What do you think of a public product roadmap for the customers as part of product marketing?

Answer

6 Answers

Influencing the Product Roadmap Launch Channels Launch Strategy

Priya Kotak

Figma Product Marketing • 4y

I’m generally in favor of being transparent with customers when it comes to the product roadmap. It can be a great opportunity for Account Managers to engage with customers ahead of renewals and expansion conversations. There are a few things to keep in mind when doing so: Include a safe harbor. If you’re going to share future plans, it’s important that you include a safe harbor stating that nothing shared is 100% certain and that your product plans may change. Your friends in legal will thank y ...Read More

1,048 Views
Stacey Wang

Kodex Head of Marketing & Government Relations • 5y

I like the idea and intent behind increasing transparency and visibility, as well as communications efficiency—but the answer to this question totally depends on your market and customers.

There may be really valid strategic reasons (you may be in a hyper-competitive market, for example, where your competitors can gain an edge looking at your roadmap) for not wanting to publish a roadmap.

1,439 Views
Vishal Naik

Box Head of Product Marketing, AI & Platform | Formerly Google Gemini • 3y

I dont really have a strong "pro" for why to do this, so I personally wouldnt put too much time and effort into it. But it may make sense for your business challenges. I think something to be aware of is that when you document your roadmap publicly, it puts more pressure to ensure dates dont slip. If you're trying to brand yourself as an innovator by having all these new ideas, it may help, but you run the risk of causing customer to delay their purchase until a later date until a feature they w ...Read More

613 Views
Kavya Nath

Meta Product Marketing, Reality Labs | Formerly Sprinklr, YuMe • 2y

I think an external-facing roadmap is pretty much a requirement these days. I have always advocated for and will always advocate for this to be a part of our sales toolkit. Product Marketing is uniquely positioned to own this because we can take a roadmap that is being created internally and tell our product story around why we're building what we're building, who it's for, and the value they will get from it. It's a great way to elevate your product positioning and continue to validate it by wh ...Read More

520 Views
Alina Fu

Microsoft Director, M365 Copilot for storytelling and narratives, sales enablement, and compete • 2y

I think it’s great to share a public roadmap if your company is able to meet timelines and expectations. We provide public roadmaps for our customers on our external website. This helps establish rapport with the admins, give them enough time to prepare and signals our product direction. It would not be a good idea to share a public roadmap if the dates slip often or if features get removed suddenly as that can be very disruptive to your customers.

1,148 Views
Ajit Ghuman

Twilio Former Director of Product Management - Pricing & Packaging, CXP | Formerly Narvar, Medallia, Helpshift, Feedzai, Reputation.com • 6y

I love this question. Let me start with an example. What is a demo? Is it a demonstration of a product's features and capabilities? or Is it an excuse to get on a call with a prosepct, talk about the product but spend most of call doing discovery and tailoring the features exactly to what the prospect wants? It's both and more often the latter. Similarly, a product roadmap maybe be helpful for the product team to stick to a schedule. But that doesn't have to be the public facing product roadm ...Read More

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