A product roadmap's value is in the planning process and aligning the team on a vision, not in rigidly adhering to a delivery schedule. The co-founder of Artist argues that becoming a feature factory focused on checking boxes off a roadmap is a dangerous trap that distracts from solving real customer problems.
Artist's co-founder warns that the biggest mistake founders make is building technology too early. Her team validated their text-based learning concept by manually texting early users, confirming the core hypothesis and user engagement before committing significant engineering resources.
Instead of debating individual features, establish a clear "perspective" for your product. Artist's perspective as a "push-based product for quick insights" makes it easy to reject requests that don't align, like building an in-house video hosting tool. This aligns the entire organization and simplifies the roadmap.
Artist's CPO notes that while frameworks and processes can feel productive, the best product work is often messy and uncomfortable. It involves fighting with stakeholders and making bets on uncertain features rather than fixing known, smaller issues. This contrasts with the idealized view of smooth, process-driven development.
When her financial literacy classes failed, Maxine Anderson realized the problem wasn't that people didn't want to learn, but that the format (in-person classes) didn't fit their lives. This insight—that the delivery medium itself is often the biggest barrier—led to Artist's text-based learning platform.
Artist's co-founder found that even the best employees lack the time to seek out learning. Their success comes from a "push-based" model that delivers personalized, timely information via text or Slack, rather than relying on employees to log into a separate learning platform.
After losing clients due to HR budget cuts, Artist successfully pivoted from selling to central L&D teams to selling to sales enablement departments. These teams have budgets directly tied to revenue outcomes, making them a more resilient and motivated customer base, even without a fundamental product change.