After the Funding: Align Business and Technology around a Product Roadmap
Story byMark Schiefelbein
Mark is founder of agilician, an Amsterdam-based consultancy that unlocks startup growth. He has advised numerous startups on questions invo(show all)Mark is founder ofagilician, an Amsterdam-based consultancy that unlocks startup growth. He has advised numerous startups on questions involving strategy, positioning, roadmap, process and team. He previously held management positions at startups across Europe including Backbase and Tridion.
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Align Business and Technology around a Product Roadmap
Business and technology align easily for early startups. The team is small; business and technology work side by side, often in the same office. There is no standard product to sell and no history of successfully closed deals, so business will want to discuss every deal with technology. And the number of prospects and customers is low so technology will value being involved with many of them to get necessary feedback. All in all, communication lines are direct, there are few opportunities and commitments and hence few challenges to maintain alignment.
As business grows, the sales force will start focusing on volume and there will be pressure to go after prospects that fit the product value proposition poorly. This is especially true when expanding geographically or selling indirectly through partners and resellers. And as technology advances, there will be less and less tacit market knowledge within the expanding development team. Communication will get more complex as more specialized roles such as marketing, support and consulting are created. From now on the company needs to work hard at maintaining focus and avoiding becoming a disoriented “jack of all trades, master of none”.
You will need to introduce a product roadmap to align business and technology. The roadmap will map out product direction over the following six to twelve months. It will help business defining its target market and get an early start at pitching future products and features. It will provide guidance to technology in setting priorities and allocating resources. The roadmap will assure consistent communication which is essential for survival as Steve Johnson explains convincingly bycomparing it to NASA’s Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM), the single communication agent between space shuttle and mission control.
After the Funding
In the first post of theseriesI explained thatdecision-making needs to be based on long-term strategy. In a rapidly growing company, the owners need to spend time defining a clear and concise strategy while day-to-day decision making shifts to others based on their roles in the company.
And last week I cautioned about therisks of premature expansion of the sales force. Owners must set-up arepeatable sales process first and then expand the sales force.
Next week I will turn to release planning and explain how heartbeat release schedules improve productivity.
More on Product Roadmaps
Here are two good pointers to learn more about product roadmaps:
