A product roadmap is a critical and essential element of any startup's strategy. Vinod Muralidhar, MSx '15, Head of Product @ Nitrio, and over 15 years of product development experience, will explain what a product roadmap is, key elements of a successful roadmap, and cover the following difficult questions often faced by founders or product team members: * How do I balance customer needs vs funding needs (products for investors) in building a product roadmap? * How do I differentiate my product in a crowded market - Marketing white space vs Product white space? * How much process is too much process during product development for a small team? Vinod will also talk about his experiences and be available for Q&A on the product development process, or on product management as a career or function within a startup.

1. Product Roadmap
VINOD MURALIDHAR
HEAD OF PRODUCT, NITRIO
FEB 02, 2016

2. My Background – and therefore my
biases
u Computer Science Graduate
u Programmer, Customer Success at Tata Unisys Limited
u Founder/CEO of a web startup Hawzo
u Product Manager at Microsoft – Vista (Yes, Windows Vista), Windows
7, Windows 8
u Group Product Manager (Enterprise) at Isilon(EMC, now Dell)
u Stanford GSB
u Founder, Culvee.com – a non-profit education crowdfunding
platform
u Head of Product at Nitrio

3. Execution
Planning
What does a Product Manager do?
New Product
Introduction
Product Launch Customer Interviews
Metricscollection &
Analysis
Collateral
Business Plan
Product
Requirements
Backlog
Prioritization
Product Roadmap Pricing, Licensing
Strategy
Market Segmentation &
Requirements
Customer Discovery Competitive Insight Disruptive Market Forces
1
2
3

4. What are Product Roadmaps for?
Time based charts showing the planned evolution
of a product
u Communicate strategy and business goals
u Prioritize customer and business value
u Align product stakeholders

5. Who is it for?
Customers /
Sales
Investors Engineering/
Internal
Management

6. Who is it for?
Customers /
Sales
• To show strategic
direction and
path forward
Investors
• To show future
potential for
market share,
earnings
Engineering/
Internal
• Goal alignment &
to help plan the
short-term and long
term resourcing,
motivation
Management
• To be kept aware
of product
direction

7. Product Roadmap Circle of Trust
Customers/Sales
Investors
Engineering
Management
team

8. Where do I start?
3 things to consider:
u Customer Needs
u Internal/Engineering/Technological innovation
u Market
How?
u Direct: Customer interviews, Customer Support
u Product: In-product feedback, Usage Data / Metrics
u Market: Blogs, Community forums
u Tech: Conferences, Symposiums, Whitepapers
u Product Strategy

9. Execution
Planning
Where do I start?
New Product
Introduction
Product Launch Customer Interviews
Metricscollection &
Analysis
Collateral
Business Plan
Product
Requirements
Backlog
Prioritization
Product Roadmap Pricing, Licensing
Strategy
Market Segmentation &
Requirements
Customer Discovery Competitive Insight Disruptive Market Forces
1
2
3

10. I have all this data, now what?
u Never just report back with just raw data and feedback
u Inconclusive, confusing, no direction
u 3 Step process
u Step 1: Prioritization
u Step 2: Overlay with engineering release strategy
u Step 3: Swim Lanes

11. Prioritization
u Acquisition - features to win new users
u Activation - converting users from free to paid or upgrade
u Retention - bringing back users
u Revenue - monetize
u Referral - users to refer new users
u Methodologies: Kano model, Strategic scores, Value/Effort

12. Release strategy and swim lanes
u Release model – Schedule (Train) or Scope
u Release themes & swim lanes by strategy
u By time (Current, Near Term, Future)
u By Objectives (Data, Customer Acquisition, Retention)
u By Product (Web, Mobile etc)

13. What can go wrong?
u Objectives not clear
u Internal confusion about current roadmap
u Lack of transparency / why did we do that?
u Process and roadmaps are not unified across organization (different
versions)
u Lack of consistency when evaluating opportunities
u Hard to sell what’s not on the truck
u Execs not on board
And this is only more complex in a larger organization

14. How can you fix it?
u Clear communication – be goal oriented
u High level dates
u Single owner
u Regular updates
u Using tools (Jira, Rallydev, Pivotal Tracker or simply an excel
spreadsheet)
u Circles of Trust (multiple versions/privileges)
u Don’t sell what is not on the truck (except to investors)

15. Does every organization follow this process –
Seems tedious
u Not really!
u Most startups want to Launch and iterate (Risk: Frankenstein)
u Agile is not just shipping products quickly
u MVP for Roadmap

16. FAQs?
u Should I work in a large company or a startup?
u Does a business degree help? (Variation: Why business degree?)
u Skills needed for product manager
u Did your engineering background help?
u Do I need to be quantitative?
u Every company I apply to wants 2-3 years of experience – how do I
get that first shot?

17. Good luck!
u Write to me at vinodm@alumni.gsb.stanford.edu