Workbook

Make the Mission Yours

Role: Enterprise - Business/Product Owner

Use these activities to apply each principle to your current product, service, or project. These activities are a sample to get you started, not an exhaustive list. Adapt and expand them based on your team's context and needs. Capture your answers, share them with your team, and revisit them as you learn.

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Important: When Using AI Tools

When using AI-assisted activities, always double-check for accuracy and meaning each and every time. AI tools can help accelerate your work, but human judgment, validation, and critical thinking remain essential.

Review AI-generated content with your team, validate it against real user feedback and domain knowledge, and ensure it truly serves your mission and user outcomes before proceeding.

1) Shared Mission and Vision

Connect product decisions to business strategy and customer outcomes while managing enterprise constraints.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 1) Shared Mission and Vision section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Document how the current product initiative supports the enterprise business strategy and at least two customer outcomes.
☐Create a one-page mission alignment document that maps product features to business goals and customer value; share with stakeholders and vendor teams.
☐In backlog refinement, require each item to state its connection to business strategy and customer outcome; defer items without clear alignment.
☐Review the enterprise strategic plan and identify how this product supports key business objectives; adjust scope if misaligned.
☐Partner with business stakeholders to validate that product priorities align with enterprise strategy and customer needs.
☐Conduct a mission alignment session with vendor teams to ensure they understand the business strategy and how their work contributes to customer outcomes.
☐Create a shared mission statement document with vendor partners and review it quarterly to ensure continued alignment.
☐Include vendor team leads in mission planning sessions and require them to articulate how their deliverables serve the business strategy.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help draft mission alignment documents or outcome mappings for enterprise products, but have your team and stakeholders review them to ensure they reflect real customer needs and business goals.
☐Ask AI to generate potential customer outcomes for your product initiatives, then validate each one against direct customer feedback, business strategy, and enterprise constraints.
☐Use AI to help structure mission alignment documents, but ensure human team members validate that each product decision truly serves the business strategy and customer outcomes.
☐Have AI analyze past enterprise product decisions to identify mission alignment patterns, then use those insights in team discussions to improve how product work connects to customer value.

Evidence of Progress

☐Product backlog items show explicit linkage to business strategy and customer outcomes.
☐Stakeholders can articulate how the product serves the enterprise mission.

2) Break Down Silos

Foster collaboration across business units, IT, security, and compliance teams.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 2) Break Down Silos section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Run a joint planning session with IT, security, compliance, business stakeholders, and vendor teams to align on product scope and constraints.
☐Create a shared product board that includes all stakeholders and vendor teams; remove duplicate function-specific tracking.
☐Document product decisions and compliance requirements in one place and review with all stakeholders including vendor leads.
☐Hold a 30-minute live decision review for compliance or security concerns instead of async email chains; include vendor representatives.
☐Pair with IT stakeholders to agree on technical constraints and acceptance criteria for the current initiative.
☐Establish regular cross-functional sync meetings with vendor teams to break down silos and ensure shared context across all teams.
☐Create a vendor onboarding checklist that includes mission alignment, compliance requirements, and collaboration expectations.
☐Document vendor handoff points and establish joint working sessions to reduce context loss between enterprise and vendor teams.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates product requirements or feature descriptions for enterprise products, have cross-functional stakeholders (IT, security, compliance, business) review them together to ensure they serve customers and align with business strategy.
☐Use AI to help draft product briefs or requirement documents, but ensure all stakeholder groups contribute their perspectives during actual planning sessions.
☐Have AI analyze product handoff patterns and stakeholder communication gaps, then use those insights in cross-functional discussions to improve collaboration.
☐Use AI to help structure stakeholder collaboration sessions, but ensure human team members make decisions together about what to build and how it serves customers.

Evidence of Progress

☐Fewer misalignments between business, IT, security, and compliance teams.
☐One shared product board is used across all stakeholder groups.

3) User Engagement

Stay connected to customers and end users despite enterprise access constraints.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 3) User Engagement section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Schedule at least one customer engagement session this quarter (interview, usability test, or shadowing) and include IT, business stakeholders, and vendor team members.
☐Publish a one-page readout with customer quotes and observations after each session; highlight one product decision it informs and share with vendor teams.
☐Replace one assumption in the backlog with a validated customer quote or data point from support channels.
☐Work with support or customer success teams to identify top customer pain points and prioritize them in the backlog.
☐Review customer feedback channels (surveys, support tickets, NPS) and adjust product priorities based on real signals.
☐Invite vendor team members to participate in customer engagement sessions to build their direct understanding of user needs.
☐Share customer feedback and research findings with vendor teams in a structured format to ensure they understand user context.
☐Establish a process for vendor teams to contribute their observations from user interactions back to the product backlog.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to analyze customer feedback, support tickets, or usage data to identify patterns for product decisions, but always validate AI insights through direct customer engagement or observation.
☐Have AI generate questions for customer interviews based on your product assumptions, then use those questions in real conversations with customers to build genuine empathy.
☐Use AI to help summarize customer research findings for product planning, but ensure team members review the summaries and add their own observations from direct customer interactions.
☐Have AI analyze customer behavior patterns from analytics or support data, then discuss those patterns with actual customers or customer-facing staff to understand the "why" behind the behavior.

Evidence of Progress

☐Product backlog items reference customer quotes or observed behaviors.
☐Stakeholders can cite recent customer engagement that influenced a product decision.

4) Outcomes Over Outputs

Measure success by customer impact and business value, not just feature delivery.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 4) Outcomes Over Outputs section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐For the current product initiative, define 1–2 customer outcome metrics and a review cadence with stakeholders and vendor teams.
☐Add outcome hypotheses to product documentation and review them at quarterly business reviews with vendor participation.
☐Post a short outcome readout after release; propose next actions based on customer impact data and share with vendor teams.
☐If a metric missed the target, write one hypothesis and a concrete next experiment to validate.
☐Align with analytics and IT teams on exact events/metrics for this initiative before development starts.
☐Establish shared outcome dashboards with vendor teams so everyone can see progress toward customer impact goals.
☐Include vendor teams in outcome review meetings and require them to report on how their deliverables contributed to customer outcomes.
☐Create outcome-based acceptance criteria for vendor deliverables that focus on customer impact, not just feature completion.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates product features or roadmaps, define customer outcome metrics upfront and measure whether AI-generated product work achieves intended customer outcomes, not just feature completion.
☐Use AI to help analyze customer outcome data and identify patterns, but have human team members interpret what those patterns mean for customers and the business.
☐Have AI help draft outcome definitions and success criteria for product initiatives, but ensure the team validates them against real customer needs and business goals before proceeding.
☐Use AI to track and report on customer outcome metrics, but schedule human team reviews to discuss what the metrics mean and how to adjust product strategy based on observed customer impact.

Evidence of Progress

☐Each product initiative has defined customer outcome metrics and scheduled reviews.
☐Post-release actions reference customer impact data, not just feature completion.

5) Domain Knowledge

Understand enterprise regulations, compliance requirements, and business ecosystem constraints.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 5) Domain Knowledge section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Create or refresh a service map showing how your product fits into the broader enterprise ecosystem and customer journey; share with vendor teams.
☐List key compliance and regulatory constraints (GDPR, SOC2, industry regulations) in product documentation and review with IT, compliance teams, and vendor leads.
☐Identify the top two upstream/downstream enterprise systems or services per initiative and involve their owners early.
☐Review a recent compliance or security incident in this domain and note one mitigation you will enforce in the current initiative.
☐Call out one regulatory or policy risk in the current product plan and secure owner/mitigation strategy.
☐Conduct domain knowledge transfer sessions with vendor teams to ensure they understand enterprise regulations and business ecosystem constraints.
☐Create a compliance checklist for vendor deliverables and review it together before work begins.
☐Establish a process for vendor teams to ask questions about domain constraints and get timely answers from enterprise experts.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help summarize enterprise regulations, compliance requirements, or industry policy documents for product planning, but validate AI-generated domain knowledge through direct engagement with compliance and legal experts.
☐Have AI generate questions about enterprise compliance or business ecosystem relationships for your product, then use those questions in conversations with compliance and business experts to build deep understanding.
☐Use AI to help draft service maps or ecosystem diagrams for product planning, but ensure team members review them with enterprise experts to verify accuracy and completeness.
☐Have AI analyze past enterprise product decisions or compliance-related issues, then discuss those insights with the team and enterprise experts to identify patterns and prevent similar problems.

Evidence of Progress

☐Product initiatives reference compliance constraints and enterprise dependencies explicitly.
☐Stakeholders acknowledge and plan for shared dependencies and compliance requirements early.

6) The Art of Storytelling

Use narrative to align enterprise stakeholders and communicate customer impact.

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Learn More

For more information and deeper understanding of this principle, refer to the 6) The Art of Storytelling section in the framework.

Workbook Activities (do now)

☐Write a one-page narrative for the current product initiative: customer problem, business strategy alignment, impact, and success signals; share with vendor teams.
☐Prepare two versions of product updates: one for executives (customer outcomes/risks) and one for the team including vendors (decisions/next steps).
☐Share a before/after customer story at quarterly review tied to outcome metrics with vendor participation.
☐Add a real customer quote or data point to the narrative to anchor the story in human impact.
☐Record a 60-second update for enterprise leadership focusing on customer impact and next decision points.
☐Conduct storytelling workshops with vendor teams to help them articulate how their work connects to customer impact and business strategy.
☐Include vendor team members in narrative development sessions so they can contribute their perspectives and understand the full story.
☐Create a shared narrative document that vendor teams can reference when making decisions, ensuring alignment with business strategy.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help structure or draft product narratives and updates for enterprise stakeholders, but refine them with real customer anecdotes, emotions, and personal observations from direct customer interactions.
☐Have AI generate different versions of product updates for different audiences (enterprise executives vs team), but ensure each version includes authentic human stories about real customer impact.
☐Use AI to help summarize product work in reviews, but lead presentations with human stories about real customers, using AI-generated summaries as supporting material.
☐Have AI help draft product documentation or updates, but always include real customer quotes, data points, or anecdotes that connect your product work to human impact and business strategy.

Evidence of Progress

☐Enterprise stakeholders can retell the narrative and success signals.
☐The team references the narrative when making product trade-offs.