How to Efficiently Perform Release Planning in Product Management

We've all experienced the pressure of managing a flood of business requirements that need to be addressed in product releases. Whether it's critical features to meet regulatory demands, urgent client requests that impact productivity, or the development of a cutting-edge metric or dashboard pulling data from 11 odd tables that need to be fed into the database by applying complex transformation logic, the challenges are constant.

Amidst the chaos and last-minute demands, how can a Product Manager effectively build and execute a release plan without constant disruptions?

Well, here comes Time-Based and Scope-Based release planning which can soften the misery and help unwind and unclutter.

Let’s Outline the Process by Building Through a Structure

1. Get all the User Functional and Non-Functional Requirements Documented

Once the Business Requirements are received, follow the below pipeline:

1.1 Leverage your User Personas, and convert your Business Requirement into a user requirement.

1.2 Once User Requirements are created, assess them against your system requirements.

1.3 A System Requirement can further be broken down into a Function and Non-Functional Requirement.

1.4 Document your Functional Requirements into an integrated spreadsheet, as it will now become your master.

Once the assessment is completed, break your requirements into

·       Functional and Non-Function Requirements (Indicative Classifications Below)

As soon as this process is completed, 80% of the clarity on what you are supposed to build as a Product Manager will have been achieved.

Outcome: Clearly documented Functional and Non Functional Requirements

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2. Generate Time - Based Estimates for Each Functional Requirement

As a Product Manager, we are secretly married to our Backlog; getting the right estimates to address the requirements in our Backlog is of utmost priority. Building a forecast and identifying predictability is loved by all, hence, one may start with initial high-level estimates based on estimation techniques such as:

·       T-Shirt Sizing

·       Relative Story Pointing

And then, keep on refining these estimates as part of a continuous review.

Outcome: High-Level Estimates on Functional Requirements

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3. Start With Requirements Elicitation as Part of a Grooming Exercise

Once your requirements are added, and High-Level estimates are achieved, proceed with a requirements elicitation exercise with your Functional and Tech SME’s to clearly understand the requirements in finer detail. This will help you as a Product Manager address finer technicalities and holistically assess the complexity of the feature development.

Requirements Grooming exercise also helps mitigate scope risk, while enabling a streamlined release funnel which is understood by the team.

Your Grooming Exercises are the first avenue where you will actually create User Stories, and combine the User Stories into features and EPICs.

Outcome: User Stories and Requirement Breakdown into Product Features

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4. Proceed With the Identification of Vertical and Horizontal Features

• Vertical Features - Features that are independent
• Horizontal Features - Features dependent on Vertical Features completion

A product will always have features that are statistically dependent and independent. Vertical features individually integrate into the Horizontal feature to build a fully scalable solution.

For example, in an AI workflow product, your workflow (Horizontal feature) is dependent on individual integration of ‘workflow states’ (Vertical Features) which need to function efficiently. Thereafter, integrating with the holistic workflow to function as a single stream of functionality.

Outcome: Clear Understanding on Dependent and Independent features, So, you know which ones to build first

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5. Use a Value Stacking Framework and Develop Risk-Based Priority

A Value Stacking Framework is an essential tool for Product Managers to objectively assess the relative value of different features. This approach involves systematically comparing features A, B, C, D, and so on, against a set of predefined criteria.

These criteria might include regulatory impact, user impact, business alignment, technical feasibility, and/or market differentiation.

Let’s Look at the Framework by an Example:

·  Feature A is assessed to have a Regulatory Impact

·  Feature B is assessed to have a Productivity Impact

·  Feature C is assessed to have a Market Differentiation Impact

·  Feature D is assessed to have a Critical Impact on other features (Vertical Feature)

Based on your Use Case and Business driver, a Product Manager would be required to tailor the priority based on impact which is relevant to their need (Weighted Scoring).

Hence, any feature having a Regulatory Impact should be paramount, followed by features that enable or enhance other functionalities. Productivity improvements come next, with market differentiation as the final consideration.

Based on the above-weighted scoring, the ‘Relative Priority’ of features for release planning should be:

The qualitative feature assessment framework helps eliminate bias, enables critical decision-making, and ensures that resources are allocated to features that offer the highest overall value to both users and the business.

Outcome: Features identified based on relative value and risk.

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In Summary

Having a clear direction for prioritization and a vetted framework that can be scaled to 90% of the problems can enable smoother release planning and help in stakeholder management. While, the plans are ever-changing and priorities evolve, providing clarity to team members and clients on the assessment of priority enables smoother and more frequent releases and minimizes surprises while enabling your product development at scale.