What Is the Internal Product Opportunity Assessment
Marty Cagan in his book Inspired suggests a product opportunity assessment. Cagan’s assessment consists of ten questions to ask when examining a product opportunity to elicit more information about it and determine whether it is worth pursuing.
I’ve compiled a similar list of questions for people working on internal products to use when initially looking at an internal product to determine if it is worth it.
You can think of it as an internal product opportunity assessment. I described this as a project opportunity assessment in Beyond Requirements, so if your organization still operates with a project paradigm, you can use these questions to evaluate your projects as well.
The questions in the assessment are listed below.
1.Exactly what need will this satisfy?
This question may be difficult to answer, but it’s very important to get it right so that you can ensure that you are trying to satisfy a clearly defined need and don’t just have a solution in search of a problem.
2. For whom do we satisfy that need?
This question seeks to identify the key stakeholders and the people who will have a vested interest in the product.
3. What can be gained from satisfying this need?
This question identifies the benefits to be gained from the product. Don’t feel as if you need a highly precise answer at this point. An order-of-magnitude answer is usually good enough to determine whether the need is worth satisfying.
4. How will we measure success?
This is a way of identifying outcome based metrics relevant to the product.
5. What alternatives are out there now?
This is another way of asking what would happen if you don’t satisfy this need, as well as identifying different ways of satisfying it.
6. Do we have the right people to satisfy this need?
This question seeks to identify whether you have the appropriate skill sets working on the team, and if not, whether you need to bring in help from inside or outside the organization.
7. Why now?
This question asks what time constraints, if any, exist for delivering the product.
8. How will we encourage adoption?
This is to get you thinking about change management and implementation.
9. What factors are critical to success?
This singles out any specific requirements identified during the discussion or subsequent analysis. This question is not meant to identify the solution; rather, it highlights any dependencies or constraints that may exist.
10. Is this problem worth solving?
This question sums up the discussion. Based on what you’ve discussed up to this point, is this project worth it?
An Example
Below is an internal product opportunity assessment for the Agile Alliance conference submission system shared in Beyond Requirements. This assessment was completed when trying to decide whether to replace the existing submission system prior to Agile2013.
Project Opportunity Assessment for the Conference Submission System
1.Exactly what need will this satisfy?
Need to accept session proposals, review proposals, provide feedback, and select sessions for Agile2013. The current submission system is based on an out-of- date platform and is difficult to maintain.
2. For whom do we satisfy that need?
Submitters, program team
3. What can be gained from satisfying this need?
Address several issues with the existing system and allow for ease of update going forward.
4. How will we measure success?
Do we get a good collection of sessions for the conference, and are submitters getting good feedback so that they can revise their submissions?
5. What alternatives are out there now?
- Revise the existing submission system.
- Purchase a system.
6. Do we have the right people to satisfy this need?
Yes
7. Why now?
Need to have the submission system available by December 1, 2012, to allow submitters sufficient time to submit their sessions.
8. How will we encourage adoption?
Notify people that in order to speak at the conference, they have to submit via the submission system.
9. What factors are critical to success?
- Automated testing
- Ability to release in stages
- Familiarity with the submission process
10. Is this problem worth solving?
Yes
When to Use the Internal Product Opportunity Assessment
These questions should be asked as early as possible in the project lifecycle, or even during initial consideration of a project—the earlier, the better. A project opportunity assessment often leads a team to question whether a project is worth doing at all, or only worth it in certain circumstances.
If the project is in progress and these questions have not been asked or answered, or if conditions have changed significantly, it is worth revisiting these questions.
Why Use the Internal Product Opportunity Assessment
An internal project opportunity assessment serves one of two possible purposes:
1. It can keep your organization from wasting time and money on satisfying poorly defined needs that aren’t worth addressing.
2. For those needs that are worth satisfying, it can focus the team and help them understand what will be required to succeed and how to define that success.
These questions structure initial discussions about the nature of an internal product and the value it delivers. The mere act of asking these questions may identify the need for further research, or it may uncover assumptions that point to the internal product not being worth it, or even feasible. The goal of the internal product opportunity assessment is to remind the team of important considerations when eliciting information that can be immediately helpful in evaluating an internal product without a great deal of effort. If an internal product has satisfactory answers to most or all of these questions, the team can then move on to more detailed analysis.
How to Use the Internal Product Assessment
1. Gather the key stakeholders—the same ones who would discuss decision filters and the Purpose Based Alignment Model if you were using those tools.
2. Discuss the ten questions, ensuring that you have a satisfactory answer for each question before moving to the next. In some cases, you may find that you do not know enough to answer the question in that discussion. You will have to use your judgment to determine whether it’s appropriate to do some further research. In some cases, the fact that the group cannot agree on an answer may indicate that the need is not significant enough at this time to continue.
3. If you identified any additional research that’s necessary, determine who will do that research (preferably volunteers) and when the group will reconvene to continue discussions.
Caveats and Considerations
This line of questioning focuses entirely on the need to satisfy (in the guise of a problem to be solved). The questions do not delve into possible solutions, because the initial focus of analysis should be on whether or not you understand the need and the impact of satisfying it.
These questions are intended to spark discussion and yet be answered fairly quickly. Do not continue with the project until you get these questions answered, but at the same time do not spend too much time and analysis trying to answer them. If you do some offline research, allow a week at most for that research so that project progress does not grind to a halt. If the project is truly not worth it, it’s better to figure that out sooner rather than later.
This line of questions seems to mirror the six questions. However, the subject of the two sets of questions are different. The six questions focus on the organization as a whole. The internal product opportunity assessment focuses specifically on the need a particular internal product is intended to satisfy.
Additional Resource
Cagan, Marty. Inspired: How to Create Products Customers Love. SVPG Press, 2008.
Want to know more?
If you learn better with video rather than reading, you may want to check out Analysis Techniques for Product Owners Live Lessons, a set of video training sessions that show you how to apply analysis techniques to product ownership. Lesson 4.2 focuses on the opportunity assessment.
Analysis Techniques for Product Owners is available on Safari – O’Reilly’s online learning platform. Sign up for a 10-day free trial to view the video lessons.