AMA: Green Dot Principal Product Manager, Ashwin Arun Poothatta on Product Roadmap & Prioritization

A product roadmap is a tool that communicates strategy, goals, metrics, features, initiatives, and timelines to the organization. It is key to achieving alignment and buy-in from leadership and ensuring that teams are on the same page. Regular communication with stakeholders, especially when changes occur, is essential. Below are some key stakeholders and their expectations from a roadmap. Sales and customer success need to understand feature timelines and the value they add to customers Marketi ...Read More

Reducing sales influence over a product roadmap can be challenging, especially for companies that rely heavily on sales to acquire and retain customers. However, it is critical to ensure that sales directives do not interfere with the company's long-term goals or vision. To gain some level of autonomy, PMs can take the following steps: Revisit the strategy and vision with the executive team and sales leadership. This will help them visualize how sales-directed priorities will impact the ability ...Read More

As a PM, it's important to seek input from and align your roadmap with executives regularly. Executives can be valuable in several ways. Executives can help define strategy. They can use their expertise to guide your roadmap and prioritization based on company strategy Executives can help refine the roadmap. They can challenge initiatives and question timelines or impact to help sharpen your roadmap before sharing it with the broader organization. It's crucial to back up initiatives with data wh ...Read More

Managing a product without guidance from company leadership can be intimidating, but it also presents a valuable opportunity for a PM to establish themselves as a trusted leader. Below are some steps to work through this challenging yet exciting situation. Understand your customers and market: If you don't have a strong grasp on your customers or market, seek out stakeholders across the company you can learn from. Bounce ideas off them and get feedback to help you craft a comprehensive vision ab ...Read More

As problem solvers, it is easy for PMs to fall into the trap of taking on every request and getting stretched thin. However, this is not sustainable nor efficient in getting things done. To assess the value of a task, PMs can ask themselves or stakeholders the following questions. Why is this important for the customer, product, or company? What is the expected outcome and timeline? How will it help teams achieve their goals? If a task is deemed worth pursuing, it's important to align with stake ...Read More

In general, a product roadmap should be shaped by product strategy, vision, and goals rather than prioritizing initiatives or features based on whether they benefit existing customers or prospects. However, there are scenarios where a focus on existing customers may be justified. High-value customers at risk of churn, which could threaten the company or product's survival. In such cases, addressing the needs of these customers may take precedence over other priorities. Early-stage companies buil ...Read More

It is natural for leaders to be ambitious and get enticed by potential growth segments. To avoid confusion and inefficiencies with the organization’s limited resources, leaders need to identify a primary customer segment that the product truly solves for, while exploring other segments for long-term opportunities.  Start by using data to identify a primary segment that aligns with company strategy and vision, and get executive buy-in to focus primarily on that segment. Clarify that you plan on e ...Read More

Product marketing is an essential partner for PMs throughout the product lifecycle. They can provide valuable insights on the customer and competitive landscape to help define roadmap and priorities. They can offer perspective on product messaging and positioning and identify what is or isn't working in the market. Working with Sales, Marketing, and leaders in the organization, product marketing can provide feedback on gaps in the product that are turning away prospects, identify unmet customer ...Read More

It is important to consider the build vs buy decision where it makes sense as teams are often focused on building everything, resulting in inefficiencies and a lack of focus. While using 3rd party services can be a strategic move to accelerate your roadmap and free up resources and time, it is important to decide if it aligns with your long-term goals and strategy. To make the decision, consider the following questions with stakeholders Is the functionality core to your product and will it diffe ...Read More