Weekly Product Review
The Weekly Product Review is a regular meeting between the Product Team and the Stream Teams to review product and business metrics.
Outcome
The intended outcome of the weekly product review is to identify and explain the variance between the product metric targets and the actual performance. In addition, the meeting is used to validate the correlation between the Stream Team objectives and the business goals.
Context
Product Teams are accountable for the performance of their products. They create stream objectives that they believe will drive the product and business metrics in the right direction. They need a way to validate the expected correlation between the metrics as well as to identify any variances between expected and actual performance.
Inputs
| Artifact | Description |
|---|---|
| Product Performance Data | Data on the performance of the product, including usage, engagement, and customer satisfaction. |
| Customer Insights | Qualitative data to explain the variances in expected product performance. |
Outputs
| Format | Description | Benefits |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly Product Report | A collection of metric charts that covers the key stream/input metrics as well as the higher-level product/outcome metrics. |
|
Rationale
Rather than traditional status reports which include a lot about the work in progress, the weekly product review focuses on the impact of the work on the product and business metrics. The Stream Teams are autonomous in terms of deciding what to build but they are accountable for the outcomes of their work. Therefore the format of the review focuses on metrics rather than outputs.
Other Outputs Formats
| Artifact | Description | ZeroBlockers Opinion |
|---|---|---|
| Progress Report | Summarises the work completed, in progress, and planned for the next period. | Focuses too much on outputs, and work in progress. The goal is to identify whether the work is achieving the expected outcomes. |
| RAID Logs | A collection of Risks, Assumptions, Issues, and Dependencies. | These are relevant for the delivery teams to help them build their selected features. Product teams do not need to be involved in this level of detail. |
Anti-patterns
- Variable Formats: Using different formats for the metrics in the review makes it difficult to compare and track progress.
- Lack of Preparation: Coming to the review without analysing the metrics in advance and identifying variances, and causes.
- Avoiding Accountability: Not addressing failures or areas where objectives were not met.
- Resistance to Change: Unwillingness to adjust strategies based on feedback and data.