Book review: “Product Roadmaps Relaunched”
How would you assess your own roadmapping process? A new book, Product Roadmaps Relaunched, could help you re-think and re-launch your approach to Product Roadmapping. It’s a real practitioners’ book, written by four Boston-based leaders in Product Management: C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan and Michael Connors. The 11-chapters are a master class on product roadmapping, and is supported by 65+ interviews from real practitioners. The book is packed with examples and best practices.The book walks readers through the whole roadmapping process, step by step. You can also skip right to the assessment in chapter 11 and then utilize the chapters you need right away.The book has a companion website www.productroadmapping.com where you can pre-order the book through Amazon or O’Reilly sites. The assessment will soon be on the website for download. The book will be available in October.I spoke with one of the authors, Bruce McCarthy, just prior to the book release, for more insights.
What was your motivation to write the book?“I wanted to do a book like this for a long time. I had set out to create a software product for roadmapping but soon discovered people don’t have good processes that support roadmapping. As companies adopt agile and lean methodologies, there was clear need for education on a new way to manage product roadmaps
”What do people struggle with most developing roadmaps?“A few things – one, they struggle to explain why they are doing what’s on the roadmap. Two, they want to put features on the roadmap vs. problems to be solved. Three, they fail to prioritize effectively, neglecting opportunity cost.
What did you learn while writing the book?“We originally divided up the chapters of the book among the authors and that seemed easy at first. However, what actually happened is that it surfaced different approaches forcing us to integrate our ideas which made for more work but a better book
”What do people need to do to apply the best practices in their own company?“The biggest thing is re-setting expectations on what a roadmap is supposed to do. The other thing is communicating the customer problems being solved so it is a more strategic view. We have an assessment in the book that helps people identify where they need to improve”Bruce is also hosting a workshop based on the book Product Roadmapping: Align Your Teams, and deliver the Most to Your Customers and Stakeholders. This is being hosted at Kronos new offices in Lowell on Thursday, October 12, 2017 | 6:15 to 8:45 pm. Register @ www.bostonproducts.org
Don Stoddard Picture
Don Stoddard is a product management professional helping companies deliver people centric cloud first solutions. His entrepreneurial background includes over 15 years in product management and a computer science degree from Bentley University. He has a Pragmatic Marketing Certification (Level Three PMC-III) with a strong track record of driving profitable, new products and enhancements from conception to delivery.