Thoughts on Product Workshops - Part-1
The Never-Ending Cycle of Brainstorm and Rank
We've all been there. The conference room with bright lights. The wall gradually filling with colorful sticky notes. The mix of caffeine, ambition, and mild frustration.
Welcome to the modern product strategy workshop, where good ideas get documented, categorized, and often forgotten.
If you've ever participated in one of these sessions—whether called "Design Thinking," "Strategic Initiative Planning," or simply "That Meeting We All Have to Attend"—you know the routine:
First, gather all stakeholders into a single room. The outspoken immediately take charge while the quieter participants mentally prepare ideas they'll share later.
Next comes the brainstorm. Ideas flow freely. They land on post-its, digital Miro boards, or increasingly busy Google Docs where people occasionally type over each other's contributions.
Then the facilitator attempts to cluster similar ideas. After discussion about whether certain concepts are truly distinct, you end up with groups labeled with predictable phrases like "Grow Revenue," "Delight Customers," or the more honest "Build Cool AI Stuff and Peace Out."
And just when everyone thinks they've finished contributing...
The Prioritization Spreadsheet appears.
When Enthusiasm Fades
You can see the energy decrease noticeably. Eyes lose focus. The previously enthusiastic product manager who was excited about market opportunities suddenly becomes interested in their phone.
The workshop has entered its final phase: the spreadsheet exercise.
Someone presents their carefully prepared spreadsheet, complete with a prioritization framework from a product management resource. Maybe it's RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), or DVF (Desirability, Viability, Feasibility), or a custom approach that your leadership team prefers.
The problem isn't the frameworks themselves. The problem is what happens next.
The Spreadsheet Problem
When Excel or Google Sheets appears on the screen, your workshop noticeably slows down.
The facilitator spends time explaining how to use the document. "Please use the dropdown menu instead of typing directly" becomes a common reminder. Someone inevitably breaks a formula, and everyone watches as it gets fixed.
Meanwhile, half the room loses interest. For every spreadsheet expert in your organization, there are several people who find Excel challenging. They participate passively, hoping not to be put on the spot.
By the time half the spreadsheet is complete, you're running over schedule. People start finding reasons to leave. The remaining participants hurry through their scoring to finish the session.
The final result? A prioritized list that few people fully believe in, based on subjective scores processed through an "objective" formula, saved in a file that might not be referenced until someone asks months later, "Didn't we already make this decision?"
Why Do We Continue This Process?
The goals behind these exercises are valid. Teams need structured ways to generate ideas and make prioritization decisions.
But we've settled for a process that:
- Starts with energy but ends with tedium
- Excludes people who aren't comfortable with spreadsheets
- Takes significant time to prepare and complete
- Often produces results that lack full team buy-in
We continue because spreadsheets are familiar tools, and every prioritization task seems suited for them. They're widely available, provide structure, and create an impression of objectivity.
Finding a Better Approach
Frustrated by seeing team engagement decrease during spreadsheet-based prioritization, I decided to build something better. A simple tool designed to help teams brainstorm and rank ideas without spreadsheets.
No more formula issues. No more extensive setup time. No more watching team members disengage during prioritization.
I built StacknRank in just five hours using AI-assisted development tools (specifically Lovable.app). It's designed for one purpose: maintaining engagement from brainstorming through prioritization.
What's Next?
🚀 In Part 2 of this series, I'll show you how I built StacknRank. You'll see exactly how I used AI-powered development tools to create a solution to this common problem, and what I learned along the way.
Stay tuned—because if you've ever felt frustrated during a lengthy prioritization session, there is a better option available.