Agile practices of project management have transformed how software is developed. Planning an entire project from the start often leads to unmet objectives and cost overruns. Agile instead proposes to start small by developing a minimal viable product and growing one feature at a time. In an age of the Internet’s instantaneity, continual deployment makes agile an achievable possibility. These authors, whose careers have all been hewn in software to some degree, propose undertaking the same transformation with product management. Thus, instead of fixed plans, product roadmaps can become living documents responsive to feedback from various stakeholders.
Before I get too far, let me address the unusual shape of the book. Yes, it’s a wide book instead of conforming to the traditional pattern of tall books. One of the authors has extensive experience in graphic design, so he seems to have aided in this book’s beautification. Both approaches embody a risk, but the final product pulls it off. While unusual and unorthodox, reading the book was a pleasureful experience. As someone who reads a lot of books, I found it nice to experience a change of approach.
I’m currently writing roadmaps for a series of products in my job, and this book helped me polish nuances in those plans. I established a GitHub project to house Markdown versions of my documentation so that they will become living documents under version control. The authors expressed sentiments that I lacked words to convey better than I ever could. Software is a living industry no longer fixed by hard deadlines from a “waterfall” approach. Continual development, integration, and deployment will surely continue to serve as paradigms for the future.
While this book did express thoughts I anticipated in my gut, its contents were not earth-shaking to someone already experienced in agile methods. The conceptual leap from software development to product management wasn’t all that great. They did bring out details that my work will benefit from, and I’m grateful to have spent time reading this work. However, potential readers should be aware while it’s really good, the book does not convey totally novel concept.
The authors made some attempt to generalize its application to product managers in all technology fields that rely on research and development. It remains very focused on the field of software. IT plays a major role in almost every organization these days, so a software-centered approach seems honest. I still think that it doesn’t escape the field of software product management enough to generalize too broadly. Continual deployment isn’t possible in physical domains. Nonetheless, all product managers should read this book to improve their skillset. Staying agile with a living product plan is an idea whose time has come.
Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty
By C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan & Michael Connors
Copyright (c) 2017
O’Reilly
ISBN13 9781491971727
Page Count: 245
Genre: Management, Software
www.amazon.com