Transform Your Product with Effective Solution Reviews
Solution reviews are strategic opportunities to shape your product’s future and drive faster decisions. Are they fostering clarity and alignment—or just adding to meeting overload?
When done right, they can transform your product's trajectory. For Product Managers, these reviews are about more than presenting updates—they’re about facilitating discussions that lead to actionable outcomes.
Drawing from my experience of conducting hundreds of solution reviews, I’ve learned that the most impactful reviews are those that foster collaboration, surface risks early, and drive alignment across diverse teams.
What Are Solution Reviews?
Solution reviews evaluate products under development by reviewing documents like PRDs, PR FAQs, and Feature Briefs. Rather than being a passive checkpoint, solution reviews are dynamic sessions to refine ideas, resolve challenges, and achieve stakeholder alignment.
The Role of Solution Reviews
Amazon’s written narratives, like PR FAQs or 6-pagers, encourage upfront clarity and align teams before building. This approach, detailed in Working Backwards, helps ensure the right product is built right. But other companies might have different practices. Whatever your document preference, this article focuses on reviewing the solution before proceeding. A solution review centers on this doc. A well-structured solution review achieves the following:
Ensures Alignment: Ensures the solution meets customer needs and aligns with strategic goals.
Identifies Risks: Surfaces challenges early to avoid costly missteps.
Secures Buy-In: Gains stakeholder approval and commitment to the next steps.
Embracing Growth Mindset: Viewing Reviews as Opportunities
Product Managers often approach reviews with hesitation, fearing criticism. This mindset limits the potential of the review. Instead, think of it as an opportunity to co-create, align, and collaborate. These sessions can be a platform for feedback, coaching, and removing obstacles that could impact product success.
Preparation for a Successful Review
Document Creation: Write the solution document collaboratively with your team. A clear, customer-focused narrative is essential. This document should outline the problem, solution, and include an FAQ to address risks and potential concerns.
Pre-Read Distribution: Distribute the document in advance so reviewers can digest it and come prepared with feedback. This is an inclusive process that gives everyone time to think critically about the solution.
Stakeholder Selection: Ensure key stakeholders are in the room—senior leaders, cross-functional representatives, and product or business leaders impacted by the proposal.
Invite a diverse team: Include representatives from product management, engineering, design, marketing, and customer support. Go beyond functional roles to consider other dimensions of diversity, such as race, gender, and background. These diverse perspectives ensure reviews are analyzed holistically and lead to more inclusive, well-rounded decisions.
Define clear objectives: Define what you aim to achieve through review analysis, such as identifying feature gaps or improving user experience.
Implement a regular cadence: Schedule review analysis sessions every six weeks to align with product development cycles.
Assign ownership: Delegate specific insights to relevant teams for further investigation and action.
3. Structure of the Meeting
The review meeting typically lasts 1-2 hours and should follow a structure to avoid surprises and help PMs better prepare:
State goal and set context (5 mins): Before diving in, begin with a clear purpose. Before scheduling a review, define your objectives. Are you seeking to improve the product, gain input on a decision, or achieve alignment? Frame your review around these goals to elevate the discussion beyond a mere status update.
Silent Reading Period (15-30 Minutes): During this time, attendees silently read the solution document and take notes on areas they find unclear, challenging, or particularly insightful. This practice ensures all attendees are on the same page before starting the discussion.
Open Discussion: After reading, the meeting moves into discussion, where the proposal is critiqued. Key areas include:
Clarification Questions: Ensure everyone fully understands the solution. Attendees ask clarifying questions to ensure they fully understand the proposal. Examples: “What specific customer pain point does this address?”, “How does this differ from existing solutions?”
Feedback and Debate: Attendees offer direct, constructive input on customer impact, feasibility, risks, and metrics. This stage is crucial for identifying actionable improvements. Leaders should help build a culture of radical open feedback. Feedback can be in areas like below
Customer impact: Is this solving a real problem?
Feasibility: Can we realistically build this with the proposed resources and timeline?
Risks: What are the potential downsides or unintended consequences?
Metrics: How will we measure success?
Leadership Perspective: Senior leaders weigh in on the proposal’s alignment with organizational strategy, resource needs, and risk management.
Documenting Feedback: A team member takes responsibility for capturing feedback and revising the document accordingly. Feedback should be captured for post-meeting iterations.
Outcomes: The possible outcomes are
Approval: The solution is ready to proceed.
Revisions Required: Significant changes are needed, with a follow-up meeting scheduled.
Rejection: The proposal is deemed unfit to move forward until the concerns raised have been addressed.
Criteria for Decisions:
Clarity of the customer problem and solution.
Strategic alignment with company principles and goals.
Confidence in execution and risk management.
Best Practices for Running Effective Reviews
Know Your Audience: Understand the priorities of stakeholders and tailor your presentation accordingly.
Be Concise: Focus on the information that drives decisions or offers critical insights. Avoid long presentations.
Encourage Open Dialogue: Create an environment where team members can openly share successes and challenges.
Implement an “Early Warning System”: Preview key points with stakeholders ahead of time to surface concerns early.
Follow Up: Send a recap of the meeting within 24 hours, including feedback, decisions, and action items.
Post-Review: Turning Insights Into Action
Follow Up Promptly: Send a recap within 24 hours including acknowledged feedback, decisions made, action items, and open questions.
Feedback Integration: Revise the solution document based on the meeting’s feedback.
Tracking Progress: Create a system to monitor action items and provide updates in future reviews.
Maintain Momentum: Address unresolved issues quickly and keep stakeholders informed.
How Executives Can Make Reviews More Effective
Executives play a vital role in making solution reviews impactful:
Be fully engaged: Review materials before the meeting and be fully engaged during the review.
Prioritize key discussion points: Focus on alignment, decisions, and visibility.
Provide strategic guidance: Align the product with company goals.
Ask probing questions: Inquire about performance metrics, risks, and opportunities.
Encourage open dialogue: Foster an environment where honest feedback is welcomed.
Document outcomes: Ensure decisions and next steps are clearly noted.
Offer constructive feedback: Provide specific, actionable input that helps refine the product strategy.
Maintain a customer-centric approach: Consistently bring the discussion back to customer needs and how the product addresses them.
Be open to change: Have the courage to make tough decisions if the review reveals the need for strategic shifts
By implementing these practices, executives can contribute to more productive and impactful reviews that drive the company's success.
The Value of Effective Solution Reviews
By investing time and effort into structured solution reviews, you ensure that:
Teams align early: Tough questions are addressed upfront.
Achieving clarity: A document-based approach ensures comprehensive and structured thinking.
Time is saved later: Addressing risks early reduces costly issues during execution.
Customer focus is maintained: Starting with the customer ensures the solution solves a real problem.
Conclusion: From Reviews to Results
Exceptional solution reviews don’t just happen—they’re built on preparation, radical candor, clarity, and follow-through. By focusing on decisions, fostering collaboration, and actionable feedback, you can transform your reviews into a powerful driver of product success.
Resources:
How To Do The Product Review Right (By Doing It Wrong) | Lenny & Friends Summit 2024
Working Backwards Insights, Stories and Secrets from Insider Amazon by Colin Bryar and Bill Car
Guide to a Great Product Review by Deb Liu