How to build a Product Review process
Use product reviews to foster product thinking and strategic alignment
In any company, multiple initiatives often progress simultaneously, creating challenges in executing strategies efficiently. To navigate this, it’s important to establish a series of touchpoints that drive alignment across functions and with leadership. One effective approach is something called a Product Review.
Product reviews help maintain a focus on product thinking, especially when things get hectic. They serve as an opportunity for teams to pause, reflect, get feedback, and ensure their work aligns with broader company goals. In this guide I will try to outline how to implement a product review process, but remember, every company is different, and this process should be adapted to fit your unique needs.
Let's dig in…
Product Review Stages
Each of these touchpoints are designed to build product thinking, strategic alignment and learning.
What do we want to solve?
This step ensures alignment between the overarching strategic direction and the product manager's proposed idea. The key is for the product manager to clearly communicate their intentions, the assumptions behind the idea, and the expected outcomes. To guide this conversation, we should consider the following questions:
How does this support the business goals?
What problem are we trying to solve and why is it important?
Who are we solving this problem for?
How is the problem being solved today by users?
How do we intend to address the problem (in broad strokes)?
How will we measure success?
How are we going to solve it
When the strategic alignment is in place we shift our focus to understand the implementation details.
Key information includes:
What user experience are we aiming for?
What are the product requirements?
Who needs to be involved in this?
What is the timeline, and how many resources are needed?
Pro-tip: It’s helpful to include mock-ups or even clickable prototypes at this stage to facilitate understanding and alignment on the final solution.
What did we learn?
The review process should not end after we have built and launched our solution. I therefore believe that we should continuously monitor the performance of our solution. This retrospective step allows teams to validate initial assumptions, measure success, and improve future iterations.
Pro-tip: For product managers, this step can also be a key opportunity to learn about the customers.
Operationalizing the process
Now that we have defined the steps in our process, the next step is to operationalize the product review through meetings, clear roles, and defined cadences.
Meeting format
As i see it there are two ways meeting formats that we can use to facilitate the product review:
Synchronous Meetings: These are real-time meetings where stakeholders come together (either in person or remotely). They allow for immediate feedback and clarification but can be challenging to schedule, especially for senior leaders who often have a very busy calendar
Asynchronous Meetings: These occur over a fixed period without real-time interaction (e.g., via email, Slack, MS Teams). This format offers more flexibility and often encourages more thoughtful responses. However, they may slow down the process if not managed with clear deadlines.
If the need for feedback is not urgent then I would use an async meeting but set a clear deadline to prevent it from dragging out. For synchronous meetings, I would recommend sending a concise pre-read to all key participants to ensure they are prepped and have time to reflect and provide thoughtful feedback during the meeting.
Pro-tip: When using async meetings, share your information through a collaborative document. This makes it easier to attach comments and provide feedback directly.
Cadence
The frequency of product reviews should be tailored to the organization’s needs. A general guideline:
Synchronous Meetings: Have 2-3 placeholders per month. Each review should last 30 minutes, with two available slots per placeholder. Product managers can book slots as needed, and any unused times should be canceled to free up time for other work
Asynchronous Meetings: These can be facilitated as needed with respect to the availability of key stakeholders
Participates
When it comes to who should participate in these sessions it really depends on the company. However, a few guidelines would be to not invite too many people, as it will not be productive, and make sure you invite stakeholders who can provide guidance on strategic direction.
Key participants:
Product, Design and Engineering leaders
Responsibility
The responsibility for each role can be divided in the following way:
Product leaders: Ultimately responsible for deciding whether the product or feature should move forward. They ensure alignment with strategic goals and customer needs
Engineering & Design leaders: Hold veto power on how the solution is built. Their input ensures that the product can be technically delivered and is designed to meet user needs
Product Managers: Makes the final call on whether the feature or product is ready to ship
Templates
Use the following templates as inspiration for how to structure the content for you product reviews
FAQ
How to assess if the product reviews are effective?
You can assess the effectiveness of your product review meetings by simply asking your product managers if they find the feedback valuable and useful, and if they feel heard and understood during sessions.
What to do if the Product Reviews are not effective?
Product review sessions can go wrong in a few ways, such as when there is too much unstructured feedback or when there is too little feedback. In the first situation, it can happen because the attendees lack an understanding of what elements you are looking to receive feedback on. Hence, it is important that the PM is clear on feedback they are looking for. In the second scenario, the lack of context may hinder attendees from engaging effectively. Therefore, the PM needs to ensure that participants have a proper understanding of the context.