Using JPD to manage 'hub-and-spoke' programs

[#1]

Jira Product Discovery (JPD) is one of my favourite Atlassian tools. It's fairly new in the Atlassian suite and we're seeing lots of creative ways people are using it - I've shared before about how I use it for aggregating roadmaps - and this time I want to tell you about how I use it for managing hub-and-spoke programs.

What's a 'hub-and-spoke' program?

A hub-and-spoke program is where you have a central group of people (the 'hub') responsible for directing the overall program, and then many teams (the 'spokes') delivering the work. Each spoke is independent from one another, but their collective work helps drive the central objectives of the program forward.

Sometimes hub-and-spoke programs can have lots of spokes, and when this happens it can be really hard to stay across all of the work and how it's progressing - this is where JPD has been amazing for me!

How do I use JPD to manage hub-and-spoke programs?

Visualising and tracking the hub

I use a Board view which allows us to see the 'ten thousand foot view' of all the key pieces of the program and their overall status (I call it the 'Central Backlog'). Each of these items has multiple sub-pieces of work being completed by the spokes. This visualisation is a key part of enabling the people working in the hub to collaborate and make decisions together to steer the program.

Visualising and tracking the spokes

I then have a List view for each of the items in the Central Backlog showing all of the work being completed by the spokes. Crucially, I make sure that each item has an Atlas project (heads up - Atlas is changing and projects are moving to Platform experiences). This means that the teams get an automated reminder to update their progress and status each week, feeding information into the hub group, again to help them make decisions and steer the program.

Why do I use JPD?

Benefit 1: All the information in 1 place

For me the biggest benefit of using this setup is that the hub group can see all of the information in one place. We refer to it as our 'mission control'. Ultimately the responsibility of the hub is to steer things to success, and having the right information readily available in an easy to understand format is crucial.

Benefit 2: Flexible views

I also love how JPD has a variety of really flexible views that I can configure quickly. I showed Board and List views above, but there's also Timeline and Matrix views at my disposal. I also love how I can set up permissions for specific views so that nobody breaks things inadvertently.

JPD is simply awesome, and JPD Premium is now in EAP - check it out! Let me know if you have any questions at all 😃