Timeline roadmaps create false commitments

The problem with the timeline is that as soon as you have a timeline, it turns it into a math chart sort of thing, where you've got time on the X axis and things to do on the Y axis and you basically end up with everything underneath is assigned a due date or a iteration.

If you ask too much for a particular quarter, a particular week, or date, you will make strange choices about scope.

Product people are the only ones who seem to be pinned down to be required to give concrete dates as to when things are going to be delivered in this way. Your sales team isn't asked to give exact delivery dates on their work.

You're telling a story. So what I want from you is I want themes, I want a story. Why are these things the biggest things to invest in these levers, the biggest ones to pull?

What people, what humans really crave is like, 'Why am I doing this body of work?' And I think it's also really, really important to have that really crisply articulated in your own head.