Preparation

‍
The most important aspect of this meeting is the meeting memo. This way you don't spend half the meeting briefing one another. Here is what you need to include in every board memo:

• Each team leader writes their own section, no more than 1-2 pages summarizing the state of the business. Introduction, things going well, challenges, plans for the future, update on items from last time. These sections can contain graphs and charts.
• The CEO summarizes and provides a narrative at the beginning of the document.
• The VP Finance attaches the financial statements and key reports
• The team circulates the narrative with the board ahead of time. Board members comment and ask questions as they read. The team clarifies points and provides analysis where necessary.

Take stock of the work you performed

Take stock of the events and work you performed. Ashley recommends using Trello. Pull up the calendar view and have each team member make sure that all of the projects they worked on over the previous quarter are represented. It should take about 10 minutes to add all the items to the board.

Label with feelings

Once the team is on the same page and you have a view with all the projects, have everyone go through the ones that belong to them and label it with a feeling. You can start with 5 basic feelings and expand as needed: 

• Happy
• Sad
• Frustrated
• Proud
• Indifferent
  

Review for each team member

Take 15 minutes to go around the room or conference call and have each team member talk a little bit about 2-3 key projects and why they assigned them a certain feeling. It sounds kind of touchy feely, but it’s actually really helpful when you look back over a quarter and you can identify places where you should allocate time elsewhere.

Brainstorm action items

Last but not least, take the last 20 minutes of the meeting and spend some time brainstorming how you could allocate tasks a little differently to maximize positive sentiment across the team. If Tom is stressed out working on user-facing projects and doesn’t enjoy it, maybe there is another team member who is energized by similar projects. Managers should run this discussion, chew on the feedback, and think about action items going into the next quarter.

‍

Quick Review

Share updates on progress, key metrics, and anecdotes to gain an up-to-date, accurate understanding of current product endeavors.‍

Positive Highlights

What milestones have we accomplished since our last product team meeting? What valuable lessons were learned?‍

Roadblocks & Concerns

Have any issues or challenges come up since the last catch-up? How can we help solve them?‍

New Information

Is there any other new information we should consider? Are there any new metrics, trends, customer feedback, or market influences we should be aware of?‍

Upcoming Priorities

What's coming up? Moving forward, what features, releases, goals, or fixes are we focusing on? How are we planning to approach these?‍

Main Takeaways

What were the main insights from this product team meeting? Include key decisions made, progress reports, and any opportunities, issues, or concerns that should be shared with key stakeholders.

‍Take Action

Clarify next steps, who's completing them, and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share and assign.

Purpose

What is the main focus of this session (e.g., general performance, feature requests, product bugs)? ‍

User Background

Relevant user information and demographics to understand the persona of the interviewee.‍

Response to Scripted Questions

List all planned questions for this particular user research study. Record the interviewee's response to each question.‍

Positive Highlights

Did the user mention any specific positive aspects in relation to the topic of this session? ‍

Negative Feedback / Concerns

Did the user mention any specific negative aspects in relation to the topic of this session? How could we improve them?‍

Other Feedback

Did the user provide notable feedback outside the scope of this session that could help other business objectives?‍

Key Insights

Summarize the key insights that you learned from this user research session. If any are actionable, you can assign them to your team members right from here.‍

Notes / Quotes for Marketing

Were there any notes, quotes, or anecdotes that may assist marketing in their messaging to other users?

Quick Review

What does the customer use our product for? What challenges does it solve?‍

Session Objective

What is the purpose of this meeting? Do you want to focus on certain aspects of the product?‍

General Product Performance

From 1-5, how well does our product suit the customer's needs?‍

Favorite Benefits

What are the customer's favorite features and benefits at the moment?‍

Room for Improvement

How can we make the customer's experience better? How would the customer change our product?‍

Feature Requests

Did the customer have any feature requests? Turn this list into tickets for the appropriate teams right from here.‍

Bugs‍

Did the customer mention any product bugs, errors, or issues? Share these with the appropriate teams right from here.‍

Key Takeaways‍

In 3 bullet points or less, what were your main insights from this customer feedback session?

Purpose

Capture learnings from [initiative] and identify what went wrong so we can get better

The Situation

Put all the details of what happened here. Only the facts. Make sure you answer who what where when why. Customer feedback is good to include if we have it. Include any and all mistakes and what went well. Break up into sections, like “research” “engineering” “customer feedback” “the feature” “marketing efforts” etc.

The results

What happened as a result of the situation? This could include how an initiative performed, what happened as a result of a bug, how a feature fared, etc. Support this section with data

What went wrong

All the details of what went wrong. Opinions are welcome here. Be fair to other people who were involved and let them add to the postmortem or give you context as needed. In the case of bugs, what we could have done better to prevent a problem can be included here as well.

What we can do better next time

Whatever we learned that will affect how we do things next go around, it goes here. This is the synthesis of everything we’ve figured out from doing the postmortem.

Action items

Any action items we have, and who owns each of them, plus dates if possible

Sprint Goal

What is the main purpose of this sprint? Define key objectives below.‍

Sprint Backlog

What user stories match the sprint goal? Share this with your team prior to the meeting so they can contribute. Break each user story down into individual tasks. Make sure each task has as much information as possible. Include important metrics.

‍Epics to be Delivered

List out the epics that we're planning to start or deliver during this sprint.‍

Scope of Work Clarification

Revisit your definition of "done." Decide on the acceptance criteria that will be used to determine when each individual task is complete. Make sure all of this realistically aligns with your team's capacity. ‍

Key Risks & Concerns

What potential issues could come up based on the goal and sprint backlog? How can we solve them? Does the scope of work allot enough time for unexpected issues

‍Notes and Takeaways

What were the main insights and discussion points from this sprint planning session?‍

Take Action

Get verbal confirmation from your team about the next steps to be taken. Clarify who's completing them and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share and assign.‍

Follow-Up

How will we keep in touch and stay up-to-date about progress? Should we schedule a follow-up meeting?

Launch Plan:

🔗 Resources

• Asana Link:
• Wishlist Item:
• Demo:
• PRD:

🗓️ Launch Details

• Date(s):
• Success metric(s):
• Beta flag:
• Slack channel:

📝 Messaging Framework

• Name of the product/feature:
• Target customer:
• Customer problem:
• Feature details:
• Messaging pillars:
• Teachable concepts:

🐥  Beta Plan

• Dates:
• Duration:
• Goal:
• Documentation:
• Target group:
• Feedback collection:
• Communication timeline:
• Summary of findings:

🎓 WFU Articles to Update

Article:

• Notes

Article:

• Notes

📥 Production

Asset:

• Details
• Owner

Asset:

• Details
• Owner

📣 Distribution

Initiative:

• Channel
• Owner

Initiative:

• Channel
• Owner

🗓️ Timeline

Date:

• Milestone

Date:

• Milestone
  

Project

Prototype Link: 

User Name: 

User Background: 

--

What is being tested?

What is being measured/evaluated?

• ‍
  

--

Running the test

Intro

• Give your users context (e.g. image you’re using this app in a real-world situation
• Recordings are confidential and for internal purposes only
• You’re not being tested. It’s the design.
• Thank your users and remind them you’re asking for feedback because you’re eager to improve your user experience
  

Example questions to ask

• I noticed a bit of hesitation there, what stopped you?
• What do you think this button is going to do?
• What’s most appealing about this product?
• What’s the hardest part about using this product?
• Was there anything surprising or unexpected about this product?
• What could be done to improve this product?
• What may be missing? What else would you like to see?
• What do you like/dislike about the way it works?
• How do you think this product is going to help you?
• Would you use this product today?
• Why do you think someone would use this product?
  

Results

Positive Highlights

Negative Feedback / Concerns

Other Feedback

Key Insights

Notes / Quotes for Marketing

Welcome

• Start the meeting with a brief discussion on the objective of the meeting, expectations, and the result.

Understanding Vision Statements  

• Discuss what a vision statement is and why it's important for your company to have one.
• Talk through what are great examples of vision statements, what works, and what doesn't.

Individual Brainstorming  

• Give attendees time and space for brainstorming on the future they want to create.  
• Go around the room and have each person share one idea, word, or phrase that they think would help the company achieve its vision.  

Review Vision Themes  

• Share and narrow down ideas.
• Review all ideas and identify any common themes.  

Prioritize Concepts  

• By now, you should have a list of themes that you can start prioritizing. Start by discussing which themes are most important to the company's vision. Then, rank the concepts in order of importance.  

Draft Options  

• This is where you'll begin fleshing out how the company can achieve its vision. Brainstorm a few different options and then discuss them as a group.  

Closing and Next Steps

• End the meeting by discussing the next steps.  
• Assign tasks to individuals or teams and set a deadline for completion.  
• Close the meeting with a summary of what was discussed.

Project Name:

Timeline:

Helpful Links:

What are the goals of this project?

• Review or decide on project goals. 
• Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely)

Audience & Value Proposition

Quick reminder of who the target audience is for the project and what the core value proposition is

‍Major tasks and timeline

• ‍Make sure every part of the project has an owner and timeline

Decisions that need to be made

• What decisions need to be made? (Name)
• List topics for discussion/decision here, specifically noting what needs to be decided

Next Steps

• @name Task by DUE-DATE

Name

• What did you do yesterday?
• What will you do today?
• Where are you blocked?
• Comfort Level — How close are we to hitting our sprint goals?

Name

• What did you do yesterday?
• What will you do today?
• Where are you blocked?
• Comfort Level — How close are we to hitting our sprint goals?

--

Tips:

• Use this 15-minute meeting to check the pulse on your work and stay on top of your sprint
• Remember: Problem-solving is not part of scrum (although it can take place informally right after).
• Personalize this template with an update section with the name of each engineer
  

Project overview

Include details of the project here with a link to any additional specification documents. Make sure you note who owns each part of the workload if relevant. This should be filled out in advance, as it sets the context for the rest of the meeting that follows.

Potential outcomes

Start off by thinking critically about the feature or product, laying out possible outcomes for how people might engage with whatever you’re working on. For example, let’s say you are adding a checklist to your product to increase activation. One possible outcome is that users don’t engage with the checklist at all!

• ‍

Reasons for outcome

Next up it's time to brainstorm the reasons that the previous outcome might occur. Maybe the checklist blends in with the other UI elements? Maybe people see it, but just don't want any guidance. It's important to go broad and generate lots of ideas, especially the negative ones.

• ‍
  

Scenario responses

Last but not least, ponder how you would respond to that outcome. If the checklist doesn't stand out among the other elements, would you add more color or make it bigger? Will you cut your losses and try another approach?

• ‍
  

Lighten the mood

Say hello and add a bit of joy to the meeting. Get everyone to share something fun they did recently, the best thing they ate over the weekend, etc. 

What problem are you trying to solve? 

Write this out. 

There are three main types of meeting goals:

1. Understanding: Make sure everyone feels like they know what’s going on, inside, and outside the team
2. Alignment: Make sure everyone on the team is aligned
3. Connection: Tighten the bonds between everyone on your team
   

Manager shares useful information

What’s important for the team to know about what’s happening inside and outside of the team?

• Upcoming changes to the team
• Updates on planning timelines etc 
  

Team members useful information

• Upcoming launches
• Process changes
• Learnings, etc
  

Next Steps 

• Highlight the main insights from the meeting and the upcoming priorities
• Clarify who's in charge of completing the next steps and expected completion dates

Recap of Initial Expectations

Give a brief synopsis of the event. Include aspects like plans, timelines, and deliverables if applicable.‍

Recap of Outcome

Summarize the incident. What happened compared to what should have happened? Provide context so other team members can understand.‍

Stakeholder Input

Do any key stakeholders have discussion points to contribute? Share this template before the post-mortem meeting to gather feedback.‍

Roadblocks & Risks

What barriers or unexpected obstacles arose that changed the outcome of this event?‍

Root Causes

Identify the main cause of each issue above. Be specific. Were objectives clear? Was the schedule realistic? Did any changes in scope occur?‍

Main Takeaways

Summarize the key insights from this post-mortem. How can we ensure this incident doesn't happen again? What should we do differently next time?‍

Resources

List any additional resources that can help the team address all risks and root causes identified.‍

Next Steps

What can be done now? Who is responsible? Clarify any next steps, who's completing them, and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share.

Last sprint

Celebrate what you achieved and discuss what wasn't completed.

Backlog

The list of things we want to accomplish in this sprint.

Sprint goal for the week

Why are we implementing these backlog items?

Assign backlog items

What items/tickets is each person focusing on during this sprint?

Notepad

Anything else to write down?

Links and Attachments

Documents and such that are referenced on the call.

Product Overview

• ‍
  

Target Audience

• Specific, animate detail about who we’re talking to and they’re state of mind related to the product launching
  

Core Benefits

• List each one using bullet points for easy reference
  

Marketing Strategy

Key Audience

• ‍

Core Message

‍Not copy, but the primary message you want all channels to convey.

• ‍‍

Value Proposition

Value Prop #1:

• What are we selling?

Value Prop #2

• What makes it valuable?

Value Prop #3

• What is the positive impact?

Secondary message

• ‍Use sparingly. Try to keep your messaging single minded.

Notes

• Key things to be aware of.

Channel Plan

• Channel | Tactic | Owner | Due date
  e.g. Email Marketing | Create a series of emails for the product launch to send to priority customer accounts | Josh | March 20

Success Metrics

• [Project name], led by [marketing champion name] aims to increase [primary metric] from X per week to Y per week within Z weeks or by [date].

For example:

• Awareness (increase site traffic to XX page reviews)
• Acquisition: (increase installations by XX)
• Activation ( increase % of referrals)
  

Key Dates

Projected launch date:

Comms launch date:  

‍

Key Insights & Data

Summary

• ‍

Data

Any relevant charts or data

Quick Review

Summarize all notable events since the last retrospective. Share updates on initiatives, key metrics, and anecdotes. Compare the current timeline and deliverables with what was originally planned.‍

Positive Highlights

What went well? Were any special milestones accomplished? Let each team member contribute.‍

Reflect on Roadblocks

What went wrong? Did any unforeseen obstacles arise? Identify the root cause of each one. Allow each team member to contribute. And remember, this isn't a blame game—focus on continuous improvement.‍

Room for Improvement

What were the main lessons from the roadblocks discussed? How can we solve each issue and improve?‍

Other Important Feedback

Summarize any other valuable discussion points. It does not have to be directly related to the retrospective's main topic.‍

Main Takeaways

What were the main insights from this retrospective meeting? Include key decisions, plans, and any opportunities or concerns that should be shared with key stakeholders.‍

Take Action

Clarify next steps, who's completing them, how we will measure them, and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share and assign.‍

Follow-Up

How will we keep in touch and stay up-to-date about progress? When is the next retrospective?

Capture Input

Do any key stakeholders have discussion points, insights, ideas, or requests to contribute? Share this template before the product roadmap meeting to gather feedback.‍

The Big Picture

With stakeholder input, develop a clear product vision by identifying the strategic goals most important to your organization. Examples include customer acquisition, churn reduction, technical improvements, upselling new services, etc.‍

Identifying Themes

What themes can be formed by grouping together the listed initiatives, features, and epics? ‍

Prioritization

Why is each theme being pursued? What value does each one provide to the customer? Make sure to account for market space, customer data, and potential return on investment for each new project.‍

Execution Strategy

Break each initiative down into specific tasks, requirements, and deadlines. Confirm that each one is viable by allocating resources accordingly. Assign ownership and designate release dates.‍

Measuring Success

What metrics will you use to measure progress for each initiative? Define what success looks like.‍

Key Risks & Concerns

What potential issues could arise? How can we solve them? Does the scope of work allot enough time for unexpected issues?‍

Main Takeaways

What were the main insights from this product roadmap meeting? Include key decisions made, opportunities, and potential issues that should be shared with key stakeholders.‍

Visualization

Put together a visual aid for your roadmap. Ensure it communicates product direction and value to key stakeholders. Also, make sure that your engineering team can use it to see details and logistics clearly. Your roadmap should be dynamic so that it can easily evolve and adapt to changes over time.‍

Take Action

What can be done now? Who is responsible? Clarify next steps, who's completing them, and when they should be done by. Note this information here to share.‍

Share

List all key stakeholders not present and other departments that this information should be shared with.‍

Follow-Up

Now that plans have been set in motion, it's time to schedule meetings with other stakeholder parties to align them on what's coming next. Ensure that everyone is on the same page and plan roadmap check-ins for the future.