183. Why Your Roadmap Isn’t Working—and How to Fix It | Bruce McCarthy

Are your roadmaps just a feature list? Do you struggle to align stakeholders without derailing strategy?

You’re not alone—and Bruce McCarthy is here to help you fix it.

In this episode of the Productized Podcast, host Pedro Ganço sits down with Bruce McCarthy, founder of Product Culture and co-author of Product Roadmaps Relaunched and Aligned. With decades of experience leading product teams and advising global companies, Bruce shares why most roadmaps fail—and how to build ones that actually move your product forward.

They explore the messy middle of product work: navigating conflicting priorities, managing executive expectations, and making your roadmap a strategic tool, not a political battlefield.

What You’ll Learn:

➡️ Why roadmaps often cause confusion instead of clarity

➡️ How to align sales, marketing, and engineering around shared outcomes

➡️ What makes a roadmap valuable (hint: it’s not the feature count)

➡️ How to balance vision and execution under pressure

➡️ Why stakeholder management is the secret skill every PM needs

➡️ The real reason CPOs burn out—and how to lead through complexity

Perfect For: Product managers, Heads of Product, startup founders, and anyone building in cross-functional teams struggling with roadmap chaos or stakeholder tension.

Chapters:

02:08 Bruce's Journey into Product Management

04:59 The Importance of Stakeholder Management

10:06 Evolution of the Product Manager Role

18:09 The Role of Junior Product Managers

20:55 Advice for Aspiring Product Managers

26:15 Roadmaps vs. Vision in Product Management

27:54 Crafting a Compelling Roadmap

30:07 Navigating Interdepartmental Conflicts

32:30 Transitioning from Sales to Product Leadership

35:17 Recognizing When to Move On

36:37 Understanding Team Dynamics and Productivity

41:15 The Challenges of the CPO Role

45:23 Evolving from Individual Contributor to Leader

🔗 Resources:

Bruce McCarthy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucemccarthy/

Product Culture: https://productculture.org

Product Roadmaps Relaunched book: https://www.amazon.com/Product-Roadmaps-Relaunched-Direction-Uncertainty/dp/149197172X/

Aligned: Stakeholder Management for Product Leaders: https://www.amazon.com/Aligned-Stakeholder-Management-Product-Leaders/dp/1098134427?&linkCode=sl1&tag=pc-website-20&linkId=36df2de94f8d2fb1ee4c7bd8b641f32f&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Pedro Ganço on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedroganco/

🎉 Join us at Productized Conference 2025 this October in Lisbon – Bruce will be one of our speakers! Get tickets: https://www.productized.co

💬 Subscribe, share, and tell us how you make your roadmap work.

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