Create a Winning Strategy with Product Diagrams

Use Gliffy to Build Great Products

Graph with data moving up and right with magnifying glass.

Communicate Your Plan

Brainstorming
Empathy Mapping
Story Mapping
Affinity Diagramming

One of the best ways to tackle a new project—whether that’s a new feature or a whole new product—is by starting with a brainstorming session.

Brainstorming helps product teams:

Align on a vision for the project
Identify questions that need to be answered
Think creatively and innovatively and capture new ideas

Brainstorming Techniques

Woman on a computer that has an idea while brainstorming with a group.

The product team’s most important responsibility when it comes to research is understanding the perspective of the user, including needs, behaviors, pain points, and influences. Creating an empathy map allows you to use your research, plus a little creativity, to:

Organize and consolidate qualitative data from users
Visualize the way users think and feel as they interact with the product
Analyze and anticipate user behaviors

Empathy Mapping

Many great ideas have failed due to a lack of understanding of how user behavior will impact adoption of a product. Story mapping, an approach to product discovery, closes that knowledge gap by helping you use your research to:

Translate user stories to actionable product development steps
Align product functionality with user needs
Create a more user-centric product

Story Mapping

After generating ideas through research or a brainstorming session, it’s common to end up with a lot of information but a lack of direction. Making an affinity diagram to sort ideas and identify themes is helpful when you need to:

Organize a large amount of information to make it more digestible
Make your research and ideas more actionable
Summarize key concepts for streamlined communication

Affinity Diagramming

Situational Analysis
SWOT Analysis
Business Model Canvas
Gap Analysis

The first step to positioning your product is understanding the current business environment that surrounds it. This includes both internal and external factors, and is a step you can’t ignore if you want to set your product up for success. Situational analysis helps you:

Capture the full picture of the business through different lenses
Understand and describe where your product lives within the market
Create a research-based path to success

Situational Analysis

SWOT analysis is one of the tried and true methods for market research, and for good reason. This framework has many benefits for understanding the internal and external factors that influence the position of a new or longstanding product. With SWOT analysis, you’ll be able to:

Identify your own product’s strengths that act as differentiators
Discover opportunities and be aware of threats within the market
Lay the foundation for the strategic direction of the product

SWOT Analysis

A business model canvas is a shorthand business plan that articulates your path to success clearly and succinctly. At its core, this exercise is about value—how does your product create it in a way that helps you differentiate? With a business model canvas, you can:

Create or evaluate a new business plan
Understand how your product matches up against competitors
Expand or refine an existing business

Business Model Canvas

Short-term goals are worthwhile and necessary, but don’t forget to consider the long-term future of your product as well. Where are you now, and what is your vision for where you’ll go? What’s currently blocking you from achieving that vision? Gap analysis helps you:

Evaluate your product or idea within the current market
Articulate the necessary steps to reach your long-term goals
Ensure that your work now is helping you build a successful future

Gap Analysis

Product Roadmapping
Journey Mapping
Wireframes

To ensure you’re delivering on your vision for your product, keep your team on track and communicate progress with a product roadmap. It’s a high-level view that demonstrates the next 1-2 years of the product’s future, helping product managers:

Clarify how short-term projects contribute to long-term product goals
Get buy-in from stakeholders on important initiatives
Provide a source of truth and timeline for the team and others

Product Roadmapping

Blog image for how to make a product roadmap

To build great products that customers use and love, you’ll need to understand how they interact with your product and how you can articulate that process. Customer journey mapping demonstrates customer or user experience, allowing you and your team to:

Build empathy for your customer or user
Contextualize analytics and data on user behavior
Optimize your user experience

Journey Mapping

A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when it comes to keeping cross-functional teams on the same page about your vision for a design project. With Gliffy, wireframing has never been easier. Simply drag and drop shapes onto the canvas to create a wireframe that helps you:

Visualize product layouts quickly and easily
Share your vision with others
Communicate with designers without learning a complex tool

Wireframes

From Our Users

"Super simple to use and self-teach. There is a variety of searchable icons, visuals and images, and everything 'snaps' into place."
– Bryan N. (Business Analyst)

"Gliffy gives us an easy tool to use when we need to quickly map out a workflow process, single website landing page wireframe, or even a whole website sitemap/wireframe."
– Sherry O. (Marketing Manager)

"We can demonstrate user flows and collaborate on files across the team, bridging the gap between designers and developers. It has helped me create a shared understanding of intent across multiple departments."
– Sebastian H. (Lead UI Designer)

"Very clean design, easily creatable custom shape libraries, and simple editing tools make this a fun tool to work with for the majority of my design work. I’m in this tool daily!"
– Consultant in Information Technology and Services

Considering Gliffy for Your Whole Organization?

While Gliffy shines when it comes to building great documentation and supporting IT teams, it’s also a leading visual collaboration tool. Learn how Gliffy can support teams of all types with these resources.