9h • Coffee in the Room
Roadmaps - Summary
A couple weeks ago, we got together to talk about roadmaps. We did not stay on roadmaps. It was better for it.
Here’s what actually came up:
- There is no such thing as no roadmap. Call it a hope map, call it OKRs, call it a vision, if you’re telling someone what’s coming and when, you have a roadmap. OKRs are aspirational statements. A roadmap is a delivery plan. They are not the same thing, and confusing them leaves your team without either.
- Fidelity matters more than format. Whatever format you use, the rule holds: high precision on what’s right in front of you, loose on everything else. You can tell a board almost anything about what’s happening in six months. What’s happening in the next six weeks needs to be tight.
- Dates only when there’s a real reason. Hardware/software alignment. A committed press launch. That’s it. Otherwise you’re making promises to a calendar instead of to your customer.
- The PM-to-engineer ratio tells you about the org, not the PM. One person covering four product areas with an AI team of agents is either a sign of a very strong product culture or a very small budget. Sometimes both.
- Tech debt is a first-class citizen or it becomes a crisis.
It was a great chat and I look forward to our next one. The poll on topics will be out tomorrow for those that want to vote.
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Roadmaps - Summary
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