Kelly's Blog

Pivot quickly with pitch pages and opp trees

Questions I get randomly, but often:

“What is your plan for topic X?” “How will you address topic Y?” “Do you have any thoughts on topic Z?”

These questions are vague, but answers for my bosses and grand-bosses are expected to be quite detailed, with no notice. I've noticed a trend, too, that these same questions are asked over and over, on an almost monthly basis, without any feedback on the last set of answers. It leaves me with the feeling that these 'leadership trending conversations' are getting explored and then no decisions are made, one way or another.

I love planning and can create a plan for anything, but good plans take time and require context. They also require trade-offs, a priority structure, and execution method.

ideally

Ideally, leadership would instead send my team and I any existing plans or thoughts on trend X and ask for my/our contribution, considering my team is a small part of a giant company. They would send this request already having made some of those bigger tradeoff decisions and clarified current priorities. I am at least 5 layers deep in the org structure, this would absolutely make sense to do given the topics they are asking about and what I can meaningfully contribute. Even better, this exploration gets worked into our short or long term goals for the month, quarter, etc.

On an extra spicy day I like to believe that providing any semblance of context about topic X, when the discussion is posed at my level, would trigger an allergic reaction similar to hay fever, therefore I must create all of the necessary context on my own and a plan for how to navigate it and a proposed solution for the sake of the afflicted sinuses.

maintaining calm

Opportunity solution trees and pitch pages are my secret method on how to not let these 'leadership trending discussions' ruin, I mean derail, I mean re-prioritize, my day. Both of these planning tools are incredible in their own right, and on a team deserve thought, cultivation, and alignment whenever strategy comes up (once a quarter, perhaps more). Ever since I read Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres I've been sold on opportunity solution trees, and pitch pages are so versatile they can adapt to the audience easily.

Quick note, the best time to create the structure I'm about to describe is not when the bosses are expecting immediate answers! What is the saying...the best time to fix a leaky roof is when it's sunny. The payoff though, is so much time saved on my end, and quicker and more confident responses to those common questions I mentioned at the top of the post. On the occasion that any of these pitch pages are the basis for an actual engineering effort, it greatly speeds up my own deliverables to put it in motion as well.

better together

Opportunity solution trees and pitch pages do not need to be used together, but my golly if it isn't a wonderful match. Opportunity solution trees facilitate the good work of thinking through any particular problem, naturally unfolding insights as each layer of the tree is formulated. This is high-effort work. Pitch pages provide a format each leaf on the opportunity solution tree, so that it can be used as a quick reference, and shared without sharing the entire tree. This is low-effort work. Pitch pages can be thrown away easily and as long as you have a template, are remade easily using the opportunity solution tree as the basis. New insights go on the tree for extended use, while pitch pages are a one-time deliverable.

building an opportunity solution tree

To visualize this quickly I have the tree, and branches come down like this. Easy enough right but we can jazz this up really nicely by taking a couple extra thoughtful steps.

opp solution tree

Opportunity solution trees start with an outcome on top Below one or more layers of opportunity Below one solution layer Below those, multiple assumption tests / experiments

This tree, like many product tools, is constantly evolving based on discovery research, and it implies there are multiple ways to a given outcome. Marty Cagan says product managers propose solutions to problems that work both for the customer and for the business1. This allows me to visualize impacts of multiple paths at once to gain perspective and ultimately propose the most viable set for further discussion. That is where pitch pages come in.

a pitch is worth a thousand words

The solutions nestled in the tree that look promising get turned into pitch pages and I just keep these on deck. One day, the leadership conversation will circle outcome 'A', the next day, outcome 'B', and wouldn’t you know I have a whole digital drawer full of these pages ready to pull out any time someone asks me what the plan for 'A', 'B', or any other letter of the alphabet.

My personal style for a pitch page contains these topics:

Bonus points for design/eng. estimates.

conclusion

The opportunity tree provides a sense of stability. The pitch pages provide a way to convey information needed on-demand.

This pairing of opportunity solution trees and pitch pages can come in handy for more than just conversations. I have heard of companies swapping out roadmap items during the quarter like they are mere post it notes. When these swaps happen I don’t like to be caught having to do any ‘emergency analysis’, instead what happens is a knowledge transfer of this now-more-important post pitch page that has all of the same background and write up as the first one, enabling the smoothest pivot I can manage.

That’ll do for me for now so thank you for reading & take care of yourself, gently please.

Made with <3 not AI.

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  1. https://www.svpg.com/product-management-start-here/↩

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