This document provides an overview of Connected Lab's product development playbook. It describes the different types of cards in the playbook, including Plays, Milestones, and Activities. Plays represent the high-level steps in a project and suggest a project phase. Milestones are key events or meetings. Activities are specific methods that can be used within Plays. The playbook is designed to help teams plan and discuss how to develop products from start to finish using these different card types.

2. Hello
Connected Lab

3. Jeremy Bell
VP, Design
Connected Lab

8. MAKE HARDWARE EASY
WE TRIED TO

9. ONLINE TOOLS &
MARKETPLACE
DIGITAL FABRICATION &
MODULAR COMPONENTS
SHIPPED TO
CUSTOMERS
8

10. 9

11. Plug & Play
Extensible Architecture
Arduino Compatible
Open Source

12. 11
Podcast Radio Prototype

15. Yes,that’sme

28. Build
Better
Products

29. Build
Better
Products

30. First things first.
What is a “product”?

31. Products are not just a
collection of features

33. A product is
something that
satisfies a want
or need.

34. Jobs to be Done

35. Clayton Christensen

36. Customers rarely make buying decisions around what
the “average” customer in their category may do.
They often buy things because they find themselves
with a problem they would like to solve.
Jobs to be Done

37. With an understanding of the “job” for which
customers find themselves “hiring” a product
or service for, companies can more accurately
develop and market products well-tailored to
what customers are trying to do.
Jobs to be Done

38. People “hire”
products to
do a “job”.

42. Table of Contents
1. About Connected Lab
2. About Connected Lab
3. About Connected Lab
4. About Connected Lab
5. About Connected Lab
BILL BOWERMAN

43. 1. Decorated WWII veteran
2. Football and track coach
3. U.S. Olympic track coach
4. Self-taught cobbler
5. All-around mad scientist
Bill was a badass

45. Adidas Rekord 1960

47. Kenny Moore Prototype

48. The Nike Cortez (1972)

49. The Nike Cortez (1972)

52. Urethane prototypes

54. Nike Waffle Trainer (1974)

55. What job is your
product hired to do?
Continue to ask yourself:

56. Build
Better
Products

57. Build
Better
Products

58. Being “better” is
entirely contextual.

59. Better than who?
Better at what?

60. Better priced?
Better designed?
Better engineered?
…

61. Better at satisfying
the jobs to be done.

62. “Great artists steal”Steve Jobs
— Pablo Picasso

67. “If I have seen further,
“If I have seen further, it is by
standing on the shoulders of giants.”
— Sir Isaac Newton

68. Understand how
competitors satisfy
the JTBD, and get on
their shoulders.

69. The only way to
understand the
competition, is
to live with it.

75. 20+ CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS

78. Add time & budget in
your project to live
with the competition.

79. How much better?

80. You have to aim for
10× Better

81. Great

82. 10×

88. Why 10×?

89. 1. Products can’t be
just “good enough”.

93. 2. Lack of motion kills.

95. BlackBerry smartphone sales by year (MM)
15
30
45
60
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
BlackBerry falls to 0.0% market share

98. 3. Competition
spawns rapidly.

100. 962 companies

101. WhatsApp
- Sold to Facebook for $16 billion
- 450 million users
- 32 engineers
Instagram
- Sold to Facebook for $1 billion
- 30 million users
- 13 employees

102. How do you
achieve 10×?

103. Leverage technology to
gain a 10× advantage

104. 1. Have designers & engineers
working closely together, from
the start of the project.

105. 2. Foster a culture of
experimentation
and sharing.

106. 3. Deliberate practice time
(take practice vacations).

107. 4. Move fast, and build things.

108. Build
Better
Products

109. Build
Better
Products

110. Design
Engineering
The product development lifecycle
Need ShippedSolution
Discover and validate
before major investments
Write, test & ship
production code
Business context research
Customer-focused research
Technical research
Concept development
Validation testing
Prototyping
Solution architecture
Strategic planning
Agile development
Quality assurance
Product design
User testing
Analytics tooling
Product launch
Beta release
Continuous delivery
Product road mapping

111. Each project is unique.
Each client is different.

112. There is
no single process
to ship a product.

113. Instead, you need
to follow a playbook

118. What are your plays?

119. Connected Lab
Playbook v1.0

120. Playbook
V1.0 About the Playbook
The Connected Playbook is a set of cards that
describe key activities in Connected Lab’s product
development approach. By mapping out these
activities using the cards, teams are able to plan and
discuss how to develop products from start to finish.

122. Types of cards
Plays
Plays represent the high-level steps that occur during a project.
Plays are marked with the suggested project phase (Immerse,
Define, Build, Release) and can be given greater detail by playing
subsidiary Activity cards.

123. PLAY
V 1.0V 1.0
Immerse
Research Planning & Logistics
Develop a clear plan for research acitvities that documents
key research objectives, target customers, and research
methods. Includes details on logisitics for interview
recruitment and compensation. This plan is shared with
clients to ensure alignment on objectives and outcomes.
PLAY
V 1.0V 1.0
Define
Concept Generation
Design and explore possible solutions that address pain
points and challenges or exploit unqiue insights and
research discoveries.
PLAY
V 1.0V 1.0
Build
Enablement
A transitional phase where Connected Lab practitioners are
embedded with client teams in order to transfer knowledge
about the product and our development methodologies.
PLAY
V 1.0V 1.0
Release
Product Launch
Release a full, public-facing version of your product,
enabling customers to gain value immediately. This is best
done when validation has been completed and a wider
release has been derisked.
21

124. Milestones
Milestones represent key events, check-ins,
or meetings within a project.
Milestones don’t have associated project phases,
allowing them to be used wherever needed.
Types of cards

125. An in-person demonstration of the working-code version
of a product or service, along with a presentation of the
technology and overall design philosophy.
MILESTONE
Live Demo
V 1.0
A presentation of new findings, customer needs & insights,
potential new business drivers, and other learnings gathered
from in-field and secondary research.
MILESTONE
Insight & Opportunity Presentation
V 1.0
A presentation of design frameworks, solution maps,
and refined design & technology concepts addressing a
particular audience, business goal, and/or technical space.
MILESTONE
Concept Review Presentation
V 1.0
The core plan for conveying the strategic direction of the
product. This is the guiding document containing prioritized
product features to be designed & developed during the
Build phase.
MILESTONE
Product Roadmap
V 1.0
A meeting to align internal stakeholders and the Connected
Lab team. This meeting should cover business goals,
existing technologies, and known information about end-
MILESTONE
Project Kickoff
V 1.0
Packaging all artifacts (code, designs, interviews, research)
for transfer to the client, a new team, or for the kickoff of a
future phase of the project.
MILESTONE
Project Handoff
V 1.0
An in-person demonstration of the working-code version
of a product or service, along with a presentation of the
technology and overall design philosophy.
MILESTONE
Live Demo
V 1.0
A presentation of new findings, customer needs & insights,
potential new business drivers, and other learnings gathered
from in-field and secondary research.
MILESTONE
Insight & Opportunity Presentation
V 1.0
A presentation of design frameworks, solution maps,
and refined design & technology concepts addressing a
particular audience, business goal, and/or technical space.
MILESTONE
Concept Review Presentation
V 1.0
The core plan for conveying the strategic direction of the
product. This is the guiding document containing prioritized
product features to be designed & developed during the
Build phase.
MILESTONE
Product Roadmap
V 1.0
A meeting to align internal stakeholders and the Connected
Lab team. This meeting should cover business goals,
existing technologies, and known information about end-
MILESTONE
Project Kickoff
V 1.0
Packaging all artifacts (code, designs, interviews, research)
for transfer to the client, a new team, or for the kickoff of a
future phase of the project.
MILESTONE
Project Handoff
V 1.0
An in-person demonstration of the working-code version
of a product or service, along with a presentation of the
technology and overall design philosophy.
MILESTONE
Live Demo
V 1.0
A presentation of new findings, customer needs & insights,
potential new business drivers, and other learnings gathered
from in-field and secondary research.
MILESTONE
Insight & Opportunity Presentation
V 1.0
A presentation of design frameworks, solution maps,
and refined design & technology concepts addressing a
particular audience, business goal, and/or technical space.
MILESTONE
Concept Review Presentation
V 1.0
The core plan for conveying the strategic direction of the
product. This is the guiding document containing prioritized
product features to be designed & developed during the
Build phase.
MILESTONE
Product Roadmap
V 1.0
MILESTONE
V 1.0
MILESTONE
V 1.0
of a product or service, along with a presentation of the
technology and overall design philosophy.
potential new business drivers, and other learnings gathered
from in-field and secondary research.
A presentation of design frameworks, solution maps,
and refined design & technology concepts addressing a
particular audience, business goal, and/or technical space.
MILESTONE
Concept Review Presentation
V 1.0
The core plan for conveying the strategic direction of the
product. This is the guiding document containing prioritized
product features to be designed & developed during the
Build phase.
MILESTONE
Product Roadmap
V 1.0
A meeting to align internal stakeholders and the Connected
Lab team. This meeting should cover business goals,
existing technologies, and known information about end-
users. At the end of the meeting, a working definition of
project success should be agreed upon by all parties.
MILESTONE
Project Kickoff
V 1.0
Packaging all artifacts (code, designs, interviews, research)
for transfer to the client, a new team, or for the kickoff of a
future phase of the project.
MILESTONE
Project Handoff
V 1.0
6

126. Activities
Activities are the specific methods, techniques, or tactics
that a team might choose to conduct within the Plays.
Like the Plays, each Activity corresponds to a project phase
and in many cases fits neatly as “child” to certain Plays,
although this relationship isn’t hard-coded.
Types of cards

127. ACTIVITY
V 1.0
Observational Research
Research that is conducted directly in the field, in the user’s
home, workplace, or natural environment, to understand
how they naturally behave, and interact with products and
people. It provides a clear picture of a user’s context and
indetifies opportunities for improvment that are based on
what they actually do, not just waht they say they do.
Customer insights, pain points and areas of opportunity
Output
Immerse
ACTIVITY
V 1.0
Solution Model Definition
We research user flows, to better understand the overall
app experience. Then we define the UML diagram of system
elements & any relationships between. This identifies build
needs & helps with feature estimation & total scope.
A plan for implementation & testing
Output
Define ACTIVITY
V 1.0
Backlog Refinement
A regulularly occuring acitivity or meeting where the product
manager, team, and possibly the client review the items
on the backlog to ensure it contains the right items in a
prioirtized sequence. They may remove unnessisary items,
create new items, re-order, adjust effort estimations, or even
split up items.
Cleaned up and prepared top of backlog
Output
Build
ACTIVITY
V 1.0
Multi-Variate Testing
Testing 2 or more variables in a draft (prototype) or live
setting with users to see which one is preferred or performs
more optimally at achieving its purpose/goal to help
formulate a clear next step
Results from testing variables to inform decision making
Output
Release
50

128. Decision Points
Decision Point card calls out a point in the project
where there are multiple options or directions to
consider before proceeding. These are typically
applied to milestones.
Types of cards

129. Iteration Cycles
Iteration Cycle cards are used to indicate that a
cycle of Plays and Activities should be repeated.
One is placed at the beginning of the sequence
of plays and the other at the end.
Types of cards

130. How to use them

131. Playing
The cards are designed to be “played” on a table, laid
out in the sequence that they will be executed during a
project.
This usually starts with the most high-level activities
(“Plays”) and then drills down into more detailed
activities (“Activities”).

132. Assemble your team
1

133. Outline your project with Plays & Milestones
2

134. Flesh out the plan with Activity cards
3

135. Add in Decision Points and Iteration Cycle cards
4

136. Capture your project plan
5

137. Playbook
V1.0 connectedlab.com/playbook
Freely downloadable
- Work in progress
- Make your own
- @connectedlab for questions

138. Build
Better
Products

139. Thanks
Connected Lab
@jeremybell
jbell@connectedlab.com