At Spice Sage, we’re in the exciting scoping phase of our journey to transform home cooking with ethically sourced, small-batch spices. As we navigate the delicate balance between ambition and practicality, I wanted to share some insights into how our product management and product ownership teams work hand in hand to define the feature sets that will ensure our success.

When Vision Meets Reality

Every great product starts with a vision – ours is to become “the most trusted source for authentic, sustainable spices while empowering both farmers and home cooks.” But between that vision and launch day lies the art of prioritization.

Our product management team began by documenting all possible features we could build – from subscription boxes and freshness tracking to AR spice origin tours and smart kitchen integration. It’s a massive list of cool things we could build, but the real art is in deciding what we should build first.

The Dynamic Duo: Product Manager & Product Owner

In our organization, these roles work as complementary forces:

The Product Manager focuses on the “why” and “what”:

• Conducts market research and identifies customer pain points (like our finding that 73% of home cooks report owning expired spices)
• Defines the product vision and strategy
• Prioritizes features based on business value and market needs
• Communicates with stakeholders and aligns cross-functional teams

The Product Owner focuses on the “how” and “when”:

• Works directly with development teams to execute the vision
• Breaks down features into actionable user stories
• Manages the product backlog and sprint planning
• Ensures the technical feasibility of features
• Makes day-to-day decisions about implementation details

Our Feature Prioritization Framework

After extensive collaboration, we’ve developed a framework that combines business value, customer needs, and technical feasibility:

1. Must-Have Features (Launching with these)
   • Subscription box platform
   • Freshness tracking system
   • Recipe integration
   • Educational content hub
2. Should-Have Features (Phase 2)
   • Custom blend creator
   • Virtual spice masterclasses
   • Community recipe sharing
   • Sustainable packaging system
3. Could-Have Features (Future roadmap)
   • AR spice origin tours
   • Chef collaboration series
   • Smart kitchen integration
   • International shipping

Listening to the Customer

Our prioritization isn’t arbitrary – it’s deeply informed by customer feedback. When 62% of potential customers feel overwhelmed by traditional bulk spice purchasing, and 84% want to explore global cuisines but lack authentic ingredients, we know exactly where to focus.

The freshness tracking system emerged as our top priority because it directly addresses the most common pain point we heard: “I can never tell if my spices are fresh or if I’m just wasting money.”

Balancing Innovation with Practicality

Our Product Manager champions bold ideas like the AR spice origin tours, while our Product Owner grounds these concepts in technical reality. Together, they’ve determined that while the AR feature is exciting, it doesn’t address immediate customer needs as effectively as the freshness tracking system.

The Product Owner worked with engineering to clarify that our freshness tracking system could be built with existing technology and doesn’t require custom hardware development – making it both innovative and achievable for our MVP.

Communication is Everything

Regular collaboration sessions between Product Management and Product Ownership ensure alignment. Our Product Manager shares customer insights and market opportunities, while our Product Owner provides feedback on technical feasibility and development timelines.

Together, they create visual roadmaps and clear documentation that help the entire organization understand not just what we’re building, but why we’re building it in this specific order.

Moving Forward with Clarity

As we finalize our feature set with “laser focus,” we’ve found that the most powerful question isn’t “What cool features can we build?” but rather “What features will deliver immediate value to our customers while setting us up for long-term success?”

By having Product Management and Product Ownership work as partners rather than silos, we’ve created a prioritized feature set that balances ambition with practicality, innovation with feasibility, and immediate needs with long-term vision.

Our freshness tracking system and subscription platform aren’t just first on the list because they’re easier to build – they’re first because they address the most significant pain points for our target personas while laying the foundation for more advanced features down the road.

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What feature prioritization methods work best in your organization? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!