How to keep Product Roadmaps versatile yet focused on solving the right problems. Enter Problem Framing
Ever felt like you’re guessing which features your customers really need, afraid that you might be pouring time and resources into the wrong solutions? Let's dive into how Problem Framing can save you from these headaches. This approach, which got its start at Google in 2018, is a game-changer for aligning stakeholders and ensuring that your efforts are targeted right from the start.
If you are a product leader, it's likely that your Product Roadmap is not set in stone. You probably have had to pivot not just once, but multiple times over the past few months, each shift driven by a mix of internal enthusiasm and external pressures.
Let's say a marketing stakeholder comes to you, all fired up about a new feature. They're convinced it's the golden ticket, the feature that will catapult user engagement through the roof. It's your job to weigh their excitement against the practical realities of your product's direction—balancing what's shiny and new against what's actually viable and necessary.
Then there's the competition. Imagine if a competitor rolls out a groundbreaking feature that has the whole industry talking. It might cause your team to second-guess your current strategy and wonder if you should incorporate similar features. Suddenly, you might find yourself adjusting your plans to stay competitive.
Additionally, shifts in your company’s strategic direction can complicate things further. Perhaps the leadership decides to change the business model—from a product-based to a service-oriented approach, or from premium to freemium. Such fundamental changes require you to quickly reassess and realign your roadmap to fit these new objectives, a task that can be both challenging and stressful.
In all these situations, having a method to manage these changes effectively—not just reacting to them—can help ensure that your product development stays on track and aligned with your long-term goals.
Change is a constant in product development, but how do you handle it without losing your way?
Enter Problem Framing
Problem Framing is not just another corporate buzzword; it's a lifeline. It forces you to clarify exactly which problem is worth solving and why.
This method is about bringing together key stakeholders—those who have decision-making power and a vested interest—to pinpoint and agree on the most important issues before jumping to solutions. It acts as a master plan for your product, ensuring that each new idea, feature addition, or strategic shift aligns well with your overall goals.
Think of Problem Framing as the blueprint for your product’s roadmap.
Without it, your product might end up like a fancy house that started with a great vision but the architects forgot to attach the blueprint — where rooms are added randomly. It might look impressive in a presentation, but it doesn’t make much sense to live in.
Breaking Down Problem Framing Into Three Stages
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1. Discovery (1–3 Weeks)
Imagine you’re planning a dinner for friends. You wouldn’t just pick a restaurant without knowing everyone's dietary needs, right? Similarly, the Discovery phase is about gathering all the essential data—user feedback, market research, and insights from your team. Even if you have a dedicated research team or your designers are on the job, as a product leader, it's still your responsibility to connect all the dots.
You need to know what data you want and what’s actually relevant because you are the one holding the big picture. Ensure you gather what you already have and cover any blind spots by conducting just enough research. This phase sets the stage to prevent those all-too-common surprises that can derail your development process later on.
2. Workshop Preparation
It’s no secret that many product leaders view workshops as a necessary evil—often exhausting and seemingly less efficient than direct, one-on-one meetings. These 1-on-1 sessions might allow for deeper, more focused discussions, but they come with their own set of challenges. They can stretch out timelines, lead to repeated conversations, and create inconsistencies in how different stakeholders understand goals and challenges.
But maybe you’re getting to the point where you’re tired of the endless meeting loop, and you can bet your stakeholders are feeling the same. Their calendars are already packed, and they’re craving sessions where decisions aren’t just discussed—they’re made.
Our Problem Framing workshop offers a fresh escape from this cycle. By bringing everyone together to focus on the issues at hand in a single, cohesive session, it not only saves precious time but also taps into the collective intelligence and perspectives of the entire group. Effective facilitation in these workshops ensures that every voice counts, with decisions that are clear and supported by all, steering everyone in a unified direction.
Before asking stakeholders to block their calendars, it’s crucial to ensure that you have robust data to present. Each piece of data, each element in your customer journey map or service blueprint, is prepared with the intent to inform and enlighten. This preparation ensures that discussions are grounded in reality and aligned with strategic objectives, fostering a deep, shared understanding and paving the way for meaningful progress.
The right stakeholders need to be present: those who have decision-making power and a vested interest. It’s not just about gathering people; it’s about gathering the right people. This ensures that the time spent in workshops is maximized for effectiveness, focusing not just on airing views but on making decisions that drive your projects forward.
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3. Workshop Facilitation
The term “workshop facilitation” might sound a bit daunting, especially if it doesn’t appear anywhere in your job description. You might think it’s a skill reserved for professional facilitators, but at its core, facilitation is about active listening, building common ground, and ensuring everyone has a clear picture of the goals and the process. And let’s face it, as a product leader, you are constantly in the middle of people—customers, product teams, stakeholders who are just people with their own needs, goals, and deadlines. In many ways, you’re already mediating and facilitating every day.
In the Problem Framing Workshop, you play a crucial role. You lead stakeholders through a structured exploration of the problem space, which involves defining the problem clearly, understanding its context, and identifying underlying assumptions. You orchestrate exercises that are designed to uncover the root causes of issues by leveraging real customer data and foster a shared understanding of both user needs and business objectives.
This collaborative exploration doesn’t just deepen understanding among stakeholders; it also helps prioritize the issues that are most critical to address.
By dedicating your time to run these workshops, you’re not just making decisions more efficiently; you’re also elevating your role within the organization. This proactive approach positions you as the go-to leader who doesn’t just talk about change but actively drives it, aligning project and organizational goals seamlessly.
Such leadership sets you apart as more than just a manager; you become a central figure in steering your team through complexities with a clear, strategic vision.
Why Does This All Matter?
Even if your roadmap is likely to change, establishing a shared understanding of the critical problem to solve allows your strategy to adapt without losing focus.
When stakeholders understand how their objectives align with broader goals and are validated by customer insights, they are less likely to push arbitrary features. Instead, they're more likely to question, "Does this serve the problem we agreed on?"
In conclusion, Problem Framing ensures that your product development can remain flexible, yet focused on real user needs, simplifying stakeholder communications and enhancing overall project efficacy.
Remember, change is inevitable, but losing sight of what's essential doesn't have to be.
Don’t miss our first webinar of 2025! Get introduced to our Problem Framing approach and the Strategic Opportunity Brief—a key tool that helps you ask the right questions and keep your stakeholders aligned.
