How To Pivot Your Product Roadmap For Growth

Innovation How To Pivot Your Product Roadmap For Growth Aaron Senneff Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology Council COUNCIL POST Expertise from Forbes Councils members, operated under license. Opinions expressed are those of the author. | Membership (fee-based) Sep 16, 2022, 07:45am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Aaron is the Chief Technology Officer at Pushpay , and specializes in leading teams and industries through digital transformation.

getty “Agile” is one of the most ubiquitous words in the technology space. The Agile Manifesto was signed in 2001, and since then, industries of all shapes and sizes have been embracing “Agile methodologies”—from small software companies to industrial behemoths. It’s now unusual to enter a company of any size or industry and not hear with some amount of fanfare that they’re “running Agile” in some fashion.

And yet, with all of the Agile models installed across our collective organizations, are we certain those massive digital transformations have brought us better agility? Have we improved as an industry responding to change? The Covid period was an exceptional lesson in the need for agility. Companies worldwide faced a completely transforming marketplace with whipsaw changes to consumer and industrial demand, massive changes to the supply change and labor market, and a sea of uncertainty. It was an opportune time to exercise the true agility muscles inside of corporations we’ve spent so much time installing.

Yet during that time, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 13% of companies experienced an increase in demand for their products and services, and only 6% hired additional staff. Some 90% of companies struggled to identify and meaningfully shift toward any of the meaningful opportunities that emerged during the seismic economic transformation that occurred during this period. Whether your company is facing a recession, a pandemic or even something positive, adaptability is key to success.

I like a well-baked strategic plan as much as the next guy—TAM analyses, market research, three-to-five-year business plans and product roadmaps are often the things cluttering my desktop. While I spend a lot of my time planning, I’m also keenly aware of how quickly disruptions occur. In a world of constant change, you need to be adaptable—and even more, prepared for the unknown.

MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event A few months ago, we faced the opportunity to sign and onboard a unique, new, influential customer. We had developed plans to do so and had been investing in them for some time. Yet in the moment of moving into a potentially new and lucrative market, I stood face to face with the reality of what it would mean to win: Everything would have to change.

Our current roadmaps would have to be completely refactored. Entire departments would need to work together differently. Long-held product commitments would need to get sidelined for a time.

During that process, I was reminded of the need for flexibility and agility. While these changes have brought exciting growth opportunities, they’ve also served as a stark reminder that “being Agile” and having actual business agility are very different things. While it’s impossible to know exactly what changes might be ahead, here are a few tips I’ve learned for creating an adaptable team that can pivot in any circumstance.

Protect the vision more than the plans. Some anchors that shouldn’t be changing often are the company and product vision. This starts from the top.

Healthy companies have clear eyes as to their end goals but acknowledge that the way to get there will move. As I like to say: Marry the vision, date the plans. The development path might get a little squiggly along the way as you pivot to adapt to the unknown, but having a long-term vision is critical to putting changes into perspective.

Anticipate future challenges and opportunities. Staying in the know on industry developments and emerging trends and having a pulse on what’s happening around the world can help anticipate changes before they happen. Although we’re a relatively small company, we have a group of talented people dedicated to generative product and market research on current and emerging trends, which helps us keep in tune with market changes.

We try not to assume we know our customers but rather commit to the hard work of hearing firsthand how their challenges and perceptions are changing. Create a culture of flexibility. Cultivating a team that embraces change, looks forward to new challenges and excels at adaptability will help your company prepare for any changes ahead.

At my company, we have adopted a blameless culture approach that separates blame from accountability and fosters a culture of growth and learning. We celebrate our failures as much as we do our success, which inspires creativity and allows our team to adapt, pivot and be flexible when things don’t always go as planned. Understand and communicate downline impacts.

One of the most significant things I’ve learned throughout my career has been the power of timely communication, business alignment and change management practices. When product and engineering teams have to pivot and rebuild a roadmap to meet the changing needs of the business, there are inevitably going to be ramifications across the organization. Is your product team clearly communicating with your marketing, sales and CS teams? Are there impacts on revenue that need to be addressed and communicated? Consider your business partners in each of these changes.

Implement processes that prioritize agility. Finally, sometimes it’s the very processes we put in place that add friction to a major pivot. A significant change might challenge an organizational structure, how your teams interact, how they plan, how roadmaps are created and managed, whom you are hiring and even the very Agile model that you installed.

Most of these processes we’re proud of—after all, we installed many of them under the banner of “being Agile. ” The reality is that we didn’t know what the future would look like when we installed them, and there will come a time when the future demands something we didn’t account for. When that happens, there is nothing immune to reevaluation, and we need to be brave enough to change.

“Being Agile” and having genuine agility are different things, and executives should be continuously exploring whether their company truly has the chops to react and change when the circumstances warrant it. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? Follow me on LinkedIn .

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