Charat Maheshwari

Director, Product Management, Adobe

Content

Adobe Director, Product Management, Charat Maheshwari on Product Management Career Path

September 9 @ 10:00AM PT

View All AMA's

What are some of the lenses your look through or principles you apply when prioritizing a roadmap? How are they weighted relative to each other?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

I would look through four primary lenses when prioritizing: Strategic alignment: Does this connect directly to the vision and OKRs? If not, it should not be on the roadm...

2861 Views

Where do ideas for new features come from? How do you decide which ones to build?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

Ideas for new features come from everywhere: Usage data/analytics and insights, design & user research, executive vision or business needs, competitive/industry analy...

687 Views

Which stakeholders have input into your roadmap, and how to balance giving them influence vs control?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

The short answer: everyone gets influence; (almost) no one gets control. It is important to assume the role to smartly synthesize the inputs, and not to take the requests...

478 Views

What different approaches are there to help stakeholders focus on their needs I.e. things they would use for MVP vs a later version of the product

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

Stakeholders often conflate “what I want” with “what users need,” and they would expect some things in the immediately too. A few approaches that can be used effectively...

433 Views

What's the one piece of advice you would give to someone starting in a VP of Product role for the first time?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

Listen before you lead or change. Resist the latter till the insights are developed. So, spending 30-60 days in listening mode: with customers, your team, engineering, de...

432 Views

Who are all the stakeholders that can provide input to a product roadmap? What are the stage gates to help decide if something should land in the roadmap?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

Beyond the obvious internal stakeholders – engineering, design, marketing/sales/CS, and leadership – input should also come from customers (/via advisory boards), communi...

420 Views

Does it make sense to use quarterly format for roadmaps? Do you do capacity planning for roadmap items that are more than 6 months out?

Charat Maheshwari

Adobe Director, Product Management • 1mo

Yes, a quarterly cadence strikes the right balance between giving enough directional clarity and flexibility to adapt. Doing it on a rolling basis with decreasing resolut...

416 Views