Product Roadmap
Perhaps one of the most asked questions in a sales presentation (aside from how much does it cost, how does it benefit me, why is it unique) is what is coming next? It's not uncommon for young companies to feel like a wisdom tooth is being pulled when asked to produce a product roadmap. Are you making unalterable commitments? Do you really know what you need to do next? Can you predict what your team is able to produce? Who drives what is in the product roadmap?
You must be able to produce a product roadmap. Without a statement about what is next, customers will likely be more loyal to your competition who is willing to promise what is needed or at least articulate a possible direction for their value proposition. Keep in mind that often the roadmap becomes a frame of reference for a conversation, so without this, it is hard to gather customer and market feedback.
The product manager is often responsible for the production of the roadmap, for communicating it to customers and for maintaining it over time. It is a hard document to produce properly and even more difficult to manage through a lifecycle, as it will change as your business matures and customer engagement drives more and more the decisions that need to be made. We'll explore the details of how a product roadmap gets produced, what it should contain, how it should be presented and how to maintain it over time. It is a critical corporate document and should always be aligned with the overall strategy.
Version One or MVP
No one really likes to buy the first version of anything (except perhaps the latest Apple products). Even Apple can run into issues that expose the weaknesses that result from accelerating time to market in response to emerging competition. For young companies, version one is an important deliverable as it is the first version you can use to validate the value proposition of your business plan. Also known as the MVP (Minimum Viable Product), you need to deliver a closed loop of some functionality that provides at least a single benefit to the end customer -- even if not the ultimate benefit. The MVP serves to get you "into the game", start the validation process of your business premise, help confirm or beat down important decisions made in the abstract stages of forming yuor business.