The product roadmap is a popular product management tool that communicates how a product is likely to evolve. But despite its popularity, it’s not always applicable. In this article, I share three scenarios in which using a roadmap is not advisable. I explain why not using a roadmap is the right course of action, what you can do instead to plan ahead, and which steps you can take to get closer to developing a realistic, actionable roadmap ..read more

The product strategy is probably the most important artefact in product management. But how do you come up with an effective strategy in the first place? How can you minimise the risk of offering an unsuccessful product and instead maximise the chances of achieving success? In this article, I introduce product strategy discovery as a systematic, disciplined approach to help you develop a winning strategy for your product ..read more

A product team is a cross-functional group whose members work together to achieve product success. Most people would agree that the person in charge of the product, a UX designer, and one or more developers should be on the team. But if stakeholders should be included, is less clear. In this article, I discuss two types of product teams, core and extended ones. I explore the benefits and challenges of using a larger team that includes the key stakeholders, and I share practical tips to make this approach work ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/27801/stakeholder-buy-in-product-strategy-roadmap.mp3 Involve the Right Stakeholders Stakeholders can form a large group, especially in bigger companies.[1] They might include senior management, marketing, sales, service, operations, finance, and HR. Securing everyone’s buy-in would be impractical—it would most likely take too much time. You should therefore focus on the stakeholders whose input and support you really need. To achieve this, perform a stakeholder analysis using a tool like the Power-Intere ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/27559/how-to-get-started-with-outcome-based-product-roadmaps.mp3 Traditional vs Outcome-based Roadmaps Before I share the four steps, let me briefly describe the main differences between a traditional, feature- and an outcome-based product roadmap. A traditional roadmap is essentially a list of features, which are mapped onto a timeline. Such a plan might work if there is little uncertainty, change, and innovation present, and you can correctly predict what the product should look like and do. But in toda ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/27198/continuous-strategizing.mp3 Product Strategy and Change Strategy means different things to different people, so let me briefly share my definition. A product strategy describes the approach chosen to make a product successful. It achieves this by stating the product’s target users and customers, the value proposition, the business goals it should meet, and its standout features. Such a strategy facilitates effective product discovery and product delivery. To put it differently, it’s virtually imposs ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/26962/okrs-and-product-roadmaps.mp3 What are OKRs? OKRs are a method for setting and tracking goals. The acronym stands for objectives and key results. The objective is the goal, which describes what you want to achieve. The key results state the specific criteria that have to be fulfilled to meet the objective. To make this more concrete, let’s look at an example: Objective: Grow the product management team. Key result 1: Three product managers are hired. Key result 2: The onboarding system is improved ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/26053/the-strategy-stack.mp3 Introduction My first product management job wasn’t exactly what you call a success story: I was part of a team that was called in to help with a new product development effort, and I ended up working with the lead product manager. While I learnt a lot in the process, the resulting product sadly failed. But this taught me an important lesson: There is no point in worrying about the product details if a sound product strategy is missing. Without the strategy, it’s virtually imp ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/25803/empowerment-levels-in-product-management.mp3 Introduction To discuss empowerment in product management, I find it helpful to distinguish three main levels of decision-making authority, product delivery, product discovery, and product strategy, as the model in Figure 1 shows.[1] Figure 1: An Empowerment Model for Product People and Teams Level one represents the authority to decide how features are detailed and guide their implementation. Level two increases empowerment by adding the authority to det ..read more

Listen to the audio version of this article: https://www.romanpichler.com/podcast-player/25582/product-portfolio-strategy.mp3 What Is a Product Portfolio Strategy and Why Does It Matter? A product portfolio strategy is a high-level plan that helps you maximise the value a group of products creates. It achieves this by setting overarching goals for the entire portfolio. These guide and align the strategies of the portfolio members, as Figure 1 illustrates. Figure 1: The Product Portfolio and Product Strategy Using Microsoft Office as an Example In Figure 1, the strategies of the individual pro ..read more