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Ask HN: How to come up with a great product roadmap in a startup?

7 points by sudheendrach ↗ HN
I'm a first time founder, right out of college. My friends (and best developers[1]) liked my passion for the idea and joined this journey as early engineers. As a founder I look after the product - what to build and how to build.

Everyone told me you need to have a clear vision for the product from day one, so I (just me) sketched the product road map for first version. We're moving very slow according to deadlines for the tasks, not because we are lazy but the tasks we thought would be easy aren't that easy. (data extraction - unstructured data)

I wanted to hear from you folks:

1. How to set clear/accurate deadlines?

2. How do you come up with product roadmap? By talking to your founders or engineers also?

Thanks!

* [1] - best among the current 21 yr olds in India

9 comments

[ 6.7 ms ] story [ 35.9 ms ] thread
diafygi
I've found that words, ideas, and plans count very little. Having something working to demo is much more impressive. So I'd suggest setting your first deadline as making a prototype. Then formulate your next steps after that.
sudheendrach
We're in fact building a prototype - I'm asking suggestions for sketching a road map with tasks and deadlines. To be more specific, my question is How to come up with achievable deadlines for the tasks?
pskittle
About setting clear and accurate deadlines- Try setting smaller goals by allocating time in mins our hours. Have a shared spreadsheet where you can list down your names and the things you'll are working on. update it with reasons as to why it didn't take as much time or less. Do this once every day. This will help you get smaller things done quickly and be accountable to one another.

about your product--> talk to your customers and understand their reasons for using your product. Focus on what are the key features that are important and how you can add additional value by leveraging your core strengths

sudheendrach
Thanks, I will follow the task-wise spreadsheet suggestions.
JSeymourATL
>1. How to set clear/accurate deadlines?

Can you determine within the next 7 days, what is the most important result the business must achieve? Why is that a priority? What are the least number of actions to achieve it?

List those out-- that's the road map. Start on item #1.

sudheendrach
Next seven days is doable. So weekly product roadmaps is what we can/should have for now.
paulnrogers
First recommendation: read The Lead Startup - it's great for guidance on building a minimum viable product and basing feature releases around what you know about your users.

Your roadmap should ultimately be based on what you learn from your users and what will build the product, not what you think will bring in more users.

Should if you have any specific questions - @paulnrogers