Setting Product Goals

Based on your company goals, each product that you are creating or improving should have its own quarterly goals. These goals must be consistent with the resources you have allocated to the goal, and to the overall direction of the company.

Here are some things to consider in setting product goals:

• What level of completion should the product have, and by when?
• What level of testing/user acceptance would you like?
• What percentage of new features must be included within the quarter
• What is the measure of reliability?
• What revenue will the product generate this quarter?
• What expenses will the product development incur this quarter?
• What level of customer satisfaction do you require for this product?
• What is your goal for the product vis a vis a competitor’s product

It is impossible to set the same goals for all your products in each quarter. The process of setting product goals is to fine tune your resources so that you can achieve something tangible.

Building multiple products all at once can be exciting, or, it can become like the man who needed water and decided to dig many wells. Lacking time and money, each one was only dug to a certain depth before he moved on to the next. At the end of the quarter, he had many wells, none of which were able to quench his thirst. If he had only dug one, as deep as he could, there would be a happier ending.