Article

Introducing Buffer's Transparent Product Roadmap

Jim Hitch · Buffer Free Beginner

A real company shows exactly how it opened its roadmap to users as a public board organized by stage, with voting and comments, and no hard dates. You see the actual mechanics of doing this well, not just the theory. Buffer is famous for radical transparency, so this is a credible worked example. It pairs the trust and feedback upside with a format that avoids date traps.

  • Organize public items by stage of development, not by delivery date
  • Voting and comments turn the roadmap into a feedback channel, not just an announcement
  • Being open about what is under consideration invites input you would otherwise miss

The question it answers

  1. Should I share a public roadmap with my early users, or does that just create pressure and expectations I cannot meet?

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  3. Arvid Kahl built and sold a company on radical transparency, sharing his real revenue numbers publicly, so this is not a... The Bootstrapped Founder Essay · ~10 min read The Increasing Risk of Building in Public Arvid Kahl
  4. This is the tool most teams reach for when they want a public roadmap that customers can actually vote on, not just a static... canny.io Tool Canny: Public Roadmap Canny
  5. This is the direct answer to the pressure problem in the question: if a public roadmap scares you because of dates you cannot... prodpad.com Article Why I Invented the Now-Next-Later Roadmap Janna Bastow
  6. This tackles the exact question head-on: should you expose the roadmap at all, and what do you actually risk. It is honest... canny.io Essay Should You Have a Public Product Roadmap? Eric Hoppe
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