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The Product Thinking Playbook

Product development is hard. The Product Thinking Playbook by Connected is here to help.

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Map your way to better products

Consisting of various tactics, techniques and milestones borrowed from Design Thinking, Agile Development, Lean Product Strategy, and Jobs-To-Be-Done Theory, the Product Thinking Playbook helps facilitate conversations around what you will and (just as importantly) will not do to achieve your product goals.

Three people organizing cards in the product thinking playbook

Create alignment and document your strategy

A Playbook exercise has two goals. The first is to create alignment through dialogue about what will and will not be done to achieve the desired outcome. The second is to generate a physical artifact that represents the execution strategy that can be referenced—and modified—throughout the life of the project.

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The Product Thinking
Playbook Cards

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Tactics

Tactics cards represent a set of methods and strategies that can be sued to accomplish desired outcomes.

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Milestones

Milestone cards are used to update or demonstrate progress at the conclusion of critical tactics.

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Techniques

Technique cards specify how you will execute against your chosen tactics in greater detail.

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Discovery and Delivery

Cards labeled with the Discovery track are geared toward learning and validation while Delivery-labeled tactics are geared toward design and development.

Tactic

Rolling Release

Release software updates regularly and in short cycles to iteratively improve the capabilities and functionality of an existing product in the market.

Tactic

Solution Architecture

Define system-level components and interactions, including technical requirements and domain boundaries, resulting in a technical vision and plan for execution.

Tactic

Product Design

Deploy iterative design techniques to validate and deliver assets in tandem with software development cycles. Activities include synthesis, ideation, user experience design, and visual design.

Tactic

Demand Validation

Test the desirability of a proposed strategy, concept, or feature against the problem or opportunity it is intended to address. The goal is to ensure that the solution addresses a real, observed struggle…

Tactic

Concept Generation

Generate, define, and evaluate multiple product concepts that leverage key insights and areas of opportunity uncovered through research.

Technique

QA Requirement Analysis

Beginning with a validated solution backlog, QA analyzes product requirements, design specifications, and system interactions to validate accuracy, comprehensiveness, and testability…

Technique

Software Architecture

Establish multiple options for the software architecture—following commonly defined patterns—and validate which approach will be the most effective and extensible solution.

Technique

Technical Feasibility Review

Determine the technical feasibility of a concept or prototype given project constraints, available technologies, and business requirements.

Technique

Storyboarding

Illustrate a story or sequence of events to explore the beginning, middle, and end of how a user interacts with a product, service, or AR/VR experience. In some cases, storyboards may be translated into concept videos…

Technique

Wizard of Oz Testing

Complement an early-stage prototype with human elements during testing to more realistically simulate the proposed solution, revealing more representative behaviours from the users testing it.

Milestone

Beta Release

Release of a pre-market version of the product to a select group of users. This allows for the testing and validation of many of the assumptions made during development prior to releasing to market.

Milestone

Product Showcase

An in-depth demonstration of the product in its working-code version, along with a presentation of the technology and overall design philosophy.

Milestone

Insights Shareout

A shareout of key insights based on research synthesis. These will inform the the design and development of product concepts and recommend a clear direction on product strategy.

Milestone

Project Kickoff

A meeting between stakeholders and team members to define project and product success and secure overall alignment. Topics covered include business goals, relevant technologies, existing research, and the overall execution plan…

Milestone

Product Strategy Presentation

A formal presentation of a product’s strategy that may include the product vision, value proposition, key objectives, measures of success, and/or a design and development roadmap.

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Great Products (and Playbooks) Are Never Complete

Like the products we work on, the Product Thinking Playbook is always evolving. By sharing it with others, we hope to spark conversation on how to build better.