Product Discovery Ideation Session
As part of Product Discovery, cross-functional product teams should be given the autonomy and freedom to explore the solution space on their own.
As part of Product Discovery, cross-functional product teams should be given the autonomy and freedom to explore the solution space on their own. Their complementary skills and perspectives lead to objectively better and more creative ideas than top-level management can come up with. But in order to harness this creativity, it takes structure. That's why I created this step-by-step ideation session template for teams to use during Product Discovery. I've incorporated proven ideas from my own experience and from others, while providing enough flexibility to make it your own.
For the "context" stage, I recommend frameworks like Impact Mapping, which can quickly bring participants up to speed in terms of recently gathered user insights. Throughout the ideation process, I encourage a "together alone" working mode, giving individuals the freedom to sort their thoughts without the bias and pressure of group thinking.
The session should end with a prioritization of the identified ideas. Here it's important to keep an iterative and experimental mindset for the following steps of your Product Discovery: Think how easy it would be to launch an experiment around this idea and how high your confidence is at the moment in terms of creating the changes in behavior you have prioritized.
Get started with this template right now.
Penny Game
Works best for:
Agile
The Penny Game is a simulation exercise that illustrates the impact of batch size and work in progress on cycle time and throughput. By tracking the flow of pennies through a production system, teams learn how to identify bottlenecks, optimize processes, and improve efficiency. This template offers a practical way to explore Lean principles and drive continuous improvement, empowering teams to streamline their workflow and deliver value more predictably.
Kanban Pizza Game
Works best for:
Agile, Kanban
The Kanban Pizza Game is an interactive way for teams to learn and apply Kanban principles. By simulating a pizza delivery process, teams experience how to visualize work, limit work in progress, and optimize flow. Through rounds of iteration and reflection, participants gain insights into continuous improvement and lean thinking, fostering collaboration and driving efficiency. Get ready to slice through inefficiencies and deliver value faster with the Kanban Pizza Game!
What? So What? Now What? Template
Works best for:
Agile Workflows, Retrospectives, Brainstorming
The What? So What? Now What? Framework empowers you to uncover gaps in your understanding and learn from others’ perspectives. You can use the What? So What? Now What? Template to guide yourself or a group through a reflection exercise. Begin by thinking of a specific event or situation. During each phase, ask guiding questions to help participants reflect on their thoughts and experience. Working with your team, you can then utilize the template to record your ideas and to guide the experience.
Cost-Benefit Analysis Template
Works best for:
Leadership, Decision Making, Strategic Planning
With so many day-to-day decisions to make—and each one feeling high-stakes—it’s easy for all the choices to weigh a business or organization down. You need a systematic way to analyze the risks and rewards. A cost benefit analysis gives you the clarity you need to make smart decisions. This template will let you conduct a CBA to help your team assess the pros and cons of new projects or business proposals—and ultimately help your company preserve your precious time, money, and social capital.
Daily Stand-up Meeting Template
Works best for:
Agile Methodology, Meetings, Software Development
The entire team meets to review the day before and discuss the day ahead. These daily meetings, also known as “scrums,” are brief but powerful — they identify roadblocks, give each team member a voice, foster collaboration, keep progress on track, and ultimately keep teams working together effectively. This template makes it so easy for you to plan daily standups for your sprint team. It all starts with picking a date and time, creating an agenda, and sticking with the same format throughout the sprint.
All-in-one PI Planning
Works best for:
Agile
The All-in-one PI Planning template streamlines the SAFe Program Increment (PI) Planning process by providing a comprehensive framework for teams to collaboratively plan and align on objectives and dependencies. It integrates essential elements such as PI Objectives, Team Breakouts, and Program Board, enabling teams to visualize, prioritize, and coordinate work effectively. This template empowers Agile Release Trains to deliver value predictably and efficiently, driving alignment and synchronization across the organization.