Product Innovation Educators

JANUARY 2, 2023

A process for improving product roadmapping using Objectives and Key Results – for product managers. Today we are talking about roadmaps. Some product people love roadmaps, while a lot hate them. Our guest has had good experience creating roadmaps from objectives and key results (OKRs), and he is going to tell us how.

Roadmap 282

Roadmap Weak Development Team Customer Experience User Testing 282

Roman Pichler

JULY 8, 2024

The individuals whose buy-in to strategy and roadmap decisions is crucial are the players: They are interested in your product, as they, for example, will have to market and sell it. Smaller strategy updates and product roadmapping decisions, however, are not as critical. I refer to this group as key stakeholders.

Roadmap 256

Roadmap Product Strategy Strategy Weak Development Team 256

Roman Pichler

OCTOBER 5, 2021

One of the challenges the agile transition team was concerned about was the choice of the right product backlog tool, which at first seemed odd to me. Another time, I was asked to help a team of a major charity in the UK whose task was to create a new website for their fund-raising campaigns. The Product Backlog is Too Big.

Weak Development Team 314

Weak Development Team Customer Experience User Testing Feedback Software 314

The Product Coalition

NOVEMBER 12, 2024

How first principles can help you design product roadmaps from the ground up. Product roadmaps are no exception. Creating or even updating a product roadmap can feel like being handed a blank sheet of paper and told you have 60 minutes to write a ten-page college essay on a topic you didn’t study for….

Roadmap 94

Roadmap Automotive Product Research Feedback Software 94

Productside

APRIL 2, 2025

When done well, storyboarding helps PMs communicate clearly, align teams faster, and influence decisionswithout needing formal authority. Not because the ideas are bad, but because the delivery misses the mark. PMs are often tasked with aligning stakeholders, guiding engineering teams, and championing the customer.

Data Visualization 177

Data Visualization User Testing Product Research Reporting Tools 177

The Product Guy

DECEMBER 7, 2017

So, your boss’s boss walks into your office and changes your roadmap…. No, this is not a bad joke. Once you discover what the root problem is, you lead a team to making the solution a reality. It’s important to continually question priorities, identify solid wins, and develop a realistic timeline.

Research Software 317

Research Software Roadmap Product Research Weak Development Team 317

The Product Guy

MAY 7, 2020

Hence it is critical that one is aware of the best practises of the role and develops his own philosophy which results into maximum positive leverage for the organization. As I strive towards becoming a product leader, I wanted to understand the best practises in product management and in the process develop my own product philosophy. .

Technical Review 398

Technical Review Product Management Product Manager Research Software 398

Roman Pichler

MARCH 9, 2021

The Scrum Guide released in November 2020 states that “the product goal describes a future state of the product … [It] is the long-term objective for the Scrum team.” The product owner is accountable for “developing and explicitly communicating the product goal.” The entire Scrum team is “focused on one … product goal” at a time.

Product Goals 396

Product Goals Weak Development Team User Testing Vision 396

Roman Pichler

MAY 11, 2021

” But do not allow people to dominate and tell you what to do, and don’t agree to a weak compromise. The SAFe product owner is tactical in nature and focuses on working on the product backlog and guiding the development teams. Myth #3: The product owner is responsible for the team performance.

Weak Development Team 358

Weak Development Team Product Research User Testing Customer Experience 358

Roman Pichler

AUGUST 12, 2024

Listen to the audio version of this article: [link] The Core Product Team Product teams come in different shapes and sizes. But all product teams I have seen consisted of the person in charge of the product—the product manager or Scrum product owner —and development team members.

Weak Development Team 207

Weak Development Team Feedback Software Software Review Product Research 207

Roman Pichler

JANUARY 22, 2024

2] Figure 2: A Sample Product Portfolio Strategy If you are familiar with my work on product strategy , you’ll recognise the structure I’ve used in Figure 2: It is based on the Product Vision Board —the tool I’ve developed to capture a product vision and a product strategy. What’s more, it might cause poor alignment and weak buy-in.

Weak Development Team 280

Weak Development Team Strategy Software Review Vision 280

Roman Pichler

JUNE 7, 2022

While common sense suggests that managing a product without the right measurements is not a sensible approach, I’ve seen product teams who did not use any KPIs. Consequently, these teams relied on: Anecdotal feedback : “Customers love our product, they told me so.” If this data is actioned, bad product decisions will be made.

KPI 323

KPI Data Visualization Weak Development Team Customer Feedback 323

Roman Pichler

JUNE 1, 2020

The first one carries the risk of being a feature broker and offering a product that has a weak value proposition, gives rise to a poor user experience, and consists of a loose collection of features. But do not accept inappropriate behaviour and do not allow people to treat you like a project manager, team lead, or personal assistant.

Weak Development Team 335

Weak Development Team Product Research Customer Experience Workshop 335

The Product Guy

JUNE 18, 2020

Ruthless prioritization translates to product teams spending time building the right thing at the right time. This discipline is the bread & butter for a winning product team, but building an effective product process takes a lot of trial and error. Are things that we are learning finding their way into the roadmap?

Product Research 412

Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software User Testing 412

Roman Pichler

SEPTEMBER 7, 2021

Traditionally, product roadmaps are output-focussed plans that map features like registration, search, and reporting onto a timeline. Such a roadmap essentially states when a piece of functionality will be delivered. This makes the product roadmap more susceptible to change and it increases the effort to update it.

Roadmap 156

Roadmap Weak Development Team Customer Experience User Testing 156

Userpilot

APRIL 16, 2025

It compounds quietly across every team, workflow, and decision. When data collection is messy, product managers lose visibility, teams waste hours chasing answers, and user experience suffers. Your roadmap, now skewed by partial data, doubles down on solving the wrong problem. The user follows up twice, growing frustrated.

Data Visualization 105

Data Visualization Analytic Tools Feedback Software Reporting Tools 105

Product Innovation Educators

APRIL 22, 2019

Product roadmaps are frequently used badly, almost as handcuffs for product managers. A year ago we explored roadmaps and how they should be used with Bruce McCarthy. At the time, he had recently co-authored the book, Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty. Who the roadmap is for.

Roadmap 212

Roadmap Weak Development Team Vision Books 212

Product Innovation Educators

SEPTEMBER 4, 2023

Often, companies approach me asking for help with their product strategy and they’re really focused on the roadmap. While the roadmap and choosing features is the last step of product strategy, it’s not the whole picture. 9:00] Who is responsible for developing product strategy? Download the framework.

Product Strategy 322

Product Strategy Strategy Weak Development Team Framework 322

Intercom, Inc.

JUNE 10, 2020

I hope this post allows people and teams to safely talk about Product Judgment. If you ever had to face a Manager, Director or Exec as they make bad product decisions and you’re struggling to persuade them otherwise, this post will help you. It takes years to build, and therefore ranges from very weak to very strong.

Research Software 291

Research Software Weak Development Team Reporting Tools Customer Communications 291

The Product Coalition

MAY 3, 2021

Roadmaps don’t need to be complex, nor should you need a PhD to create one. Here’s a simple version to win over your team and stakeholders. Photo by Matt Duncan on Unsplash Ahh the dreaded word roadmap… The mere mention of a roadmap can divide the room, and send Product Managers into a world of panic.

Roadmap 187

Roadmap Customer Experience Weak Development Team Vision 187

Roman Pichler

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

I once worked with a telco company that was developing a brand-new commercial product. Product management and development were located at separate sites in different countries. The technical complexities were greater than anticipated and the development progress was slower than forecasted. To Collocate or Not.

Weak Development Team 206

Weak Development Team Customer Experience Technical Review Product Research 206

Roman Pichler

NOVEMBER 12, 2019

I once worked with a telco company that was developing a brand-new commercial product. Product management and development were located at separate sites in different countries. The technical complexities were greater than anticipated and the development progress was slower than forecasted. To Collocate or Not.

Weak Development Team 206

Weak Development Team Customer Experience Technical Review Product Research 206

The Product Guy

AUGUST 13, 2020

How to learn by doing it and lead a new team at the same time? How to plan for future growth for oneself, the product team and the products overall? To take a step back, it is also beneficial to develop the thought process in understanding the product. Some of them are good, and some of them are bad.

Product Management 407

Product Management Product Manager Research Software Feedback Software 407

Roman Pichler

APRIL 5, 2022

For product strategy and roadmap meetings, I recommend involving the key stakeholders , for example, someone from sales, marketing, support, and finance, as well as development team representatives—ideally members who know about the user experience (UX), architecture, and technologies. Close the meeting.

Weak Development Team 304

Weak Development Team Product Management Product Manager User Testing 304

Alchemer Mobile

NOVEMBER 27, 2018

Further, Apple only allows three rating prompts in a 365 day period, so it’s critical to use them with precision, especially now that app developers can choose to keep or reset their current rating with a given release. For more on gathering customer feedback at-scale, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or a member of our Sales team.

User Testing 199

User Testing Customer Feedback Feedback Software Weak Development Team 199

Roman Pichler

FEBRUARY 14, 2023

Listen to the audio version of this article: [link] 1 Complement Scrum with a Product Discovery and Strategy Process Scrum is a simple framework that helps teams develop successful products. Continue the discovery and strategy work while the product is being developed. But don’t stop there.

Product Research 371

Product Research Feedback Software Research Software User Testing 371

The Product Guy

AUGUST 30, 2019

Some organizations lean toward execution, with a focus on product artifacts like PRDs, user stories, and roadmaps. A company that practices aspirational product management is one that values experimentation and customer research, and continuously integrates those learnings into the product development process to create a valuable product.

User Testing 321

User Testing Product Research Customer Experience Weak Development Team 321

Roman Pichler

MAY 5, 2020

For example, the owner of a persistence service has to be able to describe its interfaces or APIs and converse with the users—the development team members who use the service. I regard feature and component owners as members of a product team , a group of product people who collaboratively manage a larger product.

Feedback Software 381

Feedback Software Product Research Weak Development Team User Testing 381

Roman Pichler

JULY 6, 2021

Consequently, your focus shifts from managing a product to looking after the product people on your team and empowering them to do a great job. For instance, you might show the individuals how they can make effective strategic product decisions, create an actionable product roadmap, and effectively use the right KPIs.

User Testing 343

User Testing Product Research Weak Development Team Customer Experience 343

Roman Pichler

FEBRUARY 11, 2020

If the teams developing the different apps all created their own user-interface layers, there would be considerable code duplication, added development costs, and increased development time. After all, a platform exists to help teams build better products faster and cheaper. Assign a Platform Owner.

Feedback Software 280

Feedback Software Software Review Technical Review Customer Experience 280

The Product Coalition

JANUARY 16, 2022

When creating your roadmap, you need to consider what’s important to the company (not just to the product) and what is the best way to make progress across these multiple needs. These are the exact questions you need to ask when creating your roadmap. In startups, it is actually the company roadmap.

Roadmap 169

Roadmap Data Visualization Customer Experience User Testing 169

Alchemer Mobile

JULY 13, 2021

Bad product experiences increase customer frustration, potentially creating resentment around having difficulty completing tasks within an application and increasing customer churn. Beforehand, make sure your team is aligned on: Their definition of product experience. The goals you hope to achieve by investing in product experience.

Customer Experience 230

Customer Experience User Testing Onboarding KPIs Product Research 230

The Product Coalition

AUGUST 3, 2023

A compelling product vision is a guiding light, providing direction and purpose to the development process. Meanwhile, a robust product strategy lays the roadmap to achieve that vision. It acts as a unifying force, ensuring that all team members share a common understanding of the product’s purpose and direction.

Vision 142

Vision Product Research User Testing Roadmap 142

The Product Coalition

JULY 5, 2023

It forced me to question a belief, as a product leader, I treated as an absolute — that products always require roadmaps. Do you think every company and product needs a roadmap?” While I thought it was an absolute, for a micro-second, I questioned it, and then the floodgates of doubt opened — maybe not such a bad thing in this case.

Roadmap 153

Roadmap Product Research Weak Development Team Customer Experience 153

Roman Pichler

FEBRUARY 9, 2022

For example, I’ve seen organisations where the Scrum Masters work with HR and the development teams to recruit new team members. Process and collaboration : Teach agile values, principles, and practises to the product owners, development teams, stakeholders, and management. But it’s not the job of the Scrum Master.

Reporting Tools 355

Reporting Tools Weak Development Team Feedback Software Product Research 355

Roman Pichler

FEBRUARY 2, 2021

Before the advent of agile frameworks like Scrum , a product person—the product manager—would typically carry out the market research, compile a market requirements specification, create a business case, put together product roadmap, write a requirements specification, and then hand it off to a project manager.

Agile 270

Agile Product Research User Testing Feedback Software 270

Sequent Learning

OCTOBER 29, 2024

Strategic Product Management: Sunset Decisions, Platform Benefits, and Team Structures Introduction Strategic decisions around product lifecycle management, platform integration, and team structures are critical for product managers in established tech companies.

Feedback Software 52

Feedback Software Weak Development Team Technical Review User Testing 52