The Executive Guide to

Building a
Customer-
Centric
Product
Roadmap
The ground beneath SaaS leaders has shifted, and it has shoved customer-centric
products front and center. As a product leader, you have a chance to perfect your
product, deliver more value, and rapidly grow your company—as long as you have a
customer-centric product roadmap lighting your path.

We have the blueprints to help you build an unbeatable product roadmap and an
irresistible product. This guide lays out the secrets to crafting a customer-centric
product roadmap that enhances your users’ experiences and propels growth.

As a product leader, you have a chance

to perfect your product, deliver more
value, and rapidly grow your company

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 2

PART 1

Why You Need

a Customer-
Centric Product
Roadmap

There was a time when SaaS companies peppered messages across the market,
trying to pull in as many customers as possible. However, this sales-focused model
has quickly faded into the background as product-centered plans take off. That has
set off a race toward product-centered growth and a better user experience.
Here’s why a customer-driven product roadmap is essential if you want to pass
the competition:

Customers Are Driving

Digital Transformation
As SaaS companies move toward
recurring revenue models, it’s throwing
customers and users in the driver’s
seat. It’s no longer enough to flash
a product’s best features and land
one-off sales. Now, to be successful,
you need to drive higher net dollar
retention (NDR).

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 3

As a product leader, you’re in a prime position to keep users engaged, open the
floor for cross-sell opportunities, and slash customer churn.

Wondering how to juggle all of those tasks at once? The answer is in your product.

You can use your product to satisfy individual users first, and from there, your
customer accounts will naturally renew and expand over time. By digging into your
users’ experience and molding your product to fit their needs, you’ll have unlocked
the recipe for growth in this product-first landscape.

As a product leader, you’re in a prime

position to keep users engaged, open
the floor for cross-sell opportunities,
and slash customer churn.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 4

 Successful Product Roadmaps Are Now Customer-Centric
Before you start building the perfect product roadmap, step back and examine
why it needs to be driven by the customer. Here are a few reasons your product
roadmap needs to feed off the customer experience:

MORE ADVOCATES
MORE REVENUE A COMPETITIVE EDGE
AND REFERRALS

One of the main reasons
SaaS is moving to more
customer-centric models
is because the approach
boosts revenue. In
fact, a Dimension Data
report found 84% of
companies that focus
on enhancing customer
experience saw an
increase in revenue. At
the same time, providing
expansion opportunities
to users who have
already signed on can
reduce acquisition
costs and beef up your
company’s bottom line.
The SaaS industry is With digital interactions
becoming increasingly booming, businesses
competitive, and and customers are
customer experience is more connected than
giving product leaders ever. Make no mistake,
an edge. Overall, more current users and
than two of every prospects are talking
three companies now about your product.
compete primarily on By building a product
the basis of customer experience that users
experience. That means love, you turn your
putting user experience user base into walking
first is an essential billboards for your
way to get ahead of product. In turn, the
your competitors. news about your product
and positive experiences
can spread like wildfire.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 5

PART 2

How To Build a
Customer-Centric
Roadmap That
Drives Growth

The first step in creating a customer-centric roadmap is defining your business’s

growth stage and pinpointing the challenges you’re likely to face. Your growth
stage will affect how you approach your roadmap because it will help you steer
around challenges and quickly scale. Here are the common growth stages SaaS
companies face along with how each stage affects roadmap planning:

Startup Stage
For SaaS companies, the startup stage is
a minefield filled with challenges. As your
company works to gain traction, you have to
worry about creating a brand and building
trust with a growing group of customers.

The name of the game during the startup

stage is acquisition. You need to use your
product to grab a bigger chunk of customers
and inject experiences that plant the seed of
growth that you’ll rely on down the road.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 6

 How This Affects Roadmap Planning
During the startup stage, customer
feedback will be the glue that holds your
product roadmap together. If you want to
create a roadmap that resonates, start by
using customer feedback that’s based on
your target market.

Of course, you’ll have less user data to

propel your roadmap during the startup
stage. That’s fine. You’ll just need to put in
that much more work to capture focused
presales feedback. To focus your efforts,
ask, “What do we need to build in order to
get these customers to close?”

Finally, your startup stage product

roadmap needs to be nimble. Don’t treat
your roadmap as a concrete object at this
stage. Instead, use a nimble roadmapping
process to adjust features as customers
grow with your product.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 7

The Growth Stage
When you’re a product leader or manager, the growth stage can feel like a roller-
coaster ride. It’s exhilarating to see more users snatch up the product your team has
spent so much time to perfect. But beware: If you spread yourself too thin and try to
satisfy too many needs at once, it’s easy to crash and burn out.

How This Affects Roadmap Planning

During the growth stage, input flies at product leaders from all
angles. It’s raining down from stakeholders, spraying sideways
from fellow employees, and flying in from customers. That’s why
organizing input and setting priorities become so critical and
challenging at this point.

The solution?

Data will be your lifesaver during the growth phase. To determine

your product roadmap priorities, dig into analytics, user behaviors,
and surveys. From there, it’s easier to organize your plans and
create a customer-centric roadmap that drives growth.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 8

Expansion Stage
In the expansion stage, your company has solid footing in the market, and you have
a sturdy customer base. As a product leader, you need to make enhancements that
burst open expansion opportunities. That means putting the pedal to the floor on
upsells, cross-sells, and golden features.

How This Affects Roadmap Planning

During the expansion stage, the best product roadmaps are
fueled by post-sales feedback. As you’re crafting your roadmap,
ask, “What more do our current customers want out of our
product?” and “How can we deliver more value that equates to
more expansion opportunities?”

Don’t worry. The answers to these questions will be sitting in your

product. By digging into metrics and user behaviors, you can
identify the product enhancements and features that reinforce
your company’s value proposition and deliver the biggest chunk
of value to your users.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 9

Maturity and Scale Stage
If your company has reached the maturity
How This Affects
or scale stage, it’s tempting to believe you
Roadmap Planning
have it all figured out. After all, you had
To overcome these speed bumps
to be doing something right to get here,
and scale with ease, be sure
right? Unfortunately, a false sense
your product roadmap feeds
of confidence can block a product
off a strong relationship within
leader’s vision during the scale stage.
your internal teams. Incorporate
There are three challenges to watch out
insights that your teams gather
for at this stage:
as they relate to customer and

1
product needs.
CREATING A NARROW PRODUCT
ROADMAP: Being in a scale stage,
Also, be sure your decision-
it can be easy to build your product
making process is rooted in
roadmap in a vacuum. That can create
data and feedback that scales.
department silos and leave some users
Not only will user data keep
feeling isolated.
your roadmap aligned with the

2
FIZZLING OUT: It’s easy to fall into the broader vision to enhance the
trap of leading with the mindset that user experience, but it will also
you already know what customers keep you connected with users as
want based on the value you’ve already the company balloons.
given them. Unfortunately, values can
change, and that can cause users to
drop off fast.

3
BEING BLINDED BY SUCCESS:
When you become too confident
in your product, it’s easy to become
complacent, and that can prevent you
from actually understanding what
customers want.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 10

PART 3

Building the
Right Roadmap
for Your Selling
Strategy

The way your company sells your product will have a major effect on the data
and feedback you prioritize during the roadmapping process. In the SaaS world,
the road diverges at two main selling strategies: product-led growth and value-
based selling.

Wondering what the differences between these two approaches are?

Product-led growth focuses on

enhancing your product and using it
as the main tool to attract, engage,
and retain customers. In this model,
your product is constantly growing and
improving to drive upsells, cross-sells,
and sign-ups.

Value-based selling focuses on the

value of your product. In this approach,
you study the value of your offerings,
and you reinforce the reasons why your
product offers value to your customers.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 11

How To Create a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap for
Product-Led Growth
If you’re using a product-led growth strategy, your approach is likely low-touch.
That means your customers are seeing value through the product, and sales
are flowing directly from your product. Here are some quick tips for creating a
customer-centric product roadmap in a product-led growth model:

Perfect onboarding: Use your roadmap to focus on

what you can do in your product to get users to realize
value quickly with a focus on onboarding.

Prove value right away: Product-led growth is all about

trimming time to value (TTV). The quicker your prospect
sees value, the quicker they’ll make a purchase. That’s
why it’s important to highlight sticky features and
eliminate friction points.

Lock in on your target: To be successful, you’ll need

to create features that your target market wants and
expects. That’s why it’s important to dig into user
behaviors, conduct surveys, and identify those golden
features that you can expand.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 12

How To Create a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap for
Value-Based Selling
Value-based selling is all about delivering a valuable experience to your customers.
So, success is anchored in relationships. At the same time, your sales cycle is
likely longer than in other strategies, and interactions need to be frequent and
connected. Here are some best practices to follow when crafting a customer-
centric product roadmap for value-based selling:

Focus on sticky features: It’s critical to bring out and prove the true value of your
product. That’s why your product roadmap should take aim at uncovering and
enhancing sticky features that inspire renewals.

Show users you’re different: Proving value means differentiating yourself from
competitors. To set your product apart, make sure you’re spotting buzzworthy in-
product experiences, examining your user’s path, and using new product launches
to capitalize on your strengths.

Know your market: If you want to nail down pricing and understand the value
of your product, it takes a hard look at your market and user data. If you want
your value-based company to drive ahead, you need to dig into the numbers and
determine how your roadmap fits into the overall positioning of your company in
the market.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 13

PART 4

The Three
Ingredients of
an Impactful
Customer-Centric
Product Roadmap

Once you’ve identified your company’s growth stage and selling strategy, it’s
time to build a customer-centric roadmap that delivers results. And there are
three clear ingredients every winning customer-centric roadmap has in common:
priorities, technology, and metrics. Here’s how to use each to whip together a stellar
customer-centric roadmap and drive growth:

The Right Priorities

The first step in crafting a successful customer-
centric roadmap is pinning down priorities.
That means aligning the company’s growth
stage, goals, and your customer’s needs.

That all starts by identifying your company’s

growth stage and where you need to focus
to lift growth. This will help you line up your
product roadmap with the company goals.
For instance, if your company is in the startup
stage, you’ll likely be much more focused on
acquiring customers and building a user base.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 14

If you’re in the maturity phase, you’ll want to build out user experiences that make
users feel valued and heard.

Next, dive into in-product user behaviors and use customer surveys to shape your
product’s needs. This is a way to drown out less pointed feedback and create features
that deliver value to the user. In addition to lifting user satisfaction, rooting your
roadmap in customer data will provide a solid backbone that you can rely on when it
comes time to prove ROI or get more buy-in from stakeholders.

You’ll want to build out user

experiences that make users feel
valued and heard.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 15

The Right Technology
Technology will be your secret weapon when it comes time to enhance, grow,
and scale your product. Here are three key technology tools that can propel your
product roadmap and drive a better customer experience:

1
CLOSED-LOOP FEEDBACK TOOL
Closed-loop feedback tools will bake in processes that gather ongoing
feedback as users interact with your product. In addition to driving
engagement, these tools provide continuous insights into what your users
are experiencing. That data can promote a better product at all levels—
whether you’re preparing your roadmap, launching new features, or trying
to encourage an action.

2
PRODUCT ANALYTICS TOOL
A product analytics tool will unveil how your users and potential customers
interact with your product. Advanced tools will point out the paths your
users take as they journey throughout your product, and they’ll let you see
what actions visitors are, or aren’t, taking.

With that info clearly broken down, it’s easy to spot sticky features or
missing interactions your team can add to get users to take the step you
want. Equally as important, analytics tools help you prove results. That way,
you can test your strategy and secure even more support for your product
roadmap decisions.

3 IN-APP ENGAGEMENT TOOL

An in-app engagement tool will give you more control over the success
of each new enhancement you release by allowing your product to be a
vehicle for adoption.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 16

The Right Metrics
When you have a product analytics tool and built-in feedback loops, data will be
pouring in. Still, if you want to incorporate that valuable info into a customer-centric
product roadmap, it takes the right metrics. Here are some metrics to focus on:

ADOPTION METRICS

There’s little more disheartening than hustling to build a

feature only to have users ignore it. More importantly, the
speed and frequency at which your users adopt new offerings
can directly affect engagement and retention. To keep a finger
on the pulse of user adoption, be sure you’re measuring how
often customers are using a product or service, whether that’s
by monitoring daily active users (DAU) or monthly active users
(MAU) Measuring the time spent inside your product or how
long it takes for a user to reach a high-value action can also
help direct your roadmap planning.

TIME TO VALUE (TTV)

The goal of your product is to ensure a user can get what they need
done, quickly and efficiently. Enhancing the onboarding process,
simplifying your UI, and optimizing user paths and workflows can
all improve the time to value (TTV) for your users.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 17

 RETENTION METRICS

Retention can make or break your company. In fact, almost 60% of

SaaS leaders peg customer renewals as a high priority. Still, lifting
retention requires much more than simply tallying how many
accounts are staying signed up. It’s also critical to proactively track
actions that affect churn, including login frequency, feature usage
rates, NPS scores, and other figures that indicate engagement.

Schedule a demo now for an

inside look at Gainsight PX
and learn how we can help
you build a product that your
Start Creating Your Customer-Centric customers love.
Product Roadmap Today
If you take anything from this guide, let it
be that the most effective customer-centric
product roadmaps are fueled by user data.
But getting that data requires having easy
access to usage data and insights.

Gainsight PX is a complete product experience

solution built by product people for product
people. Powerful product analytics will help you
build the best roadmap for your customers by
delivering insights on user activity, roadblocks,
and areas of opportunity. Gainsight PX also
enables you to drive adoption of your new
enhancements and collect sentiment with
Schedule a demo
in-app engagements, onboarding guides, and
in-app surveys.

The Executive Guide to Building a Customer-Centric Product Roadmap 18