Have you found a good framework to communicate your product roadmap to customers?

In a prior role (B2B) the team found it helpful to set expectations with customers on what communication to expect from us. Product hosted a quarterly roadmap review where they would share the big boulders they were planning on shipping in the next 6-9 months with *rough* quarterly estimates on timing -- definitely better to not commit to an exact date and thus disappoint your customers if that date slips. This was mostly a knowledge share from our company to our audience, but there was time for ...Read More

Give customers high level visibility, set expectations, but show them you value their feedback! 1. Roadmap: Build a deck that gets CUSTOMERS excited! Show them that (hopefully) the things they've been asking for is coming. Give them a high level understanding on strategy and focus. 2. Messaging: Give your CS or Sales team messaging to use when customers ask for specific timelines. i.e. "Here at ORG NAME, we are fluid in our development so timelines often change. We will do our best to be proacti ...Read More

I would keep timelines directional but loose, but you need to include something to give customers an indication that you're continuously investing in your product(s) and innovating at a rapid pace. If you have high confidence that it's coming in the next 6 months, you can label that product/feature you're highlighting as "H1 planned" or "Q3 planned". If you're unsure, you could label it as "H2 under investigation". I would never give a specific date unless you're about 1-2 weeks prior to launch ...Read More

I find it both tricky and exciting to share your product roadmap with customers. I agree it's hard to strike the right balance of specific yet not tie your hands. But also, it's so much fun to show people the exciting ways you plan to help people. Some considerations:  (1) Share the overarching themes as to where you are going. These are typically pretty static and there is little risk to explaining the big things you want to accomplish. Also, these are aspirational and typically fun to talk abo ...Read More

“Repeatedly sell your roadmap internal and externally”Key Elements: Any good roadmap does three things. Set product vision, showcase product features, and set expectations on timeline and capabilities. The product vision sets the directional tone for the product while the product feature goes into the nuts and bolts, showing the key capability, use-cases as well as product limitations. Cadence: At Okta, our key roadmaps are overhauled and developed end-to-end approx once a year. Every quarter, t ...Read More

Timelines can move around a bit so unless your team is really good at hitting them or there's important implications to a milestone that must be hit, it's good to keep timeframes slightly vague or not communicating them until you have strong conviction on when it will be ready.  That being said, I’d think about a framework for communication from the perspective of your customers and how significant it is to them. For FYI/No Action Needed, I’d consider integrating message with other content or in ...Read More

Our amazing product team maintains a public facing product roadmap. And by “public facing”, we mean a slide deck that is presented to customers and prospects only in 1:1 meetings by a salesperson or customer success manager. It gets a major overhaul once a year, and small updates 1-3x/quarter based on new information. The key is to set the expectation that priorities will likely change more than 3 months out, and stay relatively high level in the categories. They currently present the roadmap in ...Read More