Empowering Product Management: The Story of ProdPad's Flexible Roadmapping Solution
Company profile
Company business details
Problem that their product solves
ProdPad solves the problem of rigid and inflexible product roadmaps that hinder product managers' ability to adapt to changing circumstances. The end users are product managers and their teams, who need a structured yet flexible tool to manage their product development processes effectively. Solving this problem is important as it allows teams to prioritize user feedback and iterate on their products, ultimately leading to better outcomes.Their unfair advantage
ProdPad's unfair advantage lies in its flexible 'Now, Next, Later' framework, which allows teams to adapt their roadmaps based on real-time feedback and insights, unlike traditional timeline-based tools that can be restrictive.Strategies
Pre-Launch (Product Development & MVP)
Prototyping Strategy
The founder emphasized the importance of using a roadmap as a prototype for strategy rather than a strict plan. This involved laying out assumptions about the problems being solved and sharing these with team members and customers to validate or adjust them. The process of prototyping was highlighted as valuable, where early assumptions could be checked and refined based on feedback, leading to a stronger roadmap.
Community Engagement for Feedback
During the early stages of developing ProdPad, Jenna and her co-founder Simon engaged with the product community by sharing their tool with fellow product managers. They started by quietly sharing their tool with a few product people they met through the Mind the Product community, gathering feedback and insights on how to improve their product. This iterative process allowed them to refine their tool based on real user needs, which ultimately led to a more robust product offering.
US-Centric Self-Serve Platform
Janna Bastow and her co-founder made a strategic decision early on to create a US-centric self-serve platform for ProdPad, even before their first sales. They set prices in USD and adopted an American writing style guide to appeal to a global audience, particularly targeting the US market. This approach allowed them to position themselves effectively in a larger market from the outset, ensuring that their product was accessible and appealing to potential customers in North America.
Launch Stage
Community Building through Consistency
Jana Basto shared her experience in building the 'Mine the Product' community, which started as a grassroots effort among product people who wanted to learn together. The strategy involved consistently hosting monthly meetups and annual events, fostering a sense of collaboration and sharing among members. This consistency helped maintain the quality of the community and encouraged more people to join and contribute.
Creating a Buy Now Page
As interest in ProdPad grew, Jenna recognized the demand for their product when potential customers began asking how to purchase it. To capitalize on this interest, she created a 'buy now' page, which was essentially a simple landing page that allowed users to express their intent to buy. This move was pivotal as it indicated that complete strangers were interested in their product, prompting Jenna to leave her job and focus on ProdPad full-time.
Learn more about ProdPad
Building better roadmaps | Janna Bastow (Mind the Product, ProdPad)
Janna Bastow @ProdPad. Customer acquisition for SaaS
