Episode 83: The Do’s and Dont’s of Setting Up A Product Roadmap and Feedback System for Your Customers

If you’re in the software business, everyone wants to know your roadmap.  And for good reason.  But many software vendors are hesistant to share information for a variety of reasons.

In this episode, I go over the do’s and dont’s for sharing your product roadmap and how to get the most bang for your buck if you do by capturing valuable feedback from your customers (and potential customers).  I also cover the piece of technology I currently use and share a few other technology providers you can check out for your product roadmap and feedback solution.

Topics Discussed (Time Stamped)

03:02 Communicating and getting feedback from current/potential customers
03:25 Roadmap affiliated to software
04:15 Developers cost a lot of money
04:40 The pace of development will tell you how well a software company is doing
06:45 Flip side of having a roadmap especially for small businesses
07:37 Two aspects of the roadmap:

1. What you’re communicating to your customers
2. Feedback mechanism where you give your customers a voice to say what they would like to see you do

Don’ts

08:32 Don’t believe that all feedback is universally needed by everyone
10:48 Don’t just follow the roadmap blindly
13:30 Don’t put everything in your roadmap
15:32 Don’t sell your software based on the roadmap

Dos

17:05 Keep it up-to-date
18:45 Show your vision
20:19 Listen to the user feedback
21:10 Encourage your users to submit their feedback and advertise your roadmap at all opportunities

Quotes Worth Sharing

Resources Mentioned

• GetSatisfaction – https://getsatisfaction.com/
• Uservoice – https://www.uservoice.com/
• Product Board – https://www.productboard.com/
• Canny – https://canny.io/
• Trello – https://trello.com/
• Plutio – https://plutio.com/
• Google Sheets – https://www.google.com/sheets/about/
• Conflux – https://getconflux.com/
• Episode 80 – https://techsmartboss.getmailsync.com/blog/podcast-episode80/

Thanks!

Thanks for listening and checking out the show notes,  any feedback, comments, or questions, send me an email at [email protected]