Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. - Mike Tyson
I’m not a big fan of traditional roadmapping. Is it better than no plan? Probably? Maybe. …Sometimes?
Whatever the case, it’s not nearly as good as we’d like to think it is.
After days and weeks of planning sessions full of cost-benefit analyses, KPI/OKR/WTF discussions, North Star debates, and myriad spreadsheets, it allows product leaders to feel as if we did something meaningful for the business—a lot of somethings—while actually having delivered absolutely nothing to our customers or market. Zero.
Mark Twain described a classic piece of literature as a book everyone wants to have read but nobody wants to actually read. Similarly, big-ass, capital-r Roadmaps are plans everyone wants to have accomplished but nobody wants to actually put the sweat into.
After all the effort to create them and the applaud you get for doing so, why buy the cow?1
Don’t mishear me: planning is critical. But guessing is not planning, and the further out our alleged plans are the more likely they are to be just that: guesswork
So yes, plan. Just plan practically, realistically, today.
As Seneca said, The whole future lies in uncertainty: live immediately. Make plans against the backdrop of reality rather than a future you can’t see or know.
Mike not only gave us this great quote, he’s shown us what getting punched in the mouth looks like. My departing wisdom: avoid at all costs, figuratively and literally, but know that it’s coming eventually—hopefully only figuratively.
New to the expression? Here’s a fun intro.