Roadmap Sync
The roadmap is a mess. It's full of a mix of solid plans, understaffed boondoggles, and wild fantasy. What if we could talk honestly about the real state of things?
Context
The roadmap is a mess. It's full of a mix of solid plans, understaffed boondoggles, and wild fantasy. The exec team and stakeholders are holding PMs to dates that the PMs are barely aware of. Many items are completely infeasible and have never been discussed with any technical people. There are repeated requests for status updates on roadmap items that nobody is working on. Conversations about the roadmap are unhealthy and PMs are afraid to tell the truth about status.
Discussion
Shortly after moving to Berlin I had a chance to work in music tech, which for me as a musician and synth geek was a no-brainer. Native Instruments was a company built by musicians and electronic music geeks. For over 20 years the company was led by a CEO who successfully herded all that creativity into a series of products - some wildly successful, some not. Daniel knew that he had to give space for creative work to happen and also to apply constraints to get products out the door.