Hi everyone, I started The Product Room in the spring because I wanted a place for product people to think out loud together, without the performance. Over the past six months we’ve had some really good conversations: prioritization, how the PM role is changing, roadmaps. I’ve learned a lot from the people who showed up. I’m going to wind the community down at the end of November. The honest reason is that it hasn’t grown into the kind of room (or engagement) I hoped for, and I’d rather close it well than let it fade. The room stays open until November 30. The recaps and posts are all here if you want to grab anything first. There are other options like the Slack Groups for Lenny's or Mind the Product. If you’d like to keep in touch, find me on LinkedIn or at leahfarmer.com. I’m always happy to talk product. Thank you to everyone who joined, and especially to the people who showed up and said the real thing. Leah

Next session coming in late November/early December (Doodle coming soon to select dates). Vote on our next topic below:

A couple weeks ago, we got together to talk about roadmaps. We did not stay on roadmaps. It was better for it. Here’s what actually came up: - There is no such thing as no roadmap. Call it a hope map, call it OKRs, call it a vision, if you’re telling someone what’s coming and when, you have a roadmap. OKRs are aspirational statements. A roadmap is a delivery plan. They are not the same thing, and confusing them leaves your team without either. - Fidelity matters more than format. Whatever format you use, the rule holds: high precision on what’s right in front of you, loose on everything else. You can tell a board almost anything about what’s happening in six months. What’s happening in the next six weeks needs to be tight. - Dates only when there’s a real reason. Hardware/software alignment. A committed press launch. That’s it. Otherwise you’re making promises to a calendar instead of to your customer. - The PM-to-engineer ratio tells you about the org, not the PM. One person covering four product areas with an AI team of agents is either a sign of a very strong product culture or a very small budget. Sometimes both. - Tech debt is a first-class citizen or it becomes a crisis. It was a great chat and I look forward to our next one. The poll on topics will be out tomorrow for those that want to vote.

Coffee in the Room is back tomorrow evening — this time we’re talking roadmaps. The ones everyone loves to hate. The ones that are either too high level or too low level, that overlap quarters and look janky, that nobody believes and everybody ignores. Come ready to talk about what’s actually working for you, what you’ve ditched, and how you’re thinking about roadmaps in a world where AI makes them easier to maintain but the pressure to commit hasn’t changed. Wednesday 21st October 6:00pm BST / 10:00am Pacific Hope to see you there. ☕