Top critical review
2.0 out of 5 starsThis book is a disappointment
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2020
I normally love books from O'Reilly, but this one isn't really about Product Roadmaps. It's just a mishmash of thoughts by multiple people who don't understand product roadmaps, they are adherents of design thinking and design sprints, both of which are wonderful, but they are not product roadmaps.
A product roadmap is a real thing that may be provided to customers, I wish O'Reilly had written a book about how to make them. This is a book that is about Design Thinking, which is a process which was developed at the University of California at San Diego, and used by the design community. UCSD also introduced User Centered System Design, abbreviated as User Centered Design or just UX for User Experience.
From the book's preface addressing who is the book written for... "If you’re wondering if that’s you, we’re referring to the individual or individuals responsible for developing, prioritizing, and rallying support for the development of a product or service. "
Engineers and marketers produce and share product roadmaps for their customers -- What products have these four co-authors shipped, where are those roadmaps? Good luck finding them in this book.
Also, I bought the print edition because I had read complaints about the image quality of the Kindle edition. Sadly, the print is too small in this edition. The whole book, including pictures and font sizes, would benefit from increasing it 50%. If I hadn't been slow about it, I would gladly return the book for a refund.
