[Learning] Evaluate & Propose by PIG Structure

Vida Lin
2 min readJul 5, 2021

#Who is recommended to read this article?

  1. Junior Product Manager
  2. You’re just assigned a new project
  3. Anyone preparing a proposal

#Why do I write?

Participating in the Product Manager Camp of Business Thinking Academy is simultaneously stretching my brain and muscles. (Lazy Vida does make plans and continuously exercise for 4 weeks under lockdown. This surprised me a lot! XD) So I took notes from the courses while preparing for the PRD and pitch slides.

Today I saw an English speaking PM in a product community asking for guidance as a first-time PM…

"A SaaS based product is midway. 40% of the product is ready. I have been assigned to take up this as a product manager. I have no clue what to do. I do attend SCRUM meetings but no progress yet." he said.

So I translate my notes into English to answer his question. Hopefully, it can help anyone looking for the similar information.

#What is the PIG structure?

P = Problem — How to Describe the problems

  1. What are the company’s vision and goals?
    If you’re in a startup, PM should be the one understanding goals the most other than CEO/PO.
  2. What are the product goals?
    Initially, why would your company create the features? what were their plans/strategies?
  3. What are the users’ goals?
    What are users going to do with the feature/product? → User interview may help!
  4. What are the problems ?
    e.g. the pain points users have.
  5. How serious are the problems?
    e.g. how often do the problems happen, impact scale.

I = Insight — Analysis and solution

Picuture from Freepik
  1. Internal:
  • How can the solutions create benefit to your company? e.g. measure the market size, a.k.a Serviceable Obtainable Market, to make sure the ROI is acceptable for your company.
  • What are the ROIs between the different solutions e.g. man-days, support from other department?

2. External: strengths & weakness comparison between your and competitor’s solutions

G=Go — Action plan

  1. Decide: Options of solution you’d propose. Let your Manager/PO/CEO decide efficiently.
  2. Support: what support/resource do you need stakeholders to provide?

※PIG structure was created by Evonne Tsai, a PM Director of Business Thinking Academy.

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Vida Lin

PM, Relationship, Travel, or anything quirky but interesting.|Subscribe & buy Vida a drink @LikerLand, the bottom of each article. 在文章底下LikerLand訂閱、請Vida喝一杯飲料 ❤