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Jacqueline Porter

AMA: GitLab Group Manager, Product, Jacqueline Porter on Product Roadmap & Prioritization

April 13 @ 10:00AM PST
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GitLab Group Manager, Product, Jacqueline Porter on Product Roadmap & Prioritization
Top Questions
How do you get autonomy for prioritizing your roadmap when your sales process is very sales heavy, and sales leadership wants to dictate priorities?
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
Well, I often incorporate multiple sensing mechanisms into the roadmap - the field and sales team are definitely an important lever to drive revenue, which really is why product managers exist.  So, a tactic I use is to show how much of my engineering capacity is dedicated to enabling revenue,......Read More
591 Views
2 requests
How do you determine how much of your roadmap should be focused on existing customers vs prospects?
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
I typically start from what are the annual business targets set by the company to answer this question. Oftentimes, the sales organization, CEO, and professional services organizations have targets around expansion, new logo acquisition, and win rate which will help portion out what the backlog n......Read More
602 Views
1 request
How do you handle exec input in the roadmap, and convey a point of view while also accommodating?
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
This is certainly a tricky one! I like to think of a roadmap being made up of four sensing mechanisms:  1. External stakeholders - investors, board members  2. Market landscape - competitors, analyst reviews or reports, and prospects 3. Internal stakeholders - CEO, leadership, cross-function......Read More
538 Views
2 requests
How do you think about communicating your roadmap to other teams? What level of detail do people need?
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
I love this question - the audience is everything! I typically have 3 pre-prepared altitudes for my product roadmap which correspond to a specific persona and time horizon  1. Annual Thematic Roadmap with Big Boulder Features - Executives and Buyers of Product: This roadmap has a conceptual, i......Read More
846 Views
3 requests
How does your product team usually work with your product marketing team with building the roadmap?
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
Wow, what a great question! I like to think that product marketing offers a different lens to the market landscape, competitive positioning, and product launches. As a result, I typically rely on four main activities:  1. Include product marketing in the annual product theme and road-mapping p......Read More
380 Views
2 requests
When does it make sense to make your roadmap publically available, and what do you include (vs your internal roadmap)
Jacqueline Porter
Jacqueline Porter
GitLab Director of Product Management • April 14
Since I have joined GitLab, where our product roadmaps are publicly accessible (https://about.gitlab.com/direction/), I don't think I will ever go back to internal roadmaps. A public roadmap as a number of benefits:  1. You keep everyone internal to the company aligned and up to date on what t......Read More
618 Views
2 requests