A toolbox for assisting product teams in feature prioritization.

👤 Role: Researcher, Designer 🏷️ Project Type: Product ****& Team Design ****👥 Team Members: 🇹🇷 Deniz, 🇲🇲 Amandaa, 🇪🇬 Mariam, 🇪🇸 Alba ****📅 Year: 2022

Overview

Trajectory is a comprehensive toolbox designed to assist product teams in feature prioritization and decision-making. Created under the guidance of Ale Masferrer during the Process Design course, this project addressed the common challenge of aligning team members with diverse backgrounds and communication preferences when making strategic product decisions.

Key Objectives:

• Create a workshop kit that aligns team members in strategic decision-making
• Address communication challenges in product teams during feature prioritization
• Develop a structured approach that accommodates different information processing styles
• Design a tangible tool that makes established methodologies more accessible
• Improve confidence in decision-making across the entire product team

Challenge

Product teams often struggle with aligning their communication processes when prioritizing features, especially when team members have diverse backgrounds and preferences for receiving information. The time required for alignment significantly impacts decision-making, sometimes leaving team members with lingering doubts about the choices made.

Solution

Trajectory provides a structured four-step process with an additional preplanning phase that guides teams through feature prioritization. The toolbox accommodates different communication styles and information processing preferences, creating a common language and framework that enables more confident decision-making.

Process & Methodology

Our approach followed a user-centered design process:

Research & Discovery

• Conducted 15 interviews with members from 3 diverse product teams
• Identified common pain points in team communication and decision-making
• Researched existing strategies employed by teams for feature prioritization
• Recognized the importance of separating brainstorming from prioritization phases

Concept Development

• Created an initial prototype based on research insights
• Designed a framework that accommodates different information processing styles
• Developed components that make abstract methodologies tangible and accessible
• Integrated flexible approaches to serve diverse team needs

Testing & Iteration

• Conducted testing sessions with 2 groups of product teams
• Identified challenges with the initial approach and refined the toolbox
• Adjusted language and scale based on user feedback
• Created a more streamlined process based on testing observations

Design Implementation

• Designed physical toolkit components including cards and boards
• Created clear visual hierarchy and instructions for each step
• Developed supporting materials for facilitators
• Ensured consistent branding across all toolkit elements

[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14LzfubZooMYFTLYi73kT7_pZbM79BEmCzybjbiVTL-I/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14LzfubZooMYFTLYi73kT7_pZbM79BEmCzybjbiVTL-I/preview?usp=sharing)