Build a roadmap tool?
I've been thinking about creating a roadmap tool for indie hackers and small teams. Primarily, I want to focus on tracking feedback and insights from the users, linking them to roadmap features and releases, and providing a notification loop back to the users. So the goal is to make sure that users are always aware of the status of the features they are interested in, whether they are being delayed or delivered on time.
For me, as a product manager, this is one of the most crucial parts of the job. However, after looking at 20-ish different tools, I haven't found one that would properly address this problem. Of course, you can do this with tools like Monday, Coda or Notion, but that is typically for bigger organizations with dedicated product management teams.
So I spent some time wireframing - the result is here. It's obviously not final by any means, but should give an idea.
I would appreciate any feedback on the idea in general, and on the potential implementation.
Is this something that could be useful, maybe even for someone in this community?
What is the best way to validate the idea and what should be my next steps?
@ValKul: did you make this yet? I want to buy it, like yesterday.
Hey @cyberbadger! No, I haven't built this yet - was trying to find a potential first customer to work with to make sure I'm solving for a real problem. Happy to have a chat if you are interested! Please feel free to schedule some time here - https://calendly.com/kulichenko-me/chat
Hey @ValKul, I've looked at the wireframe. Could you please clarify the value proposition?
Having worked as a techie and translator for non-tech people, traceability from idea to implementation is the key to successful projects. I'm sorry if I'm saying the obvious.
https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira is free for up to 10 people and has tons of integrations.
Do you think it's a bit heavy (functionality-wise) for most people?
Hi @StacyOz, thanks for taking a look!
Regarding value proposition, the overall thinking is to provide an easy-to-use product management tool that puts user needs front and center, and that can be used by indie hackers or small companies without dedicated product management teams.
Main features are:
I see the latest item as the biggest differentiator, as existing tools don't seem to address this. They usually allow to publish the roadmap, but it's the same for all users, not personalized.
Jira is a different beast - it's a tool for project management and development tracking. They do have a new product management tool called JPD, but it would compete with Monday, Coda and similar.
Ok. I understand. Then I have an actual use case for you to think about.
➡️ A company sells its software via pilots (some paid, some free).
➡️ The negotiation/sales cycle can be lengthy.
➡️ Negotiation tactics include selling "taster" deployments (a small number of licences) with recognition of potential deployment opportunity per prospect.
➡️ A contract is being negotiated based on the roadmap of particular features being implemented with specific timeframes during the pilot (or completed to the extent that the customer is confident the features will be implemented within an agreed timeframe).
➡️ The implementation for this customer may differ from other customers until it is decided to roll out to all in the regular update cycle.
➡️ Sales Engineers and the BDM need to know what is coming down the pipeline in terms of features and need to make sure what they promised will be delivered by the Product team.
💡Deals are lost because of miscommunication about what is important to whom.
💡Deal Value and Likelihood to Close the Deal are rarely considered by product teams/developers in prioritising dev.
Does that make sense to you?
Yes, makes total sense. Is this a problem that you're experiencing?
Not personally. But someone I know complains about it to me. :-)
Is there a chance you could introduce me to them? I'm curious what they are using to solve the problem, what else they tried, what it missing, etc.
Unfortunately not. I can say that they're not using anything, so the silos remain. It's not like the information isn't available, but it's not being distributed in an appropriate view to the right people at the right time. Atlassian, Hubspot, Google Workspace, and AWS are in use, so I would have thought it would be easy to pull together so long as the product roadmaps are structured data. And from what I can recall, they're not. Happy to chat more if that helps.
No worries! I will think about the problem you've described - might be an interesting way to pivot.
If you ever would like to chat, please feel free to schedule here. I'm always happy to have a conversation!
Sure. Chat scheduled.