Product Management & Roadmapping Best Practices

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Why Strategic Product Teams Focus on Outcome-Based Roadmaps

When product teams use roadmaps as checklists, they reduce roadmaps to a formality, not a strategic tool. They make mechanical updates or even abandon roadmaps altogether. But strategic product teams that focus outcome-based (or ‘outcome-driven’) roadmaps have, uncoincidentally, better long-term outcomes. Instead of checking boxes as work is done, these teams align on long-term objectives. […]

What the 2016 DDoS Attack Can Teach Product Managers About Disaster Preparedness

Chances are you weren’t giving much thought to the global stability or security of the Internet on Friday, October 21, 2016. Even if you run an Internet-based…
Why User Onboarding Never Ends (And Why Product Managers Should Care)

The traditional approach to user onboarding When software companies reference user onboarding, they are typically referring to the user’s initial experience in the application. The concept took…
Help! I’ve Been Handed a Bad Product Strategy

On our blog we often discuss the challenges of being a product manager. One recurring theme is that although you are ultimately responsible for the success or…
Product Lessons Learned: Interview With Shivan Bindal, Director of Product Management

This is the second in a series of interviews that we are conducting with product managers across various industries. We’re curious to hear about how they got…
Product Lessons Learned: Interview With Ronnie Regev, Sr. Product Manager (Part 2)

This is the second part of our conversation with Ronnie Regev, Sr. Product Manager at AppFolio (check out the first part of our interview with Ronnie). Ronnie…
Product Management Trends You Should Act on Today

Tools, technology and talent to develop innovative new products are more abundant and accessible today than they’ve ever been. Even the smallest, most cash-strapped companies have access…
Product Lessons Learned: Interview With Ronnie Regev, Sr. Product Manager (Part 1)

This is the first in a series of interviews that we’ll be conducting with product managers across various industries. We’re curious to hear about how they got…
iPhone 7 Launch Day: Are Apple’s Product Teams Still Innovating?

Criticism can uncover important truths. This is one reason that product managers have such a difficult job: Sometimes the only way to learn what your users truly…
Aligning Sales and Product Teams on Your Roadmap

One of the biggest challenges product managers face is working with diverse stakeholders and managing their conflicting priorities. You’re pulled in a hundred different directions, and often…
Agile Roadmap Planning: How to Balance Long Term Uncertainty

At ProductPlan, I frequently get questions about agile roadmap planning. How should you balance long-term strategic planning with short-term agility? This was an especially hot topic on…
Can Product Squads Improve Your Agile Development Process?

Product squads are a relatively new methodology for product development popularized by Spotify. Actually, popularized might be too strong a term for it. Since 2012, when Spotify…
How a Public Roadmap is Helping ProductPlan Customer GOV.UK, and its Customers

A few years ago the UK government’s publicly available online information was spread out across hundreds of individual and disconnected websites. So the Government Digital Service (GDS),…
Using Net Promoter Score to Guide Your Product Roadmap

Magoosh, an online test prep company based in Berkeley, California, calls Net Promoter Score their “reliable referral indicator.” And it is. But that’s not all it is.…
Better Product Strategy Meetings in 5 Steps

Ah, a free exchange of ideas. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Until you’ve got five stakeholders sitting in an enclosed space spitting out “Must Haves” like watermelon seeds…
3 Reasons Product Managers Should Care About Content Marketing

Be a hero, follow the money, and market yourself. Got it? Really? On top of everything I am responsible for as a product manager, you’re telling me…
5 Ways to Build Relationships in Product Development Teams

I have been a part of two successful startups and product development teams for the past 17 years. The first was acquired and thrives today with products…
5 Things That Can Ruin Your Roadmap

Most product managers know the product roadmap can be your best friend, or your worst nightmare. When used in the right way, the roadmap can help explain…
Product Management Lessons: Interview with a Dell Software PM

At ProductPlan, we meet hundreds of product managers across virtually every industry. Their experience gives us invaluable insight into the profession, its challenges and its best practices.…
Our 6 Best Product Management Tips

Learn about the 6 best product management tips and how to apply them to your professional life as a product professional.
My Journey to a Data-Driven Roadmap

I still cringe when I think back to the first roadmap I put together. Like most of us who find ourselves in product management, at the time…
How to Become a Better Public Speaker: Public Speaking Tips to Use Today

Public speaking isn’t usually included as a required skill in a typical product manager job description. But it should be. Today’s article on public speaking tips is…
A Four-Tier Approach to Combating Feature Bloat

Most product people are familiar with the sticky problem of feature bloat. You may also recognize the issue by its other uncomfortable names: feature fatigue, feature creep,…
4 Key Responsibilities of Outstanding Product Managers

Your role as the product’s strategist and evangelist will be central to your success and the success of your products.
Looking for a Product Management Job in 2016? 5 Trends you Need to Know

Like you, we have now seen a dozen articles predicting the top trends for product managers in 2016. Yes, we know that better communication is on the…
4 Steps to a Prioritized Product Roadmap

New product managers will find themselves asking this question a lot: “How do we build a prioritized product roadmap so that we have the best chance of…
Customer Spotlight: Orion Health

Orion Health develops software solutions for healthcare organizations worldwide, helping to improve the care of 35 million patients. Founded in New Zealand in 1993, Orion Health now…
Customer Spotlight: Henry Schein Inc.

Henry Schein, Inc. is the world’s largest provider of health care products and services to dental, animal health and medical practitioners. Teams at Henry Schein rely on ProductPlan for…
10 Lessons for Pricing SaaS Products

Pricing is such a core part of a SaaS product’s business model that you need to get it right. In this series, I’m writing about SaaS pricing…
How to Choose a Great SaaS Pricing Model

It’s a brave new world for pricing software-as-a-service products. Gone are the days of simply setting a per-seat fee and launching. How can you choose the best…
The Best Way to Price SaaS Products

Pricing SaaS products presents unique challenges—and opportunities—for product and marketing teams. In the past few years, I’ve had a hand in setting pricing for several successful SaaS…
Why Product Teams Should Care about the Internet of Things

No doubt you’ve heard of the coming Internet of Things (IoT) and how it’s going to change our lives through billions of Internet-connected devices and sensors. But…
The Empathetic Product Manager

Empathy. You’ve heard it’s an essential skill for product managers, marketing managers, and UX teams. But how can you put empathy into practice when engaging with customers…
7 Steps for Testing if Your Product Will Fail

Recently I spoke to a class at the UCSB Technology Management Program about market validation and failure testing – the process of testing whether customers will…
Product Managers: Is Your MVP Truly Compelling?

More product teams are taking advantage of the Minimum Viable Product concept—deploying products early to customers in order to learn and iterate. MVP is a fantastic approach…
How to Avoid Putting Dead Weight Product Features On Your Roadmap

A few days ago I had lunch with the product team of a mid-sized software company, and one of the product managers had a conundrum: “Sometimes I hear the…
10 Great Questions Product Managers Should Ask Customers

A few well-phrased questions can yield fantastic customer insights. But knowing the right questions to ask during customer conversations and win-loss interviews takes a lot of practice…