{"id":9124,"date":"2020-12-10T09:21:43","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T09:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=9124"},"modified":"2025-01-13T16:26:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:26:18","slug":"how-to-measure-product-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/how-to-measure-product-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding the Feature Factory: How to Measure Product Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why do we need to measure product success?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We may keep hearing the phrases \u201cfeature factory\u201d and \u201cbuild trap\u201d, but what do these terms really mean and why is measuring product success now such a key part of the product management process?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some product teams, the product roadmap is simply a list of features to build. Product managers act as gatekeepers – they make decisions on which feature the development team should work on next, provide the information necessary for the development team to pick up tickets and push features out the door. It feels really efficient when you\u2019re doing it – after all, you can measure how many features\/story points\/tickets are completed and you can refine your processes to get quicker and quicker. And if that sounds like a production line, that\u2019s because it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Product
Product management isn’t a production line, it’s about improving outcomes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A production line is great for creating repeat copies of one thing. However, your goal when developing products isn\u2019t to repeat previous work more efficiently, it\u2019s to improve your product and make it more valuable. Measuring output isn\u2019t relevant to a product’s success – you need to measure outcomes, and have confidence that you\u2019ve solved the problem you intended to solve. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than a \u201cbuild, build, build\u201d mode, you need a \u201cbuild, measure, learn\u201d mindset, to give yourself time to go back and improve what you\u2019ve done and get the best return on your investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Make
Make the time to go back and learn from what you’ve built.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What should product management success criteria look like?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The concept of outcome measurement isn\u2019t easy. You can\u2019t use the same metrics each time, as measuring the outcome requires an understanding of the benefits to be gained when the problem is solved. To truly measure outcomes, you should define success criteria before the problem is solved, by asking \u201chow will we be able to see when the problem is solved?\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way you measure success may be different depending on the granularity of the problem. Let\u2019s consider an example like having a high amount of churn\/cancellations. This is a product-level problem, and is easy to measure. There are lots of tools available to allow us easily to keep track of the number\/value of customers who cancel each month. However, the ways in which we solve the problem are less defined – it could be more educational tools, in-app help, improved onboarding or a myriad other options. If we decide on educational tools, there are multiple options, such as videos, help articles, or live chat. We need to measure success at different levels. In ProdPad, we would represent this by creating a roadmap<\/a> that is structured around objectives and key results<\/a>, initiatives and ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Objective<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Setting
Setting clear objectives helps you measure product success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the objective (also called the OKR). We can add information over time to see whether our various efforts to address churn are working and it\u2019s moving in the right direction. It\u2019s the bellwether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Initiative<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Each
Each initiative in ProdPad has space to document success criteria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is the initiative. It is a problem definition, linked to the OKR so we can see that the work we are planning on our roadmap is helping us to achieve our company objectives. We can also see how we\u2019re measuring success for this initiative in particular (other initiatives could be linked to the same key result).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ideas<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Adding<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And finally, this is one idea for solving the problem represented in our initiative. There will be lots of ideas we could try, and each will have different success criteria, as we\u2019re building different solutions. We might try one or many ideas in the process of solving the problem. The idea is really an experiment, something which we\u2019re trying in as minimal a way as possible, in order to learn what works and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In each case, we\u2019re measuring the success of what we\u2019ve defined, but the level of granularity is different. For ideas, we check to see if the change worked as expected. For the initiative, we check to see if the change solved the problem. And for the objective, we\u2019re measuring to see if solving the problem helped us to reach our objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Managing the process of measuring success<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As there are different levels of granularity in the measurement of success, we also need to find different ways of recording the outcomes. Much of this will depend on how frequently changes are released. If you release small changes daily or weekly, you should check on their success on a very regular basis, and maybe keep an eye on how well you\u2019re solving the bigger problems quite regularly too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s likely that you\u2019ll want to check progress towards your OKRs on a monthly basis. If your release frequency is much longer, then success measurement is a less frequent process too. It\u2019s why most companies aim to release small and often, so they can see the effectiveness of the changes they make. If you only release once a year, and can\u2019t measure success along the way, how will you be confident that your changes will work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is always space at every level in ProdPad to record how effective your bets were. This starts at the idea level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Go
Go back and record the outcome on the ProdPad idea.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You can record the success of your initiatives…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Once
There is space to measure the performance against your success criteria.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

…and whether your OKRs are on track, behind, or at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Measure
Measure whether your product teams are on track for success.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Why measuring product success makes you a successful product manager<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The most effective product managers learn from their successes and failures, learning from failure and iterating until they reach success. A short feedback cycle and breaking the work down into the smallest valuable piece (even if that\u2019s an experimental prototype) allows a PM to learn quickly and offers them the best possible chance for success. It\u2019s much better to learn how something doesn\u2019t work at an early and inexpensive stage than when a major feature is released!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019re considering how you can be a successful product manager, and how you can help your business succeed too, there\u2019s really only one answer – the build, measure, learn formula that is integral to ProdPad. Give it a try and see for yourself<\/a> how it prevents product teams from falling into the \u201cfeature factory\u201d trap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why do we need to measure product success? We may keep hearing the phrases \u201cfeature factory\u201d and \u201cbuild trap\u201d, but what do these terms really mean and why is measuring…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":9125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5229,9],"tags":[],"pp_uni_tag":[],"class_list":["post-9124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-measuring-success","category-product-management-best-practice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAvoid the Feature Factory, Measure Product Success<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Measuring product success is key to the product management process. 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