Template
Product council template
The leaders of product, engineering, design and the business decide together what gets built next and what stops, so teams are not pulled in different directions.
The agenda, with a time for each part
- What changed since last time5 min
- What shipped, what slipped and what did we learn?
- Proposals for decision25 min
- What would this do for customers, what will it cost, and what does it replace?
- Trade-offs15 min
- If we say yes to this, what do we stop or delay?
- Decisions10 min
- Yes, no or not yet — and who tells whom?
- Watch list5 min
- What might come back to us next time?
How the notes read afterwards
A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.
Changed. Bank transfers shipped; the reporting redesign slipped two weeks.
Proposal. A mobile app for managers, asked for by 30% of churned customers.
Trade-off. Yes — the integrations marketplace moves to the next quarter.
Told. Partner team by Friday (Lea).
Running it well
- Every proposal arrives as one page, the same shape each time: the problem, the evidence, the cost, and what it would replace.
- No new yes without naming what it pushes out. A council that only adds work becomes the reason nothing finishes.
- Write each decision and its reason in one place teams can read. Most of the council's value is teams not having to ask again.
Ways to change it
When to skip it. In a company small enough that the founders make every product decision in the room already.
Questions
What is a product council?
A regular meeting of product, engineering, design and business leaders that decides product priorities, approves major work and settles trade-offs between teams.
How often should a product council meet?
Every two weeks or monthly, depending on how often priorities change.
What decisions belong in a product council?
New major initiatives, changes to the roadmap, trade-offs between teams and anything that needs several departments to agree.
What happens in the room
Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.
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