Richard Shum

Director of Product Management, Splunk

Content

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

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

Ideas can come from many places. They include customer feedback calls, customer troubleshooting sessions, customer submitted ideas (at Splunk, we have an idea submission portal called ideas.splunk.com), conferences (at Splunk, we host .conf where we have the opportunity to meet many customers in ......Read More

2475 Views

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?

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

When I prioritize or stack rank a list of items, I typically find it helpful to understand how each item can (a) deliver customer impact and (b) increase engineering happiness. Additionally, I also find it helpful to understand each item's level of (c) feasibility, (d) urgency and (e) effort. ......Read More

1440 Views

How do you balance "must do" work (compliance, maintenance, etc.) with objective/goal oriented work?

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

Before jumping into the "must do" work, it's best to understand the reason for doing the work. Sometimes the "must do" work is warranted. For example, compliance could have high customer impact which naturally means that it'll get prioritized anyways. Sometimes the "must do" work is not impac......Read More

890 Views

How do you handle exec input in the roadmap, and convey a point of view while also accommodating?

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

It's always good to review roadmaps with leadership on an ongoing basis. These touchpoints allow you to keep your leadership informed and give you the opportunity to solicit feedback. At the end of the day, gaining alignment is key to getting funding and resources. The leadership team is ofte......Read More

602 Views

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

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

In my mind, several groups of stakeholders often influence the roadmap. They include your customers (both internal and external), your product team (e.g., engineering, design, data science), your internal non-product stakeholders (e.g., legal, compliance, sales) and your leadership. From thes......Read More

552 Views

How do you determine how much of your roadmap should be focused on existing customers vs prospects?

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

Who to focus on often depends on the maturity of the product. At the beginning stages of the product, we focus heavily on prospective users. When the product is mature, we focus heavily on existing customers (the thinking is -- if you can deliver impact to existing customers then prospective cust......Read More

472 Views

We’re pivoting our product, and it’s difficult to plan the roadmap too far out. How do we reset expectations on what product communicates?

Richard Shum

Splunk Director of Product Management • January 10

Say exactly that "We're pivoting our product. There are a lot of unknowns and it's difficult to plan too far out." It's perfectly fine to communicate honestly. If there's a good reason for the pivot, no one will fault you for it. If you're able to have direct conversations with customers, it'......Read More

444 Views

Credentials & Highlights

Director of Product Management at Splunk