Module 10 · Product Management Fundamentals
"Final project: Paystream's next quarter"
Plan your final project, a product review and quarter plan for Paystream, from user evidence and funnels to a prioritised, outcome-based roadmap, an honest launch review and a spec for the top priority.
About 20 minutes
The problem
Paystream's leadership meets to agree next quarter's product plan. They want to know what users struggle with most, what the team will build and why, what last quarter's launch really achieved, and how they'll know the next one worked. Your final project is that product review.
The concept
The parts of the review
| Part | Built in |
|---|---|
| Outcomes and the north star | lesson 1 |
| User evidence: interviews and feedback | lessons 2 and 3 |
| The funnel and retention | lessons 4 and 5 |
| Prioritisation and the roadmap | lessons 6 and 7 |
| The savings goals launch review | lesson 8 |
| The spec for the top priority | lesson 9 |
Evidence chain
Every roadmap item should trace back: a user problem (interviews, feedback), its size (funnel, retention), its score (RICE), and the outcome measure (spec).
Example
The evidence chain for the top items in one table:
import pandas as pd
base = "https://academy.cloudtechanalytics.com/datasets/product/"
backlog = pd.read_csv(base + "backlog.csv").fillna({"theme": ""})
feedback = pd.read_csv(base + "feedback.csv")
interviews = pd.read_csv(base + "interviews.csv")
backlog["rice"] = (backlog["reach_per_quarter"] * backlog["impact"] * backlog["confidence"] / backlog["effort_person_weeks"]).round(0)
backlog["feedback_items"] = backlog["theme"].map(feedback["theme"].value_counts()).fillna(0).astype(int)
backlog["interviews"] = backlog["theme"].map(interviews["biggest_pain"].value_counts()).fillna(0).astype(int)
reviews = feedback[feedback["source"] == "App review"].groupby("theme")["rating"].mean()
backlog["review_stars"] = backlog["theme"].map(reviews).round(2)
backlog.sort_values("rice", ascending=False)[["feature", "rice", "feedback_items", "interviews", "review_stars"]].head(5)feature rice feedback_items interviews review_stars
9 Fix crashes on older Android phones 1000.0 200 2 1.72
0 Help with BVN verification at agents 960.0 249 4 1.86
5 Free transfers under ₦5,000 625.0 249 6 2.84
7 Dark mode 500.0 0 0 NaN
2 Automatic payday saving 480.0 192 4 3.25The items with the strongest case are supported on several fronts at once: score, volume of feedback, interviews and low ratings. Where one column is weak, say so in the review.
Walkthrough
- Build every part of the review from the lessons.
- Write the roadmap with outcomes and baselines.
- Write the honest launch review of savings goals.
- Open the project brief on the course page and plan the write-up.
Practice
Practice
How many feedback items are about app crashes?
Task
10 minWrite the summary for leadership (100 to 200 words): the biggest user problem with evidence, the quarter's priorities and why, what savings goals really achieved, and how you'll measure this quarter's work.
Your work is checked for
- Names verification as a major problem
- Uses numbers
- Priorities with reasons (reach, effort, RICE, score)
- An honest savings goals result (holdout, not clear, interval)
- How success is measured (baseline, target, holdout, metric)
- Between 100 and 200 words
Check your understanding
Answer every question to check.