AMA: BILL Vice President of Product Management, Tara Wellington on Product Roadmap & Prioritization

June 18 @ 10:00AM PT

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If you were the first creative hire in a company with a legacy/outdated product that's never been touched by a designer, how long would you reasonably expect before being able to set in motion the implementation of a new design system and new UX?

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

This answer definitely depends on the company, culture, leadership, product - so you can take my answer with a grain of salt. Generally, I like to use the “first 90 days”...

1053 Views

1 request

Move Items on Roadmap: What are your suggestions for product leads when they need to efficiently explain that an item on the roadmap needs to move because some other item has become more important?

We are required to write long docs and spend hours on creating decks for leadership which is not the best use of time

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

Communicating roadmap changes can be notoriously tricky. There is often a lot of nuance and decision making that goes on behind the scenes that gets lost in translation. ...

748 Views

1 request

How do you manage a roadmap when company leadership cannot or will not provide guidance? (e.g. the C-team is all newly hired and don't know enough about the product or customers)

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

This can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. From a negative lens, it can feel like you have thousands of decisions to make, and no direction and gu...

588 Views

1 request

We’re pivoting our product, and it’s difficult to plan the roadmap too far out. How do we reset expectations on what product communicates?

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

When you are in a situation where the team needs time to build a point of view on the roadmap, there are a few tactics you can use to help build trust within the organiza...

534 Views

1 request

How do you handle exec input in the roadmap, and convey a point of view while also accommodating?

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

When executives are highly involved in your roadmap, your first job is to understand WHY. Are they providing a lot of input because they don’t trust the team and their di...

604 Views

1 request

Which stakeholders have input into your roadmap, and how to balance giving them influence vs control?

Tara Wellington•

BILL VP of Product, Product Platform • 10mo

The main stakeholders that have input into my roadmaps are (1) Customers, (2) Sales, (3) Customer Service, (4) Leadership / Executive Team, (5) Other teams dependent on m...

697 Views

1 request