Problem-Focused Roadmap is Product Management

We’ve entered the age of the customer. Our customers are busy and don’t want to explain the features, functionalities, or enhancements they need. They want us to understand their obstacles and hindrances. Even when they convey their needs, we still need to translate them because what customers say and what they mean can be different.

Our customers exist independently of our products. We need to understand their lives outside our products, discern, absorb, and identify the moments they face difficulties or struggles. These are the moments when something changes for our customers, and they realize they need something else to perform their tasks. For us product leaders, this is our cross-functional team’s opportunity to innovate.

During these moments of struggle, we want our customers to reach for our products, solutions, and services. Therefore, our roadmap should encapsulate these struggling moments. It should be problem-focused, relevant, and consequential. Our roadmap should tell the stories of how we plan to make and will continue making our customers heroes in their organizations by using our products to solve their problems.