Where Great Product Roadmap Ideas Come From

Lenny Rachitsky compiles a list of fifteen practical sources for product roadmap ideas, drawn partly from community suggestions. The core argument is that strong ideas come from direct customer contact, observing behavior, studying churn, and looking outward at competitors, adjacent markets, and unrelated industries. He also flags three approaches that rarely produce big ideas: large group brainstorms, long stretches of heads-down work, and copying competitors. The piece is brief and practical, useful as a checklist for PMs seeking inspiration, though it offers little explanation of how to apply each source.

01Key takeaways

• Talk to customers directly and also to front-line staff who hear from customers every day.
• Mine past research, analytics, and churn data to find patterns worth acting on.
• Use your own product regularly to notice friction that others may overlook.
• Look beyond your market at adjacent and unrelated industries for transferable ideas.
• Set aside uninterrupted time to think big, since constant execution crowds out creative thinking.
• Don't assume competitors know what they're doing; study them critically rather than copying.

02Key sections

Direct customer contact

Talking with customers and with employees who interact with them, such as sales, support, and marketing, is presented as a primary source of ideas. These conversations surface real needs and pain points.

Observing behavior and data

Studying user research, analytics, and past data dives reveals patterns in how customers actually use the product. Using the product yourself and examining why users churn adds further insight.

Reflection and small conversations

Quiet thinking time, informal discussions with teammates, and working backwards from a long-term vision help shape ideas. These methods rely on focused, individual or small-group reasoning rather than large meetings.

Looking outward

Competitors, adjacent markets, and analogous businesses in unrelated industries offer inspiration. Technology shifts are also flagged as a trigger for new opportunities.

Approaches to avoid

Large brainstorms, prolonged heads-down execution, and copying competitors are weak sources for big new ideas. Brainstorms still have value for team involvement, and some time away from execution is needed to think broadly.

03From the post

“[](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s!Qty1!,fauto,qauto:good,flprogressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb2d1fab9-9ee8-49d4-920d-33bdc6d0d8c62600x1966.jpeg) 1. Talking to customers 👂️ 2. Talking to employees who talk to customers (e.g. sales, customer support, marketing) 🤗 3. Observing your customers, through data and user research 🧐 4. Spending quality time with previous data dives and user research 🔬 5. Using the product yoursel️f 🕵️‍♀️ 6. Thinking in a quiet place 🤔 7. Having small discussions with teammates 💁‍♂️ 8. Working backwards from your long-term vision 🤩 9. Looking into what caused users to churn 📉 10. Looking at competitors 👀 11. Looking at adjacent markets 😏 12. Looking at analogous businesses in completely different markets 🔭 13. Creating user journey storyboards 🎞 14. Having hackathons and watching the demos 👩‍💻 15. Catching technology shifts 📱 Where great ideas rarely come from: 1. Large brainstorms — bad source for big new ideas, but has other benefits such as getting everyone on the team involved in the process 🎯 2. Staying heads down for too long — give yourself space to go big and wide on occasion 🙃 3. Copying what your competition is doing — don’t assume…”

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.