Workbook

Make the Mission Yours

Role: Product Manager

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.

⚠️

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

Keep mission and outcomes explicit and repeated.

💡

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)

☐Rewrite the mission in user language and validate it with three stakeholders and the team.
☐Create a one-page mission/outcomes sheet and pin it to the board and sprint doc.
☐Tie each planned story to a user outcome; remove or defer items without a link.
☐In backlog refinement, require each new item to state its user outcome and success signal.
☐Open planning by restating the mission and how this sprint’s bets support it; adjust scope if misaligned.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help draft mission statements or outcome mappings for product planning, but have your team review and refine them to ensure they reflect real user needs and business goals.
☐Ask AI to generate potential user outcomes for your product bets, then validate each one against direct user feedback and domain knowledge before committing.
☐Use AI to help structure your mission/outcomes sheets, but ensure human team members validate that each backlog item truly serves the mission before prioritizing.
☐Have AI analyze past product decisions to identify mission alignment patterns, then use those insights in team discussions to improve how product work connects to user outcomes.

Evidence of Progress

☐Backlog items show explicit linkage to outcomes.
☐Team members can restate the mission without your prompt.

2) Break Down Silos

Align design/eng/QA early on intent and constraints.

💡

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 refinement with design/eng/QA to co-create acceptance and constraints for the next slice.
☐Set a single shared board/backlog and remove duplicate function-specific boards for the pilot.
☐Document decisions and context in one place (PRD/light brief) and review with the squad.
☐Hold a 20-minute live decision review for a contentious item instead of async churn.
☐Pair with QA/Dev to agree on non-negotiable acceptance for the riskiest story this sprint.

AI Assisted Activities

☐When AI generates product requirements or feature descriptions, have cross-functional team members (design, engineering, QA) review them together to ensure they serve users and align with mission.
☐Use AI to help draft product briefs or PRDs, but ensure all roles contribute their perspectives during the actual refinement sessions.
☐Have AI analyze product handoff patterns and requirement gaps, then use those insights in cross-functional discussions to improve collaboration.
☐Use AI to help structure product collaboration sessions, but ensure human team members make decisions together about what to build and how it serves users.

Evidence of Progress

☐Fewer mismatches between design/eng/QA on the pilot stories.
☐One shared backlog is used in stand-ups and planning.

3) User Engagement

Ensure continuous, direct user input.

💡

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 user touch this sprint (interview/test/shadow) and include an engineer/designer.
☐Publish a one-page readout with clips/quotes after each session; highlight one decision it informs.
☐Replace one assumption in the backlog with a validated user quote or data point.
☐Tag a current story with a fresh user quote and ask the owner to adjust if needed.
☐Invite support/sales to confirm the top user pain you’re prioritizing this sprint.

AI Assisted Activities

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

Evidence of Progress

☐Backlog items reference user quotes or observations.
☐Design/eng can cite a recent session that changed a decision.

4) Outcomes Over Outputs

Define and track leading indicators for your bets.

💡

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 bet, define 1–2 leading indicators and a readout cadence.
☐Add outcome hypotheses to the PRD/brief and review them at sprint review.
☐Post a short outcome readout after release; propose next action based on data.
☐If a signal missed, write one hypothesis and a concrete next experiment to run.
☐Align with analytics/eng on exact events/metrics for this bet before build starts.

AI Assisted Activities

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

Evidence of Progress

☐Each bet has defined indicators and scheduled readouts.
☐Post-release actions reference data, not just opinions.

5) Domain Knowledge

Map the ecosystem and constraints that shape the product.

💡

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/experience map (front/back stage) for this product area; share with partners.
☐List key domain constraints (policy, compliance, SLAs) in the brief and review with eng/design.
☐Identify the top two upstream/downstream dependencies per epic and involve their owners early.
☐Review a recent incident in this domain and note one mitigation you will enforce in the current epic.
☐Call out one domain risk in the current sprint plan and secure owner/mitigation.

AI Assisted Activities

☐Use AI to help summarize domain documentation, market research, or industry reports for product planning, but validate AI-generated domain knowledge through direct engagement with domain experts.
☐Have AI generate questions about domain constraints or ecosystem relationships for your product, then use those questions in conversations with domain 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 domain experts to verify accuracy and completeness.
☐Have AI analyze past product decisions or domain-related issues, then discuss those insights with the team and domain experts to identify patterns and prevent similar problems.

Evidence of Progress

☐Epics reference domain constraints and dependencies explicitly.
☐Partners acknowledge and plan for shared dependencies early.

6) The Art of Storytelling

Use narrative to align stakeholders and the team.

💡

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 bet: problem, user, impact, success signal.
☐Prepare two versions of roadmap updates: one for execs (outcomes/risks) and one for the squad (decisions/next steps).
☐Share a before/after user story at sprint review tied to metrics.
☐Add a real user quote or data point to the narrative to anchor the story.
☐Record a 60-second update for stakeholders focusing on user impact and next decision.

AI Assisted Activities

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

Evidence of Progress

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