The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad Stop Worshipping Product Roadmaps
7 snips
Oct 23, 2025 A critic of traditional planning sessions reveals how rigid roadmaps mislead teams into believing they have a solid strategy. Instead of focusing on outputs, he emphasizes the importance of solving customer problems. Political battles often overshadow strategic planning, leading to confusion. However, he highlights that roadmaps can still aid alignment and build trust. The discussion encourages adopting outcome-based roadmaps, showcasing the power of storytelling over mere feature lists, and treating roadmaps like flexible travel itineraries for better adaptability.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
The Flawed Two-Hour Roadmap
- Lee Henson describes a two-hour roadmap planning session that produced a flawless, color-coded document.
- Three months later, priorities shifted and the roadmap became outdated despite its initial fanfare.
Roadmaps Create False Certainty
- Roadmaps create a false sense of certainty and tilt teams toward shipping outputs over outcomes.
- Customers care about problems being solved, not specific features on a calendar.
Roadmaps Turn Political
- Roadmaps often become political negotiation tables where stakeholders fight for features.
- This turns strategic planning into influence battles and weakens product focus.