Keeping iteration on track with product direction

Iteration is a powerful tool for product development, just see the success of GitLab using it if you're not already familiar with the power of this approach. It allows you to make small, valuable changes and validate them with your users in a tight loop. It keeps you focused on the next most important thing, and avoids over-planning and over-complicating.

When it goes well, it feels something like your product is growing like an amoeba, with each iteration organically moving a little closer to where the food (your users and what they need) is. But, there's a risk of getting stuck in a local maxima and to miss the forest for the trees. Sometimes you need to make a bigger pivot, but how do you make sure you don't miss that moment? That's where balancing iteration with product direction comes in.

The importance of product direction

One of the most important things you can do as a product manager is maintain a coherent, continuously iterated-on product direction document to supplement your focus on day to day product iteration. This document should be a living, breathing thing that you update as you learn more about your users and the market. It should contain, in narrative form, the following:

1. Mission - why you're building this product in the first place
2. Vision - what the future will look like if you're successful
3. Strategy - how you're going to get there
4. Assumptions - what you believe to be true about your users and the market

This doesn't need to be a mega-document, but should be complete enough that someone can read it and understand the important details of each point above for your team and product. The key is to iterate on the direction just as much as you iterate on product features.

This document is useful enough on its own that I recommend everyone do it, but when it comes to avoiding blind spots - the real magic comes when you connect iteration on your direction with iteration on your product itself.

Building a bridge

The key to balancing iteration with your product direction is to build a bridge between the two iterative loops. One of the best ways to do this is to track, for upcoming product features found as iterative steps forward, how much they will move specific components of your product direction forward. Maybe it validates an assumption, moves you forward in your strategy, or helps clarify or communicate your vision for the future in your product.

That explicit connection allows you to evaluate that the things you're doing as you iterate forward are not only fulfilling immediate user needs (which continues to be a valuable endeavour!) but also connects with your direction. If there's a disconnect there? This is an important clue that you might be missing something big, and need to shake things up.