As a SaaS software leader, are you concerned that you do not know when critical product enhancements will be released?  Do you know who is working on each piece of the puzzle technically? And if there are “show stoppers” that will prevent release on time?  These are the questions faced by SaaS leaders every day.  They see the market opportunity that is measurable and ripe for the taking.  Unfortunately, for many, the answers are not cut and dry.  

If you need help..stop here and contact me, I am here to help you get on track and build/release world class SaaS product

For those struggling with deliverable timelines, there are process changes and instruments of visibility that will align the organization around frequently delivering SaaS market value. Starting with the big picture, keeping all functional areas (sales, marketing, customer success, executive, etc.)  in lock step is an ongoing challenge.

If your SaaS software product is “pre production” you have some leeway in release schedule and content.  Once the product is in the market, the game changes.  The original roadmap may or may not represent the future of product releases.  Not to say the roadmap is invalid as a guide, but the market, represented on your feedback backlog, will guide the prioritization and tempo.  Generally speaking, there are two areas for concentration once you are in production:

1) Production support.  Solving “issues” in the platform  (not bugs) That is normally 40-60% of a sprint.

2) Enhancements – Enhancements should be driven be the market via user/partner feedback and fall into one of three categories:

      A) Increase total addressable market (TAM)

      B) Potentially increase the business value (subscription price) of Workee

      C) Reduce churn

As a Product Manager/Owner these true north principles should be top of mind when grooming the backlog or auditing the roadmap. I am not a big fan of “architectural” or “tech debt” sprints, there should be business value in every release.  Each sprint should yield a PSI  (potentially shippable increment) and you will get into a regular cadence of delivering value to the market.  

In my next series of blogs, I will show you:

1. How to stay on schedule with important releases
2. How to spot the signs of confusion in your engineering team
3. Release management that aligns the entire company 

Do you have an online feedback form?  (Not everyone uses facebook.)  It is critical to have a link to a form. Contact me and I can show you how do do this quickly at no cost.