Lean Value Tree
This is a lightweight map that helps the entire team (client and stakeholders included) think about product decisions strategically and ensure they’re rooted in outcomes that help deliver on the long-term strategic vision. This is an alternative to the Opportunity Solution Tree.
Outcome
A list of outcomes with hypotheses and tactical experiments that the team can test as ways to deliver on said outcome.
Method
- Start with defining the long-term strategic vision for the product, if that hasn’t yet been done.
- Brainstorm outcomes that will help you get there. It is important that these are outcomes, not solutions. Don’t get tactical here. If it’s helpful, outcomes are typically defined by a quantitative metric.
- For each outcome, in the hypotheses swim lane, list out your best educated guess on what might satisfy this outcome.
- For each hypothesis, in the experiments swim lane, list out all the possible lightweight ways you could test out this hypothesis. This is where you can list out the tactical solutions.
- Once you’ve fleshed out your roadmap and you’ve started experimenting, you can move ideas that didn’t work down into the retired ideas swim lane and add new experiments to test.
- Rinse and repeat – brainstorm and test until you’ve landed on proven ways to satisfy your outcomes.
