AMA: GitLab VP, Product, Mike Flouton on Product Roadmap Planning

October 25 @ 9:00AM PT

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What are some of the lenses your look through or principles you apply when prioritizing a roadmap? How are they weighted relative to each other?

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

This is a great question. I've been using some variant of cost-adjusted impact scoring to prioritize roadmaps for over 20 years now. Every market, buyer, product and stra...

2604 Views

2 requests

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

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

As a general rule, everyone should have input into the product roadmap. In fact, at GitLab our mission is to make it so that everyone can contribute and we apply the same...

2201 Views

1 request

How does your product team usually work with your product marketing team with building the roadmap?

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

I've always said a good PM and PMM should be joined at the hip. The PMM should be bringing market insights to the table and act as an excellent sounding board for their P...

2406 Views

2 requests

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)

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

I know it's a cliche, but as PM you are CEO of the product. You shouldn't need guidance from the e-group. Their perspective can be useful, and they will bring knowledge a...

2140 Views

1 request

How do you determine how much of your roadmap should be focused on existing customers vs prospects?

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

This question is impossible to answer in the abstract. It depends entirely on where you are in the technology adoption lifecycle. If you haven't read "Crossing the Chasm"...

2287 Views

2 requests

When does it make sense to make your roadmap publically available, and what do you include (vs your internal roadmap)

Mike Flouton•

Boxford Capital Managing Partner | Formerly Barracuda, SilverSky, Digital Guardian, OpenPages, Cybertrust • 2y

I might have given you a very different answer to this question a year ago! I used to be paranoid about hiding my roadmap from my competitors, and would share broadly int...

2239 Views

1 request