Managing Portfolio Strategy in the Product Release
I went to lunch with a friend of mine last week at the great BBQ joint Rudy’s. (Good food by the pound) We were discussing a current issue he’s having trying to manage a portfolio of many products by himself. All of the products are in different stages in the product lifecycle. We discussed the strategic direction he wanted to be able to take the portfolio. We then discussed how he wanted to manage and communicate these strategies.
In brainstorming we defined a roadmap view that would be helpful showing this information in a graphical format. This roadmap would identify the types of products into different categories: Maintenance & Utilities, Enhancements & Improvements, and Breakthrough or Transformational products. We then discussed using similar techniques at the release planning level.
Based on the roadmap we’d know what type of product we were trying to launch. We would categorize features or requirements into each type: maintenance & utility, enhancements & improvements, and transformational. By setting target percentages for each of these categories, we can ensure that the product release is in line with the strategy.
This allowed us to tie the roadmap strategy down to the requirements and features being worked on in a release. I’d be interested to know how others have gone about ensuring strategy execution in release planning.
It was a great conversation with lots of possibilities and an excellent meal.
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