When collecting data, analyzing it, and making decisions, the first step is knowing the right people to communicate with, and this is exactly the case in our case here.
We must know where this task came from and who suggested it, and often the person who suggested the new task or feature is not the same person who told us it should be implemented.
Therefore, we must be open to questioning and dialogue and spend time on it until we collect the information we want.
Sources for new tasks:
New tasks or features for an existing product come from many sources, the most important of which are:
The customer requested it and the product was B2B, (for example, linking the accounting platform to one of the e-government services.)
A group of customers have requested it and we want to roll it out as a feature for everyone (eg locating address via map instead of typing).
The team requests it to facilitate internal work (certain reports on sales performance, visits and so on).
The team requested it to test a hypothesis in the market (a page to answer questions supported by artificial intelligence to improve the quality of service).
The Board of Directors requested it without mentioning the reasons, and this always happens, and it is of course a negative matter if justifications and reasons are not provided.
In order to make the right decision, we need to examine the benefit or opportunity versus the cost or challenge.
Decision making steps:
Importance of the task: We understand the task well and its importance to the team, the product, the company, and the market, with rough numbers and a good guess.
The source of the high cost of the task: It is not enough to say that it is difficult, we must know why it is difficult.
Comparison and decision making: This is an important stage and depends on the quality of data in the previous stages.
1- The importance of the task:
We can engage in an intelligent discussion and a good, logical, and friendly dialogue with the concerned party who requested the feature and understand the reasons that make this task or feature important. The most important of these reasons are the following:
Financial return: The company wants to sell it to a large customer for a good amount.
Resaleability: The company wants to market and sell it many times in the market and there is a deliberate opportunity.
Size of the segment benefited from: There is a large segment of customers who will be very happy and satisfied with this feature.
Competition: We will win the current competition if this feature is implemented.
2- The source of the high cost of the task:
Now is the time to ask about the reason for the expected cost and difficulty. We must delve into the details a little here, and among the most important expected reasons are:
Takes a long time: Its implementation takes a long job and is not a short task as expected.
Technically difficult to implement: There are difficult technical details that developers were not previously accustomed to (for example, encrypting and storing important information in a specific way and within strict standards, and the team does not have experience with that).
It affects the technical performance of the product: perhaps the product will be slower, or more vulnerable to cyber attacks, and so on.
Dispersion in the vision and goals of the product: Perhaps the feature does not serve the product’s directions (for example, a feature for displaying currency prices within a platform for online courses).
Priority of awaited tasks: There are currently urgent tasks, and we cannot now build this feature, and it is difficult to pass it on in the current plan.
3- Comparison and decision making:
It is certain that the final decision rests with the product manager, but it always needs the input and opinions of all parties.
Therefore, if things are ambiguous and unclear, then she can hold a meeting with the technical official and the administrative official, explain the data to them and take their advice.
