Space Aliens Are Among Us, Your Product Roadmap is Realistic and Other Lies You Believe
Johnny Austin
@recursivefunk
LeadingEng West Coast Oct 2023
About Me
![The Office](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10812356/how-dare-you.gif)
It's me, Johnny 👋🏾
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10812406/its-me-oprah.jpeg)
Some Experience
- 17 Years of product and tech experience (10 in leadership)
- Sr. Director, Product @ Best Egg
- Former CTO @ Till
- Former Director of Engineering @ Mapbox
- Two acquisition exits
- Built products and services that have reached millions of end users
- Managed globally distributed teams across 5 timezones
- Non-profit boards/for-profit board of advisors
- Someone once paid me money for a jQuery plugin
Quick Disclaimer
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10834256/bell-curve-2.png)
Yes, you're the exception. But...
Types of Lies
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10812515/false.gif)
The Bold Faced Lie
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10846308/eh.jpeg)
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10812554/i-want-to-believe.gif)
The Betrayal
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10846316/adam.jpeg)
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10812443/work-for-us.jpeg)
The Delusion
"People don't know what they want until you show it to them."
- Steve Jobs
Assume you're not Steve Jobs.
What Happened?
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10835140/quibi-featured-image.webp)
(Some of) The Lies
Bold faced lie, betrayal or delusion?
I can hit my headcount target for next quarter.
Higher HC != Increase in productivity
We need to build to cover all possible use-cases.
Be forward looking, not future-proofing.
We need to refactor.
Quantify the impact.
We'll pay down that tech debt later.
lol.
If we focus on growth today, we'll find a way to get to profitability later.
ZIRP thinking is so over.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10834238/Screen_Shot_2023-10-14_at_11.55.27_AM.png)
No one will pay for this.
They'll pay for value.
Streaming Prices
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10834328/Screen_Shot_2023-10-14_at_1.06.29_PM.png)
Why do we tell these lies?
We're not going to stop.
![](https://s3.amazonaws.com/media-p.slid.es/uploads/125968/images/10847897/delusional.jpeg)
Thanks!
@recursivefunk
👽✌🏾
Lies
By Johnny Ray Austin
Lies
- 500