#18 Debunking roadmaps | Itamar Gilad (Gmail, Youtube, Microsoft) and Bruce McCarthy (Product Culture)
Oct 8, 2024
auto_awesome
Itamar Gilad, a former product leader at Gmail, YouTube, and Microsoft, joins Bruce McCarthy, an expert in product roadmapping, to challenge conventional views on roadmaps. They discuss the pitfalls of output-based approaches, advocating for flexible, outcome-driven roadmaps. With insights on the GIST framework, they emphasize the necessity of collaboration and effective communication in product development. The conversation also touches on stakeholder management and the importance of user engagement in crafting meaningful, high-impact products.
Output-based roadmaps risk compromising product integrity by prioritizing deadlines over genuine user value and usability.
Discovery workshops are vital for aligning teams with strategic goals and uncovering customer and business value through collaborative exploration.
The GIST framework promotes outcome-oriented planning through iterative testing, fostering a clearer connection between daily tasks and overall business objectives.
Deep dives
Risks of Output Roadmaps
Output roadmaps can impede a team's mission by reducing their focus solely to shipping predetermined items without considering quality or usability. When success is defined only by meeting shipping deadlines, the inherent responsibility for creating functional, impactful solutions diminishes. Teams may inadvertently compromise the integrity of their product, delivering incomplete features that ultimately do not resolve the original business problem. This creates a culture where meeting deadlines overshadows delivering genuine value, potentially leading to frustration for both developers and end-users.
The Importance of Discovery Workshops
Engaging in discovery workshops is highlighted as an essential practice for uncovering customer and business value. Through hands-on activities, teams can explore techniques, mental models, and common pitfalls while also gaining practical insights drawn from real company experiences. This iterative process, particularly when validated by participant feedback, reinforces the effectiveness of these workshops in aligning team efforts with strategic goals. It emphasizes the communal aspect of discovery, fostering collaboration across different functions within an organization.
The GIST Framework for Outcome-Based Planning
The GIST framework serves as a discovery model that prioritizes outcomes over feature-oriented roadmaps, emphasizing goals, ideas, steps, and tasks. This structure insists that teams understand the direction they are aiming for, evaluate possible ideas against their objectives, execute iterative testing, and incorporate their findings into agile work processes. Ultimately, this approach creates a clear connection between day-to-day tasks and overarching business goals, ensuring all team members can recognize how their contributions impact success. By clearly defining different layers of planning, organizations can foster accountability and alignment within teams.
Aligning Strategy with Experimentation
Incorporating a balance between strategic goals and experimental validation is crucial in promoting effective product development. Executives often grapple with impatience when it comes to experimentation, leading to pressures on teams to deliver quickly without thorough validation. By retrospectively analyzing past projects, organizations can understand the value of a discovery phase and adjust their strategies based on empirical data rather than assumptions. Successfully demonstrating how past failures stemmed from lack of investigation cultivates a more grounded approach, allowing teams to collectively prioritize what truly drives business outcomes.
Collaboration in Roadmapping to Build Trust
Effective collaboration across teams is fundamental to creating a trustworthy roadmap while fostering an inclusive decision-making environment. Involving stakeholders from various departments in the roadmapping process ensures that development aligns closely with broader business objectives, thereby mitigating the disconnect often felt regarding impending features. By prioritizing insight and evidence-driven discussions over top-down directives, teams can cultivate a sense of shared ownership over projects. This strategic alignment encourages a culture of trust and transparency, ultimately helping organizations navigate the complexities of product development.
Itamar is a former product leader for Gmail, Youtube, and Microsoft - and is the author of the bestselling book Evidence Guided.
Itamar’s latest book is about creating high-impact products in the face of uncertainty, and he also has some strong views on roadmaps, roadmapping, common traps to avoid, and what to consider instead.
But so does Bruce!
Bruce is the author of the book Product Roadmaps Relaunched and, most recently, the book Aligned - a deep dive into stakeholder management for product leaders.
The question is: do Itamar and Bruce agree on what a great roadmap looks like? Whether we need them at all?
You’ll have to listen to find out
All I can say is: this was such a beautiful conversation, with two giants discussing their points of view and talking highly of each other’s work. Loved it, and I’m sure you will too.
We covered:
* The purpose of roadmaps
* The dangers of output-based roadmaps and practical tips to avoid them
* When to have dates on roadmaps
* How to craft an outcome-based roadmap
* Techniques to use instead of roadmaps
* How to use OKRs and roadmaps
* Deep dive on Itamar’s framework GIST
* And so much more
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit afonsofranco.substack.com
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
