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Talking About Your Product Roadmap

Written by: Brad Feld

Article Overview: There are two opposite approaches in the world that most software companies take when talking about future products. 1. Say nothing until the day of the release and 2. Talk regularly about your roadmap. There used to be a third – “announcing a product but then not shipping it for a while” (anyone remember vaporware?) – but that’s faded into the background for the most part at this point (and is distinctly different than #2.)

Talking About Your Product Roadmap

There are two opposite approaches in the world that most software companies take when talking about future products. 1. Say nothing until the day of the release and 2. Talk regularly about your roadmap. There used to be a third – “announcing a product but then not shipping it for a while” (anyone remember vaporware?) – but that’s faded into the background for the most part at this point (and is distinctly different than #2.)

Alex Iskold of AdaptiveBlue has a great example of talking regularly about your roadmap up on his post Work In Progress: SmartLinks WebService and Automatic SmartLinks. I’m very intrigued with AdaptiveBlue and very impressed with the way Alex thinks. I also love that he’s talking about what he’s working on and asking for thoughts and comments.

Greg Reinacker has done this regularly over the years on his blog, dating back to a post on January 4, 2003 titled News Aggregator. If you want to see some fun old posts on “thinking out loud and rapidly interating your product”, look at Greg’s archive posts from January to March 2003.

Guys – keep it up!

Read this article in Brad's blog.

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Article Tags: alex, blog, future products, hes, january 4, news aggregator, roadmap, smartlinks, software companies, webservice, work in progress



Related Forum Posts
Book: Talking From 9 to 5 - Book: Talking From 9 to 5: How women's and men's conersational styles affect who gets heard, who gets credit, and what gets done at work Deborah Tannen, PhD 1994 You say something at a meeeting, it is ignored, then someone else says the same thing and everyone embraces it as a marvelous idea. You devote yourself to a project but don't get credit for the results. You work around the clock to avoid a crisis, but your efforts are not recognized because no one notices a crisis that never occurs. YOu give what you think are clear instructions, but the job is not done, or is done wrong. ... Work is a special world because as we talk to get our jobs done, we are also being evaluated. How we get others to do what we want, and how we accept or avoid responsibility for mistakes, display or challenge authority, reveal or conceal what we don't know -- all affect how we are regarded and rewarded. TOC 1. Women and Men Talking on the Job 2. "I'm sorry, I'm not apologizing": Conversational rituals 3. "Why don't you say what you mean?" Indirectness at work 4. Marked: Women in the workplace 5. The glass ceiling 6. "She's the boss": Women and authority 7. Talking up close: Status and connection 8. What's sex got to do with it 9. Who gets heard? Talking at meetings References Index
Re: What Do You Outsource Mostly? - When building a New Product, I do find it helpful to outsource marketing (articles - blogging - major social network site etc) Otherwise, you may feel bogged down when you should be focused on the overall BIG PICTURE.
Social Media Marketing Category... - I agree that a social media marketing category would be useful and added my vote. I would include "bookmarking" sites in the mix as well. Such a category would be useful for several reasons: 1. Talking about SMM, its purpose and networking strategies and tips. 2. Discussion of the various SMM sites. 3. New about new sites and developments. 4. Helping to build each others SMM networks.
Show the Benefits - Offer a free test drive of the Product or Service with a Money Back Guarantee - Take the Risk out. This will help them make the decision but you have to work with them to realize it by explicitly state the benefits they are receiving.
Offer Credit instead - I'm not sure if ChrisH was referring to this but i'll state it more expicitly .. Charge upfront and offer a refund of double the value back in "Credit" towards your Product or Service you have for sale at the end of the event.


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