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Using Issue Trees to investigate Product Cycle and Launch Challenges is an important arsenal in a product manager's armory

Most of the times, as a product manager, I solve complex problems under constraints within a short 2 to 3 weeks time, while not sacrificing creative thinking. The actual work shown here below demonstrates how I use a technique called Issue Tree Analysis (that I learnt from McKinsey Academy's problem Solving Leadership Program that I was nominated to attend by my company GE Digital) to investigate in a structured yet creative way. Structuring the issue as a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Timely) problem  and ensuring the identified issues were MECE (Mutually exclusive, completely exhaustive) were the most significant challenges I faced.

On the positive side, such issue trees helped me capture a 360 degree view of the impacts solving the problem would have and help cover any unexpected failures due to major risk items not being identified for mitigation.


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