Managing Risks and Rabbit Holes in Product Development
As a product manager, it’s essential to anticipate and mitigate risks that can impact the delivery of your product. Risks and rabbit holes can introduce bugs, breaking changes, and decrease the overall usability and likeability of your product. In this article, we’ll explore the importance of identifying and managing risks, and provide a template for creating a risk register.
What are Risks and Rabbit Holes?
Risks and rabbit holes are two types of issues that can arise during product development. Risks are known problems with a clear solution, while rabbit holes are unknown or unclear problems that require investigation. Both types of issues can impact the delivery of your product and need to be addressed.
The Importance of a Risk Register
A risk register is a central location where you can capture, discuss, and prioritize risks and rabbit holes. It’s an essential tool for product managers, as it helps to:
- Identify and prioritize risks
- Communicate with stakeholders
- Assign ownership and track progress
Components of a Risk Register
A comprehensive risk register should include the following components:
- Date raised
- ID
- Product area
- Description
- Probability (high, medium, low)
- Impact (extensive, major, medium, minor)
- Priority (P1-P6)
- Response (action points)
- Ownership
Creating a Risk Register
To create a risk register, follow these steps:
- Note the initial information about the issue
- Discuss the issue with your team to better understand it
- Classify the issue as either a risk or a rabbit hole
- Fill in the rest of the risk register based on the team discussion and investigation results
Risk Register Template
We’ve created a risk register template that you can use for your own projects. The template includes columns for date raised, ID, product area, description, probability, impact, priority, response, and ownership.
Example Use Case
Let’s say you’re the product manager for a social media platform, and your team is introducing a new way of logging in via third-party authentication methods. During the initial discovery and design of the feature, your team identifies several risks and rabbit holes that may impact the delivery of the feature.
Using the risk register template, you would:
- Note the initial information about the issue
- Discuss the issue with your team to better understand it
- Classify the issue as either a risk or a rabbit hole
- Fill in the rest of the risk register based on the team discussion and investigation results
By using a risk register, you can ensure that your team is aware of potential risks and rabbit holes and can take steps to mitigate them. This will help to ensure the successful delivery of your product.