Getting buy-in for a new roadmap can be difficult, with numerous stakeholders wanting different things. I have found it helpful to reach decisions without the politics and posturing of large roadmap review meetings. Of course, this is doubly hard if you are introducing a new format of roadmaps, one with strategy and outcomes rather than dates and features.

How has your Product practice changed since COVID? What is surprisingly better now - and maybe shouldn’t change even after we get a solid vaccine?

What is the difference between a CPO and a VP of Product Management? A director? Senior PM? Naturally it depends on your organization. But in my experience, the higher you rise, the more you have to influence across the organization (and deal with politics). These soft skills are the most critical success factor for product, but also the hardest to learn.

"I have many friends who started out as designers and user researchers or other folks on the UX side, who have found their ways into product management. We go to lunch and they're just as nice as they've always been!"

One of my early product jobs was at a startup with money and the CEO's exciting vision. We also had Shiny Object Syndrome, with a million ideas and tactics for how to bring the vision into practice. That's where a smart product person's strategy comes in: narrowing focus to a few key things we can do well, and getting alignment from all the stakeholders.

Most times I’ve left a job (or a client) it was about culture. The gig or the company wasn’t satisfying. (See my story about quitting here.) I usually had another job lined up, though.

“Everyone has a plan ’til they get punched in the mouth.” —Mike Tyson. No matter how well you plan, change is unavoidable.

"Sometimes product managers are asked to be the rational person, the grownup in the room. Others may be super optimistic, like salespeople or the CEO. Product people have to be imaginative, too, but also say, 'wait, let me break this down, we can’t do everything at once.' Product success is that level of imagination combined with an ability to plan your way there and to lead a team."

For extra fun, some of you are in charge of multiple products in a company's portfolio. In theory, each product should add to profitability and the whole should be greater than the sum of its parts. In practice, companies tend to focus on Product 1, the biggest source of current revenue. Longer-term ideas and projects get kicked further down the road and Product 3 never becomes a reality.

I recently saw a documentary about General Magic, a Silicon Valley start-up that invented smartphones... in 1994. They had heaps of talent and money, and a great prototype. But they failed spectacularly, for a lot of reasons.

Outcome Teams are the next stage of team enlightenment. They exist to make a business successful. More and more companies have hired GMs to lead these teams who are really Product leaders on steroids. Engineering, U/X, Sales, and Marketing report to GMs directly to ensure alignment to these outcomes.

Most of us can remember a time where it felt great to be on a team: everyone was on the same wavelength and you were happy and hyperproductive. How to replicate it? One way is to run what I call an Awesomeness Retrospective.

A Product resolution this year was "Understand your customers so well you could play them in the movie." What’s your favorite way of learning how your customer thinks?

The best roadmaps are not about features and dates, but about value, the benefits to the customer and to your business.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) work the same way; the hardest things about both is avoiding the temptation to make them into a glorified “to do” list.

Listening to customers is key to being a successful Product person. But so is knowing the difference between being a service organization catering to one customer at a time and a product organization serving a market.

How confident are you in your roadmap? Things change, especially right now. Being upfront about uncertainty sets clear expectations.

“Products are a journey, not a destination. A product roadmap should, by definition, have built in reflection dates to review what you have done. This helps the company to learn from past experiences, course correct where needed, and plan the next part of the journey. The process keeps you honest, and connected to your vision, your clients and your investors.”

How do you lead without direct authority? The product team at most organizations is small compared with engineering, sales, etc. And yet product has to get buy-in from these other departments for strategy and roadmap to be successful.

A few weeks ago, I did an unscientific poll: What is your company doing in response to COVID-19? Layoffs? Furloughs? Expanding? etc. Interesting results below. There is no one answer. Companies seem to be taking action across the board. I am most happy to see that changing the product mix and accelerating future plans were the strongest categories, followed by hiring/expanding and discounts. Companies around the world seem to be past the panic stage and adjusting course in the new climate. Time to revisit and revise your roadmap.

Everyone could use some improvement in their job hunting skills, especially now. One of my favorite resume geeks is Melissa Appel, an Associate Director PM at Wayfair. “Tell me a story on your resume!” she says. “What in your background is unique and appealing to hiring managers?”