Product Management Frameworks
Battle-tested frameworks from top companies. OKRs, RICE, JTBD, and more with real examples.
All Frameworks (16)
When to Use
When facing a big challenge or opportunity and need to make progress fast without building the full product.
Example
Slack used design sprints to test new features. 5 days to go from problem to validated prototype with real users.
When to Use
During continuous discovery to map opportunities and evaluate multiple solutions before committing to build.
Example
Outcome at top. Branch into opportunities. Each opportunity branches into multiple solution experiments to test.
When to Use
Quarterly or annual planning when you need to align teams on ambitious goals and track progress objectively.
Example
Objective: Become the #1 PM resource site. KRs: 1) 100K monthly visitors 2) 500 newsletter subscribers 3) 4.5+ user rating
When to Use
When defining product strategy and need a single metric that represents true customer value, not vanity metrics.
Example
Airbnb: Nights Booked. Spotify: Time Spent Listening. WhatsApp: Messages Sent. These capture core value delivered.
When to Use
When you need to measure user experience beyond just engagement metrics. Prevents optimizing for wrong metrics.
Example
Happiness: NPS score. Engagement: sessions/week. Adoption: new users. Retention: % active after 30 days. Task Success: completion rate
When to Use
When setting up analytics and metrics to understand your growth funnel and identify bottlenecks.
Example
Acquisition: How users find you. Activation: First happy experience. Retention: Come back. Revenue: Monetize. Referral: Tell others.
When to Use
When planning releases and need to see the big picture of how features connect to create user value.
Example
Map user journey horizontally (Sign up → Browse → Purchase). Stack priority vertically. Release 1 = top row must-haves.
When to Use
When you have many feature ideas and need an objective way to prioritize what to build next.
Example
RICE Score = (Reach × Impact × Confidence) / Effort. Feature with 1000 reach, 3 impact, 80% confidence, 5 effort = 480 score
When to Use
When planning features to understand which ones prevent dissatisfaction vs which ones create delight.
Example
Must-have: Security. Performance: Speed. Delighter: AI that predicts needs. Delighters become must-haves over time.
When to Use
When you need to prioritize quickly without extensive data. Good for experiments and smaller decisions.
Example
Feature A: Impact=8, Confidence=9, Ease=7 → ICE=8. Feature B: Impact=9, Confidence=5, Ease=4 → ICE=6. Build A first.
When to Use
When managing scope and stakeholder expectations for a specific release or project.
Example
Must: Authentication. Should: Password reset. Could: Social login. Won't: Biometric auth (this release).
When to Use
At the start of major projects to ensure you're building something customers will actually want.
Example
Write the press release announcing your product launch. If you can't get excited about it, customers won't either.
When to Use
During discovery to understand why customers really use your product and what job they're trying to accomplish.
Example
Customers don't want a drill, they want a hole in the wall. The job: 'Help me hang pictures to make my house feel like home'
When to Use
When thinking about long-term competitive strategy and how to build a defensible moat.
Example
Amazon: Scale Economies in logistics. Facebook: Network Effects. Apple: Branding. Salesforce: Switching Costs.
When to Use
When validating a new product idea or pivot. Better than a 40-page business plan.
Example
9 boxes: Problem, Solution, Key Metrics, Unique Value Prop, Unfair Advantage, Channels, Customer Segments, Cost Structure, Revenue Streams
When to Use
When defining or refining your value proposition to ensure product-market fit.
Example
Customer pains: Slow, expensive, unreliable. Your pain relievers: 10x faster, 50% cheaper, 99.9% uptime SLA.
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