The Bigger Picture
Examining four large aspects of the problem area in order to broaden the perspective of the Product Manager.
Introduction
Uncovering the Goals, Stakeholders, Product/Process Audit and Tech Inspiration will allow the Product Manager to understand more about their motivations, who is involved and what has already been done to solve the problem.
Participants shall take different roles and rotate after each round. One Product Manager will be answering questions while the others are asking questions and taking notes. Those who are not explaining their product should be encouraged to ask a lot of questions, focusing on quantity and withholding criticism.
Required Materials
Four different coloured sets of Post-it notes, one for each category.
Workflow
The Product Manager will spend 5 minutes explaining their Goals for the project - what they want to achieve in solving this problem. While the other Product Managers ask questions, they should note down the responses of the Product Manager.
After 5 minutes, participants will swap topics and talk about Stakeholders. They should think about the people within their organisation, their users and society more broadly - examining who would be affected.
Next, the participants shall move on to considering a Product/Process Audit. Thinking about what has been done to solve the problem, both within their organisation and more broadly. Are there other digital products that address the problem? Is there a solution which has not been digitised?
Finally, the participants will discuss Inspiration. Here they shall examine technologies or processes that they find inspiring. These could be products which solve the same problem, design aspects they like, and non-digital solutions they find inspiring.
After spending twenty minutes talking about the problem area, the Product Manager should have a strong picture of what their product should do and who will be concerned in creating it.
After each Product Manager has had the chance to explain more about their problem, they shall each present back to the room the idea of another Product Manager - focusing on Goals, Stakeholders, Product/Process Audit and Inspiration. Presenting someone else's idea will help Product Managers empathise with one another as well as to understand how their idea looks to an outsider.
Resources
The following resources expand on the history and usefulness of The Bigger Picture:
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