Let's use our service as an example to talk about where to get ideas for the backlog and how to make it a useful and convenient tool for work.
So what's the important part of a product's job? Maintaining a grocery discovery backlog, of course. In the discovery backlog, we capture and organize all ideas and hypotheses to achieve product goals. The same backlog is a source for the formation of a delivery backlog, that is, a list of ideas that we submit to development. If the task of the delivery backlog is to formulate what is of maximum value at the moment, then the task of the discovery of the backlog is to record everything that may be useful now or in the future.
Idea search topicfor product development is extremely relevant. We often discuss it with products that work in other companies. It seems that the sources of ideas are highly dependent on the culture of the company, established processes or personal preferences of the product. In fact, more often they use a limited number of sources, while others are simply not involved. It happens that the product is simply sawn in accordance with the approved strategy, and no one bothers how customers perceive it, what problems they face every day. Or vice versa, products are digging into numbers, day and night, tightening the funnel and improving the customer experience without actually making any significant changes in the product or launching something that could give a real breakthrough or competitive advantage in the future.
Also, I often face the fact that products perceive certain sources of ideas not as sources of ideas, but as irritants and barriers to product development. This is especially true of cooperation with other divisions of the company: “Here, sales people have come, they want something again, they dictate what to do. What do they even understand, I'm a product, I see numbers, I know my product better than anyone. "
But the task of backlog discovery is to record all problems, ideas, hypotheses. And if only some of the sources are used, then the backlog turns out to be one-sided, and after it the product will become such.
Now I'll tell you what sources we use. So let's go.
The first point of the plan is to listen to the client.
Perhaps the most obvious source, but that doesn't diminish its value.
Customers are constantly sharing feedback: they leave reviews in stores, comments on social networks and forums, write messages to the support service. Maybe it's easier to ignore them, because it's the support's job to deal with customer requests? Or is it still better to "squeeze" the maximum out of the situation and look at it as a massive, free channel for getting ideas in 24x7 mode? At Exness, we constantly read what customers write in stores and in letters to the support service (we stand in a copy of the correspondence), we have a chat with support and immediately fix all ideas.
How to get customer feedback on a specific issue? Research will help here - in person, by phone or online; in-depth interview, survey, UX testing. It all depends on the task and the availability of time. The research can be easily done online yourself: a lot of services to help you or ask for support, sales. The latter will gladly accept the offer, because what sales person would refuse a positive reason for contacting a client?
We also have an ongoing NPS study running in an application with a free-form feedback field. It is usually filled out in detail by those who give a low grade. We understand this, but in any case, we collect a lot of useful information there, not only about what exactly users want (much of this is already in the backlog), but also about how many users this is relevant. All of this helps in prioritizing.
So, one of the most popular wishes of investors was the addition of Stop Loss and Take Profit (automatic closing of an investment when a certain amount is reached). We launched this feature in August. Let's see how this will affect the overall NPS level, and what wish will be in the top in September.
We also launch quick surveys there - investment profile, market preferences, and so on.
What else? On a monthly basis, we conduct in-depth interviews with different customer segments: users who have gone into churn, the most highly profitable customers, investors who are also traders, users who have switched to a payment step but did not make it, and so on.
We conduct the interview on the Job to be done framework, it allows you to get the maximum user insights. Every time we learn a lot of new things, as the product develops, and the clients are all different, and they also develop with us.
A striking example.We learned that many new users make a deposit and withdraw immediately in order to test how the withdrawal works. And if it works well, they trust the broker and decide on cooperation. With us, the withdrawal is made completely automatically, the funds are received quickly (the time depends only on the rules for replenishing the payment instrument chosen by the client), clients see it, appreciate it and start working with us.
Data can't speak but asks questions
Products usually have target metrics by which to measure their success. If there are no metrics, then it is better to make them appear. Metrics and goals for them are often the result of cascading company metrics, measures of achieving a product's goal (for example, in the form of OKRs, Objectives and Key Results), or a synthesis of the two. For example, the number of active users, the time spent in the application by one user per period, income per user, NPS.
One way or another, there are metrics, there are target values that we want to achieve by a certain time, there is their actual state for today. And in order to go from the “fact” state to the “plan” state, something needs to be changed in the product.
To understand what to change, each metric is usually decomposed into lower-level metrics (conversion to registration / purchase / payment, repeat visits, average check, churn), each such metric is tracked, it is determined which of them needs and can be improved, and hypotheses are formed on what features need to be done to achieve this.
By themselves, the data, of course, cannot speak and cannot bring any ideas. They raise questions rather than provide answers. But the more we look at the numbers from different angles, the more questions we ask ourselves, the more hypotheses we have. Especially if you combine this item with others.
I'll show you with an example.Our goal is to increase the number of active users by 5 times (an active user has an open investment on the 7th day after registration and later). We are looking at the conversion of downloads to the first investment, we compare it with a similar indicator in another Exness product (a mobile application for self-trading). We see that the conversion there is one and a half times higher, although, in theory, our product is simpler and aimed at the mass consumer. Let's start looking deeper: for different countries, different types of traffic - there is a difference almost everywhere, especially large for advertising traffic. We take the most popular country and advertising traffic, build a funnel for each step, and see that the biggest difference is at the top-up step. We meet with colleagues, ask them to share the secret of success, and everything turns out to be simple. We all initially implemented a standard process:the client clicks on "Make a deposit", fills out a questionnaire about himself, attaches documents, then chooses a means of payment. Colleagues did an A / B test, where they simply reversed these steps and first gave them a means of payment. At the first step, the user sees that there is a convenient way for him to replenish (this is very important for customers, since completely different methods are common in different countries). And then he is ready to spend time filling out personal data. The A / B test showed its effect, colleagues rolled out to everyone. A week later, we launched a similar test in our country, which also showed a statistically significant increase in conversion.where they simply swapped these steps and first gave them a means of payment. At the first step, the user sees that there is a convenient way for him to replenish (this is very important for customers, since completely different methods are common in different countries). And then he is ready to spend time filling out personal data. The A / B test showed its effect, colleagues rolled out to everyone. A week later, we launched a similar test in our country, which also showed a statistically significant increase in conversion.where they simply swapped these steps and first gave them a means of payment. The user at the first step sees that there is a convenient way for him to replenish (this is very important for customers, since completely different methods are common in different countries). And then he is ready to spend time filling out personal data. The A / B test showed its effect, colleagues rolled out to everyone. A week later, we launched a similar test in our country, which also showed a statistically significant increase in conversion.A week later, we launched a similar test in our country, which also showed a statistically significant increase in conversion.A week later, we launched a similar test in our country, which also showed a statistically significant increase in conversion.
Competitors shape expectations or where the market is heading
If your customers have already used competitors' products, then they already have expectations based on this experience. If competitors have features that customers consider valuable, their absence in your product will cause frustration, customers will not start or stop using the product. This is not about blindly copying what others have (not everything there is of value to customers). It is important to understand and comply with the “quality standard” of the market. It is constantly changing, so your hand should be on the pulse.
While we are looking at funnels, conversions, customer reviews, we dive into details and can skip a global trend. Reading research and market reviews allows you to get your head out of the sand for a while and look at what is happening a little from the outside. And also add something to the backlog that is already happening, but does not lie on the surface.
And what are the leading digital services doing at this time?
Leading local and global digital services also shape customer experiences and expectations, even if they operate in a different market. If the customer was able to pay for the purchase via Apple Pay in the online clothing store, he will want to pay for the hotel reservation as well. Well, it's not for nothing that these leading services are leading. They provide ideas for standard user scenarios, such as registration, onboarding, product / service catalogs, payment services, and so on.
What colleagues can talk about
Colleagues also use or may use the product. Yes, their vision is somewhat distorted, and the marketing manuals say never to test the product on colleagues, but they also face problems in use, like customers, and they also have expectations from the product. It is a quick and accessible source of information and ideas.
Last month, we, together with colleagues responsible for training and quality, held a competition among employees. The company's employees took part in it as providers of trading strategies (130 people played this role) and as investors (250 people played this role). For two weeks, some traded, others invested in them. Now we are summing up the results, identifying the winners and collecting feedback at the same time. We received dozens of detailed, detailed comments, and some of them have already been included in the plan for the fourth quarter, some will be made later.
Company strategy
The company has a strategy, it is usually formulated for at least a year and describes where the company wants to be by that time. It can be entering new markets, launching new lines of business, reaching a new client audience, and so on. The product is part of the company's business, which means it must support the implementation of this strategy. Therefore, everything that needs to be done in the product to implement the strategy is also part of the backlog. In addition to the overall strategy, separate strategic initiatives may arise in the company. This is something less global and more short term, but also needs product support.
And what kind of product are we building?
We spend a lot of time on numbers, customers and competitors. Of course, the ideas that we find there are valuable and important, but they had to be implemented yesterday. And if we want to be not "like in the market", but to be different in something, to carry a unique value, if we want to grow many times, then we must do something that no one has done yet, which is not asked by customers, since they do not even guess that it happens. The description of this contains the target vision of the product. Every day there are tasks to keep failing metrics, solve bugs, and make improvements according to the wishes of customers, but vision is a guiding star towards which you need to persistently go.
Cooperation within the company
The product most often does not exist separately and on its own. There are other departments in the company that influence the product and / or depend on it: support, marketing, sales, anti-fraud, finance. These divisions have their own goals and their own projects, for the implementation of which improvements are needed in the product. I often see that such tasks are perceived negatively by product managers: “Here we come again with our ideas / requests”. Yes, they are the authors of these ideas, but this does not mean that these ideas are useless. They can bring more value to the product as a result than your coolest (because your) ideas.
In other departments, people also study the market, customers, competitors, but often from a slightly different angle, so communicating with them as experts in their field can provide a lot of useful knowledge, ideas and enrich the backlog.
The product team also has something to add
The team is most often the source of ideas for technical improvements, and I think it is not necessary to say that they are important. But besides this, the team may also have product ideas, so it is important to involve them in the process of generating ideas and treat their feedback with care.
Let's summarize
These are the sources we use in our work to maintain the Discovery backlog. The Discovery Backlog is a place where there are no good or bad ideas, yours and those of others. The task of the product is to be a radar that collects ideas at all levels (customers, company, market). Have everything in your product backlog that relates to your product's goals. And if the backlog is properly structured, all tasks, problems, hypotheses are clearly described and systematized, then when the development backlog is formed, nothing will be missed, and the chance that something that bears the greatest value will get into development is higher.
Well, some small notes on how to capture ideas in the best way:
- It is difficult to navigate in a list of 200 ideas, so it is better to immediately systematize them by topics, initiatives, some large logical chunks;
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A complete, systematized, regularly updated discovery backlog is the best assistant to the product when choosing which tasks go into development, as well as communicating plans within the company. If you spend time on it regularly, the planning process will take significantly less time.
Today I focused on the sources of inspiration, but it is clear that the topic of prioritizing ideas in the backlog is no less interesting . How to decide what to implement in a year, and what to include in the next sprint? The answer to this question very much depends on the stage of the product life cycle, the gap between the plan-fact of the metrics, the goals that the product faces, the market situation, the perfection of the technical component and many other factors.
If this topic is interesting to you, responds, then it will be possible to talk about it in a separate article. I wish everyone to find their sources and make product development as efficient as possible!