Minimalist Product Planning
Feel the ground under your feet
One of the most frustrating ways to prioritize is jumping between effort, impact, and items. Let's call this "popcorn prioritizing":
- 👨 "We should do The Thing, it's super important!"
- 👩 "We should do Other Thing first though, it's sooo easy!"
- 🕺 "But The Current Thing is our top priority!"
Instead, this tool narrows you / your teams focus to one quality at a time (effort, impact, or custom), one item at a time, helping you have more grounded and focused thinking about the things you might take on.
The intended use case for ThoughtPlot is to do lightweight product planning here, then take the top items back to your usual task management system for detailed definition and tracking. However, by using the checklist feature, you can ditch project management tools entirely if this is all you need.
Author's note:
You already have a way to track items and prioritize. Why another tool?
Over the lats 20 years, in a professional capacity I've used Jira, Monday,
Trello, Asana, physical Kanban boards, and more. In a personal capacity
I've used the Getting Things Done system, checklists, reminders,
calendars, etc. They're all great for moving things through a queue,
making fine-gained tradeoffs, and generally controlling the flow of
day-to-day work.
For me though, they accumulate... baggage. Sort of like email. My brain
goes in to a certain mode when I use them, which isn't a particularly
creative mode, and it's hard to pull up to the big picture or make
tradeoffs while in the "task mind" these tools inspire.
This humble tool, then, represents my favorite way of taking a break from
"task mind" and looking toward the future - creatively. This is for
prioritizing the next bit of work, which usually involves poorly defined
tasks, tough tradeoffs, and a bit of uncertainty. If we were to put these
in the usual work queue or task list they all would require estimates and
good definitions, or at the minimum a separate place in the tool with its
own rules.
Use this to first queue up the bits of "maybe I should do this" or "seems
like we should really get to that" as you go about your work. When you're
ready, you and/or your team can take a break from your usual flow to come
here and take your first pass at moving towards the horizon.
Explore the site for more on what exactly it's like with this tool, and I
hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Author's note:
You already have a way to track items and prioritize. Why another tool?
Over the lats 20 years, in a professional capacity I've used Jira, Monday, Trello, Asana, physical Kanban boards, and more. In a personal capacity I've used the Getting Things Done system, checklists, reminders, calendars, etc. They're all great for moving things through a queue, making fine-gained tradeoffs, and generally controlling the flow of day-to-day work.
For me though, they accumulate... baggage. Sort of like email. My brain goes in to a certain mode when I use them, which isn't a particularly creative mode, and it's hard to pull up to the big picture or make tradeoffs while in the "task mind" these tools inspire.
This humble tool, then, represents my favorite way of taking a break from "task mind" and looking toward the future - creatively. This is for prioritizing the next bit of work, which usually involves poorly defined tasks, tough tradeoffs, and a bit of uncertainty. If we were to put these in the usual work queue or task list they all would require estimates and good definitions, or at the minimum a separate place in the tool with its own rules.
Use this to first queue up the bits of "maybe I should do this" or "seems like we should really get to that" as you go about your work. When you're ready, you and/or your team can take a break from your usual flow to come here and take your first pass at moving towards the horizon.
Explore the site for more on what exactly it's like with this tool, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
Rank first, estimate later
With estimating, a lot of time and effort can be spent - wasted, maybe - dialing in details that seem relevant for a good estimate, but turn out to be mostly irrelevant where the rubber meets the road. "No plan survives first contact with the enemy", after all.
Alternately, by ranking top-of-mind things relative to each other, you are putting real ideas you really might do soon into the thunderdome. This yields grounded, evidence-based, critical thinking too often absent from rote estimation.
Relative Ranking (ThoughtPlot)
Quick
Uncertainty is OK
No need for predefined criteria
Direct comparisons yield clarity
Doesn't produce time estimates
Doesn't produce metrics
Only works for a few items (<~20)
Estimating (most other tools)
Time-intensive
Wants precision
Criteria can shift over time
Risks isolated thinking
Hitting specific dates
Tracking velocity
Works for a large number of items
The process
Say "Thank you... goodbye" to anything that no longer sparks joy.
-
Individuals:
In Tiny Habits, author B.J. Fogg uses a similar process to quickly discern high-value tasks. -
Teams:
Develop a collaborative understanding of the roadmap.
Refer to the chart and prioritized list, with notes to help remember the specifics of any nuanced items.
- You can share the artifact with customizable permissions
- You can export to markdown, including notes
Free dopamine!
Before ranking a new list, return to this list, turn on checklist mode, and mark off the progress you've made .
Consider also whether to bring unfinished items into the current idea bank, or let them die on the vine.