How is industry analyst input factored into roadmap? Is it viewed is higher or lower value than customer input?

Analysts are a great source for understanding your market, your position in the market, your competitors, what your customers’ needs are, and emerging technologies, etc. Analysts speak to hundreds of customers, and they’re able to see patterns that you might miss. Oftentimes, customers will share unfiltered feedback with analysts that’s different than if they were speaking with you (although not always).

But analysts are humans, and they come with their own biases and knowledge gaps, so you should treat their input as another source of imperfect feedback. Moreover, not all analysts are created equal. Experienced analysts may have invaluable knowledge in a mature market, but they might also hold on to outdated thinking and biases as those markets evolve. Conversely, a less experienced analyst might lack the same level of domain expertise, but they might be more motivated to keep abreast of the latest trends.

Ultimately, customers buy your product(s) and/or services, not analysts, so it may be prudent to give higher weight to customer feedback. But both have their merits and should be used alongside other channels of feedback.

This is a great question and one I still try to balance based on what research/insights we gather.

For analysts, I like to think about bigger market trends, competitive insights, and where an overall industry/category may be going.

Once we have that, it's about marrying those broad-stroke themes with product investments that ultimately support your target buyer/existing customer base. Making sure you're serving your customers is critical and getting these insights will help evaluate where to weigh finite time & team resources.

While one is not viewed higher or lower, it's an on-going blend of the two worlds to 1) influence the business and where you're trying to go as a company and 2) support your customers and what they're looking to your product to help accelerate their missions.