Thoughtful execution tree template

Thoughtful Execution is not a formal process, but rather a reminder of the necessary steps in order to develop products in a more detailed and structured way. It leaves freedom for teams to decide which methods and tools to use for tackling each step of the journey.

These steps are presented in a tree structure, which encourages you to follow them in order either asynchronously as a framework for collaboration, or as a way of presenting your process. This approach leads to going wide in problem identification and hypothesis creation before zooming into a single solution. Typically, it's easiest to start at the top and work down from there.

‍Annina Koskinen (Principal Product Designer at Spotify) created this framework that guides teams through a process that leads them to go wide in problem identification and hypothesis creation before zooming into a single solution. Ryan Smith (Product Designer at Spotify) took the framework and translated it into this template to help teams collaborate and present their process.

This template offers a little extra in the form of an overview of an optional hypothesis generation workshop — the details of running a session are included in the mural's outline. Find out more about the framework’s origin and how it’s used by the Spotify Design team in the tool explainer article.

Additional resources:

• From Gut to Plan: The Thoughtful Execution Framework (Spotify Design)