AMA: Airbase VP of Product, Krishna Panicker on Product Roadmap & Prioritization

A public roadmap can serve as a tool to attract potential customers and increase the retention of existing customers by demonstrating that you are continually investing in the product and addressing their queries and concerns. There are Pros and Cons to having a public roadmap, and IMO the Pros needs to significantly outweigh the Cons, as the cost of maintaining this roadmap is not insignificant. Having an out of date roadmap could have an adverse impact so you can't afford to be misaligned in your communications. Get all the stakeholders (especially customer facing roles) involved, to build this Pros/ Cons list up so you can compare. Another way to look at this is when not to have a public roadmap. I would not commit to it if: * You can't afford to have someone own and maintain the Public roadmap * There is no commitment from the Customer success and marketing teams to share it regularly with customers * The sales team doues not have a process to capture the most common queries from prospects that feed into your backlog which in turn will be reflected in to the public roadmap.

Let's align on terminology first. https://medium.com/productfolio/release-plan-vs-launch-plan-774526d2817b The PMs lead on the Product Roadmap, but the PMMs lead on the GTM / Launch Plan. We package up our features that we want to launch into 3 -4 sizes (small , medium , large launch). Each launch classification will have it's playbook. The PMMs / PMs meet weekly to classify anything ongoing or new into these launch classifications. If necessary the relevant PM and PMM will align on the details for how they GTM for a particular feature OR feature bundle so that we can more easily highlight the benefits to the intended target customer.

Exec input is key so that you're aligned on the company goals. First get a breakdown from the Execs and finace on which levers the company intends to pull so that it achieves it's goals, and then categorise, eg, X% from new customers acquired , Y% from existing customers , Z% from cost savings. Then map the biggest customer problems to each of these categories - this gives you your key themes. Now that you have this mapped out 1. First playback your understanding of the importance and priority of each category / lever 2. Second highlight the customer problems that align to each category 3. Finally flag high level features that map to the each customer problem. - Ideally you don't even need to show this as the feature level conversation becomes far less relevan once 1 and 2 are understood You should now be getting useful feedback at the appropriate level and steering clear of the feature level discussion which will likely be a distraction.

Identify who wants and needs visibility of the Roadmap. Ask each group why and what they will do with the information. Then tailor the experience for them. For example sales may want to demonstrate to customers that the company is continually investing in product, or share the vision for you are headed. If that's the case using a Now / Next Later format maybe sufficient. Whereas support may need to consider the spikes in calls and plan their work around the release of a new feature. If so then knowing spefiic GTM dates for the next 3 months may suffice. It's also worth testing formats with each audience before spending the time to put the roadmap together.

I wrote this post that covers a high level framework I use, aka Value stacking: https://medium.com/@TheUpstartGuy/value-stacking-multiplying-product-growth-88230ee4cfc2 I will post a follow up on medium in which I'll deep dive on prioritisation, but there are many frameworks already in use out there, but the thing that I see missing is a coherent vision or strategy that provides direction that should inform your prioritisation.

What are your company goals for the year, and how much is dependent on new sales vs retaining exist customers and growing customers? It's important to know, as It can cost five times as much to attract a new customer, than to keep an existing one. But if there is no clarity on this, ask the execs - What % should we allocate to new sales? An effective leadership team should be representiative of other voices too , like marketing, customer success, support etc. Make sure you reflect that voice back effectively. Bring your data to the table so that you can share your perspective on the risk to losing existing customer as well as the oppotunities to upsell or cross sell to them. Bear in mind that sales typically drive incremental growth not exponential growth, so manage expectations accordingly The Roadmap is a reflection of your leadership's priorities, and it's your role to help them make informed decision on investment priorities.

Without full context, I will assume you are not a start up but rather a profitable business with growing revenue. When considering whether to build, buy or partner (BBP), work with your team to put together a set of principles that are informed by your : * vision and strategy * differentiated core * ability to deliver value to market quickly Once you've identified the high leverage items that brings differentiated value, then work with your engineering team to model each of the 3 BBP options, and score them (doesn't matter how , just align on a framework). 1. How quickly can you prototype and validate the solution with your target customer ? 2. What's the time to market for each option? 3. Which one delivers the highest value ? 4. For each option, what's the total cost of bringing it to market ?

The answer lies in the breakdown of how the organisation intends to hit it's goals. See this answer for context - https://sharebird.com/h/product-management/q/how-do-you-handle-exec-input-in-the-roadmap-and-convey-a-point-of-view-while-also-accommodating-1 To take an extreme example, if 70% of the organisations revenue target is based on the acquisition of new customers then that's a good guideline for your investment levels, eg 65% - Prospects 25% - Existing customers 10% - Tech debt