Some of my clients have been bringing the need to discuss the topics of product vision, strategy, team structure, and OKRs. Not only discuss how to define them but also when to define, revise and communicate them.

What are they and how to define them?

I will not describe again what they are and how to define them. Instead, I’ll provide links to previous articles that provide this info:

• This article explains What is and how to create the product vision and strategy?
• This other article provides the process to create a product vision, and this other one, the process to create the product strategy.
• In this article, I describe the tools I use to document vision, strategy, objectives, and team structure.
• Team structure is covered in this article.
• Finally, an article on OKRs.

One thing that I didn’t make clear in these articles is the sequence these things should be built. So here it is, first we need to define our product vision. Without a clear product vision that everyone agrees is the correct one, is very difficult to do all the rest. Having the product vision in hand, we can work on defining both the strategic objectives and the team structure. These definitions can be done in parallel since the progress of one gives input to the definition of the other and vice-versa. Having strategic objectives and team structure defined, it’s time to define the OKRs, which are defined by the teams who now know what are the strategic objectives they need to achieve. In an image:

When to define, revise and communicate?

The image above already gives some clues on when to revise OKRs and strategic objectives, but in the table below I go into much more detail about when to define, revise and communicate your product vision, strategy, team structure, and OKRs. I’ve been refining this process since Locaweb and have been advising my clients to adopt a similar approach.

Summing up

• I already talked extensively about product vision, strategy, team structure, and OKRs, on what they are and how to define them.
• One thing that I didn’t make clear in these articles is the sequence these things should be built. So here it is, first we need to define our product vision. Having the product vision in hand, we can work on defining both the strategic objectives and the team structure. Having strategic objectives and team structure defined, it’s time to define the OKRs, which are defined by the teams who now know what are the strategic objectives they need to achieve. The image in the article sums up better than this paragraph.
• The other thing that I didn’t make clear in these articles is when to define, revise and communicate your product vision, strategy, team structure, and OKRs. Again, the image in the article sums up better than whatever paragraph I could write, so I won’t. (=

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