How do you prioritize features when managing mature products and growth initiatives?

Prioritization isn't a one-size-fits-all exercise; it’s about aligning your roadmap with the specific "jobs to be done" for your product's current lifecycle phase, aligned to key business goals. Success requires core and growth teams to work in tandem, maintaining alignment through "locked" and "rolling" roadmaps every quarter. Strategic initiatives generally fall into two broad categories, with prioritization happening within each: Defend the Core & Innovate (Core Product) The objective her ...Read More

If you haven’t already, it’s helpful to start with “How do you define a mature product?” for context. With mature products, it’s easy to default to prioritizing contractual obligations, support commitments, and stability. After all, these products often generate the revenue that funds risk-taking and experimentation across the organization. But over-indexing on stability can lead to stagnation and missed opportunities, ultimately putting the business at risk of decline over the medium term. Infl ...Read More

Any prioritization exercise needs to start with first having clarity yourself as the Product Manager on the top business goals and related product priorities, and then to communicate those clearly to your teams so everyone is on the same page on features and growth initiatives and their relative priorities. Also, having a clear framework for managing competing efforts so it doesn't compromise on existing product quality, delivery timelines for new projects, and eng team focus and velocity is ext ...Read More

I usually structure prioritization by creating clear investment buckets that allocate time across different types of work, because mature products always have competing demands. These buckets vary by product, but typically include things like engineering and platform health, existing customer requests, strategic roadmap initiatives, and growth or expansion opportunities. This framework helps ensure we’re not over-indexing on any single input stream. Within and across buckets, I then prioritize b ...Read More

I've found it helpful to craft a ~3-year product strategy that articulates the market and trends, the challenges/opportunities, and the product's path forward with coherent actions to address those challenges. This frames the product's direction and how it will impact the company and customers you serve.  From there, determine the % allocation of your teams' capacity across investment buckets. Agree with your team on how you'll spend your time across these to achieve your product strategy: Innov ...Read More