What do you need to know about Product Road Mapping roles?

I don't think that there should be any specific role as this. I'd consider this as a task rather than a role. A PM (or SPM or Product lead based on org) should own this responsibility. This task is very tightly linked with the discovery process and strategic plan of the product hence should be own by someone who is driving the product.

Product Roadmapping is not a one-man job I reckon. It is a highly collaborative exercise which involves all key stakeholders such as Sales, Engineering, Marketing etc. The product roadmap should be rather flexible, taking into the account the business and market conditions from time to time to re-prioritise items in the roadmap. While this skill should be a primary for a Product Manager, I believe prioritising and revisiting the items in a roadmap to check for alignment with the business goals is more important than anything else. Rather than making it a standalone role, it should be taken up as a shared responsibility across the organisation while the Product Manager can remain as the key driver.

Ownership of product roadmapping is best vested in the product manager. They're ideally positioned to steer the roadmap due to their deep understanding of the product's vision and alignment with the company's strategic goals. Their expertise in prioritization, customer needs, and market trends allows for informed decision-making. However, it's crucial to emphasize that roadmapping is a collaborative effort. Product managers work closely with cross-functional teams and collect input from various stakeholders, ensuring that the roadmap is well-informed and that resources are efficiently allocated. While they hold ownership, the success of the roadmap is a result of collective collaboration and continuous adaptation to changing circumstances

Splitting Product Roadmapping and Management risks confusion and a lack of trust in the process. Product Managers need a full view of the journey for clear, aligned development. Separate roles can muddle this, like two captains steering one ship, undermining the product’s potential and value to users.

Product roadmapping is crucial in product management. It aligns stakeholders and teams towards common goals. Collaboration, visualization, flexibility, and communication are key. A dynamic tool that balances long-term vision and short-term execution. #ProductManagement #Roadmapping

Simply ,The Product Manager is the visionary and strategist behind a product. They set the product's direction, identify market opportunities, and define features. They manage the entire product lifecycle, collaborating with cross-functional teams and making data-driven decisions. The PM's role is to ensure that the product meets customer needs and aligns with business objectives.

I have fired people for thinking about the Product Manager the way it is defined in this article. "A product manager is someone who leads and oversees the product development process from ideation to.." END-OF-LIFE and not just launch. Being live in the market is when a product needs the product manager the most. There is so much feedback, demands for new features, support requests, customization requests and feature requests, that someone needs to sort through everything and decide on where the product needs to go. Then there also are the decisions on how to segment/version the product to be able to capture more value from the market at various price points and via various business models.

Product managers wear multiple hats while building a product irrespective of the industry they are in. They define product vision and its life cycle, gathering requirements, customer feedback, and market trends, and tie them up with organizational goals. They define its features, prioritize tasks, work with cross-functional teams, and ensure the product aligns with user needs and business goals. Their role involves market research, decision-making, and effective communication to drive product growth. They have to handle scrum teams as well to deliver the products. A PM has to work as its own CEO while handling products with technical and business skills.

Product Managers can serve as force multipliers within organizations, amplifying the impact of their teams and products. By aligning the team with strategic goals, they enhance productivity and foster collaboration. Product Managers distill complex ideas into actionable plans, ensuring everyone understands the vision. They streamline communication, minimizing misunderstandings and maximizing efficiency. Their role as advocates for both customers and the team creates a harmonious work environment, driving motivation and creativity. Ultimately, their strategic acumen and leadership can amplify the collective efforts, turning a group of individuals into a high-performing, cohesive unit capable of achieving remarkable outcomes.

I define Product Manager's role in very simple terms. Let's say you have an idea. It can be an idea for business, art, music anything. Now try writing down that idea on a piece of paper. Now I ask you to give me list of things or people you need help with to execute the same idea. That set of instructions is essentially a role of a Product Manager. The job is to bring an idea in the most nascent stage to reality. Ofcourse with the help of a dozen people!

In my experience, while both roles are critical in the product development process, the Product Manager has a broader, strategic focus on the product, its market, and its alignment with the company's goals, while the Product Owner is more tactical, concentrating on the day-to-day execution of the product development process and ensuring that the features are built correctly. In many organizations, these roles work closely together, with the Product Manager providing the overall product vision and strategy, and the Product Owner executing on the details of the development process, In other Agile organizations, only the role of a product owner exists and the Product manager role is actually absorbed within the product lead scope.

A product owner is a role specific to working in a a development team that uses scrum, and is defined in the scrum guide. Defining it outside a scrum context is at best misleading.

I like to add, along with everything, Product owner is agile delivery specific role. Every initiative may not be good candidate for agile.

Coming from an enterprise of 6,000 to a start up of 12, I’m learning that the Scrum role of Product Owner can easily take up most of your time as a PM. If you’re in a small team or someone moving to a smaller team, do everything you can to mitigate getting dragged into Jira and bug ticketing hell. Automate, delegate, empower teams to manage Scrums on their own, etc. that way you can get back to doing more strategic PM work.

A product owner needs to have knowledge on development procees. He works closly with the R&D to make sure they aligned with the product requirements.

Product Designers are the frontline problem solving force for companies of all shapes and sizes. They combine real world experiences and their inherent ability to visualize solutions to not just understand what users are looking for, but, illustrate the path to a solution. Often part of a small yet nimble team, Product Designers exist to take in information from users, stakeholders, and managers. They then use these details to wireframe user flows or build shareable low-fidelity prototypes that start conversation. Feedback can come from anyone, so a good Product Designer remains active and transparent when in this learning phase before applying any new insights to a MVP. They then work as a team to carry that MVP towards Launch!

Perspective on tool for prototyping and wireframes etc. With on-paper sketching, Balsemiq (no close to actual use experience), or similar tools, current and future 3D printing are the tools for product designers.

I like to add, product (user experience) designer must participate in prototyping, user testing along with interaction and visual design.

The label Product Developer implies a distinction from a "normal" developer which is often artificial, as both roles fundamentally involve creating software solutions. Labeling someone as a Product Developer implies a focus on the end-user experience and business goals, but these are aspects integral to any developer. Developers constantly navigate diverse challenges, from coding to user-centric concerns. Artificially separating them overlooks the holistic skills required in modern software development. The tech landscape thrives on interdisciplinary skills, where developers often wear multiple hats. Emphasizing collaboration, adaptability, and a broad skill set could be more meaningful than confining roles within arbitrary labels.

I don't heared abot this role. Product owner is more likely to do the described above. Maybe CTO/ architecture more relevent also here.

When a PM talks to customers it should not be yes or no questions but rather a bit open-ended questions to learn more about their perspective and get answers for future products. User research has a huge importance on product development even though some organizations have huge budgets but the product fails or has a shorter life. To avoid this a PM should consider Identifying and mitigating potential risks, such as technical challenges or market shifts, which are often underestimated. Effective risk management can prevent costly setbacks. Feedback Integration from internal and external stakeholders can be a game-changer.

Product road mapping roles play a pivotal role in guiding the trajectory of a product's development journey. As a product leader, it's crucial to understand the key responsibilities associated with these roles. Road mappers are tasked with synthesizing market insights, customer feedback, and business objectives to craft a strategic roadmap that aligns with the company's vision. They must navigate competing priorities, anticipate market trends, and adapt to evolving customer needs. Effective road mappers excel at communication, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure alignment and buy-in. They act as champions of the product vision, advocating for resources and prioritising initiatives that drive maximum value.

Product roadmaps are about alignment and alignment requires buy in. If you try to impose your vision on others it often doesn’t work. This means that the product roadmap is a tool for conversations to collaborate with all the people that are affected by the product or solution or that should have a say and opinion. But ultimately, there should be one vision and point of view at the end. This vision shouldn’t be myopic, and it should be a surprise, but it should be opinionated and inspiring. Everyone working together know what they want to achieve and why. Product manager needs to consult but ultimately they should be responsible for setting the direction of the product.