impact. Usually not adding these features or ideas will have zero negative effects. Ask yourself: what would happen if our team decides to move forward without adding this feature? If the answer is "nothing" or the negative effects are small this feature or idea belongs here or inside the "indifferent" quadrant.

🟡Indifferent: Customers don't care about it. (Avoid)

Synthesize the whiteboard story map into a structured document detailing all requirements in a clean tabular format

😎 Describe the initiative/project or idea.

Provide a brief summary providing an overview of the epic’s goals, objectives, and desired outcomes.

Team rituals.

What artifacts are created from the initiative/project that helps reinforce the project's goals? Celebrate its success? Support continual learning and growth?

How would the project be structured? Are they any key milestones? Are we launching a beta version?

✅ Must-have list

📅 Provide dates.

What will influence decisions and possibilities to be closely considered in planning this initiative? Timeline, relationships, budget, governance, etc.

Add sticky notes inside the "can influence" and "beyond scope" section.

What type of information will help you achieve your objectives and reach your desired outcome?

Add key highlight here and provide a list of links and resources.

Evaluate all notes and the lean canvas to produce an initiative brief covering the business justification, key objectives, and metrics. Include complete user stories, scope boundaries, and detailed engineering/design requirements to enable team execution.

What's changing in the product?

Describe the initiative, its benefits, and who it impacts.

Include designs, graphics, business model canvas, links to videos, training sessions for the team, and any other resources that could be useful during the launch of this initiative.

👉Start by defining the goal (objective) of the product initiative. 💫What do you aim to achieve within the next 12 months?

The goal should define the desired outcome and motion the problem that you are trying to solve.

Add a list of 3-10 KPIs.

It's essential to recognize and address the potential roadblocks on your path to success. Define obstacles to overcome, limitations, constraints, external forces affecting your strategy, and the budget considerations. Understanding these factors is crucial for crafting a realistic plan. 🤑😬🥶

Include:

Mention any obstacles to overcome and challenges that you could have. This is more an opportunity to predict potential problems that will stop you from validating this initiative and that you may want to evaluate potential ways to mitigate those. You can think about user behavior if your new solution means that they will have to learn about how to use your product differently. If this is, for example, the case, you may discuss with the marketing team or product team to create a video. You also discuss things like fears, new trends in the market, market age and preferences, etc.

“Strategy describes how a company creates a unique and valuable position through a set of differentiating actions.” — Michael Porter’s

Strategy is more than just a plan; it encompasses your vision, partnerships, brand promise, and values. Your strategy should guide your actions and remain unwavering, even if your plan evolves.

🔥Strategy can be divided into strategic thinking and planning. But there is more to strategy than just having a good plan. In fact, the plan can change, but the vision, the partnerships, the brand promise, and the values can't change.

👉Define how you would achieve your goals in the next year by describing how your company creates a unique and valuable position through a set of differentiating actions.

Discuss and define each section. (7P's of Marketing)

🟢Product: What’s changing in the product? What’s the objective from the product perspective?

🟢Service: What’s changing from the service perspective? Are we adding, changing or removing some of our services? What’s the objective?

🟢Promotion: What are the promotional activities across all marketing channels, including advertising, direct marketing, in-store promotions, social media groups, etc that will be implemented, changed, or removed to support this initiative? What is the objective with those changes?

🟢Physical evidence: What aspects are you changing, improving, removing or adding to help prove that your brand or product exists and that helps you know when a client or user selects the solution? What are you doing to be more aware of what your user sees, hears, does and says? Is there anything that talks about your brand changing? Maybe your packaging, maybe how you are displaying the product, maybe the copy, etc.

🟢Place: Is anything changing about this? Where can users find this? Where can users get informed when they have questions? Where in the process do they get prompted with this new solution? Basically what is changing about where they can find you or learn more about you? Also think about the buying process, and the typical blockers that stop them from making a decision, or changing a behavior. Think about what you are incorporating or could change to guide them through the buying process or help them change a behavior.

🟢Process and People: Finally, discuss if there is anything changing in the process, or how people will connect or support your clients and users. What is the objective here?

Use that space as a place for discussion, and then now define the strategy.

In here is all the things mentioned above but actually thinking about what is possible to implement based on the resources and the timeline you have.

🦵👣👇How would each strategy support each phase of the customer journey - from 'Exploration all the way to Advocacy.'

If you want you can define this strategy further or skip this section.

This is extremely helpful when you are trying to move forward and grow your product. For example, if this is a new product you will probably want to put more efforts into the exploration phase, where users learn about your product and the problem they have, because they need to do that before they make a decision to choose you. You will probably will not prioritize anything related to product advocacy.

Now that you've laid the foundation, define your plan for the next 90 days. What actionable steps can you take in the next 30 to 90 days to propel you toward your goals? Prioritize your actions and start implementing them.

By following these steps, you'll be well on your way to creating a marketing plan that not only helps you win but also sets you up for long-term success.

🤫What can you do in the next 30 to 90 days to achieve your goals. Which actions would you implement first?

The objective of this session is to 👉 share an initial idea for [problem/challenge] and get feedback from you so we can consider cost-effective solutions, as well as your initial concerns and suggestions, before the design work moves into further detail. 🙏

This is a collaborative session, so it feels a lot like a meeting (without adding another meeting to your calendar), allowing you to participate on your own time before the due date. While I am giving you the flexibility to choose when you participate, I ask that you do so before the 📅 due date. If you don't want to forget, we'll send you a reminder, but you can also add this session to your calendar.

Let me share the proposal with you here 👇 [ ADD A LINK AND VIDEO (Loom/YouTube) ]

You can also find all the documents and information here. Document link

What do you think about the concept?

Do you have any other comments, ideas, or requests?

💬We will review all your feedback, update our requirements and designs accordingly, and get back to you once we have also received feedback from other stakeholders.

👉Remember that, although you can choose when to participate within the given⚡ timeframe, we do have a 📅 due date for this work. Failing to meet this deadline will result in all future deadlines being pushed back and the project being delayed. I take our goals and timelines very seriously, so please make sure to participate before the due date. Please note that you will NOT be able to participate or collaborate once the due date has passed.

Kindly add this feedback session to your calendar and allocate sufficient time to provide your feedback.🙏

Let me walk your through it 👇 Watch this video /[Read this document].

[ You can add links here like this ]

[ Add a short description about the proposal or concept ]

How do you feel about this design?👇

👉In this design, we considered [specific use case] and prioritized [specific feature]. However, our product often encounters extreme or unique use cases. 👩‍🎨👩‍🎤Can you think of any such scenarios that might not be supported by this design? 🧝‍♂‍Who are the exceptions? Would anyone need a different approach or solution? Who should not be affected by the changes?

You can skip this step if we are covering all use cases.

👉When examining the usability of this design and the user's journey to accomplish [specific task], can you identify any potential gaps or risks?

👉Are there any other limitations, risks, or challenges you would like to share with us? 🤔 Do you foresee any risks that would require immediate intervention or mitigation? What is your main concern with this initiative, if any? What are the limitations that based on your experience exist or should be considered now?

Instructions: 👇Add one per sticky note. Please add one suggestion per sticky note, keeping it concise. If a risk or challenge isn't clear, I'll reach out to you or schedule a meeting to gain a better understanding. It's crucial that each sticky note contains only one suggestion to facilitate voting using emojis. Feel free to use the (🔥) emoji to mark suggestions as high-priority.

👉As designers, we aim to develop the best solution for our clients while also considering the cost and potential challenges during implementation. Is there anything you believe 😶should be changed or removed to reduce costs or ease the implementation and distribution phases? How can we reduce costs? If you could remove one thing, what would you exclude from the scope to cut costs?

Skip this step if you think is design can be implemented and distribute easily and you don't have any suggestions.

Please add your ideas and suggestions below.

Use one sticky note per idea and keep it concise. You will also be able to view and interact with others' suggestions and ideas, so feel free to vote or organize them using emojis. Use the thumbs up 👍 emoji to indicate your liking for an idea.

👀Help me understand your priorities.

Choose 1! ❤ Can you think of one single improvement that could really help our team, clients, increase revenue, or reduce costs? If so, please mark that sticky note with this ❤️emoji so we can see which ideas are important to you. If someone else has added an idea that seems important and you'd like to prioritize it, do the same.

Add your questions and comments below👇

I will go through all of your comments and answers once the session is closed and will address all of your questions and concerns a few days later. If you have a question that requires an immediate answer, you can contact me through Slack.