1. Prioritizing the roadmap

A product roadmap is defined by user feedback, market analysis, and the overall product vision built by the product team. When a product is on v1.0, the product management team usually has a fair idea on what the next few versions may look like, what features they plan to incorporate, and what enhancements users can look forward to. However, users and internal teams may have conflicting priorities, and the roadmap often has to compete with variables like market changes, user requests, and internal feedback. For product managers, the biggest challenge is keeping the roadmap on track while ensuring immediate needs are addressed and the product stays ahead of the competition.

Strategies:

• Implement prioritization frameworks and set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals.
• Get feedback from power users to identify best-sellers and poor performers. Reach out to churned customers and understand their reasoning to seek an alternative. There may be some critical issues that need to be addressed immediately.
• Maintain open lines of communication with all stakeholders and engage in regular feedback sessions. Transparency builds trust and helps manage expectations.
• Be flexible with the roadmap and include buffer time for unexpected issues and adjustments.

2. Driving user adoption

Ensuring new users understand and effectively use the product is crucial for retention. For instance, poor onboarding experiences can lead to high churn. Other factors like resistance to change, lack of ongoing support, and perceived value also play a role in user adoption. Changing user perception and easing the transition to a new product may be a challenge for product managers.

Strategies:

• Demonstrate value with compelling use cases, case studies, and success stories. Elaborate on how the product solves specific problems.
• Simplify onboarding with comprehensive and accessible training materials. Work with marketing teams and technical writers to create tutorials, guides, webinars, and support documentation.
• Facilitate seamless integrations with existing tools and workflows through APIs, connectors, and other integration solutions. Offering tools and support for easy data migration from legacy systems can also drive user adoption.

3. Aligning with business goals

Business goals can shift due to market conditions, competitive pressure, or internal strategic decisions. Other factors like emerging technologies, varying KPIs amongst teams, and customer feedback may not necessarily align with business requirements. Product managers must ensure that the product roadmap is flexible enough to incorporate changes that meet these goals without causing significant delays or disruptions.

With any product-based organization, there exists a pressure to deliver quick wins and show immediate results, which can sometimes conflict with long-term strategic goals. Deciding where to allocate limited resources to balance short-term projects with strategic, long-term initiatives can also be a challenge for product managers.

Strategies:

• Compare the product strategy and roadmap with the organization's vision, mission, and objectives. Identify overlapping goals and where differences lie.
• Engage with stakeholders, particularly the C-suite, board members, or investors (if any—we wouldn't know!) continuously to understand their needs and work their feedback into the product strategy.
• Break down long-term goals into smaller, manageable increments that can be adjusted based on changing priorities.

4. Managing internal dependencies

A product or feature rollout requires intense cross-functional collaboration involving multiple teams. This also means the project timeline can quickly be derailed by resource unavailability, communication gaps, and disjointed workflows. If the team is struggling to meet deadlines, there may be a compromise on the quality of work put out. This may be a recurring issue when multiple product teams rely on a single team of engineers or in teams where several projects are ongoing simultaneously.

Strategies:

Mediocre vs Mastery: It is sometimes forgotten that consistent ‘mediocre’ practices such as attention to detail, repeated quality checks, writing basic reports, and documentation are crucial to help educate team members, build a framework for learning from mistakes, provide a testing bed for refinement, and reinforce the team’s memory. Skipping these foundational steps and jumping directly to complex challenges never leads to true mastery but results in unlimited reworks. Aligning and consistently reminding the team of these essential practices is always a challenge for a manager.

- Raja Gopal Hari Vijay

AI cloud lead for ZLabs at Zoho Corporation Pvt. Ltd

• Set realistic goals by discussing resource availability with the teams involved. All stakeholders must be aware of the product management team's long-term goals to allocate resources accordingly. Avoid making last-minute changes to the plan unless the situation calls for it, for example, in case of a hotfix or security bug.
• Use project management tools to monitor progress, plan releases, and improve collaboration and visibility across teams.
• Use no-code or low-code tools to create mockups/wireframes and reduce dependency on engineering teams.

5. Highly competitive market

The downside to offering subscription-based services is that customers can cancel their subscription and walk away anytime. With hundreds of SaaS companies offering alternatives and switching solutions becoming easier than ever, it takes a game-changing product to keep customers onboard and stay ahead of the game. Reducing customer churn or increasing customer retention in a competitive landscape—especially with constantly evolving technology—can be tricky for product managers.

Strategies:

• Dig deeper into why customers opt for competitor solutions. ManageEngine's pre-sales teams are encouraged to communicate with lost customers or leads and share their observations on the in-house collaboration platform.
• Focus on clear product positioning. Identify the purpose of the product, who it's meant for, what customers gain by using the product, and what they lose out on by not using the product.
• Conduct thorough competitor analysis before building a new product to identify gaps in the product strategy and gain a deeper understanding of the landscape.

6. Security and compliance

Compliance with regulations like GDPR and industry standards like ISO/IEC 27001 is a basic requirement for SaaS providers to protect users' data. Non-compliance can lead to fines, legal action, and loss of customers' trust and opportunities. Ensuring compliance across all products and features may be difficult, particularly because they must stay updated on multiple changes and new regulations applicable worldwide.

There are multiple aspects of security that a product manager must be aware of, such as encryption, application security, and incident response. Vulnerabilities in third-party integrations can also compromise security. Even if PMs are not directly responsible, it is crucial that these factors are taken into account at every stage of the product development process. Internally, monitoring access to restricted data could be another roadblock without the right tools and practices.

Strategies:

• Safeguard confidential information by limiting user access and permissions to authorized individuals. Implement practices like Zero Trust and MFA and restrict access based on user roles and responsibilities.
• Check in with development teams on periodic security audits and vulnerability assessments. Product managers can go one step further and take part in code reviews to understand the technical details behind the release. ManageEngine's teams use an in-house tool to identify vulnerabilities and prepare reports.
• Opt for approaches like DevSecOps, where security practices are integrated into software development. For product managers, this means early detection of potential vulnerabilities and threats. And early detection of security issues means fewer last-minute fixes and delays, smoother audits, and improved scalability in practices.

7. Scalability and performance

Adding new features and functionalities can increase the complexity of the product. Complex systems are harder to scale and optimize, potentially leading to performance bottlenecks. An increase in the number of sign-ups, concurrent users, and the volume of data generated and processed further add to the challenge.

Strategies:

• Collaborate with UI/UX teams to ensure that performance enhancements don't affect the user experience. During the early stages of prototype development, assess the impact of design choices on load times and responsiveness.
• Identify the scalability and performance risks involved with a project, like potential downtime during an upgrade. Work with the development team to come up with contingency plans to minimize the impact on users.
• Work with senior leadership to balance new feature development with necessary infrastructure investments to support growth.

8. Data silos and decision-making

Data collected and stored across different teams or systems can result in data silos. When important data—like customer profiles or metrics and KPIs—are fragmented, product managers cannot fully understand user behavior, preferences, and pain points. Teams may also duplicate efforts, leading to inefficiencies and increased time-to-market. Without a holistic view, any business-critical decisions made would be based on incomplete or outdated information, reducing the accuracy and relevance of the product strategy.

Strategies:

• Centralize data from various sources through a service desk or CRM solution. This ensures consistency and makes it easier to analyze and visualize data.
• Establish standardized data collection, storage, and sharing practices and encourage cross-functional collaboration to break down silos.
• While data is important, don't fall victim to analysis paralysis, i.e., over-analyzing volumes of data to take decisions. Narrow down on data relevant to the decision to be made. For instance, review adoption rate and performance issues when evaluating a feature's sunset.

9. Gathering customer feedback

In-app polls and email surveys provide limited data and don't necessarily reflect the complete user experience. For actionable insights, product managers need in-depth input. This could be a challenge if customers are not willing to engage with the team or if the customer base is vastly bigger than the team itself. Managers may also struggle with getting the right information from their users. Using only generic questions like "What do you like about the tool?" will not cover the broad capabilities a tool offers and where it needs work.

Strategies:

• Engage in one-on-one conversations with customers, preferably in person. The key is to keep the interaction brief and personalized.
• Ask scenario-specific questions that highlight the challenges customers face in their industry, the solutions they seek, and how they implement features in their day-to-day responsibilities.
• Incentivize feedback, especially from power users. This could be through early access programs, vouchers, merchandise, or free products/services.

10. Lack of innovation

A role like product management calls for a constant flow of creativity and the drive to come up with original ideas. Over time, PMs may lose perspective and focus on smaller fragments instead of looking at the big picture. Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho Corp., shares his thoughts on the subject. He says, "It is easy to manage but very difficult to inspire. Many managers, lacking the ability to inspire, become pure 'task masters.' That is an easy crutch. Becoming pure task masters is a dead end in any creative pursuit like product development."

Stagnation can lead to boredom and disengagement among the product team, ultimately resulting in a decrease in productivity. The dearth of innovation can also kill a product, the same way it drains team morale. The product loses its competitive edge and quickly becomes outdated compared to competitors who are consistently introducing new features and enhancements. This is especially a challenge in the SaaS industry, owing to its fast-paced growth and constantly evolving market needs.

Strategies:

• Engage with different product teams to gain fresh perspectives. Create an environment where team members are encouraged to share ideas and challenge the status quo. PMs can also provide incentives or recognize members to reward their creativity.
• Go back to the source. Observe how customers use the product in real-world scenarios. This can uncover a new angle and may even inspire unconventional solutions.
• Stay updated on industry trends and emerging technologies. Participating in online communities and attending industry conferences and workshops are a great way to gain exposure to ideas.