In the language of lean product design, we frame the way we think about the product roadmap by hypothesizing which problem we intend to solve with each iteration. Once we know which business requirement has been identified, we define success criteria.

A simple example would be aiming to increase user engagement. Imagine you’ve noticed that users are getting through your registration flow but aren’t using your site afterward. We might hypothesize that there’s no clear call to action following registration. One potential solution: designing a variation of the experience in which calls to action are more obvious, and then comparing the data. If we see an uptick in usage after implementing the new design, we could conclude that the solution was successful and then move on to making more improvements.