How do you respond to criticism of your product roadmap?

Take criticism as a roadmap candidate and make objective decisions. Decide what’s best for the company as a whole after taking a balanced view. Remember a roadmap is a plan … and yes, plans change. Having a standard process to prioritize roadmap candidates makes it easier for you to explain and justify the decisions you make and recommend. High-level roadmaps ever-present danger that people will assume that what they want to see delivered is hidden in the detail. There are lots of different audiences for your roadmap. Each will want to get insights and make decisions based on what they see. Although based on a common set of data, you should present the roadmap differently to each audience to best meet their (and your) needs.

From what I have experienced, it's rather a good thing to have criticism. First, it signifies that people are interested in your product and it's valuable. Having a devil's advocate is a boon for a Product Manager to create a leakproof roadmap. Second, data is your best defense when it comes to replying to one. Highlight the facts- why certain features have been prioritized, quantify the impact it will have directly/ indirectly on North Star metric. Second, instead of "reacting", try to "respond" by understanding their pain points and entrusting them with the belief that this product aims to resolve their issues. Remember, building a product is a team's effort, and such criticisms only shape it better.

I would say acknowledging and empathizing to feedback is a much required for any kind of feedback and not limited to product roadmap criticism so stick to that. Avoid any arguments and take it in positive way. If you have any simple and straight point, feel free to share otherwise try to get more details around the point and let them know that the point is heard and understood and you will get back with more details if require. Don't try to close all the points in that meeting itself. Categorize your stakeholders and connect in separate meetings for first round of discussion on your roadmap to avoid any major points before finalizing the roadmap. It will also help in reducing communication gap and give them an idea.

No entity is flawless, and each individual possesses distinct viewpoints. Likewise, my roadmap is not impeccable. It is subject to continuous change and evolution. Consequently, criticism of my roadmap should be welcomed with openness. I accept criticism in a positive manner and evaluate whether the comments are valid and if my roadmap requires adjustment based on the critique. In the case of completely baseless criticism, I promptly dismiss it. The ultimate goal is to refine the roadmap and criticism serves as valuable feedback.

Product development is a collaborative effort and collaborations often lead to disagreements. That's the nature of the work. In fact, one can argue that if there are no disagreements then the teams or stakeholders are not involved enough in the process. Therefore, criticism of the roadmap is bound to happen. That being said, one should differentiate noise from constructive criticism. Be a patient listener to all but take calculated ( backed by data whenever possible) decision to plan & replan the roadmap by keeping in mind the vision & goal of the product.

In response to criticism, Clarify and Explain by introducing “Interactive Roadmap Sessions.” Organize regular sessions where stakeholders can interact with a live, visual representation of the roadmap. Use this platform to clarify goals, respond to queries, and explain decision rationales. For example, if a stakeholder questions the prioritization of a feature, demonstrate its impact using real-time data and simulations, showing the ripple effect on the overall product. This proactive approach fosters understanding and builds trust through transparency, addressing concerns before they escalate.

As a Product Manager, we have to ensure that our product's roadmap align with our organization's vision and goals. Make sure to give those as reference for your explanations or decisions. It will help stakeholders realize that you're moving in right direction.

It is crucial to establish a strong connection between our roadmap and the broader company's vision and values. When we articulate the rationale behind our roadmap, we bridge the gap between our team's efforts and the overarching organizational objectives. By openly sharing our product vision, goals, and priorities, we not only demystify our decision-making process but also strengthen alignment across departments. Moreover, transparency regarding the data-driven insights that shaped our roadmap decisions is key. For instance, when we embarked on the last phase of product development, we conducted user surveys that revealed a critical pain point.

Criticism can signal missing context or misalignment. Address by clearly conveying your vision, goals, and decision drivers. Share stories and data that informed priorities, using examples that resonate. Seek two-way dialogue, not just presenting. The aim is educating, inspiring confidence, and gaining input to improve the product. Criticism is an opportunity to align through transparency, finding common ground, and illustrating your rationale drives customer value. Informed stakeholders make for better collaboration.

A good Product Owner/Manager is one who understands every aspect of the product/service he is responsible for delivering. This includes gathering requirements, breaking them logically to plan them in phases based on priority, identifying team's velocity and predictability, etc. Criticism may arise because of various reasons - 1. Lack of understanding of PO/PM on a certain aspect of Product life-cycle 2. Lack of Technical or project delivery knowledge by a business stakeholder 3. Lack of business knowledge of a technical stakeholder etc. Therefore, it's very important for a PO/PM to empathize with the one who is criticising and setup a proper discussion to get a clear view or express the overall view regarding the product/service.

Embrace feedback as fuel for growth: Every criticism, no matter how harsh, is an opportunity for recovery. It is through constructive criticism that we refine our direction and aim for excellence.

Be open-minded about the criticism. Infact a lot of time you maybe surprised that you missed upon a very cruicial point while creating the roadmap. Be flexible and give due respect to the point of view other person has.

I think Continuous Improvement is one important aspect of the product roadmap journey. One should continuously evaluate and refine their product roadmap process based on feedback and outcomes. Not all criticism will lead to immediate changes in your product roadmap, hence it is important to balance feedback and discover a new perspective that aligns with your product vision.

Critiques and/or questions about a product roadmap should not be perceived as “negative” undertones. Criticism is an opportunity to open dialogue to educate and engage your stakeholders. A product manager needs to balance the prospective and feedback from their stakeholders and align to the key performance indicators of their organization. Additional dialogue is an opportunity to build trust and engagement.

One thing I've found really helpful is to never take anything personally. Be honest and respectful and ask for clarification. Criticism is about your work and not about you and you're not supposed to know everything. A good PM positions himself in the customer's shoes and is thankful for feedback. This is a continuous journey and not a one-time exercise.

From my experience, product manager has to priortise multiple different requirements and product features. This would involve discussion with key stakeholders and being transparent on existing and upcoming priorties. Having an understanding both from business and technical point of view helps make informed tradeoffs and yet helps get buy-in and support when these are communicated.

Stakeholder integration during planning conversations is critical. It helps others feel that they have participated in generating an outcome that will meet their needs. While holding to your principles, product vision, or goals is essential, finding solutions that make others comfortable and feel heard is possible. Quality traits of a great product strategist include listening and adaptability.

This is the one of the most important aspect of Product Managment, i.e. Stakeholder Management. These kind of conflicts are bound to arise. The important part is how do you resolve amicably. Treat such criticism beneficial for you and try to learn more from it.

Collaboration is most important, We can Dedicate one day each quarter where the core product team hosts open sessions with various stakeholders. This isn’t about defending the roadmap, but about listening, gathering insights, and brainstorming solutions. For instance, if sales felt a feature was vital for securing a large client, but it wasn't on the immediate roadmap, this would be their chance to present their case. This forum ensures every voice feels heard, promotes cross-team understanding, and might even lead to undiscovered synergies. The spirit of collaboration can often lead to compromise that serves both the immediate and long-term goals of the organization.

In my experience a big part of collaboration on the shared solution is even introducing the stakeholder to the idea that collaboration and compromise is possible, rather than one opinion vs another. People can be locked in adversarial working patterns where compromise was not ever part of the company culture. I've observed this when interacting with engineering leadership used to product managers who did not listen in the past. In part of showing that this is possible with the person, I would also avoid product management jargon as much as possible - comments like "output vs outcome" or "job to be done" sound arrogant and do not connect with the other person also just trying to do well at their job.

Leave no room for communication gap. Timely information sharing is the key and make them feel that you value their opinion. Co-create the success with them.

Implement a “Feedback Snapshot” feature in your roadmap updates. Whenever you make significant alterations, dedicate a section of the update to highlight select feedback (both positive and critical) you've received. For each piece of feedback, briefly explain: The essence of the feedback. The decision made in response. The rationale behind that decision. Example: In your quarterly roadmap update, you could present: Feedback Snapshot: Feedback: "Several users felt Feature X was more urgent than Feature Y." Decision: "We've moved up the development of Feature X by one quarter." Rationale: "After analyzing usage metrics and market trends, we identified that accelerating Feature X would bring immediate value to a larger user base."

Feedback and updates need to occur on a regular cadence based on the culture of the organization. Communication needs to include key metrics to quantify progress and/or success for the stakeholders. When opportunities for improvement arise; be transparent and provide a detailed action plan outlining your steps forward.

My journey with our product strategy reflects a large vision that seeks to deliver transformative change. I have learned that when I approach criticism with an open heart, it becomes a guiding force. It helps me hone my strategy, crystallize my vision, and intentionally take big steps forward.

A pre-requisite to having a well thought out roadmap and strategy is to seek diverse feedback from cross-functional stakeholders and incorporate their thoughts into the roadmap. Alignment creates a shared understanding and collaborative execution of the roadmap. Second, roadmap should evolve with changing needs and circumstances so criticism can help mold the roadmap to focus on the right things.

A product owner is a 'stakeholder proxy' for the agile teams. Although it’s convenient for the teams to think of product owners as the “one neck to wring” because it puts the burden of requirements responsibility on them, there could be times when the product owner can’t possibly know all the details known by the true range of stakeholders at all points in time and as a result will need to bring stakeholder experts to the team to share their expertise with the team at appropriate times.  So, communication being a primary responsibility - involves not just communicating but also facilitating communication

Be proactive and seek as much buy-in as possible before finalizing and presenting the roadmap document. If you encounter resistance or misunderstandings about your plan after making decisions, there's often a missed opportunity to address and actively listen to alternative ideas earlier. Communicate why certain suggestions can or cannot be included before reaching a final decision and placing it on the roadmap. Ideally, the roadmap should be a collective product of everyone's input, rather than solely reflecting your ideas that you are selling to the rest of the organization.

Take as much learnings, feedback, knowledge sharing and insights as you can from the different functions within the organization. As a PM, you need to process all the information into actionable. A roadmap made in isolation usually fails.