Subhajit Awon

In this account, two managers with comparable ability diverge because one senses what a team and its stakeholders need at a given moment.

• The consequences are practical: adjusting sprint expectations when a developer is frustrated to prevent a later bottleneck, and presenting a roadmap through stories and visuals rather than numbers alone.
• Emotional intelligence is treated as a commercial skill for getting a roadmap approved, not just a way to keep morale up.

Bi-weekly pulse meetings where the team openly discusses challenges, and a basketball coach who reads players’ moods and strengths to change strategy mid-game.

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The comparison is a film: a blockbuster is a narrative, and the roadmap is the screenplay, with each feature or update carrying part of the customer’s story.

• The claim is that this changes behaviour, driving more engagement and faster stakeholder buy-in than a chart of features.
• The recommended moves keep the customer at the centre of the documentation, not just the pitch.

An unnamed company, described as a leading tech company, rebuilt its roadmap around how its features solved real customer problems. The method: start workshops with customer personas, pair product demos with customer success stories, and build infographic timelines from customer data.

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The same logic shapes the advice on setbacks: a pivot is a step in innovation, not a failure, and the practical response to change is to test it.

• One suggestion is to gather feedback within the first week after a feature ships.
• The post that collects these traps promises seven but develops four: perfection, ignoring user feedback, overstuffing the roadmap, and misaligned stakeholder expectations.
• Ask for the remaining three traps.

Steve Jobs and Apple illustrate how deliberately imperfect products can still lead the market. In the film post, Rocky Balboa stands for setbacks as stepping stones, with A/B testing offered as the concrete move.

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The prescription: listen through surveys, focus groups and beta testing; begin with the essentials; and plot small, incremental improvements rather than one large release. Adaptability is the core skill: when a challenge appears, start from the end user’s needs and break development into manageable phases.

A startup building a social platform to foster meaningful connections led with groundbreaking features, only to find users wanted something simple and relatable.

• The response was a minimum viable product followed by incremental improvements.
• Ask for the startup’s name and evidence of the result before treating the case as proof.

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The format: a hook question, followed by numbered lessons anchored to a familiar character, film or coach, and a short instruction at the end.

• The tradeoff is that the analogy carries the idea, while the text stops at naming the habit: it does not show how to run a pivot review or team workshop, and the outcomes are claimed rather than measured.
• Ask for examples of the practices in use and evidence of their outcomes.

Five films map to five lessons: Iron Man for holding a clear vision of what is being built and why, Ocean’s Eleven for matching each member’s strengths to a role, Rocky Balboa for treating pivots as steps, The Lion King for narrating a product story, and Jerry Maguire for the customer empathy behind feedback loops.

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Read this first for a sense of the tone and method.

Five numbered lessons pair film characters with product management ideas.

• Iron Man stands for having a vision and knowing why you are building something; Ocean's Eleven stands for aligning individual strengths on a team; Rocky stands for treating pivots as steps rather than failures; Simba from The Lion King stands for narrating a product story; Jerry Maguire stands for customer empathy.
• Each lesson closes with a small instruction, such as running team workshops, using A/B testing to test changes, or holding regular customer feedback loops.
• The analogies are familiar, and the advice names habits rather than explaining how to put them into practice.
• The post ends by asking which film character matches the reader's own instincts, inviting comments.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful as a workshop opener because the film references travel well across roles, but the facilitator has to supply the mechanics the post leaves out. If you reuse the Ocean's Eleven or Rocky framing, prepare concrete examples from the client's own sprints: the post does not show what a pivot review or team workshop looks like.

The argument is that two product managers with similar technical skill can get different results because one reads people better.

• A basketball coach serves as the comparison: the coach adapts strategy by reading the team's mood and strengths in real time.
• Two practices follow: understanding people's needs through bi-weekly pulse meetings where the team discusses feelings and challenges, and adapting expectations.
• For example, adjusting sprint planning around a frustrated developer can prevent a later bottleneck.
• The post then lists habits including seeking and acting on feedback, reflective listening, showing gratitude, staying calm under pressure, and using stories and visuals to get stakeholders behind the roadmap.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the direct basis for the emotional intelligence portion of a workshop. The stakeholder line matters most for a B2B audience: it links emotional intelligence to getting a roadmap approved, not just to team morale, making it a commercial argument rather than a soft-skills one.

Read it to see how they handle a tradeoff rather than a single technique.

The framing sets innovation against practicality.

• The case is a startup building a social platform around meaningful connections: initial energy went into groundbreaking features, then users asked for something simple and usable.
• Two responses are offered: prioritize user feedback through surveys, focus groups, and beta testing; and use a minimum viable product approach, starting with the essentials and plotting small improvements.
• The post closes with three next steps: check whether product goals match user needs, connect with end users through consistent channels, and break development into manageable phases.
• Ask for the startup's name and outcome before presenting the case as evidence.

For brands planning a campaign

Use this when a workshop audience resists the discipline of an MVP. The unnamed case persuades by pattern recognition, not proof; ask for evidence from the client's own product history if you need to convince skeptics.

The post opens by promising seven pitfalls, then explains four: chasing perfection and delaying launches, ignoring user feedback, overstuffing the roadmap, and misaligned stakeholder expectations.

• Each gets a short instruction, such as aiming for progressive excellence through build, test, and refine; collecting feedback in the first week after a feature launch; cutting roadmap items for clarity; and holding monthly alignment sessions with stakeholders.
• Steve Jobs and Apple appear as an example of releasing imperfect products that still lead the market.
• The post ends by asking readers to share pitfalls they have encountered.

For brands planning a campaign

Strong as a pre-workshop diagnostic: the four named pitfalls cover common failure modes, and each comes with a fix to discuss. Don't repeat the headline claim of seven in the session; only four are explained, and participants will notice the mismatch.

It states the idea directly and gives the campaign a three-step structure.

The claim is that a roadmap without storytelling is a journey without a destination.

• The post compares it to a film: a blockbuster is a narrative, and the roadmap is the screenplay where each feature tells part of the customer's story.
• An unnamed 'leading tech company' is said to have rebuilt its roadmap around customer success stories rather than features, producing more engagement and faster stakeholder buy-in.
• Three steps follow: embed real stories by starting workshops with customer personas and pairing demos with success stories; visualize success using customer data and infographic timelines; and empathize and innovate by staying open to feedback and holding regular sessions with customer-facing teams.
• The post ends by asking what narrative the reader's roadmap is telling.

For brands planning a campaign

This is a natural spine for a roadmap storytelling workshop: three steps, each with an activity already sketched. Ask the client for customer stories to give the workshop's credibility a concrete foundation; the post recommends starting with those stories, too.

Each point includes a suggested move, such as running A/B tests after a change or scheduling regular customer feedback reviews.

A hook question, followed by a numbered list in which every lesson is anchored to a named film and ends with a short action tip.

For brands planning a campaign

Shows Awon turning abstract product management concepts into memorable, low-jargon analogies—a workable opening device for a B2B SaaS workshop where non-specialists need to grasp roadmap and storytelling ideas quickly.

Examples: Source 1

The post contrasts two equally capable product managers and attributes the difference to how each reads people. Practical suggestions include bi-weekly pulse meetings where the team discusses difficulties openly, adapting sprint expectations when a developer is frustrated, seeking feedback and acting on it, and presenting the roadmap to stakeholders through stories and visuals rather than numbers alone.

A real-world analogy—a basketball coach reading player moods—followed by numbered insights and a bulleted tip list.

For brands planning a campaign

This is the closest source to the proposed workshop's emotional intelligence module. It offers ready-made exercises, particularly pulse meetings and stakeholder storytelling, for a product team.

Examples: Source 1

The team led with groundbreaking features, then found users wanted something simple and familiar.

• Awon recommends listening through surveys, focus groups and beta testing, starting with a minimum viable product, and releasing small incremental improvements.
• The post frames adaptability as the core skill and the end user as the starting point for any decision.

A narrative case study that sets up tension between two goals, then resolves it with a numbered how-to list.

For brands planning a campaign

Useful for a workshop segment on scoping. The case offers a concrete, relatable example of over-investing in novelty, a common failure mode in B2B SaaS roadmaps.

Examples: Source 1

Remedies include a 'build, test, refine' approach starting from a minimum viable product, gathering first-week user feedback when a feature launches, and holding monthly alignment sessions with stakeholders.

A numbered list of pitfalls, each with an actionable insight, followed by an invitation for readers to share their own experiences.

The post promises seven pitfalls but develops four; ask for the remaining three before building the exercise.

For brands planning a campaign

Good material for a stakeholder-alignment or roadmap-scoping exercise. Each of the four documented pitfalls can anchor a short team discussion in the workshop.

Examples: Source 1

The post argues that weaving customer success stories into roadmap communication raises engagement and speeds up stakeholder buy-in, illustrated with a tech company that reoriented its roadmap around how features solved real customer problems. Recommended moves include running workshops from customer personas, pairing product demos with success stories, building infographic timelines from customer data, and holding regular Q&A sessions with customer-facing teams.

A movie-screenplay analogy, a short case study, then three numbered sets of actions.

For brands planning a campaign

This post anchors a roadmap storytelling module. The persona workshop, demo-plus-story pairing and customer-facing Q&A are portable formats a brand could adapt to its own product team.

Examples: Source 1

Advice focuses on habits and methods such as feedback loops, pulse meetings and incremental releases.

This pattern appears across the posts rather than describing any single one.

For brands planning a campaign

Sets expectations for how Awon communicates: plain-language methods a team can act on. Supply your own product data and metrics if the workshop needs to tie its work to measured outcomes.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2 · Source 3 · Source 4 · Source 5

Both keep the writing concrete, describe the misalignment they see rather than a theory of it, and offer a working method readers can try with their own teams.

Hier's subject is the strategic business roadmap in life sciences and manufacturing, delivered through a named visual roadmapping platform and a consultancy practice, with a recurring series about that industry. Their roadmaps are product roadmaps, taught through film and sport analogies.

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Both write up their own work as short case studies readers can follow. Chattopadhyay's post on going back to add a framed problem to a project reflects the preference Awon shows for feedback loops and end-user-first decisions, told through personal experience rather than as a rule.

Chattopadhyay's practice is UX and product design: user research, prototyping and problem framing, presented as portfolio work while building an early-career design record.

• Awon advises product managers on roadmaps and team dynamics.
• Ask for a documented project example to assess how they apply their methods.

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Duarte's writing on leadership and culture is a natural next read for someone drawn to Awon's emotional intelligence argument and its emphasis on transparency and regular check-ins.

Duarte focuses on organisational culture, recruitment and the employee experience, for people in hiring, learning and HR roles.

• The format is a recurring weekly insight rather than a numbered product lesson.
• Awon stays inside product management and ties each habit back to a roadmap decision.

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In one post, Chattopadhyay describes returning to a master’s stakeholder project without a clearly framed problem.

• They checked who the users and stakeholders were, what they needed and why, then wrote a How Might We question that weighed both sides before settling on a direction.
• It’s a practical method for a team struggling to pinpoint the problem it is solving.
• Another post describes leading a website redesign for an art e-commerce stakeholder, citing user research and prototyping as strengths, alongside internship, hackathon and apprenticeship experience in cross-functional teams.

Chattopadhyay focuses on a designer’s discovery practice, not a product manager’s roadmap.

• The material offers no roadmap storytelling, prioritisation or workshop delivery, and reports no client outcome beyond a stakeholder being pleased with a redesign.
• A company looking to explain roadmap choices to customers and stakeholders would still need the roadmap content in Subhajit Awon’s posts.
• Chattopadhyay is the stronger pick for a session on discovery, user research and problem framing.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

In a weekly organisational-culture series, Duarte argues that recruitment is often a candidate’s first contact with a company.

• Transparent, respectful and inclusive hiring practices signal fairness and open communication, while impersonal processes raise doubts about stated values.
• A second post on leadership change sets out collaborative and inclusive practices, including cross-departmental projects, mentorship pairing across backgrounds, continuous learning investment and regular wellbeing check-ins.
• The material fits a company that has diagnosed team friction and wants a session on culture and leadership conduct.

Duarte offers talent and organisational-development commentary, not product roadmaps, prioritisation or customer-facing roadmap communication.

• The material includes no product-team examples, so product managers would get values-level guidance without roadmap mechanics.
• Choose Duarte for a workshop on team culture and leadership, not roadmap decisions.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2

Hier’s life sciences roadmap post identifies the failure modes: research, regulatory, product and commercial goals are misaligned, and initiatives are not prioritised for real strategic value.

• It prescribes cross-functional alignment, proactive management of dependency and bottleneck risks, and collaborative prioritisation using a MoSCoW grid, with stakeholders co-creating the must-haves in a visual format.
• A later post candidly reflects on repeatedly failing to update the business roadmap, framing the tension between working on the business and working in it.
• The material fits a leadership session on aligning a multi-team roadmap and cutting scope.

The material targets life-sciences organisations and consultancy-led strategic roadmapping.

• The posts present Roelto’s and SharpCloud’s approach and invite a conversation, suggesting a strategic-portfolio lens and a tool.
• They do not cover customer-story-led roadmap communication or the listening-and-adapting side of team decisions.
• A B2B SaaS company seeking to help product managers present priorities as customer stories would get more from Subhajit Awon’s posts.
• Choose Hier instead if the company also needs portfolio-level prioritisation, where their framework is more developed.

Examples: Source 1 · Source 2