The biggest goal for a Concept Review is to make sure the team learns how to decide what we work on and what we don't. Concept Reviews were required before we start writing code on an idea to make sure the time we spend there is high ROI. So in a concept review, I'm coaching on the thinking behind deciding what to work on:

Does the evidence support the importance of the problem?

Are we confident the solution with make a meaningful impact?

The biggest question with Concept Reviews is what was too big and what was too small to bring to a concept review. Over time we figured it out. Some examples:

Too Small: Error validation improvements on a page.

Just Right: Moving key items (i.e. custom questions) in the checkouts flow. This was a big change. The checkout flow has a high impact, it would change metrics, GTM needed to be involved, etc.

Too Big: Killing "Embedded Checkout" as a feature for our creators. Something like this would be a strategic convo with exec first because it's a big value prop, has big tradeoffs, and the likely reason to kill would be tech debt.

It's important that you can synthesize the problem down to a sentence or two. If you can't, then a lot of time will be spent in the meeting trying to get to the synthesis which isn't the best use of time. Being able to describe it in a sentence is a good constraint to know you truly understand the problem.

You might need to precede the Problem slide with an introduction to the strategic area that the problem lives within.

When I review the supporting evidence, the key question I'm asking myself is - Does the evidence justify the importance of the problem? If not, there is likely a more important problem the team can be working on.

A lot of problems have been solved before. That doesn't mean a directly competitive product. But maybe one that is adjacent. Part of making good decisions about what we work on is leveraging solutions that already exist vs. trying to invent a new solution to a problem that has already been solved. I would add when competitors have solved things in different ways, trying to understand why also helps make the best decision for your specific circumstance.

The biggest question I'm giving feedback on is: Is the proposed solution going to make a meaningful impact on the problem?

The problem could be important. But if we don't have a solution we believe has the potential to make a meaningful impact, then it still isn't the right thing to be spending our limited resources on.

My goal by the end of a concept review is for the team to feel more competent about the problem and solution because they got feedback from more experienced people. It's coaching, not a teardown.

The type of feedback is important. Feedback targeted at a single person should be kept for a 1:1 otherwise you will sow division within the group working on something.

Naishi Zhang

Casey Winters

This template was used by my team for Concept Reviews at Eventbrite as a part of a system of reviews. The system consisted of three types: Concept Review, Product Review, and Results Review.

Concept review presentation template from Eventbrite

Goals

Set the scope

Problem statement

Reviewing supporting evidence

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