The three slides I use to run the product & technology team in Elaway (2023)
A quick summary of the three slides I use to ensure all my colleagues in the Elaway Product and Technology department are all moving in the same direction.
Some context on the product & tech department in Elaway
The department counts between 17-20 people at any given point.
The department comprises developers, designers, tech leads, architects, product managers, dev-ops, data scientists, and me as chief product officer.
The department is responsible for designing, building, deploying, maintaining, and improving the products and technologies Elaway uses externally toward users and internally toward stakeholders.
Just three slides…(?)
If you have read any of my previous posts, you will know that I believe in keeping things simple. This includes mission statements, product strategies, and roadmaps. I believe that you cannot expect your colleagues to sit down and read long and complex documents to understand the why, what, and how of the company, or in this case, the product and technology department.
When I started as CPO in Elaway in 2021, I gave myself one constraint: “I can only use three slides to describe the why, what, and how of my department”. It took a while, but I think I have been able to get there. These three slides are repeated weekly in different forums. Repetition might be boring, but it works.
Slide #1: Our mission - Understanding why we are here
Slide #1 simply explains the company`s mission and then breaks it down into the department-specific mission, and then it visually illustrates that this mission and its “sub-goals” are the basis for the department’s product strategy, which brings us to slide #2
Slide #2: Our product strategy and roadmap - Understanding what needs to be built
Slide #2 takes the mission and breaks it down into a simple product strategy. Strategy for me is “Where are we now, where do we want to get to, and how are we planning to get there.” The three boxes at the top of the slides take care of this.
Below, I map out the high-level deliverables spanning the length of the product strategy. In our case, the product strategy spans 2021-2023.
Slide #3: Product stack - Understanding what we are building
The sole purpose of this slide is so there is no confusion about what we are building. This slide maps out the different products/features/services we are building to serve both external users and internal stakeholders.
And, of course, “on one page”
Everything we do in product & tech in Elaway, including the content in these slides, is based upon and measured by Elaway`s “On One Page” setup that summarizes Elaway’s vision, mission, goals, and OKRs on one page.