Positioning

_{Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash}

Like a chessboard or spreadsheet, Grid has a simple cartesian coordinate referencing system:

• X coordinates are alphabetical and identify columns
• Y coordinates are numerical and identify rows
• X, Y coordinates combine an alphabet and a number to identify a cell
• X₁Y₁ : X₂Y₂ shorthand to reference multiple cells

Slices

A slice is a subsection of the Grid framework used to describe or discuss specific routes. Slices are abbreviated tables with only relevant rows, columns and cells included. The slice below - H1:K4 - excludes row 3.

	H	I	J	K
1	Growth	Growth	Growth	Growth
2	Discover	Define	Develop	Deliver
4	Opportunity Solution Tree	Product Brief	Production Release	Go-to-Market Plan

Routes

A route is a movement within a slice that connects cells in order to explain product activity. Like directions in 📍 Google Maps 📍, routes help contextually locate activity in a narrative path.

Moving down columns

Moving down a column generally increases the specificity of the activity description. As we move from H1 to H4, we shift from the product development stage to the phase to the key outcome.

graph LR
  A[H1: Growth] --> B[H2: Discover] --> C[H4: Opportunity Solution Tree];

Moving across rows

Moving across a row generally progresses the activity timeline. As we move from H2 to K2, there is progression through the classic double diamond cycle in product development.

graph LR
  A[H2: Discover] --> B[I2: Define] --> C[J2: Develop] --> D[K2: Deliver];

Moving orthogonally

More often than not, connecting cells skips rows and columns in between. Reversed movement - in which time sequences are reversed - is also common in product development. Orthogonal movement refers here to traversing a slice in some combination of skipping and reversal.

Amazon's strategy of writing press releases in the go-to-market plan (K4) before commencing discovery (H2) is a good illustration of orthogonal movement.

This route reverses the normal sequence of activities and it traverses the abstraction hierarchy via skipping by moving from a specific outcome to a more general activity phase.

graph LR
  A[K4: Go-to-Market Plan] --> B[H2: Discover];

Simultaneous movement

Activity can move simultaneously in multiple routes. And some routes repeat themselves iteratively in cycles.

A busy product manager could easily be juggling a variety of simultaneous and iterative activity.

graph LR
  A[H2: Discover] --> B[I2: Define] --> C[J2: Develop] --> D[K2: Deliver] --> A[H2: Discover];
  A[H2: Discover] --> E[K4: Go-to-Market Plan] --> A[H2: Discover];
  D[K2: Deliver] --> E[K4: Go-to-Market Plan];

Tip

Routes use coordinate references to connect cells by moving down columns, across rows and orthogonally. Routes can be linear, reversed, simultaneous, or iterative.

Cell ideographs

In communication theory, an ideograph is an ordinary word or phrase used as a linguistic shortcut to convey a host of contested ideas embedded in a cultural discourse.

These words or phrases are information dense concepts that compress context, meaning and argument into a single term.

It is helpful to think of each cell as housing product development ideographs that form the basis of slices and routes.

Row names

In addition to numerical referencing, each row also has a hidden name property that is optionally used in verbal descriptions of slices and routes.

Row	Name	Description
1	Stage	Highest abstraction activity sequence
2	Phase	High abstraction activity sequence within a stage
3	Icon	Visual representation of the phase
4	Outcome	Primary output
5	Documentation	Tools, techniques and templates
6	Metric	Measures of success
7	Ceremony	Organisational rituals
8	Question	Key questions to guide thinking
9	Team*	Collaborators, roles and resoponsibilities
10	Mindset*	Individual strengths
11	Cocreation*	User involvement

* under evaluation for inclusion in framework