Question 1

What are the key takeaways from Janna Bastow's episode on Lenny's Podcast?

Accepted Answer

1. The value of a roadmap is not the plan itself but the roadmapping process - it's a prototype for your strategy that helps you check assumptions with others. 2. The Now, Next, Later framework replaces timeline-based roadmaps by embracing the cone of uncertainty - things get less certain the further out you plan. 3. The best product teams are defined by a focus on customer discovery and psychological safety - the ability to question, learn, and iterate openly. 4. Changing product culture at large companies requires chipping away at calcified processes incrementally, starting with small pockets of innovation. 5. Product teams should frame their work like sales teams frame theirs: accountable for running experiments and moving metrics, not for predicting exactly what will ship when.

Question 2

What does Janna Bastow say about roadmapping and planning?

Accepted Answer

"Surround yourself with the people who are going to help you continue that community and are going to help you with that consistency, and going to help you surround you with more and more of the right people." - Janna Bastow "One of the things that I've stopped doing is I used to sit down with a PowerPoint and start writing my deck in PowerPoint or Slides, now. What I now do is I start with my story points. I start with my narratives. I try to figure out what I'm actually trying to say, and then I fit it into the deck." - Janna Bastow "Find the people in the audience who are your fans. And you'll find them in the course of your talk. There's always going to be some people in the audience who just look bored and they're on your phone, just ignore them. Find the people who are nodding along and smiling and going, 'Yeah, yeah, that's me.' And just speak to them." - Janna Bastow

Question 3

What are Janna Bastow's views on roadmapping, planning, product-management?

Accepted Answer

Janna Bastow: "No one was actually delivering the roadmap in the timeframe that they were saying they were. So we're like, 'Wait, if it's not just us who's not living the roadmap and none of these better than us roadmap product managers are building the roadmap on time, what's the point of a roadmap?'" Janna Bastow: "It's taking from the concept of the cone of uncertainty, taking from the idea that things get less certain as they get further away, which is kind of how reality works. So the whole beef with the timeline roadmap is just taking apart the concept of the timeline."

Janna Bastow

Building better roadmaps | Janna Bastow (Mind the Product, ProdPad)

TRANSCRIPT

Janna Bastow

Building better roadmaps | Janna Bastow (Mind the Product, ProdPad)

Janna Bastow

Building better roadmaps | Janna Bastow (Mind the Product, ProdPad)

TRANSCRIPT

Janna Bastow

Building better roadmaps | Janna Bastow (Mind the Product, ProdPad)