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i'm thinking in terms of "product roadmap" à la
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Linear roadmaps are misleading without a crystal ball for seeing the future. A roadmap that recognizes the existence of risk as time goes on is more honest. But an effective PM needs to anticipate possible branches, too - and create clear criteria for following each path.
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Three roadmaps:
Misleading roadmap (linear) - “We will follow this linear path from zero to our inevitable victory, and these are the milestones that will get us there.”
Honest roadmap (conical) - “We know where we are today, and have a good idea about the near future, but recognize that the future becomes uncertain.”
Strategic roadmap (diverging paths) - “We know where we are today, and anticipate decision points that will change our path. We are intentionally gathering the data that will help us make those decisions.”
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I’m thinking of how I’ve seen people actually use the term and the associated artifacts. Most often it looks like an execution plan with dated milestones. A list of dates and stage-gates basically. What you’re calling surveying is a different type of scoping activity IMO.
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yeah fair, and i don't doubt you have seen different conceptual entities (and attendant artifacts) called "roadmaps" made by actual c-suiters
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In general, IME good C-suiters have a talent for stripping workflow scaffolding to the barest minimum caveman-level cues you won’t forget even if you’re dead drunk at 3AM in Korea trying to close a deal.
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I was very impressed with Dan Harmon’s reduction of the hero’s journey to 8 words in a circle. It’s simple enough even I wasn’t too lazy to memorize it: You Need Go Search Find Take Return Change No wonder he’s done 2 hit shows. Every other version I’ve seen is too complex.
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That graphic you QTed is well-intentioned but kinda silly. Nobody can keep anything more complex than a linear sequence of 4-5 steps in their head under fog-of-war. It’s not misleading, it’s practical. When it gets invalidated you make a new sequence. It’s strategy zoomed in.
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The fanning out of contingencies is sort of an academic point everybody appreciates but is hard to operationalize unless you’re working a closed and bounded domain like a fault-tree to be programmed into a Mars rover. Or a chess program.
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Exactly, and you can’t actually draw more than a very cartoon version capturing the few branch points between fog clouds. That would actually be a better artifact — draw it like a literal tree, with green clumps where you can’t see branching structure, and brown bits in gaps.
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i think it's totally okay to map out known-adjacent-possibles even if they aren't anything close to exhaustive, as long as it's super cheap to do
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Just remembered the South Park business plan is actually both a good roadmap, and a good reflection of ones I've seen: 1. Collect Underpants 2. ???? 3. Profit!
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