Just Launched! — Collaborate With Your Team on Product Strategy
August 18, 2016

Just Launched! — Collaborate With Your Team on Product Strategy

by Keith Brown

Summer is almost over. Kids are going back to school and coworkers are showing off pictures from their vacations. And that means planning season is around the corner, right? For many, September is the time to dust off the PowerPoint of last year’s strategic plan, reflect on what the team accomplished, and start thinking about what comes next.

But for strategy to work, it needs to guide what you and are your team are working on every day. That is why strategic product planning should not be an annual event.

Strategy should be an ongoing conversation that makes it clear to everyone what you are trying to accomplish and the impact their work has on the business. That is why our latest update gives your team the ability to follow along and participate in the creation and updating of your strategy as it happens. We have done this by adding the ability to have “Watchers” of strategy.

Now anyone in your Aha! account can track changes to strategy for products that they have access to. They will automatically be notified when you add or update your vision, business model, goals, initiatives, personas, or competitive information.

It is time to ditch the yearly PowerPoint. Here are several easy ways to collaborate with your team on your business and product strategy:

Set your product vision Your product vision is essential to strategy — it is the core essence of your product. Use Aha! to communicate updates that keep your team aligned as you define the vision and bring a new product to market.

Share the business model Develop, articulate, and pivot your business model from a single page. Easily add Watchers to inform your team as you create your initial business model for a new product — or perfect an existing one.

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Add yourself or other team members as Watchers.

Align strategic initiatives Aha! connects the red thread of strategy throughout the roadmapping process by linking strategic initiatives to your daily work with releases and features. With strategy Watchers, you can keep your team updated on initiative progress and ensure that they remain focused on the right things.

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Watchers are automatically notified 30 minutes after updates are made, but you also have the option to expedite notifications or not send at all.

Update user personas Your company likely serves different types of buyers, users, and influencers. Adding Watchers to personas will notify users when you shape and define those personas. This way everyone can understand how you are thinking about segmenting your customers and participate in the process.

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Internal teams can easily stay in touch with your customers by adding Watchers to personas.

Track competitors Aha! makes it easy to track competitors and share information with your teams. You have been able to capture information about your competitors via the Aha! Competitors screen for some time. Now you can add relevant teams as Watchers to ensure they are always armed with the latest information as you update the competitive profiles.

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Changes are highlighted within email notifications to keep all Watchers up-to-date with what is new.

Strategy should not be relegated to an annual charade. You and your product team are at your best when you are keeping it up to date and your broader cross-functional teams can track your assumptions and participate in the conversation as well.

Signup for a free Aha! trial — be happy Adding Watchers to strategy is available to all Aha! customers. If you are not already an Aha! customer, you may want to sign up for a free 30 day trial of Aha! now to see why over 50,000 users trust Aha! to set product strategy, create visual roadmaps, and prioritize releases and features.

Keith Brown

Keith Brown

Keith was a vice president of marketing at Aha! — the world’s #1 product development software.

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