Coconstruction of our product vision (prep Aus gathering)

International Governance
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Hi everyone,

We met with @cynthia, @enrico and @simone at the OuiShare Fest in July and asked ourselves some questions about what works well / what are our bottlenecks / and we shared some ideas on how to get over those bottlenecks. In order to prepare the get together in Australia, we propose here to focus on one of the main aspects that came up in that discussion : the product vision and technical strategy.

A - Why ? The outcome expected from Aus gathering.

Our intention for the Aus gathering is to get a better vision of the product we collectively develop and a clear action (common roadmap) plan that we can then enforce.
That means understanding :

  • Who are our respective targets in every instance ? How do they organize ? What do they need in terms of features ? What does OFN already covers and what’s missing ? > Our targets priorities will be our priorities as an instance.
  • From that what is the product vision : what are the technical implications, evolutions needed ? In terms of architecture, features, review and merging processes ?

We would like to come up at the end of the Aus gathering with the following deliverables :

  • A written product vision so that we can come back to it if needed when prioritizing
  • A roadmap, with action items organized by priorities
  • A team & process for product curation (facilitate the discussions if request to change something in the roadmap, curate re-prioritization in a non-bureaucratic way)
  • A clear and agreed upon development process (so that we can become more agile and answer quicker our users needs)

B - The discussion we had at OuiShare Fest on product vision

We realized that we didn’t share exactly the same vision of where we would like the product to go, what we wanted it to do, and for whom. The need to write down our product vision arose, and the need also for a curation team and light process to identify the common priorities, depending not only about who has the money to pay a feature, but on a common product strategy.
We thought of a 4 step plan:
a = our vision of our dreamy product in each instance. Are our local realities different, and if yes, what are the differences? Do we manage to attract the users we want (customer acquisition) ? Who are our respective targets, what are their needs, and does OFN meets their needs ?
b = share and identify a common product vision that we all agree on. Based on the analysis and understand of each instance product vision, we can build a common product vision that would answer those various instance needs. But we can’t do all at the same time, and if each instance has its own roadmap, our product will end up not being consistent, if we all pull the product in different directions. So we need to build a common roadmap.
c = list the priorities for each instance and ask each instance to rate them to identify the shared priorities. That will help us build a common roadmap that would take into account the various instances priorities.
d = designate a curation team (2/3 people?) in charge of facilitating the roadmap implementation, and curating discussions if an instance wants to change something in this roadmap (new emerging priority, etc.) Bugs and tech debt can also be prioritized by the curation team.

C - We need your inputs and views to get prepared for the Australian gathering !

We have prepared some share documents to facilitate that collective journey on product vision, and make your life easier. So you don’t have to start from a blank page ! We have written down with @enrico three “base documents” on which we propose you to add your views :
(to open the mindmup document, you need to click on “open with / connected app / mindmup”. If you have difficulties to open them, go in the OFN global drive, this folder, and open the files with mindmup)

1 > What is the general offer of a local OFN instance (beyond the marketplace):
OFN share offer
I started that based on a French reflexion, but can serve as a base maybe for a more general reflexion of the OFN offer. Add anything that’s missing, suggest rephrasing by adding new bubbles / modify existing ones.

2 > Who we want our marketplace to serve and how are they working ? (step before identifying their needs) :
The OFN target board
Add any target we have forgotten and fill in the info about this target if we missed something. And feel free to add any comment in your instance column if you want to specify how you tried to work with some targets but it didn’t work, etc.

3 > Given those targets and their processes, what are their main needs that are not yet satisfied ? Formulate them in terms of user stories.
User stories mapping
We have put only some main user stories here, some might be super large and we will need to split them. User stories are usually not serving one specific target, various targets share the same needs. We express the needs from the role of a user. If some user stories are really specific to one target, then we can add a “target tag” on this user story.
Add any important user story or corresponding solution that’s important and missing.

4 > From those unmet needs identified, what are the priorities ?
User stories mapping
Again in the same file, add a “country tag” to the priority solutions you think we should work on. We allow each instance 5 instance tags !!! (I put the 5 French tags already, use the same color and change the tag name !)

This will help us through the reflexion on the technical choices to come, and will help us structure and propose a common roadmap to the community.

Due date : ideally 14th november, the latest 1st december.

D- Your job for the next global Zoom 14th November

So that we can move forward on the product vision, and the technical evolutions to serve that vision (modularization ? backend and connexion with multiple front ends through powerful API ? micro-service architecture ?) we would like to dedicate the next ZOOM session to hear every local instance vision / feedbacks from the exercise above. Please get prepared for a 5-7 min pitch each :wink:.

Estimate preparation time : 2 hours

FEEL FREE TO ADD ANY SUGGESTION TO IMPROVE THAT PROCESS :slight_smile:

@Kirsten @danielle @CynthiaReynolds @enricostn @sauloperez @NickWeir @lin_d_hop @tschumilas @Odi and all !

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I am trying to do these tasks but am really struggling - I want to help vision - but I feel like I’m not able to put our contribution from Canada into these templates easily. In Canada we started with a kind of needs assessment with community food initiatives around the question: what do they dream about and what do the fear about digital tech and how these tools can help (or not) transform food systems. Based on this the OFN-CAN board created a vision for OFN-CAN. So - I can summarize that and share it next week at our meeting. But it doesn’t easily map onto the categories proposed here.

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Sure thanks @tschumilas, let’s do that ! Theses templates were an attempt to agregate our local visionsbut if you already have built yours let’s share it with us and we can see then how to put all that together. Especially one thing we want to understand are the impact of your vision on the product (the platform) and your priorities in terms of features.
Also the idea was to propose the exercice of identifying your targets. So if you have ientified targets that are not shown in the target spreadsheet you can add them. But if it’s hard for you we can see after you have shared your vision how to gather those visions in one OFN global vision :wink:

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Thanks @MyriamBoure for starting this off. I was also finding it difficult to summarise the long conversations we have had about this in the UK. SO thanks @tschumilas for setting a precedent of doing it differently - although I fear that we are going to make the process of the Aus meeting more difficult with lots of different approaches :worried:

So here is where we got to in the UK

We have a very involved director (Jack) who led us through a mapping process which came up with this ‘value proposition canvas’. This is now nearly 2 years old.

Then just a few weeks ago we did a ‘value chain mapping’ exercise with a volunteer that Jack brought in. This is what we came up with. Let me know if you can’t open this and I will add some screenshots here instead

This email exchange is also relevant here:
On 30 Oct 2017, at 15:19, Nick Weir, OFN nick@openfoodnetwork.org.uk wrote:

Thanks Jack

I agree that OFN is complex. I also very much appreciate the time you give to help develop OFN and agree that I would rather focus that time on clarifying the metrics as a priority.

In terms of the value chain complexity, this exercise has helped me (with my OFN UK marketing responsibility) appreciate that we need to focus our very limited marketing budget and time on:

  1.  Users who will make best use of OFN in terms of ÂŁ turnover

  2.  Users who will be easy to convince of the benefits of OFN and easy to set up on OFN

So I am focusing on potential users like Soyfoods Ltd who recently approached us wanting a shopfront for their wholesale and retail business. The reason i want to focus on them is 1) they don’t already have any online sales so there is minimal transfer work to do and 2) they are selling high £ volumes so will increase our revenues which is a big priority for OFN UK.

Any reflections from Chris would be very welcome. Thanks again Chris and Jack for all your work on this

Best wishes
Nick

From: Jack Townsend [mailto:jacktownsend.net@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Jack Townsend
Sent: 29 October 2017 14:19
To: Nick Weir; Chris Adams
Cc: Lynne Davis; Sara Rock
Subject: Re: OFN Mapping - thanks and next steps

Hi All

Perhaps the biggest learning for me is how complexity is a real challenge for OFN UK. This will make scaling difficult; if every customer is unique, then we don’t have really have a product. Think we need to think hard about how we find manageable simplicity and scalability within this.

The complexity comes from
‱ The three-sided market: producers, hubs and customers + OFN itself.
‱ Each of these three comes in different forms.
‱ Each hub or producer works in quite a complicated way.
‱ Each hub or producer has its own way of working.
‱ The ongoing evolution of the OFN UK business model.

This complexity has made this value chain mapping time-consuming, as it did the business model canvas. I can see another few person-days in getting these mapped out properly for the different groups. Although it would be interesting, that’s not time I have available right now.

So not sure what the way forward is with value chain mapping, as need more work to truly reflect the diversity of what’s happening. Perhaps it’s better to put to one side for the mo and concentrate to the metrics and business model piece which is more pressing? Can return to this as and when useful. What do you think?

Here’s my and Nick’s work to organise just one piece. Think needs more thought and has not been organised by the horizontal axis yet (maturity):

Not sure that’s a bloggable right now @Chris, until we have some clearer conclusions.

All the best
Jack

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Thanks @NickWeir for this feedback :slight_smile: So I guess next hangout will be mostly about sharing with each other the different market vision / targets / product vision we have came up with, and from that we can see then how to map all that in one way that can reflect the various visions and pave the way for a global vision and roadmap. I know also @sauloperez had another reflexion / proposal, I guess we all had our way to reflect on that, that’s gonna be rich, community power !

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@lin_d_hop can you and me do a hangout before Tuesday to plan a UK response to this? Would 2pm tomorrow (Thurs) work for you?

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hi people, I’m slightly struggling to see how we could find the time to do this in aus before tuesday. @serenity @oeoeaio @michaeldeurwaarder @danielle - could those in the office attempt a quick go at it tomorrow (friday)? like 30-45 minutes?

will be pretty ‘shooting from the hip’ but at least we could get something together to feed into the discussion?

@serenity do we have a whiteboard anywhere? i don’t think we do?

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Sorry guys for my late response.

Last week we took advantage of @maxco’s visit and had a bunch of insightful sessions regarding the processes/workflows that take place for the buying groups here in the Barcelona area plus the AMAPS @maxco knows in Porto.

What I miss here is a detailed way to compare these processes - actors involved and the actions they perform, both offline and using OFN - among instances and models (buying groups, AMAPS, etc.). Said comparison will only be possible if we come up and agree on a single way to describe them. Then, we will be able to spot patterns, things that consistently happen in all models, paint points, etc.

Here is the document template we propose using: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1iG_YJxTD7vUSRmONDQIwqCWOyud08mXkNHVHCn28ok0/edit?usp=sharing. Documenting actual processes and actors will make the comparison more accurate.

This doesn’t invalidate the documents you @MyriamBoure shared. I think they are useful for a more high level comparison that we also need to do.

I hope you guys can take a look. Any ideas?

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Thanks @sauloperez I have made some suggestions on your doc

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Nice @NickWeir! That was a particular example of the weekly purchase process of a buying group in Catalunya. I encourage you all to copy the blank template and fill it in with the details of all your processes. I’ll document ours today and share them with you.

Given your comment about the term “consumers”, I see the need to also agree on a set of terms to describe these processes and our domain in general. Otherwise, any comparison will be quite difficult. We need to come up with an ubiquitous language . Couple articles about the topic: https://www.agilealliance.org/glossary/ubiquitous-language/, https://blog.carbonfive.com/2016/10/04/ubiquitous-language-the-joy-of-naming/. So, feel free to suggest better terms to describe the actors present in the template.

Any more thoughts?

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I like where you are heading with this @sauloperez - see my comment on the doc. I think a key element of the template is ‘how the product moves between production-consumption’ - I know you’ve mentioned it in your template, but I think this might actually be a defining feature - as important as ‘actor’. At least in Canada, our visions for the platform centre around enhancements to facilitate the transport logistics (in addition to the existing transactional, inventory
 logistics). ie - third party transport, consumer picks up from a drop spot, farmers collaborate to share delivery, 


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I like how the debate is enriching our initial proposal! :muscle:

@tschumilas that is indeed a fact that we didn’t consider initially because there’s no other shipment process in our case than delivering from the producer’s facilities to the hub’s location.

What if we add a row for each shipment “trip” (from A’s facilities to B’s ones) within the described process? Take a look at document and let me know. I think if we separate the shipment from the overall process being documented it will make it hard to understand the its timeline.

Sorry, I mixed the links and it might be confusing but the one for the template is: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16n8LQbL9XruezcIjLxOTjQRlpgU2eVQKjBX2hv2LVfA/edit?usp=sharing let’s add the comments there.

Just as a note, please @NickWeir document as well the process of the buying groups in UK. I’m sure that even between models we will spot differences and these will be very valuable.

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More examples. I went through the process of an onboarding of a buying group as we do them so far in Katuma. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1odQJ1BpJO1eHxuI3TObp4HiByhahVTK9lfup86Sqvnk/edit?usp=sharing

Although documenting takes time, by giving names an documenting actions many things arise: roles, actions that usually go unnoticed and pain points.

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I am SO excited about this!! I am going to have a very close look and response, will be incredibly useful for getting value out of our time in Dec. Thanks @sauloperez and @maxco for getting it started

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looking at this more closely, I think it’s really valuable and we want to try and do it properly, but I don’t think there’s much point doing it without @sstead @Jen and @danielle - what’s the chances of attempting that next Wednesday 15th? Are you able to come in on Weds Danni and if so what time would be best?

Looking at @serenity’s calendar I think am would be preferable, or after 3:30pm

@robert I am keen to schedule our discussion about user engagement AFTER this session above . . so will re-suggest a time once we’ve worked this out

I will secure whiteboards :slight_smile: I love gumtree

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vision ofn-can.pptx (236.2 KB)
This is a really basic set of powerpoint slides that summarizes the OFN-CAN vision (work in progress). I’ll speak to this on Tuesday.

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@sauloperez I made already 2 descriptions for two use cases of complex buying groups / food coop we already work with or start to work with:
Micromarché : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1EOTqwTAAufiCsyOiqqfIgk-IACcfuSqxMBjqu0fOghA/edit
Alerconso : https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B0LC6X4Ng7mjvv6_aBM-VubvKYYKkz6TaCrm-c9luCw/edit
I took on purpose complex cases to illustrate the type of cases we are handling in France :wink:
I added them also as comments in the France column in the “targets analysis” spreadsheet.

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Great to talk to you all earlier today. I am so sorry I will not be with you f2f in December but will be joining you as much as poss by Zoom.

I have done a use case for Stroudco/Stroud Farmers’ Market here https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fHjRHLp7SzHrbKBhXlnkU906dcuXbbHzJ7EvSP6rICo/edit?usp=sharing

Here is the OFN UK vision, offer and roadmap that I talked through this morning https://docs.google.com/document/d/15FMqwIHa-q1XgqRT0PXGKc1COaseXmUmPuUGSUkpnPQ/edit

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I share the five processes that I documented in the context of katuma. We will surely iterate on them these next few days.

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@Kirsten @danielle @NickWeir @tschumilas @sauloperez and all I summed up in 7 slides the OFFrance strategy and product priorities and vision : https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TkK3RrDx9uBiyphKDKX1if6Y91_MmuBHlOa9v8I5_jc/edit?usp=sharing
Also I described the targets that Open Food France is curently dealing with in this file : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1DjqIJo3jLBRs038-ayYGxTA3oePhE1j75GOkjM_PyyY
And tried to formulate priorities in term of user stories in this mindmap : https://drive.mindmup.com/map/0B_HDFsX1e_2VTW0zaUdlOTlxQ0E
(those two last documents I already shared them in the first post)
Looking forward to deep dive into all of that in Aus !