Navigating the product life cycle

Whether you are using Waterfall, Agile or another process, every product development and executive team faces a mix of decisions and a host of constituencies jockeying for their needs and wants. The decisions always boil down to a core question. We have a budget and headcount to spend on development. How are we going to invest those resources and do we have a robust process to make these decisions on an ongoing basis?

Let’s look at some of the constituencies that affect the product road map and priorities

Road Map Constituencies

• Prospects

• Customers

• Partners

• Sales

• Marketing

• Technology Founders

• Product Management

• Product Marketing

• Customer Success

• Competitors

What are the considerations and trade offs that go into each step in the product road map? Who is responsible to articulate the thesis and narrative of the road map and get all of the constituencies on board? Creating the right balance with each release is critical to the long term success of your company.

Road Map

• Innovation

• Competitive Catchup/Response

• Customer requested features

• Platform/Infrastructure

• UI/UX and Customer experience

• Product Line development or enhancements

• Build vs. Buy

• Integrating M&A

What are these decision processes in your organization? Is it technology founder driven? Is there a mature product management and product marketing function that surfaces and balances these needs? Is Customer Success acting a good sounding board and advocate for your customers? Is the sales team surfacing needs and wants from prospects, as well as customer where you hope to expand?

This is a very delicate dance and is different in every organization. Alexander Hobbs can help you assess your road map process and help ensure that you achieve the balance that is right for your organization.