Most of the time, that evidence we’re looking for is shown in a resume, detailing the roles you’ve had, the types of companies you’ve worked for, and the products and projects you’ve overseen. But that might not tell the whole story. 

Resumes are pretty black and white and can sometimes lack context. Including a Product Manager portfolio can help add color, drive home the results you’ve achieved, and help you stand out when taking the next step in the Product Manager career path. 

Hiring managers aren’t always expecting to see a Product Manager portfolio, but it’s an application tactic that’s gaining some steam and becoming more common.

As ProdPad CEO, here’s some advice straight from the horse’s mouth on what you should include in your Product Manager portfolio, how it can help, and crucially, how it may detract from your application if you get it all wrong. 

What is a Product Manager Portfolio? 

A Product Manager portfolio is your professional story told visually and contextually. While your resume outlines your work history and roles, your portfolio serves as a narrative-driven showcase of the products you’ve managed, the results you’ve driven and the Product Management skills and approaches that led to those accomplishments. It dives deeper into the how behind your achievements: how you solved problems, managed teams, developed strategies, and delivered results.

Portfolios have been standard practice in creative fields for as long as any of us can remember. Remember those huge portfolio binder things with the handles? 

Portfolios broadly act as a visual ‘book’ of artifacts – a showcase of the things you have made. However, I believe a good Product Manager portfolio should go further. I want to see PMs clearly showing me what products they’ve managed and what results they’ve driven – but I also want to see some narrative around that. Show me what you’ve done, but give me the extra context surrounding your approach and decision-making. I want to understand HOW your Product Management expertise drove these results.

Think of it as your behind-the-scenes documentary, offering hiring managers or stakeholders a clearer picture of your Product Management style and expertise. A solid Product Manager portfolio should highlight things like:

• Specific examples and case studies of products you’ve launched or initiatives you’ve led – including the all-important results of that work.
• The KPIs and success measures that matter most to you.
• The Product Management tools, methodologies, and skills you’ve mastered along the way.
• The Product Management frameworks you favor.

A Product Manager portfolio is not just a ‘prettier’ version of your resume. We don’t really want to be reading your work history twice, we’ve got it the first time. Instead, your portfolio needs to supplement your resume, adding more context to your achievements, explaining things like your process, the frameworks you follow, the metrics that are important to you, and how you fit the job description of the role you’re applying for. 

Your portfolio is where you get to prove your work in action. If you say you’ve achieved something in your resume, your portfolio can break down the steps you took to do that. Ultimately, your Product Manager portfolio is a companion piece. 

The potential benefits of a Product Manager Portfolio

Having a Product Manager portfolio can help you excel and stand out from the crowd when applying for new roles – but only if you make a good one. Although not common in the industry by any stretch of the imagination, they can be useful documents to strengthen an application. 

Here are some of the benefits and how they help: 

• Provide context to achievements: A portfolio goes beyond listing accomplishments by explaining the steps you took to achieve results.
• Differentiate from other candidates:  Having a good portfolio can set you apart in a competitive hiring market where resumes often blur together.
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills: A portfolio allows you to offer concrete examples of how you’ve tackled challenges, prioritized tasks, and delivered impactful solutions.
• Visualize results:  A portfolio is a place where you can use charts, graphs, or dashboards to make metrics and outcomes more engaging and easier to understand.
• Facilitate better conversations:  A portfolio serves as a discussion point during interviews, helping you explain your work in depth and connect with the hiring team.

And remember, while a resume ties you to a chronological structure, with a portfolio you can break out to whatever flow makes the most sense. Lead with the greatest achievements, foreground the case study that relates most to the particular company you’re applying to – you have the flexibility to rejig the structure in whichever way puts you and your work in the best light. 

Do you need a Product Manager portfolio? 

Unlike a resume and cover letter, having a Product Manager portfolio is not a requirement (for us at least at ProdPad). Instead, treat it more as something that’s nice to have to enhance your overall application.

See, we’re still going to put more weight and emphasis on your resume and definitely your interview performance, so don’t think that a Product Manager portfolio is going to magically make you a top candidate if the other aspects of the application are lacking. 

It’s not going to make a poor applicant look good, but it can make a good applicant look great. 

Have you heard of creatine? It’s a supplement gym goers can get to help make their workouts more effective by aiding recovery and muscle growth. But creatine won’t do anything if you’re not hitting the gym regularly. On its own it’s worthless. If you haven’t nailed your gym routine and your diet, then creatine is simply a waste of time. 

This same principle applies to the Product Manager portfolio. It’s only really worthwhile if you have a quality resume, cover letter, and interview.

What we’re saying here is that you need to nail the more traditional aspects of your application first. Build a resume that clearly shows you have the chops for the role you’re applying to, and master the common Product Manager interview questions to demonstrate you know what you’re talking about. We’re always going to be looking at these things first and then we might focus on the portfolio to see if it pushes you over the edge. 

Let’s put it this way. I recently oversaw a campaign to hire a new Product Manager for ProdPad to join our awesome team. We had hundreds of credible applications, yet among them, there were only a handful of candidates that had a portfolio. 

And yes, these Product Manager portfolios did help these candidates stand out, but ultimately we went with someone who was able to demonstrate how they could help ProdPad, and speak about their experience and suitability for the company in their interviews. 

I’m a lot more interested in seeing how an applicant solved problems – ideally, problems related to the role they’re applying to – and the impact they’ve had on previous companies. Somebody might have an amazing portfolio but if they’re not interviewing well, then they’re not getting the job. That’s because a portfolio isn’t indicative of the day-to-day role.

That’s not to say that the people working on portfolios wasted their time, it’s instead a notion that you need to show how you can help a company in your applications. If your portfolio does that, instead of just acting as a showreel of all the products you’ve worked on, then you’re onto a winner. Then you’ve created something that’s pretty worthwhile and exciting.

Let’s talk a bit more about that. 

What should be included in a Product Manager portfolio? 

A strong Product Manager portfolio should showcase your experience, skills, and how you approach challenges. Here’s a breakdown of what to include and why each element matters:

Case studies 

Case studies are the centerpiece of your portfolio, giving hiring managers a chance to take a deeper look at the particular products and projects you’ve worked on. Your case studies need to be more than simply a list of the products you’ve had a hand in. 

Instead, use your case studies to outline the problems you needed to solve or the goals you needed to achieve and the steps you took to do that. 

Be specific in what you’ve achieved, and bonus points if the achievements you’re highlighting in your case studies relate to the needs of the role you’re applying for. These detailed narratives are a chance to demonstrate your strategic thinking and problem-solving skills.

Evidence of your impact 

This is really important – you should show What can be really neat to see is examples of how past products that you’ve worked on have changed while you had influence over them. A history of the successful features you’ve added and tweaks you’ve made can be really illuminating in a portfolio, especially if you serve it up with some data that tells you why. 

While showing off polished final products is tempting, what really stands out is evidence of the journey. It’s far better than just being like “Ta-da: here’s the product.” 

This really amounts to proving the ROI you have delivered in past roles. That’s not easy to do. Luckily we’ve got you covered. Download a copy of our ebook How to Prove the ROI of Product Management and check out the list of different calculations you can run to help you beef out this section of your Product Manager portfolio. 

You’ll find ways to calculate and prove the ROI you’ve delivered through:

• Your product discovery work
• The prioritization decisions you’ve made
• The strategic alignment you’ve ensured
• The cost protection you’ve brought about
• Your customer feedback analysis

You can run the numbers and include improvements in strategic yield, risk reduction, cost of delay, overrun, and product velocity – all of which are directly attributable to your own work and processes. 

So make sure you’re being hyper-specific here and including hard numbers by way of evidence. 

Testimonials

A good word from someone that you’ve helped can go a long way in proving your character and that your work has achieved results.

Endorsements from colleagues, stakeholders, or clients can add a layer of credibility to your portfolio. Testimonials provide an external perspective on your skills, leadership, and collaborative abilities, which can be especially persuasive to hiring managers. It’s not you blowing your own trumpet, it’s someone else. 

A few well-placed quotes from trusted voices can give your portfolio a human touch, showcasing how you work with and inspire others.

Your process

This is kind of related to the previous point. It’s far better to see the process to your end result instead of just the end result. It’s like a math test, you get points for showing your working out. Use your portfolio as a way to show that. 

Detail the hypotheses you set, how you tested it, the process you followed, and how you handled feedback and analysis. Give us an idea of how you’re going to operate if you get the job.

This all boils down to showing the story. Tell what the company you were at was trying to do and detail all you did to help them do it. 

Again, we have a free ebook that should help you understand how to visualize and articulate this. In The Product Management Process Handbook, we outline a best practice workflow from start to finish. Seeing this mapped out should kick-start your thinking about how to illustrate your approach and what to include. 

An appendix: 

Including an appendix is a great way to add in extra information and examples of your work and the way you do things. Think of it as a storage unit of all the additional proof that show that you’re good at your job. 

An appendix can include anything that you think is relevant, but two useful items to include here are: 

Strategy Documents 

Including details and examples of how you handle strategy documents like product roadmaps, market analyses, or competitive reviews can demonstrate your ability to think at a high level. A product strategy document showcases how you approach long-term planning, set priorities, and align teams to achieve business goals.

Giving access to these emphasizes your capability to walk the line between vision and execution.

PRDs

Product Requirement Documents are a staple in Product Management, and your portfolio is the perfect place to highlight them. A well-written PRD illustrates how you translate vision into actionable plans, ensuring that technical teams and stakeholders are aligned. Showcasing examples of PRDs can underscore your communication skills and your ability to manage the details that drive a project forward.

What to avoid in a Product Manager portfolio

If you put the wrong things in a Product Manager portfolio, the whole document can do you more harm than good. If you include the wrong stuff, a Product Manager portfolio can quickly become a missed opportunity, failing to highlight your suitability for the role and instead act as a superfluous extra that wasn’t really asked for. 

So, to make sure your portfolio isn’t a dud that causes hiring managers to roll their eyes, here’s what you should avoid:

Style over substance

Have you got a flashy and beautiful portfolio? Cool. Is it just a pretty design with little substance and value? Uh-oh.

The most disheartening thing to see is a stunning portfolio that doesn’t really get into the meat of what you offer as a Product Manager. Something that doesn’t scratch the surface suggests that you’re trying to hide something and win us over with pretty colors and shapes.

The truth is I’d much rather have a boring portfolio that looks into things like process, impact, case studies, and more.

Irrelevant or excessive details

It might be tempting to cram every project you’ve ever worked on into your portfolio. But remember: more isn’t always better. A long, unfocused portfolio risks diluting your achievements and overwhelming the hiring manager.

Instead, choose only the projects that best showcase your relevant Product Management skills and demonstrate your ability to solve the problems you’ll be tackling in the role, make an impact, and drive results. Quality trumps quantity every time.

Lack of metrics

Accomplishments without numbers can feel empty. If you talk about a successful launch but don’t mention how much revenue it generated, how user engagement changed, or how customer satisfaction improved, you’re missing an opportunity to show real impact. 

Metrics make your contributions tangible and prove that you’re not just talking the talk. You can walk the walk. 

Generic descriptions

Vague phrases like “worked on a product” or “led a team” aren’t going to cut it. Hiring managers want to know what you specifically did and how it made a difference. 

Did you transition your team from a timeline to an agile roadmap to improve delivery times? Did you lead cross-functional workshops to align stakeholders? Make your role, actions, and outcomes clear so your portfolio feels personal and powerful.

Inappropriate design choices

Your portfolio’s design should enhance – not overshadow – its content. Fonts that are hard to read, layouts that are overly complicated, or visuals that feel more like a distraction than an enhancement will hurt your chances. Especially if you’re looking for a more design-focused role.

Keep it clean, professional, and aligned with your personal brand. Remember, the design is just the wrapper – the content is the star of the show.

Ignoring accessibility

Your portfolio isn’t doing its job if it’s inaccessible. 

Whether it’s not optimized for mobile devices, has broken links, or requires downloading obscure files, anything that creates friction can frustrate hiring managers and take you out of the running. 

I mean, you’re a Product Manager, right? You should instinctively be bashing through barriers and eliminating friction! If your Product Manager portfolio feels like a clunky UX nightmare, you’ll be putting real doubts in the minds of any hiring managers looking for someone to spearhead the effectiveness of their product. 

Make it as easy as possible to view, share, and understand your portfolio. A good rule of thumb: if it takes more than one click to access, you’re overcomplicating it.

Overuse of buzzwords

Buzzwords might sound impressive, but without substance, they’ll work against you. Overloading your portfolio with terms like “growth hacking” or “synergy” without showing how you applied these concepts in meaningful ways can feel hollow. Speak plainly and back up your work with examples. 

Just talk like a human.

How do you build a Product Manager portfolio? 

So you’ve gathered what you’d like to show in your portfolio, but how’d you put it together to make a great one?  Crafting a stellar Product Manager portfolio isn’t just about assembling a collection of your past projects; it’s about creating a tool that communicates your value in a way that’s compelling, clear, and tailored to the role you’re targeting. 

Here’s a guide to help you build one that stands out:

Choose the right medium

In this day and age, pretty much every portfolio needs to be digital. When looking at the best Product Manager portfolio examples, the vast majority of them are interactive websites, so that’s something you should follow. 

Creating a digital portfolio gives you a chance to demonstrate your UI chops. That’s a blessing and a curse. Yes, a website offers the flexibility to showcase not only your work but also your design sensibilities and user-first thinking, but you need to make sure that the whole experience is intuitive and easy to follow. 

As I suggested earlier, it can ring alarm bells if you’re applying to a more design-focused role if your Portfolio doesn’t really work well and flows between the sections.

Tell a story

Your portfolio should do more than list achievements – it should narrate your journey and tell a story. 

That story is up to you and should be based on the role you’re applying to. Applying for a Growth Product Manager role? Showcase in your portfolio how you’ve driven growth in the past and your methods for achieving that. Looking to join a team that’s about to scale from start-up to SMB? Showcase how you’ve managed that transition before in your portfolio. 

Remember, your portfolio is the chance to really add color to your resume and show that you’re the right person for the job. 

Keep it clear

I want to be able to understand you, and I want to be able to understand your portfolio. Keep the content brief, and make sure to explain anything that needs context. I don’t want to be looking at product adoption metrics scratching my head trying to understand what they mean and what they prove because I’ve not got any prior context.

Be clear about what it is we’re actually looking at and what your contributions were.

Don’t assume knowledge

You shouldn’t assume that the hiring manager has prior knowledge about the market or industry you’re coming from. Make sure your portfolio is written so that anyone can understand it regardless of their background. 

Set the scene so that we can fully grasp the impact you’ve made. Otherwise, things can go over our heads. It might be everyday jargon for you, but a CEO might not know what a 40% reduction in customer churn means and why it’s a good thing.

Customize it for each role you apply for 

Yup. I know it’s a lot easier to make one generic portfolio, but you’re going to have a much greater impact by offering a Product Management portfolio that’s customized to each role. 

By tweaking what you talk about, you’ll be able to offer up something that’s more relevant and informative which is going to excite hiring managers more. Adjust your portfolio to align with the specific requirements of the position you’re applying for to speak directly to the needs of different employers. 

Say you’re a handyman looking to get a plumbing role. Sure a general look at your DIY skills is okay, but it’ll be loads better to focus on all the piping installation and bathroom plumbing projects you’ve done.  

Adding color to your resume

In today’s competitive job market, a Product Manager portfolio has the potential to help you stand out. Providing that what you cook up is more than just a visually appealing showcase of your experience; it can be a strategic tool that demonstrates your ability to solve real-world problems, make data-driven Product Management decisions, and deliver impactful results.

While it’s not a requirement for every application, a well-crafted portfolio can elevate your candidacy, especially when paired with a strong resume and interview performance.

However, it’s important to remember that your portfolio should complement – not replace – your traditional application materials. Focus on substance over style, providing clear examples of your process, results, and impact. Avoid clutter, irrelevant details, and buzzwords that don’t add value.

When done right, a Product Manager portfolio can offer hiring managers a deeper understanding of your capabilities and why you are the best person for the job.

So, whether you’re actively job hunting or just looking to refine your professional narrative, your portfolio is an opportunity to tell your unique story. Showcase your achievements, but more importantly, show how you can bring value to the role you’re applying for. After all, in Product Management, it’s not just about what you’ve done, but how you did it. Make sure you do things the right way with the best tools, like ProdPad. 

Take a peak at how ProdPad can improve your processes in our pre-loaded and free-to-explore live sandbox environment. 

The post Product Manager Portfolio: A Secret Weapon To Progress Your Career appeared first on ProdPad.

What is founder mode?

Founder mode describes a shifting mindset where company founders and leaders step back into the thick of day-to-day operations, often in ways that can feel more like micromanaging than empowering. Founder mode is part passion, part panic, where the Founder takes a more hands-on approach to reclaim control over their teams or projects.

With founder mode style management practices, you’ll often see a founder scrutinizing details they once delegated, revisiting decisions already made, or swooping into meetings uninvited to “course correct” the team’s trajectory. It’s a sharp pivot from trust to oversight, and while it can be fueled by good intentions (like protecting the business or driving success), it’s not without its drawbacks.

This isn’t to say founder involvement is inherently bad: it’s their company, after all. Sometimes it’s nice to see a leader roll their sleeves up and muck in. But founder mode tends to crop up at pivotal moments: during uncertainty, when scaling pains kick in, or when other approaches simply aren’t working for whatever reason.

It’s less about leadership and more about control, which, spoiler alert, isn’t the recipe for long-term success.

Now, we’re not going to dogpile on founder mode. Yes, I don’t think it’s the best idea in the world, you can see that in my LinkedIn post on the subject, but there’s no point writing a 3000-word article bashing it into a pulp. Instead, I think founder mode is indicative of another problem, and something that Product Managers should pay attention to in order to improve the product.

Let’s figure out why founder mode happens and how to strike a better balance.

Founder mode vs Management mode

Founder mode goes against conventional wisdom and is the complete opposite of the traditional management mode, where the actions of the founder boil down to control instead of the more practical delegation.

Manager mode is all about empowering teams and trusting them to own their domains. It’s the phase where leaders embrace structure, rely on the experts they’ve hired, and step back to let managers live up to the title and manage.

Founder mode, on the other hand, is a hard pivot in the opposite direction. It’s a rejection of managerial detachment in favor of deep involvement. Instead of empowering others, founder mode is about getting in there and taking on all the decisions.

While manager mode is like charting a ship’s course and trusting the crew to sail it, founder mode is the captain grabbing the wheel mid-voyage to steer things their way – storm or no storm. The shift can be jarring for teams used to autonomy, as it can feel like their decisions are being overridden or scrutinized unnecessarily.

But why does this happen? Why are leaders like Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky and others feeling the need to revert to this tactic?

Well, often, founder mode re-emerges during times of uncertainty or frustration. As for Brian Chesky, he tried loads of different leadership styles and team structures at Airbnb that failed, didn’t work, and then landed in a founder-mode mentality. He talks about that struggle in this Interview with The Verge.  For now, it’s working for them, but maybe because things weren’t so hot beforehand.

Here’s my worry: while founder mode might provide short-term reassurance, it can erode trust and stifle the very innovation that comes from giving teams the space to thrive.

Finding the balance between these two modes is vital – because a founder can’t take the helm and be in the crow’s nest guiding the ship at the same time.

Why is everyone talking about founder mode?

It feels like one day we all woke up and founder mode was suddenly engrained in everyone’s mind. Kind of like how Apple added an unwanted U2 album to everyone’s iTunes library back in 2014.

In truth, the buzz around founder mode stems from a term coined by Paul Graham in his now much-discussed article. He drew inspiration from Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky’s headline-making move to reimagine the Product Manager role at the company and ‘follow the footsteps’ of Steve Jobs and get more involved in product decisions.

Now, despite the clickbait, Chesky didn’t eliminate Product Managers entirely, but he did refocus their roles, transforming them into more growth-oriented Product Marketing Managers. This speaks of what founder mode is and why it’s cropped up now. At its core, founder mode has become a rallying cry for businesses in recovery mode.

After years of economic headwinds in the tech industry, many companies are desperate to reignite growth, and for some, that means tearing up the playbook.

Growth-focused Product Management has taken center stage, whether that’s through hiring Growth Product Managers, adopting product-led GTM, or, in the case of founder mode, founders stepping back in to reclaim the reins.

But let’s pause here. Just because a handful of big players claim success with founder mode doesn’t mean it’s a universal solution. Sure, some companies have seen improvements, but those wins are often tied to pre-existing problems. They might have had ineffective managers, the wrong hires, or a misaligned product strategy in which founder mode addressed those issues temporarily, but it’s not a sustainable or scalable fix.

If things aren’t currently wrong in your business, I don’t see founder mode being the ticket to improvement. For me, it’s an Elastoplast on a gaping wound.

Plus, if you just shifted your gaze a few inches away from those finding success with founder mode, you’ll find brands that are KILLING it with a traditional manager mode approach. Take Nike – a larger company that’s thriving by empowering its Product teams and investing in great talent rather than top-down micromanagement.

I also want to speak on the myth of founder-led success stories, too. Apple is often touted as a founder mode triumph, a reason for leaders to give founder mode a go, but Steve Jobs didn’t handcraft every good decision there. The man has been mythicized so much that Steve Jobs isn’t even Steve Jobs anymore. Like in every great company, he had to delegate to other decision-makers.

In fact, the iPhone – the product that is so synonymous with Apple – almost didn’t happen because Jobs needed convincing from his team. Steve Jobs almost prevented the Apple iPhone from being invented, and if he truly followed a founder mode mindset, it wouldn’t have been.

The takeaway? Founder mode isn’t a magic bullet.

While it might work for some high-profile companies, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, and it often comes at the cost of innovation and trust. If all your ideas are coming from the founder, you’ve got bigger problems than growth.

So, is founder mode bad? 

Do you even need to ask at this point? Categorically, yes: founder mode isn’t the hot new management framework it’s being hyped as. It’s just micromanagement repackaged with a shiny name and a splash of glamour. But once you peel back the layers, the cracks are clear, and they’re anything but trendy.

Wasting talent

The first issue? Founder mode undermines the team. As a Product Manager, you’re there for a reason. You’ve got the expertise, the insights, and the experience. But when the founder swoops in, it sidelines that expertise.

Instead of leveraging the collective strength of your Product Team structure, the founder becomes the bottleneck, making all the decisions and stifling creativity. It’s a waste of talent, turning capable professionals into glorified yes-people who nod along instead of thinking critically or driving the product forward.

Demoralizing the team

This leads to a deeper problem: founder mode is demoralizing. You’ve spent weeks doing product discovery, building a roadmap, and fostering a strong team. Then, the founder swoops in, upends the plan, and dictates their vision without fully understanding the context. It’s frustrating, disheartening, and a surefire way to breed disengagement.

And let’s not overlook the risks. Founders often juggle a million priorities, making it hard for them to stay close enough to the ground to make data-driven Product Management decisions and answer the tough questions. The idea that the founder is always the smartest person in the room is misguided at best, and dangerous at worst.

If your founder is the smartest person in your company, that’s not a flex, it’s a red flag that the wrong people have been hired.

A red flag

See, founder mode often signals deeper issues. If a founder is pulling rank and taking hands-on control, it’s a sign that something isn’t working. Maybe the product team isn’t hitting the mark, or maybe trust in leadership has eroded. Either way, founder mode is rarely a proactive choice, it’s a reactive measure, a desperate attempt to course-correct when things feel off.

In the end, founder mode isn’t a path to make your company successful. It’s a quick fix at best and a glaring symptom of underlying dysfunction at worst. As a Product Manager, you’re in the perfect position to push for the real recipe for growth: hiring the right people, empowering your team, and fostering a culture of trust and collaboration.

Why would a leader go founder mode? 

I’d like to think that one of the last things founders want to do is get all involved in the product. They’ve got a million and one other responsibilities. So what drives founders to get all up in your face? I’m sure it’s not because they want to be an annoying jerk.

Understanding why a founder might shift gears into founder mode can help you navigate the situation more effectively. While it might feel like they’re undermining your work, most founders aren’t trying to sabotage the team. It’s a response to a set of very real pressures.

Sometimes, founders step in because they see problems that others might not. If the team isn’t delivering results, hiring decisions haven’t panned out, or strategies aren’t aligning with the company’s vision, founder mode can feel like the quickest way to steady the ship. From their perspective, letting the team “figure it out” could cost valuable time and resources, which are often in short supply.

To help a founder, show them that the ship is not as off-course as they fear. Use data, experiments, and outcomes to demonstrate progress and align your work with their vision. If there are genuine gaps, acknowledge them and collaborate on solutions.

See, for a founder, the company isn’t just a job – it’s a reflection of their vision, values, and years of effort. If they feel like the business is at risk, their instinct is to take control and protect what they’ve built.

It’s not about undermining the team; it’s about safeguarding the mission. Recognize their investment and show that you’re equally committed to the company’s success. When they see that you care as much as they do, they’re more likely to trust your judgment.

Most founders stepping into founder mode are genuinely trying to make things better. Founder mode isn’t inherently malicious I don’t think. It’s a symptom of something deeper, whether that’s a lack of trust, misalignment, or a need for clearer communication. It’s the last resort to fix something. As a Product Manager, you’re in a unique position to address these issues.

What to do when a leader has gone founder mode 

Dealing with a founder in founder mode can feel like a whirlwind: sudden pivot strategies, surprise interventions, and a sense that your work is being sidelined. But don’t panic!

When a leader goes all-in on founder mode, it’s less about them trying to micromanage and more about trying to solve a problem. Your role as a Product Manager is to bridge the gap, bring clarity to their concerns, and refocus their energy into productive collaboration.

You can navigate this situation with strategy, empathy, and a touch of diplomacy. Here’s how:

Think of your founder as a stakeholder

At their core, founders are stakeholders with unique incentives, pressures, and goals. The key is to treat them as you would any other stakeholder: understand their motivations, align on priorities, and address their concerns.

So when founders get more involved, conduct discovery. Ask what they’re trying to solve, what they’re worried about, and what success looks like to them. You can even map out their goals to the team’s objectives so they can see how the work aligns with their vision.

By knowing what they need from you, you can produce work that reassures them and gets them off your back.

Get to the root of the problem

Founder mode often happens when trust has wavered or when the founder feels the team isn’t meeting expectations. This realization can suck at first. Instead of getting defensive and pushing back against their involvement, dig deeper to understand why they’re stepping in and what’s gone astray.

As a Product Manager, you probably already know when something isn’t meeting the mark, so collaborate on this to see if you can leverage their insight to find a solution together.

Show that you’re part of the team. One reason founders might adopt founder mode is because they feel they lack a team they can trust. Reassure them by being their ally. Share progress transparently, invite their feedback (without handing over the reins), and highlight how their expertise can complement the team’s efforts, rather than overriding them.

Speak their language: use evidence and outcomes

Founders are wired to respond to proof. If they’re questioning your decisions, come prepared with evidence that backs your approach. Whether it’s user research, metrics, or validated experiments, show them the thought process behind the team’s direction. This lets them know that you’re not floating aimlessly in the current.

Use validation and prioritization frameworks to demonstrate that your decisions are grounded in data, not guesswork, and show how the team’s progress supports the company’s overarching goals.

Need some frameworks to help guide your proof? We’ve got a whole list of them in this ebook:

Master the art of saying no

When a founder brings unqualified ideas to the table, shutting them down outright can create friction and put your head on the line. Instead, steer the conversation toward alignment.

Frame your responses around shared goals, something like “That’s an interesting idea – how do you see it contributing to [X objective]?” Deploy validation techniques to assess their suggestions constructively. If an idea doesn’t hold up, the data will speak for itself.

There are loads of techniques on how to say no as a Product Manager, so choose the one that works for you. 

Frame founder mode as a collaboration opportunity

While founder mode can feel disruptive, it also opens the door to closer collaboration. Use the opportunity to align on strategy, learn from their experience, and strengthen the team’s relationship with leadership. A founder may not be the guru of everything, but they’re going to have insight you don’t have.

If you have a founder who wants to be more involved without being overbearing, invite them to join strategy sessions or roadmap discussions in a structured way. Use their insights to refine the team’s work, but ensure that their involvement remains constructive.

Should Product Managers adopt founder mode themselves? 

There’s been some chatter suggesting that Product Managers should embrace founder mode principles. Let’s be clear: that’s not the move.

Micromanaging or trying to run every aspect of your product single-handedly undermines your team’s expertise and autonomy. Your role isn’t to know everything; it’s to enable your team to shine.

But what’s worth adopting is the founder mindset.

Founders think about their products with unparalleled care and commitment. It’s their legacy, their life’s work, their reputation on the line. They take calculated risks, stay hyper-focused on the company’s success, and consider the broader implications of every decision. This level of dedication can be transformative for a PM aiming to create better products.

While you might not have the same stakes as a founder, you can bring that level of investment and thoughtfulness to your role. Care deeply about your product. Stay strategic and make decisions with long-term growth in mind. This doesn’t mean sidelining your team, it means inspiring them by modeling the passion and commitment that makes founders effective.

Adopting this mindset helps you approach your product with purpose while still leveraging the strengths of your team. In other words, think like a founder but lead like a PM.

What to do instead of founder mode 

Right, I’m speaking directly to founders now. This one’s for you. I get it, sometimes I struggle with the pull to dive into the weeds and take charge again. You care about your product, your team, and your company’s success, but now you also know the pitfalls of founder mode. So, what should you do instead when you get that urge?

First, take a step back and reflect. Ask yourself: Why am I stepping in here? Is it because you feel your team isn’t capable? Or maybe it’s because you have knowledge or intuition that the team doesn’t? Perhaps it’s due to external pressures you’re facing that the team isn’t aware of.

Whatever the reason, recognize it. Then, instead of jumping in, share your insights. Bring your intuition, business context, or industry knowledge to the table in a way that empowers your team. Your job is to make sure they have the information they need to align with your vision – not to execute it for them.

Lastly, trust the team you’ve built. If you’re struggling to delegate, ask yourself if the issue lies in the team’s skills, alignment, or your own ability to let go. If there’s a gap, work together to address it. There are better options than taking on the success of your product yourself.

Founder mode isn’t all that: protect yourself from it

Let’s call it like it is, founder mode isn’t a cool badge of honor. For most, if founder mode is working, I think that it’s a warning sign.

While it’s tempting to see it as a noble return to the trenches, the reality is that this hands-on, hyper-controlling approach creates more problems than it solves. It sidelines talented teams, erodes trust, and stifles innovation: all while placing an unsustainable amount of pressure on the founder.

The truth is that great companies aren’t built by a single pair of hands but by empowering many. The real magic happens when founders follow conventional management wisdom, step back, trust their teams, and focus on long-term strategy rather than short-term fixes. Founder mode might feel like a necessary move during turbulent times, but it’s rarely the right one.

So, protect yourself – and your teams – from this micromanagement masquerade. A great way to do that is with ProdPad. Here, you give everyone eyes on your roadmap and ensure that your Ideas are tied to business outcomes – two things your founder and C-level execs are going to love. The visibility and best practices built into ProdPad help maintain alignment and keep your teams working smoothly and in harmony, building trust in you.

Learn more about how ProdPad can support Product Managers with a personal demo.

The post Founder Mode: Protecting Yourself From this New Form of Micromanagement appeared first on ProdPad.

How do you get onto the Product Manager career path?

Looking longingly at a career in Product Management? Are you in a role where it feels like Product Management is the next logical step? Well, how are you going to get there?

That is honestly, still up to you. Product Management isn’t this closed-off industry where you need a certain qualification and particular experience to get into it. If you want to be a lawyer, you kind of need to go to law school. A doctor – you better be studying at a Medical school for 4 years. As for Product Management: the doors are kind of left open for you.

To understand how to get onto the Product Management career path, let’s look at how it was done in the past and compare that to how the way in looks now. 

Back in the day

If you want to become a Product Manager, my advice is don’t copy the great Product Leaders that came before. I say that because there’s not really a set route that you can copy. You see, Product Management is a relatively new role. Only in recent years have there been dedicated Product Management courses and education that can give you a qualification and help you enter this role.

Before this, people came into Product Management from loads of different backgrounds, both in terms of their education and previous career paths. The variety is staggering!

I asked my social network – which you should join by the way – about their pathway into Product Management and got so many varied replies. Although this isn’t a scientific study and is biased towards my connections, the results were still illuminating, so much so that I decided to put all the previous roles mentioned into a table:

As you can see, there are definitely some roles that appear to be more common stepping stones into Product Management than others, with Marketing roles, Software Engineering, Business Analysis, and Project Management being some of the most common.

But still, there’s an even spread between these roles, which says to me that there’s really no defined way into Product Management. Multiple roles can give you some crucial, transferable skills that can make Product Management a perfect career.

This graph doesn’t even include some of the more ‘out there’ roles that people had on their way to Product Management. Among the replies, we’ve had a Computer Scientist, a Theatre Production Manager, and even a Lifeguard.

All this is to say that if you don’t think you’re on the right path, don’t worry, because it turns out, neither were any of us. 

What to do today to get onto the Product Manager career path

As alluded to, things are a little different today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. You’ve got excellent Product Management qualifications to give you a kickstart – like the King’s College Product Management Career Accelerator course that I had a hand in creating – and loads more information to learn from.

We’ve asked some leading product pros what they recommend to someone who’s keen to get into Product Management today. Here’s their advice: 

Jason’s advice is spot on: if you’re eyeing a Product Manager role, jumping into an Individual Contributor (IC) position on a solid product team can be a great place to start. Whether you’re an Engineer, Designer, Analyst, or Copywriter, these roles give you hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of product development, building, testing, prioritizing, and rethinking. It’s the perfect way to develop transferable skills while learning how to collaborate and tackle the messy, real-world challenges of creating great products.

He also singles out UX research as a standout prep role, and for good reason. Understanding the user or customer is central to effective Product Management, and a background in UX and UI equips you with the tools to gather, analyze, and apply insights that directly shape product decisions.

But what to do once you’ve gained this experience? Jump into a fresh PM role at a new company, or change position in your current organization? Well, most believe that the latter approach is the easiest:

It’s tough to get noticed without direct experience. By transitioning internally, you leverage existing relationships and company knowledge to make your case. Sometimes, building genuine connections with people in the industry can open doors that resumes alone can’t.

All in all, the best route into Product Management today depends entirely on where you are in your career. A person fresh out of school has different opportunities available to them than someone who’s been around the block in different roles. But whatever you do, gaining experience is crucial, no matter who you ask.

One interesting avenue of discussion is that many current PMs think a background in Business Analysis is going to support them. Heck, many don’t even think there’s much that distinguishes between the two roles, with Product Management simply being an evolution of Business Analysis.

I’m not going to go into whether I fully agree with that assessment or not, you can draw your own conclusions, but it’s clear that there is a strong connection between the role and Product Management. In fact, for many aiming to be a Product Manager, it was suggested to them that they seek out experience in Business Analysis first.

So why am I bringing this up? Well, because it highlights an important truth about Product Management: the skills you bring into the role matter just as much as the title you’ve held.

A background in Business Analysis equips you with some of the foundational tools you’ll need to succeed as a Product Manager – digging into data, understanding user needs, mapping processes, and collaborating with product teams. These are all core parts of the PM toolkit. For many, it’s a natural stepping stone.

But here’s the kicker: while Business Analysis is one path in, it’s far from the only one. The key is to focus on the transferable skills that align with Product Management.

So, whether you’re coming from a Business Analyst role or some other field entirely, don’t get hung up on the “right” path. The industry is wide open to those who can roll up their sleeves, ask the right questions, and create value for customers. 

What skills do you need to progress along the Product Manager career path?

So you don’t need a specific degree or background to break into Product Management, but you can’t waltz into the role without the right skills.

If you want to land a spot on the Product Manager career path, it’s crucial to develop attributes that align with the role’s demands. Many roles and courses can help you build these skills, but to give you a sense of where to focus, here’s a quick rundown of the core skills every aspiring Product Manager needs:

• Customer empathy: Understanding the needs, pain points, and motivations of your customers is essential. A strong sense of empathy allows you to prioritize features and solutions that truly matter, creating products people love.

• Strategic thinking: Product Managers must see the bigger picture. This means setting long-term goals, aligning your product vision with business objectives, and ensuring your team stays focused on outcomes over outputs.

• Communication skills: From pitching ideas to stakeholders to guiding cross-functional teams, clear and persuasive communication is non-negotiable. The better you are at explaining the why behind decisions, the smoother your development cycles will run.

• Data analysis: Numbers tell a story. Whether you’re evaluating user metrics, testing hypotheses, or measuring success, being able to analyze and act on data ensures your product decisions are grounded in reality.

• Prioritization: With countless ideas and finite resources, prioritization is a survival skill. Knowing how to balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints is critical to shipping the right things at the right time.

• Collaboration: Product Managers work at the intersection of engineering, design, marketing, and sales. Being a team player who can bring diverse groups together to solve problems is key to driving success.

• Adaptability: Things rarely go as planned in Product Management. Whether it’s shifting priorities, unexpected user feedback, or changing market trends, the ability to pivot gracefully is a game-changer.

Breaking down a ‘typical’ Product Manager career path

So you’ve broken into Product Management. The Product Manager career path doesn’t just end there. There’s so much more room for you to grow.

There’s a notion that once you’re in Product Management, you have a straight, defined route to the top. Clear stepping stones you need to tread to reach the dizzying heights of Chief Product Officer. I don’t think it’s that simple.

Many people have come into Product sideways, through the back door. Who’s to say there are no more sideways and diagonal movements product professionals can make?

When looking into the Product Manager career path, you may be confronted with a simplistic structure that looks something like this:

You get your start as a Product Owner
You graduate into a Product Manager  
You then step into a Senior Product Manager role   
Soon enough you become a Director of Product
You then make the leap to Vice President of Product  
Finally, you’re the top dog as a Chief Product Officer

There’s soooooo much more nuance to this. There are loads more exciting and interesting roles that you can grow into. If you’re a new Product Manager, this route can make it feel like your future is already carved out for you. But what if you don’t want to step into a senior role that trades managing products for managing people? What if you want to specialize in a certain area of Product Management? Well, the good news is, you can.

Susana Lopes discussed the dual-track career path in one of her past talks at Mind The Product 2023 and it really left a mark on me. This is a great explanation in that there is a separate pathway for those wanting to stick around the product and stay in the weeds of product development, getting their hands dirty in improving the product. You don’t have to sacrifice your growth by pursuing this path.

It’s a fascinating discussion of how the Product Manager career path can branch off into different directions. But I think it can go even deeper.

See, I’d propose that the Product Manager career path isn’t a path at all, but a tree sprouting different branches. You’ve got your core Product Management role at the base, the truck, with everything else growing out from it.

Landing a role in Product Management doesn’t have to be the apex of your career. It can be the start. Imagine yourself a seedling – you can bloom into anything you want. 

And what about the roles that came before you? The roles that led to you getting your first Product Management position? Well, those are the roots that have given you a strong foundation and the skills needed to excel in Product Management.

Here’s a visual of what this Product Manager career tree may look like. Of course, we couldn’t fit EVERY product adjacent role into this, and it doesn’t include every possible route through Product Management, but based on our previous research, it appears to be some of the typical ways people move through the PM career journey.

I know not everyone will match this, but it should help paint the picture that the route up is not linear, it’s not a straight line – it’s a mess of different disciplines and skills and viewpoints and that’s what makes the industry so interesting. 

How is the Product Manager career path set to change?

Things don’t tend to sit still for long in tech and SaaS, so don’t expect the Product Manager career path to settle into a fixed rhythm anytime soon. There are so many new roles being introduced and different ways of doing Product Management –  I think this is going to change how the Product Manager career path looks going forward. Here are some key areas where the Product Manager career path may change.

A slowdown on specialized roles

See, not even a decade ago, Product Managers were seen as a jack-of-all-trades, dipping into different specializations and offering insight where they can. But recently, we’ve seen a major shift in this. Today, companies are focused on getting specialized PMs to perform specific tasks and focus on a certain area surrounding the product.

One of the biggest growing specializations is, somewhat fittingly, Growth PM roles. This position has risen 117% since 2022, demonstrating the appetite businesses have to scale. Here, core PMs are being usurped by ones specifically focused on driving business growth.

But here’s the thing, I think after an initial boom, these specialized roles are going to die off and become absorbed into the Product Management role, becoming core responsibilities instead of specified job role focuses.

If you’re in a position where you need to show you’re influencing growth as a PM, check out our webinar on how to ‘do’ Growth Product Management : 

Once again, I believe that these will become just another hat that a Product Manager needs to wear, meaning that those looking to enter Product Management will need to be pretty multifaceted. 

I’m not alone in this mindset. Other top Product leaders believe this is the next trend in the industry. 

IC track roles are going to catch up 

The IC track is still a new route to senior positions in Product Management, and because of that, there’s still a discrepancy between say a Distinguished Product Manager and a VP of Product.

This is changing, slowly and surely, with this route becoming a more viable pathway to follow, allowing more technically minded folks to continue to influence the success of their product without having to face managerial and leadership responsibilities that could leave them burned out.

Watch this space on the dual-track career path, as it’s seriously something that can take off and reshape the Product Manager career path. 

There’ll be even more PMs outside the US (and Silicon Valley)

Product Management can sometimes feel like a solely American role. That makes sense, FAANG companies were among the first to make the role trendy and pay big bucks for Product Managers. They made the role popular and most just so happened to all be headquartered in Silicon Valley, hence the still existing focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.

But things have been changing now – Product Management is undeniably global.

Yes, some companies may still require applicants for top Product Management positions to relocate to the US, but there are so many new Product Management hubs that are making the industry more diverse and more accessible than ever before, and they’re growing.

The rise of remote working – which is not going away – and the effectiveness of digital collaboration tools means we’re going to see even more international teams and more PMs from locations beyond the US. 

Product Managers can start to aim bigger

Don’t let our Product Manager career tree fool you. There are plenty of more senior positions that you can aim for beyond being a Chief Product Officer. There’s a growing trend of Product Managers spreading their influence in wider, more adjacent fields, which is going to have a big influence on where businesses in tech go.

More Product Managers are starting to land Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Operating Officer roles. Plenty have also climbed the ranks to become CEOs at some major companies.

Heck, loads of Product Managers are now becoming Founders of their own companies, using their expertise to build start-ups. The success that many have had should be a good indication that those on the Product Manager career path can begin to dream a bit bigger. The skills you hone and develop as a product person are now getting valued at the highest levels of business leadership. 

You set your own path 

The Product Manager career path is as unique and varied as the people who walk it. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, no golden staircase leading to the C-suite. You can forge your own path. Whether you’ve stumbled into the field from an unexpected career or carefully planned your every move, the beauty of Product Management lies in its flexibility.

Unlike more rigid industries, the pathway to the top is less of a ladder and more of a tree – rooted in diverse skills, branching into endless opportunities, and growing in directions that suit your ambitions.

If there’s one thing a new PM should take away, it’s this: whether you’re charting your first steps on the Product Manager career path or considering your next move, remember: there’s no “right” path, only the one that aligns with your goals and interests.

So embrace the unexpected, lean into your transferable skills, and trust that the winding road ahead is exactly where you’re meant to be. In Product Management, every twist, turn, and pivot is an opportunity to grow.

And if you want to supercharge your growth and become a better Product Manager, consider using the best tools for the job. Every Product Manager needs a roadmapping tool, and the best choice is ProdPad. With ProdPad you’ll have best practices built-in, with templates and prompts to help you better define your ideas, optimize your backlog, and build products that drive business growth.

ProdPad can make you go from good to great. See what we can do yourself with a free trial – no strings attached.

The post The Product Manager Career Path is Not a Straight Line appeared first on ProdPad.

What is product benchmarking?

Product benchmarking is the practice of comparing your various product metrics against a set of standards to judge how well your product is performing. These standards are goals that you’ll want to at least match, and ideally exceed. Product benchmarking allows you to assess your product’s performance relative to industry norms.

A lot of the time, product benchmarking involves analyzing your product against your competitors, seeing how you shape up against others in your industry. You can also benchmark against industry norms, which are the average performance metrics that you can expect an everyday company in your industry to achieve.

Benchmarking helps you assess your product’s strengths and weaknesses and lets you see how you’re getting on compared to the rest of the field. It’s like comparing your grades to everyone else in your class. If the class average is a C+ and you’re getting an A, that means you’re one of the star pupils. Great.

The goal of product benchmarking is to find gaps and uncover opportunities to make sure your product stays competitive. Benchmarking is not a one-and-done task, it’s an ongoing process that allows you to make data-driven decisions about every aspect of your product, like product pricing strategies, the features you offer, and more. 

The two types of product benchmarking

There are two main types of product benchmarking, internal and external. 

• Internal benchmarking: Focuses on comparing your performance and outcomes against yourself, seeing how things have changed over a period of time. By comparing performance against yourself, you’ll be able to see what initiatives have worked and what needs to change to improve performance. 
  
• External benchmarking: This involves analyzing your product against competitors or a set of industry standards. This is where you find out how you stack up against the real world. This is useful when you want to assess your product positioning and find areas where competitors have the edge. 

Ideally, you’ll be using both types of product benchmarking to get a better sense of how you’re doing relative to your industry and to yourself. Focusing on your own product performance helps keep you grounded too. You always want to be a little bit better than yesterday. 

What are the benefits of product benchmarking? 

Product benchmarking is something you definitely should be doing as a Product Manager. There’s a whole range of benefits waiting for you each time you analyze your performance against industry or internal benchmarks. When you benchmark properly, here are some of the things you’ll be able to do: 

Prioritize with precision 

Benchmarking helps you focus on what truly matters by revealing where your product excels and where it stinks. It can confirm areas where you’re already leading the pack or highlight hidden opportunities for improvement. For instance, if your conversion rates are already stellar, you can shift attention to other areas like retention or scalability.

Uncover market trends and stay relevant

Regular benchmarking keeps you informed about market shifts and emerging trends. This helps you adapt your product to meet changing customer expectations, adopt new ideas that are gaining traction, and avoid clinging to outdated features that no longer serve your audience.

Foster continuous improvement

Benchmarking provides actionable insights to improve not only your product but also your processes. Whether it’s optimizing workflows or refining features, this data-driven approach supports ongoing innovation.

Enable data-backed decision-making

With insights from benchmarking, you can confidently prioritize updates, allocate resources, and plan roadmaps based on facts, not hunches. This facilitates data-driven Product Management which allows you to reduce the risk of investing in features or strategies that don’t deliver ROI. 

Set realistic goals

Aiming for the sky is admirable, but set your target too high and you’re just going to end up disappointed. Benchmarking gives you a sense of what’s achievable by showing you where top performers are in your market. This helps set practical yet ambitious goals for your product and team.

What metrics should you measure when product benchmarking? 

When benchmarking your product, the metrics you focus on will typically differ depending on your industry and the type of product you have. For example, a B2B SaaS tool will want to focus on different metrics than an entertainment platform.

That said, some metrics are just more important than others and will be ones that you’ll want to measure and compare against regardless of the industry you’re in. We’ve broken down the most common metrics to benchmark and explain why they matter and why everyone looks at them. 

1. Activation rate

Activation rate measures the percentage of users who complete a key action that signifies they’ve experienced your product’s core value proposition. Known as user activation, this is often the first major hurdle in the user journey. A strong activation rate indicates that your onboarding process and initial value delivery are working as intended.

By comparing your activation rate to that of competitors, you can evaluate whether your entry-point experience meets industry expectations and pinpoint areas for improvement if your rate lags behind.

2. Product stickiness

Product stickiness refers to how often users engage with your product, typically measured by the ratio of Daily Active Users (DAU) to Monthly Active Users (MAU). A sticky product is one that users find indispensable, making it a critical indicator of long-term engagement and user retention.

Benchmarking your product’s stickiness against competitors allows you to gauge whether users are engaging with your product on a regular basis, signaling that your product is meeting their day-to-day needs. If your stickiness is lower than competitors, it might point to areas where your product is failing to capture frequent usage or ongoing user interest.

3. Feature adoption rate

Feature adoption rate tracks the percentage of users who regularly use a specific feature out of the total number of active users. This metric helps you understand how well individual features resonate with your user base. When benchmarking feature adoption, comparing your rates to others in your space can highlight features that are underutilized and suggest opportunities to improve those features, making them more valuable and appealing.

If a particular feature has low adoption compared to industry standards, it could indicate usability issues or a lack of user education around its benefits, which you can address by creating a killer product tour to improve overall engagement.

4. Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures customer loyalty and satisfaction by asking users how likely they are to recommend your product to others on a scale of 0 to 10. This score gives a broad picture of your product’s reputation and overall customer sentiment.

A high NPS compared to industry benchmarks can suggest that users are highly satisfied and willing to advocate for your product. On the other hand, a low score signals areas for improvement.

By benchmarking your NPS against the average standard in your industry, you can gain insights into where your product stands in terms of user loyalty and identify specific areas to focus on for boosting customer satisfaction.

5. Customer churn rate

Customer churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who stop using your product within a specific time frame. High churn is often a warning sign that your product may not be meeting users’ needs or that there are issues with user retention.

By comparing your churn rate to benchmarks, you can determine whether your retention efforts are on par with industry standards. If your churn rate is higher than average, it might suggest a need for improvements in user engagement, product-market fit, or customer support to keep users satisfied and reduce turnover.

6. Pirate Metrics (AARRR Framework)

The Pirate Metrics framework, encompassing Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Referral, and Revenue (AARRR), provides a comprehensive view of your product’s performance throughout the entire user lifecycle. Benchmarking each stage of the AARRR funnel helps you identify strengths and weaknesses across your product’s journey.

For instance, if your retention rate is lower than the benchmark, it might suggest that your users aren’t finding lasting value or engagement in your product. Understanding how each of these stages stacks up against the rest of the industry helps you focus on areas with the greatest impact on your overall performance, guiding you toward optimizing your product for long-term success.

While the above metrics are common benchmarks, the specifics will shift based on your industry:

• B2B SaaS: Should also focus on metrics like free-to-paid conversion rates, customer lifetime value (CLTV), and time-to-value. These reflect the subscription-based nature of the model and the importance of long-term customer relationships.
• B2C Products: Metrics like DAU, MAU, and user engagement are more critical, as these products typically rely on high-volume, frequent interactions to thrive.
• E-commerce: Metrics such as average order value, cart abandonment rate, and purchase frequency come into play.

By customizing your benchmarking efforts to your industry and target audience, you can ensure you’re tracking the metrics that matter most, providing insights that directly support your product strategy.

So you know what to measure, but what are the benchmarks you’re looking to beat? Well, Mind The Product has a pretty interesting benchmarking tool that gives details on the overall performance of these metrics for various industries. It’s worth checking out. 

Common product benchmarking mistakes you might be making

Alright, here’s the juicy bit. There are a lot of things at play that mean that you may not be getting the most out of your product benchmarking.

Have you ever done your product benchmarking and felt like crying because everything pales in comparison? Have you ever done your benchmarking, seen where you’re lagging behind, but have no idea how to improve it? If these are common experiences for you when undertaking product benchmarking, the good news is that we’re going to help set you straight and turn this comparison exercise into something truly valuable for you.

If product benchmarking isn’t doing it for you right now, here’s where you may be going wrong: 

You’re comparing against the wrong benchmarks

You need to find the most relevant benchmarks you can to get the most useful comparison. Don’t base your assessment on extremely broad benchmarks that haven’t drilled down into your niche. It’s important to do your research and try to find the most granular data you can. If your product is a B2B SaaS tool, don’t settle for benchmarks for all ‘digital products’.

If your product is an e-commerce platform and you want to assess your ‘time on page’ performance (for example), don’t base your comparison on a general benchmark, look for specific e-commerce website benchmarks. 

Otherwise, you run the risk of unfairly comparing your performance against products that will always have a stronger performance in some areas than you. For example, if you are managing an e-commerce site as your product, you don’t want to be assessing your performance based on benchmarks for, say, returning traffic, which also include tools like email platforms. People are in their emails every day – you can’t compete with that! And nor should you. You need to be looking at benchmarks for returning traffic that are specific to the e-commerce industry.

You’ll also hit issues if you’re trying to conduct your product benchmarking against specific products rather than general industry data.  And that’s because it’s only the super mega-successful companies that are openly sharing their performance metrics! 

It’s a lot easier to gather information from the likes of Google, Slack, and Dropbox, as they are proud of what they’ve achieved and want to boast. These companies often share eye-popping metrics that seem like the gold standard. But here’s the issue: their performance isn’t typical – it’s exceptional. These companies operate on a scale, budget, and level of maturity that most businesses can’t match.

The issue here is that measuring up against these companies means that you end up comparing yourself against the top 1%. Setting your product benchmarking against ultra-successful companies leads to unrealistic expectations. It’s like comparing your weekend jog to an Olympian marathon runner – it sets you up for disappointment and skews your understanding of where you really stand.

It’s fine to aspire to these performance results and try and learn from these companies that are killing it, but it’s not fair to assess your performance against them right now.

The fix: Use benchmarks relevant to your industry and based on aggregate data across the broad spectrum of products in the space.  

It’s like boxing, a Heavyweight can’t fight a Featherweight as it’s an unfair matchup. This “weight class” approach ensures the comparison is fair and actionable. You’ll gain insights that are actually relevant to your business. 

You’re measuring against unreliable data

So you want to benchmark against competitors, but that creates another issue. Unlike big players that often flaunt their success, most companies keep their performance metrics close to their chest. I imagine you’re not posting every minute detail about your Q3 performance, so don’t expect your competitors to do the same.

This means that you have to rely on industry reports that provide an average across a specific market – that’s what benchmarks are after all. Although useful, you need to be mindful that this only provides a snapshot, and may not be as nuanced as you’d ideally like. Plus, these reports are usually released annually, meaning that you end up benchmarking against outdated statistics.

All this can lead you to draw wrong conclusions about your product performance.

The fix: Combine external benchmarks with internal data. If you’re struggling to establish a baseline, draw on your own performance metrics to establish what you need to do and where you need to be going. This can help you supplement the industry benchmarks you may already know. 

You’re focusing on vanity metrics 

Some metrics are great for stoking your ego but don’t really tell you the true health and performance of your product. They may look impressive at first, but may not give you any actionable insights to help you improve things.

For example, having a huge number of overall app downloads might look cool, but it means nothing if your activation and retention rate is abysmal. By skimming this surface-level insight, you risk ignoring more useful metrics about your product’s actual performance.

The fix: Shift your attention from vanity metrics to actionable metrics tied to product outcomes. Things like activation and feature adoption give you more of a clue on whether users find your product valuable. With these detailed metrics as part of your product benchmarking, you’ll know what you need to focus on to improve. 

You’re looking at lagging metrics

Product benchmarking metrics can either look backward or point forward. Metrics like churn rate or revenue often reflect outcomes from decisions made weeks or months ago. While important, they’re backward-looking indicators that tell you what happened, not what’s happening now or what’s likely to happen in the future.

Lagging metrics don’t give you the foresight to make proactive changes. By the time you identify a problem, the damage might already be done. For example, noticing a spike in churn after months of decline means you’re reacting to a crisis instead of preventing it.

The fix: Focus on leading metrics when product benchmarking. These are statistics that by improving them, you’re sure to drive growth. metrics such as activation rate, feature engagement, or product stickiness, provide early signals of potential success or failure. Use these to stay ahead of problems and respond to trends before they snowball into larger issues. 

Your product benchmarking metrics don’t tell you how to improve

All metrics paint a picture and let you know how you’re performing, but when benchmarking your product, you want to isolate metrics that give you insight into where you need to improve. For example, say you’re benchmarking ARR and see that you’re pretty far behind the industry standard. It’s useful to know that you’re behind, but now you’ll be scratching your head trying to figure out why.

It’s like comparing your 100m sprint time to 2024 Olympic Champion Noah Lyles. You can see that your time of 15s (we’re being generous here) against his 9.78s is worse, but why? This metric doesn’t tell where to improve. Is it because he’s got a longer stride? A quicker reaction time off the blocks? Has better lung capacity? You just don’t know where to start to make the biggest improvements. This could lead to you focusing on improving something that gives you marginal gains.

Say you find out that your reaction time off the block is actually comparable to Noah’s, but it’s your stride length that’s letting you down. You’ll get bigger gains by focusing on what’s worse. This is the same thing you need to do with your product – look at metrics that shine a light on the best areas to improve so that you can allocate resources well and efficiently to improve performance.

The fix: Every metric you track in product benchmarking should have a clear purpose, and make it clear what aspect of your product you need to work on. Tracking monthly recurring revenue tells you nothing – but tracking your Customer Retention Rate tells you whether users are sticking around long enough to generate that revenue, and this can give a better indication of what you must do to improve it. 

So, how do you measure up?

Not getting the most out of your product benchmarking? Well, hopefully with this overview and advice on how to fix common mistakes, you’ll be able to compare better and see how you match up. Benchmarking is more than just seeing how you’re doing against others; the focus should be on learning where you should look to improve to make gains and stay competitive.

Product benchmarking is a tool to drive product growth and to make you more successful, so be sure to utilize these tips to take your product benchmarking to the next level.

And if you’re keen to improve your entire Product Management process, why not give ProdPad a try? Our tools help PMs implement best practices into their everyday workflow, helping you to manage roadmaps, tie customer feedback to ideas, and a hell of a lot more. Plus, we’re benchmarking pretty well against other Product Management tools .

But don’t just take our word for it word for it, why not see for yourself. Schedule a demo with one of our product experts and see what ProdPad can do for you.

The post Product Benchmarking: How to Do It Right to Improve Your Product Performance appeared first on ProdPad.

How do you know when the time is right for hiring Product Managers? 

It’s a big call knowing when to get a new Product Manager. What should you be looking out for? What indicates it’s time to open your doors and welcome a new PM in? Well, that depends on the situation of your company at the time. 

Getting your first-ever Product Manager will have different considerations than when getting a second, third or fourth. The timing for hiring your first PM largely depends on your founding team’s makeup and capabilities. In the early days of a startup, Founders often fill the Product Management role themselves. Many Founders have a “product” mindset, they’re already focused on identifying market needs, talking to early customers, and iterating on an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). This phase is usually manageable without a dedicated PM, as the Founder is deeply involved in both product development and strategy.

However, the need for a PM becomes evident when the demands on the Founder’s time grow too large. As the business scales, the Founder’s focus shifts to other responsibilities, like fundraising, marketing, or hiring, leaving less time for essential Product Management tasks such as customer discovery, iteration, and market positioning. When the Founder can no longer dedicate the necessary time to product direction, it’s time to bring in a dedicated Product Manager.

At this stage, you’re likely going to be looking for a generalist, someone who can do it all, as they’re going to have fingers in a lot of different pies at this early stage of the company.


But say you’ve already got an established product team structure. You have your Product Manager, Engineer, and Designer working well in a Product Trio. How do you know when you need another one? 

Well, the signs are pretty similar, as you’ll usually be bringing one in when your current PM starts to feel overloaded with responsibilities. If they’re struggling to find enough time for proper product discovery, or finding it hard to keep momentum moving on initiatives, it’s a big indication that they need some support.

This support may not necessarily be in the form of hiring more Product Managers. You could consider hiring someone junior to assist or bringing in a specialist to complement the first PM’s skill set.

If you are hiring Product Managers, think more about the specific skills you need. Your first Product Manager is likely a generalist, handling every stage of the complete Product Management lifecycle. If you’re looking to hire a second or third PM, you may want to split the responsibilities and have a Product Manager who’s dedicated to customer discovery while another handles internal processes.

Of course, as your company starts to scale and adds new products, your hands are pretty much tied and you’ll need a PM to handle each product. 

What makes a good candidate when hiring Product Managers?

When hiring Product Managers, you naturally want the best. The cream of the crop. The pic of the bunch. The creme de la creme. But what does that actually look like? Well here are some important skills to look out for.

Personally, I love to see an application where the candidate has identified the problem we’re trying to solve and then speaks about why they’ve got the experience to solve that issue. Not only does it feel personal and show they’ve taken the time to get to know our situation, but it highlights that they have an inquisitive mind and are a problem-solver. 

Too many applications just read like a list of all the things the person is great at. But if those skills aren’t relevant to what we need from a new Product Manager right now, it may as well be a shopping list. 

Plus, many applicants go into detail about how this position could be good for them. They’re looking inwardly in a selfish way, speaking of how the role can help them learn and develop their career. That’s all well and good, but you’re not running a charity. Ideally, you want a Product Manager who can help your business improve, not the other way around.

When hiring Product Managers, look out for those who detail what they can do for you. Something like:

Now that’s interesting. That’s the mark of a great Product Manager. Like Giff Constable said in our webinar on how to become a CPO, It’s all about demonstrating that they’ve seen this movie before, and know the script for how to act it out. They’ve been able to see your needs, so they’re probably pretty good at seeing your customers’ needs and building a better product off the back of that research. 

Giff said a lot more great things in our chat. If you’re looking to climb the ladder and become a Chief Product Officer, or want tips on how to excel in the position, check out our on-demand webinar below: 

Of course, the above is a general view of what makes a good Product Manager. To ensure you get a good candidate for your situation when hiring Product Managers, you need their skills to match what you need. 

You need to hire the right Product Manager for you

You need to find a Product Manager that matches your needs and fits into your culture. A stunning candidate for one business may not be the best fit for yours, and you need to be aware of that when hiring Product Managers. Don’t be tempted to get a PM that looks good on paper if they’re not able to provide a solution to the problem you face. 

You could be stung by getting a generalist when you really need someone who can specialize in a function that you need for your business. Look at your needs. Is your product suffering from high customer churn? You’ll benefit from a PM who has experience in this over one who doesn’t.  

You should be thinking about what problem you’re trying to solve for your business and what change you hope this role is going to make for the business. You also have to think about how your business operates and if the PM suits it. Are there particular rituals that they need to be part of? Things like daily stand-ups or scrums, retros or backlog refinement meetings. Outline these things and figure out exactly the type of Product Manager you want for this role.

Also think about the non-negotiable skills you need, as this will shape the ideal PM for you. Of course, you need the general skills for the role, but there might be something specific for you that you can’t look past. For ProdPad, that’s an understanding and appreciation of agile, outcome-based roadmaps. It’s kind of our thing. If a candidate comes in declaring their unwavering love for Gantt charts and timeline roadmaps, that’s an obvious tell that it’s not going to work. 

How do you attract the best talent when hiring Product Managers?

You won’t attract the best minds in product with any old job ad. To get the best when hiring Product Managers, you need to be perceived as the best and look like an exciting and rewarding option for applicants. Your job descriptions need to be compelling, showcasing the exciting opportunities that the role offers. 

When hiring Product Managers, you’re selling the organization just as much as the applicant is trying to sell themselves. Talk about the attractive things about your role, be that the money you can offer, the education you can provide, or the prestige of the business. Whatever gets people through the door. It’s like a lure when fishing. Sure, low-grade worms may be enough to catch a prime bluefin tuna, but you’ll have a better chance of making a catch if you use premium squid bait. 

When writing our job specs here at ProdPad, we make an effort to cover why the job is important and where it fits in the bigger picture. We disclose what applicants will learn in the role, and we spell out the benefits. This helps us inspire the best applicants. You don’t want to be seen as another job to add to the pile, you want applicants to be excited by the opportunity.

Just be detailed in what you offer. Different people are going to have different prerogatives for what they’re looking for in a role. The best applicants for you are going to have wants and needs that line up with what you’re offering. 

What interview questions should you ask when hiring Product Managers? 

Interviews are your chance to learn more about your applicants and extract more nuggets of information that can indicate if they’ll be a good hire or not. To do this, you need to ask the right questions. You want to hit them with meaningful questions that get them thinking, saying things that go further than rehearsed lines they think you want to hear. Try and have an actual conversation. The following questions are a good place to start.

• What do you think about roadmapping?
• Tell me about a time when something didn’t go to plan and you had to pivot. 
• How do you define success?
• How do you gather feedback and how do you use it to inform decisions?
• The CEO has a product idea, but you have data that shows it’s not the right thing to do. How do you approach that?
• Talk us through your resume.

Let’s delve into each of these questions in turn…

What do you think about roadmapping?

What I like about this question is that it’s pretty broad and can be interpreted in many ways, leading to plenty of interesting discussions. Candidates can talk about what they think should go on a roadmap, their thoughts on different roadmap formats, or why they take the approach they do with their roadmap. 

Roadmapping is a core part of the Product Management role, so a candidate will usually have a lot to talk about here and can help you learn how they’re going to approach their work and if their views align with your company.

Tell me about a time when something didn’t go to plan and you had to pivot. 

This is a great question to ask when hiring Product Managers, as it gives you insight into their decision-making process and how they evaluate the performance of a product. What metrics do they care about and what did they do to change the outcome? 

A good candidate would answer this question by explaining how they assessed market signs and other data, as well as how they managed risk when making the strategic shift. 

How do you define success?

Asking this when hiring Product Managers is a powerful way to assess a candidate’s mindset, priorities, and alignment with your company’s goals. It can reveal not just their personal values, but also how they evaluate the success of a product or feature and the broader impact on the business.

It shows you how they think about the product vision, and gives you an insight into if they’re taking into consideration things like customer value and other customer-centric points.

You’ll need to listen out for the particular metrics your Product Manager candidates cite and how they calculate return-on-investment. You should prepare for these interviews by reviewing all the available Product Management KPIs and having an idea of the ones that would be most important in this role. Download our complete list of KPIs and find the most meaningful ones for your product. 

To learn more about the possible ways a Product Manager can measure the ROI of their work, download our guide. Armed with this knowledge, you’ll know what to listen out for when it comes to how they measure success. 

How do you gather feedback and how do you use it to inform decisions?

This question is fundamental to ask when hiring Product Managers as it explores their direct processes as well as their prioritization skills. What do they do to figure out what feedback should be acted upon? 

It can also demonstrate their bias. Do they focus on data or do they focus on qualitative information through interviews and surveys? It also shines a light on how they use feedback as an iterative process.

The CEO has a product idea, but you have data that shows it’s not the right thing to do. How do you approach that?

This question is all about stakeholder management. How does the candidate manage other people and communicate their ideas? You’re looking for someone that has the guts to say no when it’s right, but who has the skills and empathy to know the right ways of saying no. 

If you’re wondering what the best ways to say no as a Product Manager are, we’ve spoken with Melissa Appel to get the best tips. You can watch our webinar here:

Ask about their resume

This isn’t so much a question but a tip to the interviewer – ask more about the resume, and get the applicant to explain some things. Due to the nature of resumes, a lot of the information on there is cherry-picked. They want to put their best foot forward, so of course everything is going to be overwhelmingly positive. 

Try and get the context around what they’ve done. Ask if their performance exceeded expectations and try to understand what their goals were in their roles – how were they measured? Instead of just seeing the nice cherries they’ve picked off, you see more of the entire tree. 

Common mistakes when hiring Product Managers

Hiring Product Managers, or any other role for that matter, can be a bit of a burden. It’s a time sink, takes up resources, and is expensive. That’s why when you go through the hiring process, you want to do it right. 

Mess things up, and you could be left with a Product Manager that isn’t right for you and is struggling as a result. That’s not on them, it’s on you for not doing things properly. To avoid the awkward situation of making a hire that doesn’t work out, be aware of these common mistakes. 

Look past titles

It can be hard to tell how good of a Product Manager someone will be by looking at their job titles alone. A person who’s held senior positions or product-orientated roles may seem really exciting at first, but these roles don’t actually tell you how involved they’ve been and what skills they had to call into action. 

Roles and titles are all over the place in Product Management and can sometimes pull the wool over your eyes. For example, you could come across a Product Lead that implies they have leadership experience, but learn that they only had a tiny team. Not ideal if you’re looking for someone to manage a large product team. 

Often, you can find great people who never had lofty or product-related titles, but because of the structure of their past organization were involved in doing great product stuff. You want to focus on the stories of your applicants. Sometimes the titles don’t give the full picture. Sure, Alice in Wonderland kind of gives you the whole synopsis, but have you ever read Clockwork Orange? I don’t remember oranges or clocks being a major part of it. 

Don’t worry about qualifications 

Try not to get all hot and bothered about an applicant that has qualifications and certifications from X. Y, and Z. Yes, these can suggest that these PMs have a good knowledge base and have put in the work to learn more, but these qualifications are not a replacement for real-world experience. 

Sure, these can equip PMs with the theory and vocabulary of Product Management, but there’s no indication that they’ve put what they’ve learned into practice. It’s much better to have a PM who’s been in the trenches and learned from doing, failing, and then iterating. 

We don’t want to poo-poo qualifications too much. If presented alongside tangible experience and evidence of success, then great, that’s a candidate who’s got the knowledge and expertise down. Think of it like this – if you’re a football coach looking for a star player, you wouldn’t favor the armchair fan who can recite every play and tactic and has watched every Superbowl. No, you’d ideally pick someone who’s actually played in them.

Let’s not even go into the fact that some qualifications aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. If you want to know which Product Management courses do deliver useful learning, here’s our list of the Product Management courses that you should look out for on a resume: 

Prioritize strategic thinking over technical skills

Oh no, this candidate doesn’t know how to use Figma, time to throw their resume in the bin. Hold your horses there – technical skills shouldn’t be the be-all and end-all when looking for a new Product Manager. 

Of course, you’re going to want adequate skills to ensure they can work their way around your roadmapping tool and whatnot, but it can be damaging to set your focus on getting a boffin who’s a whizz at coding and engineering, etc. The Product Management role is far more strategic than this. Instead, you should champion skills in decision-making, communication, market and customer research, and setting the product vision. It’s all of this that actually helps you make a great product, not how many different coding languages they know. 

Don’t overlook soft skills

Product Managers serve as the bridge between various teams ensuring that everyone is aligned on the product vision. Communication is a big part of the day in the life of a Product Manager. If a PM lacks strong soft skills like communication skills or organization, misunderstandings can occur, leading to delays, misaligned priorities, or a lack of clear direction. 

Likewise, when hiring Product Managers, be hyper aware of how empathetic candidates appear. A PM with poor empathy may struggle to fully understand the customer’s needs, which can result in decisions that don’t resonate with users. 

Leadership is another essential soft skill. Even though many PMs don’t have direct authority over the teams they work with, they must inspire, motivate, and lead cross-functional teams to deliver on the product vision. A Product Manager who can’t foster collaboration or navigate tough conversations may face roadblocks that slow down product development. 

A PM needs to be comfortable in the spotlight, a leading actor, not an extra in the background. 

An important hire

Hiring Product Managers isn’t just about adding new faces to the team – it’s about solving specific problems and moving your business forward. Make sure the candidate has the right mix of skills and experience, and don’t just be dazzled by flashy titles or qualifications. 

A great PM aligns with your business’s needs, rolls with the punches, and knows how to juggle multiple priorities without dropping the ball. Get it right, and they’ll be the driving force that pushes your product and company to the next level. Get it wrong, and, well… you’ll be back on the job board sooner than you’d like.

When hiring a good Product Manager, they’re going to need a good Product Management tool. ProdPad is the only tool built specifically to help make a good Product Manager great. With best practices baked in and functionality to help manage customer feedback, prioritize your roadmap, and plan your backlog, ProdPad equips Product Managers with everything they need to turn strategy into action. 

Give ProdPad a go to see how it can work for you, commitment-free. 

The post Hiring Product Managers: How to Get the Best Talent appeared first on ProdPad.

What is a Customer Feedback Strategy?

A customer feedback strategy is the systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, and utilizing customer opinions, experiences, and feedback to drive product decisions and development. 

It’s about turning the voices of your users into actionable insights that can shape your product’s future. This process helps ensure that your product not only meets but exceeds market expectations, ultimately securing and maintaining product-market fit.

Think of it as being an explorer in a new land. You wouldn’t venture into unknown territory without a map, right? Your customer feedback strategy is that map, guiding you to understand your customers’ needs, pain points, and desires, ensuring you’re building a product that truly resonates with them.

Key Components of a Customer Feedback Strategy

1. Gathering Feedback

The first step is gathering feedback. This isn’t just about sending out the occasional survey. It’s about creating multiple touchpoints for feedback collection, such as:

• Surveys and interviews: These can be structured to gather specific insights.
• Feedback portals: A dedicated space where users can share their thoughts whenever they feel like it.
• Social media and support tools: Leveraging platforms where customers are already active can provide spontaneous and honest feedback.

The goal here is to capture a diverse range of opinions. Imagine you’re a detective piecing together clues from various sources to solve a mystery. Each piece of feedback is a clue that brings you closer to understanding the bigger picture.

I remember back in the early days of building ProdPad, we received feedback, requesting us to build a Google SSO login feature. Initially, we dismissed this as a viable idea because we only had a couple of requests for it, pretty spread out. But as we continued to gather feedback over several months, a trend emerged. More and more users from a specific high value segment were requesting this feature. It was like discovering multiple pieces of a puzzle that finally fit together. 

This feedback helped us understand not just the need for the feature but the specific use cases and user profiles that would benefit from it. Eventually, we built the feature, and it became a significant selling point for that user segment, and helped us step up our pace with growth.

2. Analyzing Feedback

Collecting feedback is only the beginning. The real magic happens when you start analyzing it. This involves both qualitative and quantitative methods:

• Qualitative analysis: Look at the themes and sentiments in open-ended responses. What are the common pain points? What do users love about your product?
• Quantitative analysis: Analyze numerical data from surveys to understand trends and patterns. Which features are most requested? What are the most frequent complaints?

This step is like sifting for gold. Amidst all the noise, you’ll find valuable nuggets of insight that can guide your product development. Tools like AI can help here, automating the process of identifying patterns and trends in vast amounts of feedback. In ProdPad, we have just such a feature. Our Signals tool will read all your feedback and surface the common themes. Better than spending hours, trawling through your entire feedback pile right?

I had this conversation with a customer just the other day: They were overwhelmed by the volume of feedback they’d received after a major product update. Manually sorting through hundreds of responses was daunting. So they decided to leverage our AI tools to help categorize and analyze the feedback. It was a game-changer. Not only did it save them countless hours, but it also highlighted patterns that they might have missed otherwise. 

For instance, they discovered that while users appreciated the new features, many found the updated interface confusing. This insight led them to tweak the navigation UI, resulting in a more intuitive user experience and a subsequent increase in positive feedback.

3. Using Insights to Drive Action

Insights are only valuable if they lead to action. This is where you take the findings from your analysis and use them to inform your product strategy:

• Prioritize feedback: Not all feedback is created equal. Prioritize based on factors like the number of requests for a feature and its alignment with business objectives.
• Develop new features: Use feedback to identify and develop new features that address customer needs. For example, if numerous users request a Google SSO login, and it fits your target market, prioritize its development.

Think of this as turning raw materials into a finished product. The feedback is your raw material, and your product development process is the factory where it’s refined and shaped into something valuable.

Another example from our journey was when users repeatedly requested a more robust tagging system. Initially, we thought our existing system was sufficient, but the volume and specificity of the feedback told a different story. We analyzed the feedback and realized that users needed more granular control over tags to manage their workflows effectively. 

Acting on this, we revamped the tagging system, adding more ways to wrangle tags in bulk and in line with your work. The result? Our users were thrilled, and we saw a notable uptick in that feature adoption and in wider product satisfaction.

4. Responding to Customer Feedback

Once you’ve gathered and analyzed feedback, it’s crucial to respond to it. This doesn’t mean promising every feature request will be built, but rather, showing customers that their feedback is heard and valued:

• Transparency: Explain how feedback is processed and what changes are planned.
• Communication: Regularly update customers on the status of their feedback and the overall product roadmap.

This step is about closing the feedback loop. It’s like being a good friend who listens and then acts on what you’ve heard, strengthening the relationship.

Super early on in ProdPad’s history, I remember a particular instance when we received a complaint about a bug that caused significant frustration with one of our early users. We prioritized fixing the bug and then went a step further. We reached out to the user who reported it, explained what went wrong, how we fixed it, and thanked her for bringing it to our attention. We gave her space to talk us through any other niggly frustrations she might have had with the product—in fairness, there were quite a few as we were so fresh to market back then! She was not only surprised but also impressed by our proactive approach, and she became one of our most loyal advocates over the years. As a result, we built this approach into our customer feedback strategy ever since—turning every reported bug into an opportunity to win the respect and trust of our customers.  

5. Closing the Loop

Finally, after you’ve acted on the feedback, close the loop by informing customers about the changes made:

• Follow-up: Once a feature is developed based on feedback, reach out to the users who requested it. This not only shows that you value their input but also encourages further engagement.

Think of this as the final flourish in a well-executed plan. It’s the moment where you show your users that their voices truly matter and make a difference.

Why Do You Need a Customer Feedback Strategy?

Whether or not you think you have one or not, you’ve already got a customer feedback strategy. It’s just that if you haven’t intentionally crafted it, it’s probably not fit for purpose or doing you any favors. You might just be skating by by doing the minimum amount of listening and responding in a pretty haphazard manner.

Having a solid customer feedback strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a crucial part of product development. Here’s why:

1. Builds what customers want: Directly addressing customer needs and preferences ensures your product remains relevant.
2. Early problem detection: Regular feedback helps identify potential issues early, allowing for prompt resolution.
3. Mitigates churn risks: Engaged customers who feel heard are less likely to churn.
4. Measures success: Positive feedback indicates successful features, while a lack of negative feedback can signal the resolution of previous issues.

Imagine trying to cook a meal without tasting it along the way. You might end up with something that looks good but tastes terrible. Customer feedback is like tasting your dish as you go, ensuring the final product is something your users will love.

Advantages of Having a Customer Feedback Strategy

1. Enhanced product-market fit: Continuous feedback helps refine the product to better meet market needs.
2. Improved customer satisfaction: Addressing customer concerns and preferences boosts satisfaction and loyalty.
3. Informed decision-making: Data-driven insights lead to better product development decisions.
4. Increased competitive edge: Understanding and responding to customer needs faster than competitors can provide a significant market advantage.

Who is Responsible for a Customer Feedback Strategy?

While the Product Manager (PM) is typically responsible for the customer feedback strategy as part of the broader product strategy, it requires cross-functional collaboration:

• Customer Success Team: Often takes ownership of gathering and triaging feedback.
• Support Team: Acts as the frontline, handling initial feedback and escalating issues as needed.
• Product Team: Analyzes feedback and integrates insights into product development.

How to Overcoming Challenges in Implementing a Feedback Strategy

Implementing a feedback strategy can be challenging. Here are some common obstacles and how to overcome them:

• Lack of Ownership: Ensure clear responsibility by assigning roles to specific teams, such as customer success or product teams.
• Resource Constraints: Use tools like ProdPad to automate and streamline the feedback process, reducing the manual workload.
• Bias in Feedback Interpretation: Use objective methods and diverse feedback sources to minimize bias.

I recall a time when we struggled with resource constraints. We were getting more feedback than we could handle, and it was starting to affect our ability to act on it. We decided to invest in AI tools that could help manage and prioritize the feedback. This decision transformed our process, allowing us to focus on the most critical issues and opportunities, leading to more effective product improvements.

What’s the Future of Customer Feedback Strategies?

As technology evolves, customer feedback strategies will become more sophisticated:

• Leveraging AI: AI can streamline the feedback process, making it easier to gather, analyze, and act on customer insights.
• Closer Customer Relationships: Understanding customer needs will become a key differentiator, with companies needing to be more customer-informed to stay ahead.

Imagine a future where AI not only helps analyze feedback but also predicts customer needs before they even arise. Companies that can harness this power will be able to create truly innovative products that delight users and stay ahead of the competition.

Common Misconceptions About Customer Feedback Strategies

Many companies do not actively think about having a structured feedback strategy, assuming that ad-hoc feedback handling is sufficient. However, without a structured approach, valuable insights can be missed, and feedback may not be effectively integrated into product planning.

I’ve seen companies fall into the trap of treating feedback as an afterthought, only to realize too late that they’ve missed critical signals from their users. A well-structured feedback strategy prevents this, ensuring that every piece of feedback is considered and acted upon where appropriate.

Your cue to take action

To learn more about building a robust customer feedback strategy, check out our detailed guides on gathering feedback, closing the feedback loop and analyzing what you have. Start a trial with ProdPad today and see how we can help you turn customer insights into actionable improvements for your product. Book a demo now!

By implementing a comprehensive customer feedback strategy, you can ensure that your product continues to evolve in line with customer needs, maintaining a strong product-market fit and fostering long-term customer loyalty.

Conclusion

In the end, a customer feedback strategy isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a vital component of successful Product Management. It’s about being an explorer, a detective, and a friend all rolled into one. 

By gathering, analyzing, and acting on customer feedback, you ensure that your product not only meets but exceeds customer expectations. So, start mapping out your feedback strategy today and watch your product soar to new heights!

The post Customer Feedback Strategy: How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Feedback to Make Your Product Better appeared first on ProdPad.

Feature adoption starts at the discovery phase

Getting people to adopt a feature starts long before launch – you lay the groundwork right at the start, in the discovery phase. It’s where you get your feet under you by getting elbow-deep into your users’ problems, pain points, and workflow gaps.

Engage with your users early and often. There’s no point in making something that seems shiny and cool at the time. You need to build something that adds real value to people’s lives.

Validate your assumptions through direct feedback and observation to avoid developing features that miss the mark. Conduct interviews and surveys, and analyze user behavior to pinpoint problems your product can solve in a new or better way than the rest.

With a clear grasp of the problems, get a team together to brainstorm feature ideas with your users in mind. The more diverse your crew the better – including a wide range of skill sets will net you fresh ideas that are both feasible and laser-focused on what users need.

User personas and user story mapping can be a handy way to visualize your user experience and pick out where a new feature could seamlessly integrate into it. 

Understanding your different types of users, and the steps they take to do what they want in your product will help ensure your new features solve real problems and fit naturally into your users’ existing workflows.

Competitive analysis is also really important. Look at how your competitors address similar problems, identify gaps, and find the opportunities they’ve missed. This will help refine your feature ideas – but remember the aim is to outshine them, not just copy their latest successful feature.

De-risk your launches

Nobody wants a feature to land with a thud. That’s where de-risking comes in – it’s like building a safety net for your awesome new feature before you light the fuse on the rocket.

Here’s how to make sure it becomes a user favorite, not a forgotten relic:

Nail your story before you break ground on the code

Take inspiration from Amazon’s “Working Backwards” method, and try writing the press release for your new product before you even start work on it – tell a killer story about what problem it solves and why users will love it. Your putative press release should answer questions like:

• What problem does this feature solve?
• Who will benefit from it?
• How does it improve the user experience?
• What sets it apart from the rest?

If you can’t explain it in a way that’ll make people say “sign me up!”, maybe your idea needs some more work.

Spy on the competition (Shh!)

Before you jump in, check out what your rivals are up to. See what they’re doing well (and not so well) so you can make your feature stand out like a unicorn at a horse race.

Check out what their customers are saying in reviews. See if they have a public roadmap that you could explore. Have a thorough look at their website and help center.

Don’t just steal their ideas, though! Use their strengths and weaknesses to identify gaps in the market. Maybe their feature is clunky and confusing – yours can be smooth and intuitive. Maybe it lacks a key feature – yours can be the whole package.

Talk, talk, talk

Don’t build in a bubble! Talk to your users, your team – basically anyone who might use or be affected by the feature. Get their feedback early and often. It’s like having a built-in focus group before things get serious.

User interviews and surveys are great, but don’t forget your internal team too. Designers, Devs, Marketing, et al. – everyone has a perspective that can help shape the feature.

Test drive before you hit the gas

Don’t unleash a buggy mess on your users. Build a quick and dirty prototype or MVP – think a sketch on a napkin – and see how real people react. This lets you fix any kinks before you invest a ton of time and resources.

A controlled rollout (feature flagging can help here) lets you monitor the feature’s performance and gather feedback from a more manageable group. You can use this feedback to make any necessary adjustments before you commit to a full-scale launch.

Onboarding isn’t just for new products

Launching a feature is like opening a new restaurant – you probably wouldn’t just throw open the doors and hope people know how to order, would you? You’d have a menu and a friendly waiter to explain the dishes and help people pick the perfect combo of options.

Do the same with your feature – make it easy and inviting for users to explore and adopt it. Don’t just drop the feature and expect everyone to figure it out. Use clear messaging, tutorials, and support options to help users understand and embrace your new creation. 

A beta approach to feature adoption

If you feel like you’ve de-risked enough and you can handle the risk, then you might not need a beta. But often beta testing is a great way to understand if the feature will be adopted. If you push it out to a beta group and everyone balks, then you know it probably won’t work when you release it to the wider audience.

Make sure you gather both qualitative and quantitative feedback. See how people interact with the feature, where they struggle, and what they like. Establish a feedback loop –  make necessary adjustments based on the feedback, and communicate those changes back to the people who suggested them. If the feedback is positive, you know you’re on the right track.

How do you measure feature adoption?

Once your new feature is out in the wild, you need to make sure you’ve got the right measures in place to see whether people are actually adopting it. You can’t just press the button and cross your fingers—you need to track how it’s being used.

Event tracking and session replay tools can be incredibly useful to see how people are interacting with your feature. Tools like Mixpanel, Amplitude, and Hotjar let you track specific actions users take, replay sessions to see exactly how they use your feature, and gain insights into their behavior.

Here are some key metrics to track feature adoption:

• Usage Frequency: Measure how often users engage with the feature. Are they using it daily, weekly, or just once and never again?
• Task Completion Rates: Check how effective the feature is by seeing how many users successfully complete the intended tasks using the feature.
• Return Rate: Monitor how often users come back to use the feature again. This helps you understand if the feature has lasting value.

Once you have the usage tracking in place, don’t be blinded by that initial spike when you launch. Sure, it’s exciting, but what you really want to see is sustained usage over time. That’s the pay-dirt.

Make sure the feature becomes part of the fabric of your product, so that people who join later also know about it and use it. Continuous promotion and integration into user onboarding are key to ensuring long-term feature adoption.

By consistently tracking these metrics and keeping a close eye on user behavior, you can understand how well your feature is being adopted and make informed decisions to improve and refine it over time.

How do you sustain feature adoption?

People won’t adopt a feature they don’t know about. So, If you never tell people about the feature again, it just fades into the background. Build it into your onboarding emails, train your Customer Success team to talk about it, and integrate it into in-app flows. This way, new users can discover and start using the feature as part of their regular experience.

You also need to make sure that the feature is easily accessible. There’s no point in hiding it behind complicated menus. Make it a prominent part of the user interface, so people can find it easily and start using it right away.

Regularly update the feature based on user feedback. Show your users that you’re committed to improving the feature and making it even more useful. This continuous improvement helps keep the feature relevant and valuable.

Keep an eye on your adoption metrics and if you see usage dropping, consider promoting the feature afresh. Try dedicating a regular section of your customer newsletter to showcasing a ‘feature of the month’ – it gives you the perfect vehicle for reminding your users about this great feature, well after its launch. That’s what we do here at ProdPad!

Continually promoting your features will help you ensure that they don’t just have a brief blaze of glory but become a valuable and regularly used part of your product.

Who is responsible for feature adoption?

Everyone, frankly. Feature adoption is a whole-team effort. You need to get everyone on board to make sure the feature lands and is successfully adopted.

Product Managers

You’re responsible for understanding user problems, defining the feature, integrating it into the product roadmap, and aligning it with the overall strategy. You’re there to coordinate the efforts across all teams to make sure everyone is aligned. But your job doesn’t stop there.

PMs also own the data. They monitor usage, analyze metrics, and measure how well features have been adopted or not. This data is crucial for understanding user behavior, identifying areas for improvement, and ultimately, driving successful product adoption.

Design and UX

Design and UX teams make sure the feature is intuitive and easy to use. They help create the prototype, then conduct usability tests and iterate on their designs based on user feedback. Their goal is to create a seamless user experience that makes the feature easy to pick up and keep using.

Developers

Developers are the ones who are going to build the feature, so they’re the best people to tell you if it’s feasible before you start. They ensure it works as intended, and iterate on it based on feedback. They also need to thoroughly test it to catch any bugs and ensure it performs well under various conditions.

Marketing

Marketing plays a huge role in promoting the feature. They create campaigns to announce the feature, put out content like blog posts and videos to boost its visibility, and use email marketing to inform customers. They also gather and share user testimonials and case studies to build credibility and show off your product’s real-world value beyond all the marketing-speak.

Customer Success and Support

Your Customer teams provide training and support to users. They create FAQs, help guides, and video tutorials and reach out to users who might benefit from the feature. They’re the front line in helping your users understand and adopt the feature.

Sales

The Sales team can highlight the feature in their pitches and demos to attract and retain customers. They gather insights from potential and existing customers, helping refine the feature to meet user needs better. If they understand how it compares to the competition, they can use that to bolster their pitches.

Everyone has their part to play in feature adoption. By getting everyone to work together, you’ll ensure the feature meets user needs and is easy to use, which in turn should lead to it being adopted.

Feature adoption is about focusing on user needs, not your competitors

In the race to develop new features, it’s easy to become preoccupied with what the competition is doing. It’s worth saying again: your main focus should be on understanding and solving your users’ problems. Your competitors might be doing some flashy stuff, but if it doesn’t resonate with your users… what’s the point?

Find creative solutions and invest in a fantastic UX. Don’t just build a feature, craft an experience that delights users. Think sleek interfaces, intuitive workflows, and features that feel like magic, not a chore.

Personalization is a big plus here – tailor the experience to individual needs and preferences, and try to make each user feel like your product was built just for them.

Don’t try to be everything to everyone, though. Focus on what you do best and make it unbeatable. A master chef excels in specific dishes, not a mediocre buffet. Identify your core competencies – the areas where your product truly shines. Invest in refining these strengths to create an unparalleled user experience that keeps people coming back for more.

When you focus on users, you’ll build features they love, not features that just… exist. Putting user needs first won’t just differentiate your product in the market, it’ll build long-term loyalty and satisfaction among your users.

A loyal user base will be your biggest cheerleader, spreading the word about your amazing product for you, and propelling it towards continued success.

Don’t let sunk costs sink you

Sometimes, a feature just doesn’t take off. It happens! The key is to recognize when to cut your losses and move on.

Here’s how to handle sunk costs smartly:

• Evaluate honestly: Look at the feature’s performance. If it’s not being used, dig into why. Is it hard to find? Not solving the problem? Poorly marketed? Be brutally honest about its shortcomings.
• Iterate or scrap?: If the feature has potential with some tweaks, iterate and improve it. If not, it might be time to let it go. Ask yourself: if you were starting from scratch today, would you build this feature? If the answer is no, it’s probably time to scrap it.
• Learn and document: Capture what went wrong and what you learned from the experience. Document these insights to avoid similar mistakes in the future. This step is crucial for continuous improvement.
• Focus on high-impact areas: Redirect resources to features that show promise or are already successful. Prioritize what will deliver the most value to your users and your business. High-impact areas should get the attention and resources that were previously tied up in the sunk cost feature.
• Communicate clearly: Be transparent with your team and users about the decision. Explain why you’re making the change, how you reached the decision, and how it benefits them in the long run. Clear communication helps maintain trust and keeps everyone aligned.

Sunk costs are a part of the game. Recognize them, learn from them, and move forward with a sharper focus on what really matters. By not letting sunk costs trap you, you can ensure that your efforts and resources are spent on initiatives that provide real value to your users.

Adopting a feature is for life, not just for Christmas

If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, did it ever actually fall? And if a feature is launched and no one is around to use it, did you actually launch a feature?

Remember, keep your users at the heart of everything you do, and ditch the copycat mentality. Focus on what makes your product unique and solve the problems that matter most to your users.

Keep an eye on those feature adoption metrics, be ready to pivot if needed, and learn from any bumps along the road. With a data-driven approach and a user-centric mindset, you’ll craft features that solve problems, win hearts, drive engagement, and justify your paycheck!

The post Feature Adoption: How to Make Your New One Stick appeared first on ProdPad.

What is feedback analysis?

Think of analyzing your feedback like sifting through all that unearthed treasure. There’ll be some shiny stuff (great features people love), some old, broken artifacts (features nobody uses or everyone finds frustrating), and maybe even a few hidden gems (unexpected problems you can solve).

Feedback analysis helps you winnow through it all and find those valuable doubloons. It used to take ages – manually going through every piece of feedback, seeing if it fits in with your strategy and goals, slowly and surely building up a picture of what people want from your product and why.

Make a robot do it for you

Here’s the cool part though: thanks to the ongoing AI revolution there’s a growing wealth of tools, like ProdPad’s Signals, that can help you analyze all this feedback faster and easier than ever.

It’s like having your own data PI, there to uncover hidden patterns and trends in all that user chatter. Suddenly, you can see what features are winning users over, what’s confusing them, and where there might be opportunities for a brand-new way to solve their problems.

By listening to your users and analyzing their feedback, you can stay ahead of the curve. You’ll know what they need before they even ask, and your product will keep getting better and better. This translates to loyal users and a product that thrives in the ever-changing tech world.

Basically, feedback analysis turns user chatter into a roadmap for success. It helps you build a product that users love, not just one you think they’ll love.

What are the different types of feedback you’ll need to analyze?

Not all feedback is created equal. There are lots of different ways your users can talk to you about your product, and each way gives you a special kind of clue.

Let’s crack open that treasure chest of feedback and see what we find!

Direct feedback

Surveys, interviews, and feedback forms are all ways users can tell you directly what they love about your product, and what they wish was better. This feedback is valuable because it’s super clear and often answers specific questions you might have for them.

It can provide you with quantitative data, like ratings and ranked priorities, and qualitative insights by asking open-ended questions where your users can share their thoughts and suggestions.

Indirect and behavioral feedback

Sometimes, your users don’t tell you directly what they’re struggling with, but their actions speak volumes. This is where your fancy analytics tools come in.

They track how users move around your product, kind of like watching a lab rat navigate a maze. If lots of users get stuck on a certain screen, it might mean that part is confusing. On the other hand, if a feature gets used all the time, it’s probably a winner!

Social media and online review platforms like G2 can also be a solid clue here – if users are raving about a feature online, that’s a very good sign.

Silent signals

Sometimes, the absence of something is a clue in itself.  If your users completely ignore a feature, it might be hidden or just not very useful.

Similarly, if a new update goes out and nobody mentions it, that could mean either they love it, they didn’t hear about it, or they don’t even care. This kind of silent feedback is like a detective game – you’ve got to read between the lines.

Competitor analysis

What are people saying about your competitors? Checking out reviews and feedback on other products can be a sneaky way to learn what your target users like and dislike.

Maybe your competitor has a killer feature you don’t, or maybe yours is way easier to use.  This intel can help you figure out where your product shines and where it needs improvement.

Unsolicited feedback

This is that unexpected contact from users with their thoughts on your product.  It might come from anywhere – social media, customer support calls, even carrier pigeons (probably not, but never say never).

This can often be some of the most useful feedback you get – it’s usually super honest, because they weren’t prompted to give it.  You’re getting an unfiltered review straight from the heart.

By listening to all these different conversations, you’ll get a complete picture of how your product is doing.  Each piece of feedback is a piece of the puzzle, and when you put them all together you can see what users truly think, and what you can do to make your product even better.

Why is feedback analysis important?

Why should you care about feedback analysis? The short answer: Because happy users are your best salespeople.

Think about it. Would you rather build a product based on guesswork, hoping it lands with users, or would you prefer to have a direct line to their needs and wants?

Remember: you are not your user. You don’t know what they want. The only real way to find out what people want is to ask them, and then to listen to their answers. Simply put, analyzing feedback and acting on it is how you show your users that you’ve listened.

For a first-hand example, ProdPad’s customer feedback features are thanks to customer feedback! When our users kept expressing they needed a better way to manage their feedback, we set out to understand exactly what they wanted to achieve.

Through careful analysis and a lot of talking, it became clear that a dedicated feedback module was the answer. Years on, this module is one of our most-used features. Who’d’a thunk it?

If we hadn’t analyzed and acted on what our customers were telling us, we’d have missed out on a big way to make them (and our finance people) happier.

What are the benefits of effective feedback analysis?

Here’s how feedback analysis helps you build a product that solves your users’ problems and wins their love:

No more building products in a vacuum: Stop relying on untested assumptions! Feedback analysis shows you exactly what features are winning hearts and which ones need a makeover. No more features nobody uses – just solutions to problems your users actually face.

Turn frustrated users into fans: Imagine a user who is really struggling with one aspect of your product. With feedback analysis, you can identify these pain points and fix them before they churn. Everyone loves feeling heard. Listening to feedback and making changes based on it shows your users you care, and should help them stick around for longer 

Smarter resource allocation: Feedback analysis helps you prioritize the changes that will have the biggest impact. This means you can spend your time and resources wisely, making sure every update is giving your customers something they want and will use.

Uncover hidden gems: Sometimes, your users will have brilliant ideas for your product that you might never have thought of. Feedback analysis can reveal these hidden nuggets of gold, sparking innovation and helping you stay ahead of the curve.

Stay ahead of the curve: The tech world moves fast! Feedback analysis helps you keep your finger on the pulse of user needs. This lets you adapt to changing preferences before your competitors do, keeping your product fresh and relevant.

Feedback analysis isn’t just about collecting data, it’s about making that data work for you. It helps you build a product that’s not just good, it’s exactly what your users need.

By listening closely, you can create something truly special, a product that wins hearts, minds, and the ever-important battle for user loyalty. So, ditch the guesswork and start listening to your users – they’ve got the magic formula for success right at their fingertips.

Who’s responsible for feedback analysis?

You’re ready to harness the power of user feedback. But who within your organization takes point on this incredibly important, and yet not very popular, task? It depends on the size and maturity of your company, but there’s a fairly predictable roster of usual suspects here:

Product Managers

Primarily, the responsibility of feedback analysis often falls on the shoulders of PMs. After all, you’re the one standing at the nexus of customer needs, business objectives, and technical capabilities.

It’s up to you to interpret user feedback to guide your product roadmap and strategy effectively. Digging deep into your feedback will help you make sure your product evolves in a way that aligns with both what your users and your business need.

Customer Success and Support

These folks are on the front lines, directly interacting with users and often being the first to hear their praises and concerns. 

The Customer Success team’s knowledge is incredibly useful, as they’re the ones with their fingers on the pulse of how happy your customers are and what they’re having problems with.

They play a crucial role in initial data gathering and filtering before passing detailed reports along to the product management team for deeper analysis.

As a Product Manager who ultimately has to take the feedback they’ve gathered and analyse it for insights, it’s worth spending some time with these customer facing team members to coach them on how to dig deeper into what a customer is telling them. 

For example, if a customer announces to a Customer Success Manager that they need “Feature X” and they need it now, you don’t just want the CSM to nod along and send that feedback, as is, over to you. Rather you want that CSM to delve deeper and ask the customer what problem they think that feature would solve for them. 

Once the CSM has established the problem the customer is facing, that can become part of the feedback that makes its way to you. That way you understand the heart of the issue and can explore all the possible solutions, not just “Feature X” as it was outlined by the customer. 

UX/UI Designers

When it comes to qualitative feedback, your UX and UI people are huge. With them meticulously analyzing feedback, they’ll find usability roadblocks and be able to craft an intuitive, frictionless interface that delights your users. 

Marketing

While not directly involved in the nuts and bolts of product development, the Marketing team can learn a lot from feedback analysis about how your customers perceive the product and brand. 

They can use that feedback analysis to craft targeted messages and campaigns that speak directly to existing and potential users, based on what they’ve told you interests them.

In many cases, feedback analysis is a collaborative effort across these teams. Each brings their unique perspective and skills to the table, helping you to cover all the bases.

Using ProdPad as the unifying platform for this dream team will help you centralize all your feedback data, and tag it appropriately, so everyone can access and analyze it seamlessly. It can also do a lot of the heavy lifting on the analysis side too.

How to conduct feedback analysis and turn rants into rave reviews

OK, you’ve got a treasure chest overflowing with user feedback – awesome! But how do you turn all those comments and ratings and pigeon-poop-encrusted scrolls into actual improvements for your product?

Here’s the step-by-step journey of feedback analysis, where you transform raw data into action:

1. Gather the goods

Collect feedback from everywhere users chat with us: surveys, interviews, feedback portals, suggestion boxes, social media, reviews, behavioral analytics… The key is to gather feedback constantly to get the freshest user insights.

If you’re using ProdPad you not only get Customer Feedback Portals and widgets to put wherever you need them, but anyone can send feedback to you via email, a browser extension, straight from Slack or Teams, and through integrations with CRMs, Support systems and more. 

2. Make sense of the madness

Once you have a pile of feedback, it’s time to organize. Sort comments into categories like usability, features, or customer service. Think of it like color-coding your puzzle pieces.  Then, add tags to each piece to make finding things even easier.

If you are managing feedback for more than one product, at the least make sure each piece of feedback is tagged with the product it relates to.

In ProdPad you can even use our super-smart AI to do this tagging for you, saving you a ton of time. 

3. Dig deeper

Now that everything is organized, it’s time to stare at that Magic Eye picture until you find the patterns. You’re looking for common themes across the feedback, like recurring issues or features everyone loves.

Use statistical analysis for quantitative data (like ratings) and content analysis for qualitative data (like open-ended responses). This two-pronged approach will give you a more comprehensive view of the playing field.

You can even apply natural language processing tools to assess how people were feeling when they messaged you, which can help you gauge overall customer satisfaction. And, of course, Signals can help you to surface those common themes without you spending hours on it yourself.

You can also segment your feedback in ProdPad by company size, user type, or any other relevant criteria. There’s a lot to be learned from breaking down your customers into useful groupings.

For example, segmenting by free vs. paying users could reveal features highly valued by paying customers, informing your future monetization strategies. Segmenting by companies with over 1000 employees can tell you how well your product works for enterprise customers.

4. Prioritize the greatest hits

Here’s where you play detective again. Figure out which issues will have the biggest impact on user happiness and your product’s success.

Also, consider how much effort it will take to fix each issue and what resources you have to work with. This helps you decide which thing to tackle first.

5. Draw up your plans

Based on your analysis, create a battle plan for addressing the feedback. This includes what changes will be made, who will do them, and which feedback backs you up.  Make sure everyone involved is on the same page, so there’s no confusion when it’s time to get to work.

In ProdPad, you can attach feedback to the Ideas in your backlog and the Initiatives on your Roadmap. And it won’t surprise you to hear that our AI can connect the dots for you and automatically link Ideas to the feedback they’re attempting to answer, and vice versa. 

You can even use Signals to identify a common feedback theme and create an Idea directly from that. You’ll then have your Idea Canvas to map out the details and describe what experiments you’re going to try, all with the individual pieces of related feedback attached. 

6. Do the thing!

This is where the magic happens. Implement the changes you decided on, like fixing a confusing screen or adding a long-requested feature.

Progress that Idea through your workflow from discovery right through to delivery and beyond (assuming the idea was actually validated that is).  

7. Keep an eye out

Just because you’ve made some changes, it doesn’t mean you stop paying attention. Closely monitor how your users react to the updates and see if things are improving.

If you need to make adjustments, you’ll be ready to jump back in and keep working on piecing together that puzzle!

8. Close the loop

Once you’ve made changes based on feedback, let your users know! This shows them you hear their voices and that their input matters. It also encourages them to keep sharing their thoughts, which helps you keep making your product even better.

ProdPad can help a lot with this, as you can track exactly who said what, and link that to each thing you do. When you’ve fixed something a customer wanted, even months or years later, you can blow their minds with how you’ve remembered what they said and that you’ve done something about it.

9. Level up your game

Feedback analysis is an ongoing process, so you need to always be on the lookout for ways to improve it.  Regularly review your methods and explore new tools (*cough* ProdPad *cough*) to make sure you’re getting the most out of all that valuable user feedback.

By following these steps, you’ll ensure you’re not collecting feedback and then just leaving it in a dusty old warehouse along with the Ark of the Covenant. You need to put it in front of those “Top Men”, Indy!

Actively use feedback to make your product the best it can be. This keeps your users happy and keeps your product at the top of its game.

The future of feedback analysis: less robot overlord, more user champion

The future of feedback analysis is looking bright, and it’s all thanks to some seriously cool AI tech. Imagine having a super-powered AI sidekickx that can listen to all your user chatter and pull out the most important stuff. That’s what tools like Signals are doing – making sense of the noise and helping you find the golden nuggets.

This means less time wrestling with mountains of data and more time actually understanding what your users need. You’ll be able to ditch the spreadsheets and dive deeper into real conversations with users. No more guesswork – you’ll be getting your insights straight from the source.

This shift towards a user-focused approach is a game-changer. The future of feedback analysis isn’t about robots taking over – it’s about using technology to empower you to connect with your users on a whole new level.

By combining the power of AI with your own human touch, you’ll unlock a trove of user wisdom, fuel innovation, and create experiences that truly wow your audience. Pretty exciting, right?

Turning those frowns upside-down

Feedback analysis shouldn’t be like rifling your grandma’s dusty attic, but more like a treasure trove of user insights waiting to be plundered.

By doing it right, you can transform a chattering mob of users into a loyal army, singing the praises of your product from the mountaintops. No more Frankensteinian features built on guesswork – you’ll be crafting solutions that your users actually crave.

Remember, happy users are your best salespeople. So, ditch the crystal ball and start listening. They’ve got the magic formula for success right at their fingertips.

And hey, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of user feedback, don’t despair. Tools like ProdPad are basically your own personal treasure map, helping you navigate Feedback Island to find that buried cache of user wisdom.

With a little effort, three steps towards Hangman’s Rock, and a metal detector in the shape of ProdPad, you’ll be rolling in loot, matey. So, what are you waiting for? Grab your analysis shovel and start digging!

The post Feedback Analysis: How to Extract Insights to Fuel Your Product Strategy appeared first on ProdPad.

• What a roadmap presentation is
• How to prepare for one
• How to give your roadmap presentation
• How to align stakeholder expectations during the presentation
• How to handle feedback during the presentation
• Common mistakes and how to avoid them
• How detailed your presentation should be
• How to follow up

What is a roadmap presentation?

Presenting your product roadmap is your chance to share with everyone, from your team to stakeholders and even your customers, the exciting directions your product is heading in. It’s about painting a picture of what’s to come and laying out how and why you want to get there.

What are the key elements of a product roadmap presentation?

These are the core building blocks of your presentation. Once you’ve got all of these clear in your mind, you’ll already have the foundation of your presentation at your fingertips.

You’ll need to include:

• Vision and strategy: Everything starts with a clear product vision. What are you aiming to achieve? What’s your game plan? This vision sets the foundation for everything that follows in your presentation. It’s your North Star, guiding every decision and strategy you discuss.
• Key objectives: Here, you spell out the major goals. What milestones do you need to hit along the way? What outcomes do you expect from your work? These objectives should mesh seamlessly with your overall business goals and help bring your vision to life.
• Initiatives and features: This part gets down to brass tacks – what specific actions, features, or enhancements are you planning to tackle these objectives? It’s about connecting the dots between your grand strategy and the tangible steps you’ll take.
• Metrics: How will you know you’re on track? By setting specific metrics or KPIs to measure your progress. These metrics are crucial for keeping the presentation grounded and focused on tangible outcomes.

Why present your roadmap?

This is your best chance to get everyone on the same page. A well-delivered roadmap presentation ensures that everyone, from your development team to your executive board, understands and supports the direction you’re taking.

It’s your platform to talk strategy and progress. It’s where you manage expectations and keep everyone informed about where the product is headed.

With a clear and concise presentation, you help the senior decision makers what you think needs to be done and why. Knowing what’s important will help them make better-informed strategic decisions – so tell them what resources are required, what challenges you might face, and how you plan to tackle them.

A roadmap shouldn’t be set in stone. This presentation is also a great opportunity to gather feedback, making it a dynamic tool that adapts and evolves based on real input from those involved. There are few things worse than a roadmap made behind locked doors – you need to have your assumptions challenged!

Nailing your roadmap presentation will do more than just give everyone an outline of your plan – it’ll build trust and confidence among your stakeholders as they get some transparency on what you’re doing and, importantly, why you’re doing it. It ensures everyone is committed to the strategic path laid out and understands their role in making the vision a reality.

So when you step up to give a roadmap presentation, you’re really setting the stage for the future success of your product.

How to prepare for your roadmap presentation

The key to a successful roadmap presentation starts long before you step into the meeting room. It’s all in the preparation. In the words of Shakespeare, “All things are ready, if our mind be so.”

Here’s how to set yourself up for a successful presentation:

Understand your audience

First things first, know who you’re talking to.

Is it your Tech team, the Marketing department, or perhaps senior executives? Each audience has different interests and concerns.

Tech teams might look for technical challenges and milestones, whereas executives are more interested in strategic alignment and ROI. Tailoring your presentation to the specific interests of your audience will make it more engaging and relevant (more on this below).

Set clear objectives for the roadmap presentation

What do you want to achieve with this presentation? Are you looking to gain approval, solicit feedback, or simply inform? Much like with product initiatives and ideas, make certain you know the outcome you want to achieve before you begin work.

Setting yourself clear objectives will help you structure your presentation more effectively and guide how you interact with your audience during the session.

Structure your content

A well-structured roadmap presentation helps your audience follow along and absorb information. 

Start with the big picture – where your product is headed. Break down the roadmap into manageable parts, explaining the why behind each step. This will help you demonstrate how each part of the roadmap contributes to the overall strategy.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of what to include in your roadmap presentation and in what order. 

Rehearse and revise

Never underestimate the power of rehearsal. Practice delivering your roadmap presentation a few times to smooth off any rough edges. Rehearsing will help you refine your messaging, adjust the pacing, and get comfortable with the material. As you practice, you might find areas that need simplification or more detailed explanations – perfect for fine-tuning.

Use tools for clarity

This is where ProdPad can be your best friend: it helps you visualize your roadmap in a way that’s easy to understand and engaging. You can use its features to highlight different aspects of the roadmap depending on your audience’s interests. For example, filtering capabilities allow you to show only the most relevant information, keeping your presentation focused and on point.

Although it’s useful to have a presentation deck for your introduction – somewhere you can map out what you’re going to cover, it’s always best to then move to the live environment in which your roadmap lives.

This will not only make your life a lot easier and cut down on the work involved in preparing a deck, but it will also help your stakeholders get familiar with your roadmapping tool and how to navigate it. 

With ProdPad you can save filtered views of your roadmap that contain the exact level of detail that you require. So when you’re preparing for your presentation for the first time, simply set up the view you want to present and it’ll be there each and every time you need it. 

Using ProdPad, you can even publish this view and embed it on your intranet or somewhere else that your stakeholders can easily find it. This means they can self-serve the updates they need and you might find yourself having to do fewer roadmap presentations in future! 

What to include in a roadmap presentation

Ok, so you know how important getting your presentation right, and some useful tips on how to do it, let’s get into the real nitty gritty: what you need to actually put in the damn thing!

Here are the ten things you’ll want to make sure you include when you present a product roadmap:

1. The agenda

Set out what you are going to cover and the outcome you want from the session. Also, consider defining the scope of the presentation so people also understand what you won’t be covering and where they can go to get that information should they need it. 

2. The bigger picture 

Whether you’re introducing it for the first time, or reminding everyone in the room, make sure to outline your Product Vision to set the stage. Also include your value proposition, target audience, and differentiators.   

3. An overview of your objectives

Whatever goal-setting framework you use (here at ProdPad we use OKRs), include a slide where you outline the main objectives you are focused on as a Product Team.

4. The roadmap (obviously!) 

Start by introducing the full roadmap. If you’re using Now-Next-Later (and we recommend that you do), now is the time to define your time horizons so everyone is clear and expectations are aligned. 

5. What’s coming up ‘Now’

Go through each Initiative in your Now column, introducing the problem to solve, the objective this will impact, and the target outcomes. Then briefly introduce the Ideas you are tackling as part of this Initiative, and give an update on their status in your workflow, taking time to explain how you will measure results. 

6. What you’re doing ‘Next’

Do the same with the Initiatives in your Next column.

7. What you’re planning ‘Later’

Here you shouldn’t go into each and every roadmap card, but rather list out the key problems to solve you will be tackling in the future. 

8. How they can stay updated

Be sure to include a slide that tells your stakeholders where to go to stay up-to-date with roadmap progress. Give them a link to your roadmap tool or the location of the appropriate published view.

9. Submission guidelines

It’s worth including this in every presentation you give – a short, fast reminder for everyone on how to submit feedback (either their own feedback or feedback from a customer) and how to submit product ideas. Briefly remind people of the process you go through to review incoming feedback and ideas. 

10. A Q&A session

Once you’re done talking, open it up to the floor! Hopefully, everyone’s still awake.

Right. Now you know what to include in your roadmap presentation. Great stuff! But… how should you deliver it? 

How to give your roadmap presentation

When you’re gearing up to deliver your roadmap presentation, think of it as your moment to shine and really connect with your audience. Here’s how you can make that connection meaningful and impactful:

Kick off with the vision

As we’ve suggested above, start strong by sharing the overarching vision and strategic goals of your product. But make sure you deliver this with some passion! Hype it up and get your audience enthusiastic about what you’re building here.

Starting with the vision sets the stage and helps everyone understand the ‘why’ behind the roadmap, which can often be one of the hardest things to get across.

You’re setting the context for the rest of your presentation – think of it as giving your audience the destination before you show them the path.

Customize your content

Remember, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to presentations. Who you’re talking to should shape what you’re talking about:

• Executives: For the C-suite, keep the altitude high. They’re keen on seeing how the roadmap aligns with broader business goals, the return on investment, and market positioning. Focus on key milestones that impact business outcomes and support strategic objectives. They’ll appreciate concise, data-backed arguments that reinforce the product’s contribution to the company’s success.
• Technical teams: Your tech folks need the down-and-dirty details. They’re looking at what’s under the hood—technical requirements, specific features, and the challenges those features might bring. Share details about technical dependencies, resources needed, and potential hurdles. Using time horizons like in the Now-Next-Later roadmap will help them see when things need to happen and why.
• Sales and Marketing: These folks need to know all about how the product can be sold. They want to know about new features, enhancements, and how these changes solve customer problems or add value. Explain how these features will attract new customers or improve retention. This perspective helps them craft compelling narratives for their campaigns and pitches.
• Customer Support: Support needs to brace for the influx of customer queries each new update might bring. Give them a heads-up on new features and any anticipated issues or common questions these might trigger. They need this info to provide stellar support and keep customer satisfaction high.
• External stakeholders: Partners and investors are eyeing the bigger picture – how the roadmap influences growth and stability. Highlight aspects of the roadmap that show promising market expansion, risk management, and long-term profitability. They’re particularly interested in how strategic initiatives align with market opportunities.
• Customers: Yes, your customers! They’re your audience too, especially if you’re a SaaS company, in a B2B space, or launching a major update that might significantly change how customers interact with your product. Show them directly how the updates will improve their experience or solve problems they care about. This builds trust and reinforces their loyalty to your product.

Bring in the visuals

A picture speaks a thousand words, as the old saying goes, so let them do the heavy lifting in your presentation. Use clear, straightforward diagrams and charts to map out time horizons, dependencies, and major milestones. This can make complex information more accessible and easier to grasp.

If you’re using ProdPad, you can tailor what you are showing to your audience, and use it to demonstrate the linked Ideas and customer feedback that you used to determine why an initiative is worth the resources it will need. This can make communicating the “why” a lot easier!

Ask for feedback

Who says presentations have to be a one-way street? Sprinkle in some interactive elements like live polls or as I mentioned above, a short Q&A session to keep things lively. It’ll keep your audience engaged and make them feel like part of the conversation.

It’ll also give you a chance to test your assumptions about your roadmap, and to ask more questions. This is your chance to get everyone on the same page.

Don’t limit the conversation to the presentation. Be sure to ask for any further feedback when you follow up after the presentation (again, more on that below).

How do I align stakeholder expectations during my roadmap presentation?

When you’re rolling out your roadmap presentation, making sure everyone’s expectations are in sync can be a bit like herding cats – everyone comes to the table with different ideas and hopes.

But don’t worry, there are some solid ways to get everyone on the same wavelength:

Communicate transparently

Start with the basics: be crystal clear. Share where your product stands today, where you plan to take it, and why. Being upfront about potential hurdles and limitations is also crucial. This kind of open communication prevents misunderstandings and helps everyone understand what’s realistic and what’s not.

Set realistic goals

It’s tempting to promise the moon to please everyone, but resist the urge! Overselling what you can deliver only leads to disappointment and erodes trust.

Aim to set goals that are within reach – achievable and manageable. This way, you can avoid the pitfalls of expectations that outpace your actual capacity.

Explain how you prioritize

Sometimes, people’s frustration can stem from not really getting why you’re doing things in the order you’ve picked. Take some time to explain the logic behind how you’ve prioritized your roadmap.

Show how the sequence of initiatives and features ties into the broader business goals. This transparency can help soothe any irritation about timing or perceived oversights.

Engage in interactive discussions

Get everyone involved in the conversation. Interactive sessions, like workshops or games like “Prune the Product Tree,” can be great for this. It’s engaging and fun, but importantly you’ll be giving your stakeholders a firsthand look at the constraints and trade-offs you have to juggle. Basically, you’re getting them to manage their own expectations.

Regular updates

Keep the communication flowing even after the presentation. Regular updates on your roadmap’s progress help keep everyone informed about how things are evolving based on their feedback and market changes. Closing your feedback loops fosters trust and keeps everyone committed over the long haul.

Aligning stakeholder expectations is less about managing demands and more about building a shared commitment to the roadmap. By fostering this shared understanding, you’re not just smoothing the way for your plans; you’re also strengthening relationships with the people who help make your product a success.

How to handle feedback during your roadmap presentation

Alright, so you’re in the middle of nailing your roadmap presentation, then someone asks a cutting question that challenges everything you’ve shown them so far. Do you curl up in a ball on the floor and panic? Hopefully not!

How you handle feedback, both during and after, can be as crucial as the presentation itself. It can really shape how your product evolves, so let’s dive into how you can manage it smoothly:

Encourage open dialogue

First up, make sure everyone knows their feedback isn’t just welcome, it’s wanted. Set the tone from the start by creating an environment that values input.

You’ll gather a wider range of viewpoints, and it helps your stakeholders feel like they’re a meaningful part of the process. Remember, the more involved they feel, the more invested they’ll become.

Listen actively

Now, when you’re in the thick of getting feedback, focus on really listening. This means tuning in closely, asking questions to clear up any doubts, and repeating back what you’ve heard to confirm you’ve got it right.

Active listening takes more than just hearing the words coming out of people’s faces – you need to make an effort to understand the deeper concerns and ideas behind them. This can lead to richer, more productive conversations.

Prioritize feedback

Not all feedback is created equal. Some of it will be spot-on, aligning perfectly with where you want your product to go. Some might not fit the bill as closely.

Get good at spotting the feedback that aligns well with your strategic goals, and prioritize that. It’s not about ignoring the rest, but rather focusing on what will really push your product forward.

Manage conflicts

Sometimes, feedback will clash. When it does, it’s on you to steer these conversations toward a common ground. This part can be tricky – it might mean making tough calls or finding compromises, but keeping your strategic goals in sight can help navigate these waters.

Again, keep asking questions. You might feel like the moderator in a debate, but you’ll probably generate some really useful insights if you can get everyone involved to help you find a solution to their disagreements.

Document and analyze

Here’s where tools like ProdPad come in handy. Use it to collate all the feedback you get, and attach that to each initiative on your roadmap. This helps you organize it and think it over later, especially when you need to share or revisit insights with your team.

Common roadmap presentation mistakes and how to avoid them

Roadmap presentations can be a tightrope walk – get it right, and you align your whole team; slip up, and you could end up faceplanting on the sidewalk.

Let’s talk about some of the usual suspects when things go awry and how you can dodge these common pitfalls:

Information overload 

Ever sat through a presentation that felt like drinking from a firehose? Yeah, not fun. It’s easy to want to show off everything you’ve planned, but too much information can confuse your audience.

Stick to the essentials: key milestones and strategic goals. Keep it tight and make sure everything you mention connects clearly to your bigger picture.

Ignoring audience needs

This one’s big: not tuning your presentation to the vibe of the room. Who’s listening matters. I’ve covered this already, but it bears repeating – know your audience, and adjust accordingly.

Lacking flexibility

If your roadmap feels like it’s carved in stone, people might hesitate to give you honest feedback – they might think it’s just shouting into the void.

Show that you welcome their ideas and that you’re ready and willing to make adjustments. This doesn’t just make your plan better; it also makes everyone feel like they’re truly part of the process.

Overpromising

We all want to be the hero who says yes to everything, but overcommitting can backfire. If you promise the moon without a rocket, you’re going to lose trust.

Be realistic about what your team can deliver. Clear, honest communication builds credibility and trust, and it helps everyone plan better.

Neglecting follow-up

Sure, cool guys don’t look at explosions, but if you just walk away after dropping your presentation bomb on your audience, you miss the chance to deepen both your and their understanding.

Send out a summary, highlight the next steps, and keep everyone in the loop as things progress. Regular updates not only maintain momentum but also strengthen your team’s commitment to the roadmap.

How detailed should a roadmap presentation be?

Figuring out the right amount of detail for a roadmap presentation can feel like you’re trying to hit a moving target. It’s all about understanding your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and just how much information you need to share without leaving your stakeholders feeling swamped or scratching their heads.

Here’s how you can find the Goldilocks zone and get your presentation just right:

• Keep it clear and simple: Start with the basics. Your roadmap should easily communicate where your product stands now and where you hope to take it. Avoid complex jargon or acronyms that could confuse people who aren’t familiar with the daily grind of your product development.
• Focus on what matters: It’s easy to get lost in the weeds with too many details. Highlight only the key milestones and significant updates. This keeps your presentation from becoming overwhelming and helps your audience focus on the strategic objectives that matter.
• Streamline your content: Aim to fit your roadmap on a single page or screen. If you find the content spilling over, it might be a sign that you’re diving too deep. Keep it concise to maintain a strategic overview.
• Adjust the depth: Different audiences need different levels of detail. For internal teams who are more involved, go a bit deeper. For external stakeholders or less technical audiences, keep it high-level to ensure it’s digestible.
• Use the product line view: If you’re discussing multiple products, integrate these into a unified presentation using ProdPad’s Portfolio view. This will help your stakeholders understand the broader strategy without the need to jump between different documents.

Remember, the goal is clarity and relevance, making sure everyone walks away with a good understanding of your product’s direction.

How to follow up on your roadmap presentation

Alright, you’ve just wrapped up your roadmap presentation and it went great! But what now? Well, the journey’s only just begun. Here’s how you can keep the momentum going and make sure all that planning doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust.

Send a thank-you note and recap

Kick things off by shooting a quick thank-you email to everyone who attended. Attach the presentation slides, links to the appropriate view of your roadmap in ProdPad, and any extra materials that could help them remember the key points. This isn’t just good manners – it’s also a gentle reminder of the discussions and commitments from the session.

Gather and organize feedback

You probably got a lot of feedback during your presentation. Make sure it doesn’t slip through the cracks. Write it all down, categorize it, and maybe even use ProdPad to help you track and organize it all. 

This organized approach means you won’t miss out on any nuggets of wisdom that could make your roadmap even better.

Set up a feedback review session

Now, pull your core team together for a deep dive into the feedback. This isn’t just a casual chat; it’s a strategic session to sift through the insights and figure out what changes need to be made. It’s your chance to align everyone’s understanding and decide on the next steps together.

Update the roadmap

Here’s probably the most important step – now you’re armed with all that feedback, you’ll need to go ahead and adjust your roadmap. Maybe some time horizons need shifting, or priorities need tweaking.

These updates are really important – they show that you’re responsive and that your plan isn’t etched in stone.

Communicate the updates

Once you’ve made your changes, let everyone know. A quick update, whether through an email blast or a short meeting, can do the trick. It’s about keeping everyone in the loop, so they see how their input has shaped the roadmap.

Keep the check-ins coming

Finally, don’t just set and forget. Schedule regular check-ins to go over the roadmap’s progress. These can be as formal or informal as you like, but they’re essential for staying on track and making any necessary adjustments along the way.

And map’s a wrap!

Remember, it’s all about how clearly and engagingly you communicate your roadmap. Whether you’re mapping out your plans in ProdPad or diving into strategic discussions, you have to adjust your presentation to your audience.

Make your roadmap presentation not just accessible but truly engaging, and then watch the magic happen as everyone pulls together, rallying behind your vision. Get ready to see your project spark to life as everyone jumps on board, filled with enthusiasm and understanding.

Your roadmap presentation is more than just a one-off event. It’s the beginning of a dynamic roadmapping process that keeps everyone engaged and drives your project forward. So keep the communication clear, the feedback flowing, and the updates coming – your roadmap’s success depends on it!

The post How to Nail Your Roadmap Presentation appeared first on ProdPad.