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How do you manage and inform the futuristic vision of the product roadmap with current customer requirements / feedback?

3 Answers
April Rassa
April Rassa
Aventi Group Product Marketing ConsultantApril 3

Great question. Oftentimes customers’ requests for added capabilities or improvements to current features are already in your product roadmap. When customer feedback corresponds with your product plan, use the volume of requests for a certain feature to prioritize stack and rank, perhaps bumping one feature up and another one down as you plan upcoming releases.

As your company grows and you receive increasingly more feedback from your customers, it can be difficult to decide what’s really worth implementing. Look for recurring requests from customers to cut through the noise.

Your product vision should not be a plan that shows how to reach your goal. Instead, you should keep the product vision and the product strategy – the path towards the goal – separate. This enables to change your strategy while staying grounded in your vision. (This is called to pivot in Lean Startup.)

At the same time, a vision is the prerequisite for choosing the right strategy. If you don’t have an overarching goal then you cannot decide how you best get there with your product team. 

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Sarah Khogyani
Sarah Khogyani
Coinbase Head of Product Marketing, CloudMay 26

I mentioned the MRD in previous answers, which I think is great at informing individual projects or initiatives. At a higher strategic level, I find that Product Vision docs are valuable at helping PMMs, PMs and other cross-functional partners align on the multi-year vision for the product. Having alignment on where you want to be in the next 3, 5, and 10 years is really important when navigating the day-to-day of customer feedback and product roadmap prioritization. 

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Elizabeth Grossenbacher
Elizabeth Grossenbacher
Cisco Product Marketing LeaderJanuary 19

I view these as two different things: (1) informing the future vision of the product roadmap and (2) impacting the roadmap in the short term to meet current customer requirements.

An example for #1: A few years ago, I partnered with a PM to dream up a product that was unlike anything else on the market. Once we had a few big ideas, we did some market research with secondary data from analysts. From there, we put together a focus group to get customer feedback and validate the secondary research. We had discussions around a specific problem. We got granular when diving into these pain points and exploring the current attempt to ease the pains. These insights shaped how the roadmap looked for this futuristic vision of the product.

An example for #2: I conducted a win-loss analysis that consisted of interviews and sales data. The results revealed which features were table stakes and preventing us from winning deals. I was able to quantify the losses and put a dollar amount on the features we lacked. An analysis like this helps the PM team see how the features impact sales. Bonus points if you can pair the win-loss analysis with the buy team’s requirements, especially with explanation for WHY each feature is required and explain what the customer expects to solve with the feature.

A few things to consider:

  • Seek feedback from high value customers. Winning or keeping those high value customers is critical for business health, and compliments customer retention efforts.
  • Your PM is your partner. Set up a regular cadence to learn how they’re dreaming up the product. Get their buyin on your research topics. Having their support from the start will make them more receptive to hearing your ideas later.
  • Quantify the feature in dollar amounts. Pair this with a customer anecdote or quote.
  • Go deep on customer pain points. Try as hard as you can to know what it’s like to be your customer and face the problem at hand. Understand WHAT the pain is, WHY it hurts, and WHY the current methods to solve the problem don’t work. Knowing their pain points will help you better articulate your ideas to influence the product roadmap.
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