Is customer feedback really making it into your product roadmap and therefore into your product? I found this article on the topic interesting because it is based on real feedback from customer success managers at Gainsight's recent customer success conference, Pulse 2019. They found a strong perception that customer feedback often doesn't make it into the product roadmap. The article includes examples of some of the reasons why the feedback may not be used.

This is one potential flaw out of many that often exists in SaaS product roadmap processes and it is an excellent example of an internal and external communication gap about product plans. Customer success and the customer providing the product feedback should understand when or if at all, the feedback will be incorporated into the product.

My recent blog post in the Boston Product Management Association's blog, Product Hub, talks about examples of my positive and negative experiences with SaaS product roadmaps, advocates that product roadmaps are important and gives some advice on how to make changes in your product roadmap process. One key recommended practical resource is a recently published book on the topic, Product Roadmaps Relaunched: How to Set Direction while Embracing Uncertainty, co-authored by one of my friends and colleagues, Bruce McCarthy.