Roadmap themes from customer needs: OST and job stories

You

The board backed the direction! Ian came out of the meeting almost smiling.

Ian

They liked the vision and the key results. But one member asked two things: what will customers actually get, and roughly when? “Churn from 9% to 6%” is our number, not theirs.

Alex Tutor

A good question to get. The answer to “what do customers get?” is your themes. So far they were written from three facts and a spreadsheet. Today we rebuild them from customer needs.

You

And “roughly when”?

Alex Tutor

Next time. First the what. A theme is a customer need or problem, phrased as a result. Need and problem sound alike, but they're worth telling apart.

A need is something customers don't have yet: a new owner has no way to know which food suits a kitten. A problem is something that fails today: the next delivery arrives after the bag is empty.

You

Both are gaps, then. And either can become a theme, as long as it's written from the customer's side.

Alex Tutor

Question 1

A board member asked what customers will actually get. Which line from CatChow's roadmap answers that best?

Choose one answerMonthly churn falls from 9% to 6%Reorder reminders and flexible delivery datesSubscribers never run out of food between deliveriesReplace the warehouse system

Brandon

I spent Monday morning at one of the two PurrPoint pilot clinics, watching the admin place her weekly order. I wrote everything down. My notes are a mess, though.

Alex Tutor

Messy notes are the raw material for a user journey map: every step a person takes from noticing a problem to getting it solved, workarounds included.

You

Why map the steps? The problem is obvious: clinics run out.

Alex Tutor

“They run out” is the end of the story. The map shows where things go wrong before that, and each painful step can become a smaller need under the clinic theme.

Brandon

Here's the mess: she checks the delivery against her list, phones us to dictate the order, counts what's left on the shelves, waits two or three days and writes a list on paper.

You

Out of order, as promised.

Alex Tutor

Put them in order first. A journey starts at the moment she notices something, not at the phone call.

Alex Tutor

Question 2

Put the steps of the clinic admin's weekly order in order, from first to last.

Tap an item, then tap where it should go. You can also drag or use the arrows.

You

Now it reads like a story. And the painful steps jump out: counting by eye, dictating by phone, finding a missing diet only when the box is opened.

Alex Tutor

Each painful step can become a subtheme: a narrower need inside the theme. “Admins know what's running low before the shelf is empty.” “Orders arrive complete.” “Reordering takes no phone call.”

You

Are they all equally urgent? A slow phone call is annoying. An empty shelf means a cat goes without its diet.

Alex Tutor

Good instinct. Some steps are the critical path: the few steps that must work, or nothing else matters. If the diet isn't there when a vet prescribes it, a nicer order form changes nothing.

You

So pains on the critical path go first, and the rest wait their turn?

Alex Tutor

Yes. Try it on the clinic's journey.

Alex Tutor

Question 3

Which pain on the clinic admin's journey is on the critical path and should shape the clinic theme first?

Choose one answerA prescription diet runs out before the next delivery arrivesInvoices arrive on paper rather than by emailThe admin waits on hold for a few minutes before placing the orderThe order confirmation arrives as a plain-text email

Lucy

If themes are customer needs, where does the warehouse replacement go? No customer will ever ask for it, and it's the biggest thing my team does this year.

Alex Tutor

Not every need comes from customers. System needs, often called non-functional, are what the product needs to keep working: reliability, speed, capacity, security. Treat the system as a special kind of customer.

You

So the theme isn't “replace the warehouse system”?

Alex Tutor

That's the solution. The need is closer to “Every clinic order is picked and delivered correctly, even at 80 clinics.” Written as a result, it links straight to the key results it unlocks.

You

And it sits right under the clinic theme, since that theme can't grow without it.

Alex Tutor

As its subtheme or right next to it. Either way, nobody reads it as optional.

Alex Tutor

Question 4

Themes must come from what customers ask for, so internal technical work such as replacing the warehouse system has no place among them.

TrueFalse

You

Journeys, pains, subthemes, the warehouse… and forty rows. How do I keep it all straight?

Alex Tutor

Many teams use an opportunity solution tree, popularized by the discovery coach Teresa Torres. At the top sits one outcome the team owns, such as a key result.

Below it, opportunities: needs, pains and wishes heard from customers. Under each opportunity, several solutions. Under a solution, small experiments that test whether it will work.

You

So an opportunity is a theme?

Alex Tutor

Close. A roadmap theme is usually one big opportunity or a few grouped together. The tree goes deeper: it lives in discovery, below the roadmap, and changes every week as the team learns.

Lucy

Several solutions per opportunity? That I like. I'd rather compare three small options than estimate one big one blind.

Alex Tutor

That's the point. The first idea is rarely the best. Compare a few, then test the riskiest assumption cheaply, before anyone writes code.

Alex Tutor

Question 5

Match each item from the subscriber branch of CatChow's opportunity solution tree to its level.

Tap an answer, then tap the row it belongs to. You can also drag.

Cancellations citing running out fall from 30% to 15%
Owners don't notice the food is low until the bag is empty
Reorder reminder emails
Send 200 subscribers a reminder by hand and compare their reorders with other subscribers

Answers left to place

You

Now the forty rows. Do I place every one of them on the tree?

Alex Tutor

Climb the “why” ladder from each row, like in module 1, until you reach a customer need. Rows that land on the same need belong together.

You

One-click reorder. Why? So reordering is quick. Why does that matter? So owners reorder before the food runs out. That's “never run out”!

Alex Tutor

Exactly. And the row stays a candidate solution under that theme. It doesn't become a theme itself.

You

The food-picker quiz climbs to new owners choosing the right food. A different theme.

Alex Tutor

Right. Sort a handful and you'll see it: most rows are different answers to the same few needs.

Alex Tutor

Question 6

Sofia climbs the “why” ladder from each spreadsheet row. Which rows end up under the theme “Subscribers never run out between deliveries”? Select all that apply.

Alex Tutor

A theme says what should become true. To show why it matters, add a job story or two under it: “When [situation], I want to [motivation], so I can [expected result].”

You

Like a user story? “As a [user], I want to…”

Alex Tutor

Similar, but a job story starts from the situation, not the persona. The moment someone is in explains a need better than a description of who they are.

You

Let me try the clinics: “When a diet runs low late on Friday, I want to reorder it without a phone call, so I can be sure it's on the shelf on Monday.”

Alex Tutor

Good: a real moment, a motivation and a result, and no solution named. That's the test.

Now write one for the new-owner theme. Take the situation from what support hears on those 250 calls a month.

Alex Tutor

Question 7Short answer · AI-checked task

Write a job story for the theme “New owners pick the right food on their first order”: one sentence in the form “When…, I want to…, so I can…”. Don't name a solution.

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Ian

One of the founders asked why her idea isn't on the page: a monthly cat photo contest. She says people would start talking about us. What do I tell her?

You

Up the ladder: a contest, so owners share photos, so more people hear about CatChow, so we get new customers. That's acquisition.

Alex Tutor

And neither objective is about acquisition. The subscription is mature, so we chose keeping subscribers over finding new ones. The theme maps to no objective.

You

So it's a hobby, like dark mode?

Alex Tutor

It's a warning sign. Three options: reframe it, if it really serves an objective; leave it off with a one-line reason; or ask whether an objective is missing. Here the second fits.

And say when it could come back: if CatChow ever sets an acquisition objective. Write the reply Ian can pass on.

Alex Tutor

Question 8Short answer · AI-checked task

Write the reply Ian can pass on to the founder about her cat photo contest (2–3 sentences): be respectful, explain why it isn't on the roadmap now, and say when it could come back.

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Alex Tutor

My friend at the accounting SaaS has moved on from inputs. She interviewed ten firms and now has an outcome for her team and a pile of findings.

You

And a list of requests from sales and the director, I bet.

Alex Tutor

Of course. Build her tree, turn it into a theme with subthemes and check which request serves nothing.

You

Outcome at the top, needs before solutions, and a job story in her customers' words.

Alex Tutor

One hint: one of her findings is a system need. Don't lose it.

Alex Tutor

Question 9Case · AI-checked task

Build Docketly's opportunity solution tree and turn it into a theme.

Docketly is a Ukrainian B2B SaaS that small accounting firms use to collect and store their clients' documents. About 600 firms pay for it, and about 2% cancel every month. Next year's objectives: (1) keep firms longer, cutting monthly cancellations from 2% to 1.5%; (2) grow revenue per firm.

The product manager chose one outcome for her team, under objective 1: the share of requested documents that clients upload by the accountant's deadline rises from 45% to 70%.

What she learned from interviews with ten firms and from support data:

In 7 of the 10 firms, accountants spend the last days of every month chasing clients for missing documents.
Clients say the request email gets buried and they forget what was asked.
About 40% of support tickets come from clients who can't upload a scan from their phone.
Clients often upload the wrong document, because requests use accounting terms they don't understand.
Large scans fail to upload: the upload component is the oldest part of the product.
Two firms that cancelled last quarter said their clients kept sending documents by email anyway.

Requests on the table: an iOS app (sales), automatic reminders (a large firm would pay more for them), AI document recognition (the director), dark mode (a developer).

Write (200–350 words):

An opportunity solution tree: the outcome, three opportunities phrased as customer needs, 2–3 solutions for one opportunity and one small experiment for one solution.
One roadmap theme with subthemes, linked to an objective, including one system need.
One job story for the theme.
Which request serves no objective, and what to do with it.

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You

So the board member gets an answer in customers' words: owners never run out, clinics restock without calling, new owners choose right. And each theme stands on evidence.

Alex Tutor

That's what themes are for: what customers get, with the reasons underneath. The solutions below them stay free to change.

Alex Tutor

Next time: the other half of the board's question, “roughly when?”, and how to answer it without inventing dates.

Alex Tutor

That’s the lesson. You answered every task — nicely done.

Next lesson: Timeframes and the disclaimer: Now / Next / Later