What's your strategy for getting diverse feedback on your product roadmap?

Identify Feedback Sources: Start by pinpointing who to get feedback from. This varies based on your product's stage and goals. ?? Customers and Users: They're crucial for understanding if your roadmap addresses their needs and enhances their experience. ???? Team and Colleagues: Tap into their insights for feasibility, alignment, and clarity. They can spot potential issues or improvements. ?? Managers and Executives: They ensure the roadmap aligns with the company's vision and strategy. Their perspective is vital for long-term success. ?? Partners and Influencers: Gauge if your roadmap fosters opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and growth. They can open new avenues. ??

It's clear that not all of the gathered feedback is relevant. The first step is to highlight what's valuable. Making sense of the feedback, turning it into useful insights and mapping it with the backlog should be a team-effort. I'd highly recommend using a PM tool to simplify and automate this process. The insights we gather are a good indicator on where to start - what initiatives to raise when prioritising. Having this data visible should (in theory) beat the "loudest voice in the room". However, the priorities cannot be 100% based on the feedback - we're not a feature factory. We need to understand if we're really solving a customer problem in a way that also makes sense for our product/business.

Identifying the right audience for your product roadmap feedback is crucial for gathering valuable insights that directly affect the success of your product. Always start with internal stakeholders to ensure alignment and feasibility. Prioritize feedback from your target customers, as they directly impact product success. Seek expert opinions for validation and strategic guidance. And incorporate competitor analysis to stay ahead of the curve.

Diverse perspectives are the secret sauce to an exceptional product roadmap: User-Centric Workshops: Engage with users from all walks of life. Host interactive workshops to capture their unique needs and pain points. Cross-Functional Brainstorms: Break the silos! Collaborate with teams beyond product - sales, support, and ops. Each voice brings a fresh angle. Inclusive Surveys: Don't just scratch the surface. Craft surveys with inclusivity in mind. Ensure questions resonate with diverse audiences. Advisory Boards: Establish a diverse advisory board. Their insights provide a 360° view, guiding the roadmap with wisdom. Networking Events: Attend events that attract diverse crowds. Connect, listen, and let those insights fuel innovation.

An important feedback source I see often overlooked is your own intuition and past experience. As PMs, we get so caught up soliciting external viewpoints that we forget the power of our internal compass. Take time to carefully self-reflect on your product roadmap first before seeking outside perspectives. Draw on your own judgment about what resonates or rings hollow. Reference the successes and misses from your previous roadmapping efforts. The feedback you collect is meant to supplement, not replace, your own sense of direction. Anchoring first in your personal wisdom and memory makes you better equipped to then gather and filter everyone else's opinions.