Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age

by Roman Pichler

TABLE 7: The Stakeholders and Their Expectations of the Product Roadmap Stakeholder Expectations Product manager • Communicate how the product strategy is implemented and how the product is likely to grow. • Provide direction and guidance to the stakeholders; get the stakeholders to agree on the plan and to contribute to the individual releases. • Obtain management approval and acquire a budget; set and manage management expectations. • Track the success of the individual releases to proactively manage the product. Management sponsor • Ensure that the product implements the right strategic goals and that the product roadmap and the company strategy are aligned. • Measure and track the product performance to understand if the product delivers, i.e., if the money spent on it is a worthwhile investment. • Agree on an appropriate budget. Development team • Understand what’s ahead; influence the roadmap to take into account, for instance, technology changes, user experience concerns, and technical debt. • Make sure the roadmap is feasible and that the team can design and build the product; allocate the right people. Marketing and sales • Anticipate the necessary work to market and sell the product; create the right marketing campaign, train the sales staff, and develop the necessary marketing and sales collateral. • Ensure that the work can be done and allocate the right people. • Influence the roadmap so that marketing and sales concerns are taken into account. Product and por...