Just Launched! — Move Strategic Goals and Initiatives Across Products

I have always been a planner. For me, late November is a reminder that the new year is fast approaching and that it is time to do two things. First, make a dinner reservation for New Year’s Eve. (You’re welcome.) Second, reflect on what the team accomplished and look at what is in store for next year.

There is a lot that goes into high-level product planning. What are the goals and how are you going to accomplish them? What are the alternative solutions for customers and how do you continue to add value? These big questions have to be answered for every product across the portfolio. And as you start to refine your goals and initiatives, you may realize that some could be applicable across several products or even your entire portfolio.

Today’s launch streamlines the planning process and allows you to copy or move strategy records across products. 

That means you can now set strategy for one product and reuse those records for others as needed. Those records include goals, initiatives, competitors, and personas. Reusing records will save you time and help ensure consistency across your portfolio. Here is how it works:

Set measurable goals As you start to define next year’s goals, look back at the ones you set for this year. Often the framework for year-over-year goals is similar, with only the success metric changing. For example, increasing revenue may be a consistent goal. Now you can copy last year’s goals as a starting point, and then refine the details to match your plan for next year.

Select “Copy this goal” from the Actions menu to duplicate the goal in another product.

Align and refine strategic initiatives As you put in the work to align your strategic initiatives against your goals, you may soon realize that some initiatives are a better fit for other products in your portfolio — or even need to be moved to the portfolio level. Making that change is quick work with the new ability to move initiatives to other products.

Select “Move to another product” from the Actions menu to move a record from one product to another. This will remove the record from the originating product.

Track competitors across the portfolio Has an old competitor entered a new market to compete with other areas of your business? Or maybe they changed course and now compete more directly with a product in your portfolio. With the ability to move and copy competitors in Aha!, it is easy to stay nimble and always keep the competition in sight.

Product Owners and Contributors in Aha! have the ability to move and copy strategy records across products.

Define personas for each product It is common for products within the same company to overlap buyer and user personas — especially if you manage one product within a larger suite. Now you can define those personas once and reuse them across other products in your portfolio.

When copying a record to another product, choose the product you would like to copy it to and assign it a name.

As a product manager, strategic planning is a delicate balance between owning the vision of your product while ensuring complete alignment with an overarching portfolio or corporate strategy.

There is plenty to do as one year ends and another begins. And now with the ability to move or copy strategy records across products, you can tick one more item off your to-do list. You can be sure that your plan is aligned and consistent across your entire portfolio.

P.S. Remember to make those New Year’s dinner reservations.

Sign up for a free Aha! trial — be happy The ability to move or copy strategy records across products is available to all Aha! customers. If you are not already an Aha! customer, you may want to sign up for a free 30-day trial of Aha! now to see why over 50,000 users trust Aha! to set product strategy, create visual roadmaps, and prioritize releases and features.