How do you convince people that a product roadmap is NOT a project plan? Our leadership team thinks Product Manager = Project Manager

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It depends on the audience and the goal. If they are expecting to see a roadmap, and see dates but it's actually a project plan, then that's what they assume.

If your audience doesn't know how to tell between the two, clearly lay out the objective of each in a simple way. It might not be on leadership, but in the messaging.

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I agree with this. While they aren't the same, the messaging is important. Just be careful how you word it.

It's like trying to explain dirt to a giraffe. You never really get them to understand the intricacies of your position when they're only looking from so far above.

funny

Stealing this phrase

Woof. Leadership in marketing?

Bumping cuz I’m curious what people say, I work at a fortune 50 and they also think this and I’ve been fighting an uphill battle for a year now and about to jump ship

Get into a cadence where you present a project plan and one slide is the roadmap, which is a way of demonstrating the difference.

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Show them examples of both in the same meeting and label them clearly.

Sounds like it's time for a sit-down

Agreed!

You don’t. You give in for now and they eventually die. You just have to outlive them.

/s

In my experience, this problem happens more often than not. I certainly have it!

Are you using product vision and/or objectives? For me they have been a good instrument to align with the leadership and help them see that the roadmap is just one of the ‘hows’ but not the ‘what’. As long as those are in order, it is not a big deal if the roadmap changes.

What is your roadmap format like? How exhaustive is it? Does it have start/completion dates? Try experimenting. Make it more high-level, don’t use specific dates, plan for a shorter term than you do now, explain ‘why’ for each of the points.

How often do you review/update the roadmap and how do you involve/inform the leadership? You might want to experiment with this too.

I am not sure that this is a problem that can be solved once and for all, as leadership may not be product managers. So I’ve started considering it a part of my daily duties to communicate the evolving nature of the roadmap. I probably sound like a broken record but I start all related meetings/emails with ‘due to X, Y has changed’. I’ve even added a disclaimer directly in the roadmap document stating that it is subject to change.

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