New Product Spec Socialization

Background

As part of Accommodation fellow, we believe that it is our basic fundamental intention to create values for our business, something that help the business grow, thrive, and sustain. In that regards, one of the thing that we think could be improved is how we define project spec. We'll explain our analysis per aspects below:

Aspect #1 : Strong Problem Background
We've observed that there are cases where project's problem background is not clearly explained with supporting data. For example:

Due to the covid-19 outbreak, cost for ops manual handling increases.

It is unclear how much the cost increases and why number of ops manual handling increases. It's always best to support our hypothesis in the background with data.

Aspect #2 : SMART KPI
In some projects, the KPI is not specific nor measurable, for example:

Gaining additional revenue to minimize cash flow loss

It is not explained how much additional revenue is expected after this project is released and when the metric is expected to be achieved. It will be clearer if we say "Gaining additional revenue by X in Y months (or quarters) by enabling feature Z to minimize cash flow loss." Having a clear vision is crucial.

Aspect #3 : Considerations (Product, Tech, Ops)
Every project needs to go through deep considerations in various aspects, e.g. product, technology, operations, security, legal, etc. Some project specs may not have clearly explained the projects consideration.

There is potential risk to Traveloka reputation due to customers' class action lawsuit

Product decision is not clearly elaborated; why we decide to go with the solution despite the potential risks, how likely the risk will occur, and what are the mitigation plan to minimize the risks.

Aspect #4: API Contract and Backend Design
In some cases, the API Contract and Backend Design is not properly documented as they come with different format and contents for different projects. It's good if we have standard of what and where so that it's easy for everyone to grasp the idea.

Proposal

We are proposing a new template of project spec with the goal to enforce people think about the problem validation more carefully with clear background and SMART success metrics. Important information can be put in its designated place in project spec.

The new project spec format is available in Demand Confluence space (here) by clicking Add Product Requirements button. You can take a look at Refund Guarantee project spec as an example of project spec that has been using the new template here.