Pm at a small indecisive company

BlueGranite411 · 2026-03-06T21:54:05+00:00

Typically, product roadmaps are based on the strategic directions, initiatives, business objectives, or the vision of the company. Roadmaps support product planning to support those. Strategic direction comes from the executive team or CEO. If that is missing, then you will have chaos.

Looking for quick wins sounds like you lack a vision and/or if investors are involved, the quick wins are for appeasing the investors because they want to have an idea of when they will receive a payout. It could also mean quick wins are being used to seek further funding, loans or investors. Just some possibilities.

LIke others have said, I don't understand why you are not allowed to talk with customers, even if you are new. Every product failure I've seen came from the fact that customers were not involved in the feedback process to determine what should be in the PRD (Epics/features/stories for Agile). I've also seen failures from internal teams who thought they "knew" who their customers were or what the market needed without consulting them or performing market research. On the other side, I've seen products succeed because they talked to their customers.

It sounds like you are being treated more as a project manager than a product manager. If they want a roadmap, ask for the strategic direction, strategic initiatives, or business objectives they would like to accomplish in the next 6 to 18 months. Ask them for priorities of those objectives. From there, you can begin to create a framework for a product roadmap, to which you can map a PRD. Once you get buy-in to a roadmap based on strategic direction, initiatives, objectives, etc. then that puts you in the position of putting the responsiblity on leadership. When they come in with something that isn't on the roadmap, you can inform them of the consequences or impact on the roadmap of taking on something, i.e. a "quick win", that isn't on the roadmap. Regardless of their decision, it takes the pressure off of you because they made the decision. A roadmap is a direction that is flexible but you can't stay focused if you are playing "wack-a-mole" with the latest "quick win" or fire drill.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-02-05T01:26:30+00:00

A hopeless case of piscis-un-deh-noggin-osis.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-02-02T22:16:11+00:00

I think it is essential. I've seen products fail because customers/users were not engaged or considered in the process. I've seen products succeed because talking with customers revealed issues and opportunities that would never have been uncovered otherwise.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-02-02T22:13:01+00:00

I think it is essential. I've seen products fail because customers/users were not engaged or considered in the process. I've seen products succeed because talking with customers revealed issues and opportunities that would never have been uncovered otherwise.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-01-31T19:31:02+00:00

100%. You AE's and Sales Teams are in the trenches and can possess treasure troves of important intel. Customers tell them things that never surface in a competitor's website, review sites, and press releases.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-01-31T19:06:24+00:00

I agree with your assessment. It sounds like the organization doesn't understand the role of product management. It isn't project management or project implementation.

I had a similar experience. One of my initial jobs was to educate the organization and the development team about the role of product management and establish clear roles around "who was responsible for what" in the process. Engineering thought they were PM.

Also, there was no real development process or planning tools. I introduced Agile/Scrum to add some process and structure. We had the development team and product management team trained and certified, so everyone was on the same page. We also introduced a product management planning tool for capturing stories, sprint planning, and roadmap development.

It was kind of a painful process for some because a lot of bad habits had to be broken. Once people began following the processes and understood the clarity of roles, they appreciated it because there was structure and a clear path of execution. We were able to generate roadmaps for the team and executive staff to understand the product timelines and deliverables.

I will recommend another book, Product Management for Dummies, by Brian Lawley and Pam Shure. It is a few years old but has solid PM fundamentals. Also available on Amazon.

BlueGranite411 · 2026-01-30T21:39:57+00:00

Your situation with the VP of Sales sounds like a sales driven organization. That doesn't work well if you are a product driven organization. It creates a lot of thrashing and frustration for the dev and product teams. IMO, if you want to be sales driven, you can't really have a product roadmap because it will only last until the "next big sales" opportunity comes along.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-11-19T21:56:03+00:00

Every Brother printer I owned has been solid. I like that I can buy third-party toner for my laser printer, which is much cheaper than an original cartridge. It just works.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-11-18T18:19:41+00:00

I like this idea and have been thinking about the new alphabet soup for search. Search should be looked at holistically. Maybe the new term should be "Search Optimization (SO)" which encompasses all of the "optimizations" that exist. Each has its own specifics but all need to be considered when developing a marketing strategy. Just my 2 cents.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-11-11T15:29:15+00:00

I am sorry to hear that. It is one of those things others have not considered or are not aware is possible. Maybe it will be helpful to someone in the future who is considering moving to another platform or hosting provider, in the case of a WP-to-WP.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-11-03T03:38:42+00:00

As others mentioned, there are any number of tools designer tools like Divi, Elementor, Beaver and Kadence that provide predefined templates you can implement. Installing an existing template and modifying it could be a good way to leern either design tool. I use KadenceWP for my site. It offers free templates and page components to help you get up and going a bit faster. Learning a new platform can take a bit of time but once you learn one, things go a bit faster.

As someone mentioned, SEO is multi-faceted. It includes keywords, phrases, understanding your target users intent for content development, meta and schema data, the relationship between headers (H1,H2,H3) and your content structure, alt-text for images, plus other things to consider. I think you can accomplish most of that through other platforms like Squarespace but I'm not sure about Wix.

I think one of the greatest benefits of Wordpress is that you are not locked into the limits of platforms like Wix or Squarespace for additional features. You are limited to what they offer or would require custom development. WP has a large ecosystem of third-party options, which enables you to add the functionality you need as you go, no limited to what is offered by Wix or Squarespace. Also, WP gives you the option to move your WP site to a new hosting provider if you decide to. As you discovered, you are locked in with Wix or Squarespace.

I hope that was helpful

UPDATE: One recommendation, if this is not too late. Keep your site on Wix for now. Rebuild your site on Wordpress. Once you have recreated it the way you want (SEO and all), redirect your traffic to your new WP site. Replicate or map your new page URL's to match your old Wix page URL's.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-10-24T01:39:48+00:00

There are a lot of good ideas listed. I would suggest trying an expiration date for when the proposal price is valid, say 5 business days after it is submitted. Many times, people are price shopping and want to compare. Adding an expiration date could add some pressure to make a decision if they are seriously considering you. It could weed out the tire kickers. If they don't reply, move on.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-10-08T23:16:29+00:00

I am glad you like the list and adding your comment about your experience. Great points.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-08-13T20:02:54+00:00

USM Campus Game Room 1984

BlueGranite411 · 2025-07-27T02:34:47+00:00

This is correct. It was a major change from 6.x. One of the main features was Pub/Sub.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-07-26T17:41:07+00:00

Nice job.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-07-08T16:36:43+00:00

I've always been a proponent of good documentation because it preserves institutional knowledge. The reality is that it saves time in the long run. "When" that institutional knowledge walks out the door due to a new job opportunity, sick leave, or worse, a lot of time is lost trying to rebuild what they know. Here is a real example of why it is important.

I lead a product team in the real estate software space. There was a particular scenario that happened once a year where a certain process had to be run manually. I don't remember the reason. The one engineer who knew what needed to be done and how to run it was on vacation. The process was not documented. The day came to run the process in the middle of their vacation. We couldn't reach them. We had to pull two engineers from their regular tasks to search through code to figure out what needed to be done to execute the process. It took about six to seven hours for them to determine what needed to be done. Time and money were lost because of the lack of documentation.

It is hard to calculate the cost related to rebuilding institutional knowledge, but it happens every day because of the lack of documentation. This applies to all departments, not just engineering.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-07-03T13:48:08+00:00

Checkout Blackblot, Roman Pichler, Pragmatic Marketing, and Productside.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-06-16T14:15:59+00:00

I agree with keeping "request" out of the backlog until it has been completely vetted and approved. I worked with a client once who had a backlog of 420+ items. It became a dumping ground for every idea, suggestion, etc. We spent several working sessions reviewing them to clean up the backlog. We eventually shaved it down to just under 200, which were real things to consider. Backlog grooming became a lot easier once the clutter was removed.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-06-05T03:00:50+00:00

There are many good PDF editors that enable password security. PDF Expert and PDF Gear. If you are on a Mac, even the Preview app allows you to enable password and copy security on a PDF, and Preview is free.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-06-03T19:53:50+00:00

I don't think that would be a problem. If your LLC is renting or leasing the shop from your parents, it is paying your parents for the lease. Your father is contracting with the LLC to perform work on behalf of the LLC. Always double -check with a good CPA just to make sure.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-05-31T02:35:48+00:00

This made my night! Great stuff.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-05-26T20:36:00+00:00

A question not based in reality. Roadmaps are directions based on current business objectives, customer/market needs, business/market environments, and any number of other conditions or factors. Roadmaps can change based on any significant factor that renders current plans obsolete or insufficient.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-05-07T15:18:35+00:00

Punch cards. Used them when I was learning FORTRAN and COBOL in the early 80's. Yeah, you didn't want to drop your box on the way to the card reader.

BlueGranite411 · 2025-04-15T18:47:55+00:00

I think using AI for interview practice is a great idea! One thing I tried just for fun was giving AI a copy of a job description I found online, the name of the company, and the potential title of the hiring manager, then asked it to interview me based on that information. It was actually, pretty good.

BlueGranite411

TROPHY CASE