April session: Roadmaps – friend or enemy?

Are roadmaps your frenemy? There’s so much to love – and hate – about them! Let us count the ways… multiple versions for different audiences, excel/ppt, constant changes, reminding people where we are headed (& no, not that special feature for that 1 client…).

Our panelists will discuss:

  • Adam Fry – Why roadmaps are good! And why it’s bad for the product manager when the roadmap goes bad! (i.e. problems with top down directions of roadmap building)
  • Chris Duncan – How to collaboratively build your roadmap and some tools for making your roadmaps look great
  • Matt Kirkey – Why roadmaps are a terrible crux in a product managers life! You should tear them up and throw them away! (in his favourite devil’s advocate role!)

And then it’s over to attendees! We’ll divide you into groups where you’ll be creating your own roadmap.

RSVP now! for Thursday April 14th 6pm for a 6:30pm start

Our Panelists:

Adam Fry – Lead Product Manager – Sportsbet

Adam is a seasoned product management professional, having delivered and managed a variety of products and services, spanning a range of market verticals and industry sectors. He is currently Lead Product Manager at Sportsbet where he has successfully launched a number of high profile products into a highly competitive marketplace.
Prior to Sportsbet Adam led portfolios at organisations including Telstra, iiNet and VicTrack, building compelling customer value propositions, developing clear product roadmaps, implementing structured go-to-market frameworks, and managing the end to end product lifecycle.

Chris Duncan – Product Manager – carsales.com Ltd.

Chris Duncan is a passionate and pragmatic product manger, having a professional background spanning both technical and analytical roles. Over the last six years working with carsales, Chris has lead a raft of successful, high-profile products and services for which he prides himself on delivering true customer value.   Having managed initiatives right across the development lifecycle, Chris’ strength and passion is for developing solid, well communicated product strategies and roadmaps. Never shying away from a good debate, Chris is always keen to discuss all things product management.

Matthew Kirkey – Product Manager – Technology Platforms for Learning Seat

I manage 10 products across 4 streams that roughly 550 clients and 600,000 active users use. The products are in the online learning and compliance space.

I’m Canadian and my education was Computer Science, however I’m more comfortable sitting on the business/strategic side where I leverage my tech background.  I’ve worked for a large Telco in Vancouver, a start up in Georgia, Starbucks as a barista in Uni and run a consulting company for small businesses in a couple cities across Ontario.  I’ve covered business intelligence, IT project management, business analysis, process engineering and somehow managed to setup a renegade data warehouse in a telephone exchange building somewhere in outer Calgary.

For fun, I run a curated weekly event newsletter, a semi-regular pub crawl and am writing a book about craft beer (ideas and suggestions welcome).

RSVP

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