Janna Bastow, Co-founder of Mind the Product and ProdPad, discusses redefining roadmaps in product management by focusing on outcomes, experimentation over deadlines, driving change through portfolio roadmaps, and the value of public roadmaps and customer feedback. She advocates for human-readable roadmaps that foster flexibility and trust within development teams.
37:16
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Roadmap As A Strategy Prototype
A roadmap is a communication tool that prototypes your strategy and surfaces assumptions.
Use it to invite feedback and iterate on the best path to meet your vision.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Show Outcomes And Experiments
Show outcomes, problems, initiatives and experiments rather than a laundry list of dated features.
Keep roadmaps human readable and tailored in granularity for the audience.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Map Problems Not Features
Put problems and experiments on the roadmap, not features with fixed scopes.
Treat roadmap items as open-ended challenges that invite multiple solution experiments.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
When you have questions about roadmaps, it pays to talk to someone who has spent way too much of her life thinking about them. Janna Bastow – co-founder of both Mind the Product and ProdPad joins us to give advice to anyone ready to break up with their roadmap.
Our Hosts Lily Smith enjoys working as a consultant product manager with early-stage and growing startups and as a mentor to other product managers. She’s currently Chief Product Officer at BBC Maestro, and has spent 13 years in the tech industry working with startups in the SaaS and mobile space. She’s worked on a diverse range of products – leading the product teams through discovery, prototyping, testing and delivery. Lily also founded ProductTank Bristol and runs ProductCamp in Bristol and Bath.
Randy Silver is a Leadership & Product Coach and Consultant. He gets teams unstuck, helping you to supercharge your results. Randy's held interim CPO and Leadership roles at scale-ups and SMEs, advised start-ups, and been Head of Product at HSBC and Sainsbury’s. He participated in Silicon Valley Product Group’s Coaching the Coaches forum, and speaks frequently at conferences and events. You can join one of communities he runs for CPOs (CPO Circles), Product Managers (Product In the {A}ether) and Product Coaches. He’s the author of What Do We Do Now? A Product Manager’s Guide to Strategy in the Time of COVID-19. A recovering music journalist and editor, Randy also launched Amazon’s music stores in the US & UK.
The Product Experience