Janna Bastow

Founder and CEO at ProdPad

Founder of ProdPad and co-founder of Mind the Product, the world's largest community of product people, inventor of the Now Next Later roadmapping framework, product manager by background who went from head of product at a London startup to founding two companies simultaneously.

The Visionary The Operator

Dimension Profile

Strategic Vision 60%

Execution & Craft 55%

Data & Experimentation 25%

Growth & Distribution 50%

Team & Leadership 45%

User Empathy & Research 50%

Key Themes

Now Next Later roadmapping framework roadmap as prototype for strategy community building for product people public speaking and storytelling skills PM to founder transition conference operations and community consistency

Episode Summary

Janna Bastow shares how she co-founded Mind the Product (the world's largest PM community) and ProdPad simultaneously, explaining her Now Next Later roadmapping framework where the roadmap is treated as a prototype for strategy rather than a fixed plan. She provides practical advice on building communities through relentless consistency, running conferences despite their extreme operational risk, and becoming a better speaker by starting with narrative before slides.

Leadership Principles

→ The value isn't in your roadmap, the value is in the roadmapping process — lay out your assumptions of the problems you're solving and check them with others
→ Think of your roadmap as a prototype for your strategy — share early assumptions with the team, customers, anyone who will listen, to verify you're on the right path
→ Build community through consistency — be there every month for meetups, every year for events, just always being present and accessible

Notable Quotes

"The whole point about a roadmap is that it's not designed to be your plan. Think about it as being a prototype for your strategy. The value isn't the prototype, the value is in the prototyping process."
— On the Now Next Later roadmapping philosophy

"You're saying, 'I think we have this problem, then this problem. What do you think?' The whole point is that you share your early assumptions with other people and just check that you're on the right path."
— On how roadmapping should be a collaborative assumption-checking process

"Somebody once asked me, 'How do you sell all those tickets?' Start a community several years before and invite people and run some sort of community meetup every month, time and time again. That's your marketing."
— On the long-term investment required for successful conference business

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