Product people ignore scalability at their peril. Think about it: A prototype of your product can be produced relatively quickly as long as there are only a few users on the system at a time. On the other hand, a system can theoretically be designed to support almost any number of users, but it will take proportionately longer to design and develop. Which are you aiming for? You can't have both.

Theater professional? Graphic designer? CS nerd? How did you get to product? An unusual path? What have you learned from your background that has translated well into product? What are the skills you wish you had? Me: I was an English major. Communication is one of the top skills needed in product. What's your story?

It is tempting to get into a Feature Checklist War with your competition. They have Feature A, we have Feature A.... But then your product becomes just a commodity.

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx, got a C on his economic term paper describing his business idea because the professor said it wasn’t “feasible.”

Your turn. Contest: What business advice are you glad you didn't listen to?

Members of product teams devoted to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) may take on new roles to get the job done for their customers.

Many Product skills you have to learn on the job, especially those focusing on leadership. I'm curious about the Product classes springing up around the world, and in some business schools. What is your view of these courses? Do they do a good job of training people?

“Each customer-facing team creates their own top-10 list and then all those teams merge their lists together to come up with an overall prioritized list representing the Voice of the Customer.” Does this sound like your organization?

Themes are a way of communicating what’s important to your customers — their needs, problem, or jobs to be done. I use them as the main organizing principle of a roadmap. The features might change but important customer problems will likely remain the same.

"Our larger prospects need to know they have a direct line to the product team itself. The PM is involved in those deals and starts to build that relationship. The fact that they could actually talk to people on the product team blew them away. They would say to us, 'Wow, our internal team doesn’t even talk to us.'"

2020 resolutions I would want for you as a product person. What would you add?

I have made a list of my favorite books on ProductCuture. It has recommendations for Product books (don't forget Product Roadmaps Relaunched!), but also business, tech and my favorite Sci-Fi reads. I'd love your comments on this list.

"The biggest issue with OKRs is sometimes they are created backwards. Teams start with 'What's on our backlog? OK, perfect. Let's put that on our OKRs.'" That's my friend Shobhit Chugh, Google Product Manager.

"The biggest issue with OKRs is sometimes they are created backwards. Teams start with 'What's on our backlog? OK, perfect. Let's put that on our OKRs.'" That's my friend Shobhit Chugh, Google Product Manager.

"Unleash the world’s creative energy by designing a more enlightened way of working," —Dropbox’s new mission statement. A product vision is the change you want to see in the world and just a hint of how you will make it happen.

A frequent challenge to an established roadmap is the request to “slip in” a feature, fix, or one-off version for a “special” customer or a partner. This often will come from sales. “If we can just add this one little thing,” they’ll plead, “we can close this big deal and make the quarter.”

People often tell me that their product exists to make the company money, and that their pay and promotion chances depend on growth. But is that really why we make products? To get rich? Or is business success a side effect of making customers successful?

“An effective roadmap retains that context of ‘Here’s why we made these decisions, and here are the assumptions we’re making.'" That's Anthony Accardi, CTO of Rue Gilt Groupe. And yet, most roadmaps leave all of that out in favor of minute details about features, bug fixes, schedules, and dependencies.

I have a question for you brilliant product people: How many of you use Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) at work? Do you like them? Hate them? Do they map to your roadmap (and vice versa)? Tell me a story. 

If a roadmap is the path toward your goals, you obviously need to set those goals before you start. Yet many companies fail to sit down and explicitly describe the destination they are driving toward.

A really good roadmap is a story about the future – and why it’s going to be awesome for everyone involved. Recently I did a podcast on splendid roadmaps called Roadmaps, OKRs, Vision and Prioritisation with Mind The Product's amazing Randy Silver and Lily Smith. Check it out! Where have you seen an awesome roadmap? Tell me a story.