With your Canvas in hand, it's time to apply PLX to real-world product development. This section will guide you through prioritising features and using tools like the Impact/Effort Grid to make strategic decisions for initial builds.
We've covered how to use the PLX Canvas. Now, let's zoom out a bit and talk about when and why to use it. Specifically, we'll look at the difference between using PLX for initial builds and for continuous improvement.
Remember, PLX is a product development framework that helps you create your product growth engine. As I mentioned earlier, PLX is designed to help you identify the key components your engine needs to keep the flywheel spinning. This involves prioritising features based on their potential impact and the effort required, ensuring that your initial build focuses on the most critical elements.
Imagine you're a product designer working on an OKR management platform. While working through the PLX Canvas, you might come across HMWs like these:
These examples show how you can tailor your product to meet specific needs at different stages of the adoption process. For Beginners, you might highlight the value they've already gained—similar to how Spotify Wrapped showcases personalised listening habits. For Champions, you might offer personalised referral links with incentives like a free month's subscription.
Tip: In each case, you're identifying features, functionalities, and content that your growth engine needs. The key is to prioritise these elements based on their impact and effort.
In product development, you need this information to guide scoping, estimation, and release planning. You need to decide which elements—and which versions of each element—belong in each release.
There are many ways to make these decisions. You could use frameworks like KANO, MoSCoW, or RICE Scoring. But the simplest approach is probably a good old-fashioned Impact/Effort Grid:
You've already done much of the hard work by identifying the elements—features, functionality, and content—your growth engine needs. Filling out the Impact/Effort Grid should be straightforward.
Tip: I suggest placing one post-it per idea and option inside the grid. Instead of just one post-it for referral links, create three versions of increasing complexity: Referral Links, Referral Links + Incentives, and Referral Links + Incentives + Gamification. This allows you to estimate the relative impact and effort of each option separately, ensuring your final choice provides maximum impact with minimal effort.
For example, you might decide that "Referral Links + Incentives" provides the biggest bang for your buck in terms of MVP. You like the idea of gamification, but realise it requires a level of effort that isn't justified until you've validated product-market fit. So, you include "Referral Links + Incentives" in your MVP backlog, placing the gamification feature on ice until a later date.