Dear all,
are we going after the right priorities when it comes to delivering IT projects or digital products? Coaching teams regularly, I remain doubtful.
The underlying challenge – to my mind – is often the lack of a clear intention (the WHY) and a rather narrow interpretation of business value for what is being built. I have pointed to how OKRs can help alleviate this earlier in this newsletter and will add to it in my upcoming guest post for gmthub’s OKR blog.
In the continuing quest for better outcomes, I would like to introduce you today to the concepts of opportunity backlog and opportunity mapping as enhancements or alternatives to traditional roadmaps and backlogs.
Here are two posts introducing the concepts:
The Opportunity Backlog Framework: A User-Focused Alternative To The Product Roadmap –
Scott Kiekbusch’s reasoning why an opportunity-focused feedback loop between makers and users increases value
Opportunity Mapping: An Essential Skill for Driving Product Outcomes –
Teresa Torres view on how opportunity mapping may provide structure to the ill-defined problem of product outcomes
Come to think of it: if we take the „Shift Left“ paradigm seriously, opportunity mapping and opportunity-driven roadmaps and -backlogs seem another logical step to better software project outcomes…
Let me know what you think!
Have a great summer weekend,
Godehard