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We had way too much to do.
A laundry list of enhancements, feature requests, bugs, and shiny new ideas.
So I did what a responsible product manager does.
I:
Identified the most impactful work.
Used shuttle diplomacy to socialize it.
Involved the right stakeholders across the org.
Partnered closely with Design and Engineering.
Eventually, I got the roadmap approved by the exec team.
Feeling confident, I scheduled sessions with the commercial team and the broader R&D team.
I recorded the sessions.
Posted them to a Notion page.
Shared links via email and Slack.
Added recaps to our #productroadmap channel.
“Good job,” I was told.
Everyone seemed aligned.
I felt great.
Then, two weeks later, I heard this:
“I have no idea what’s on the roadmap.”
WTF?
We had literally talked about this 12 days ago!
What You’ll Learn Today
Why Alignment Fades Faster Than You Expect.
The Hidden Cost of Assuming Alignment is Permanent.
Why Protecting Product Priorities is a Product Management Responsibility.
A
SimpleStraightforward Approach To Keep Roadmaps Aligned and Trusted.
My Mistake: I Let Alignment Decay
My sin wasn’t poor communication.
It was assuming alignment was permanent.
If stakeholders don't hear from you regularly, alignment decays.
They forget.
They reinterpret.
They reprioritize.
I’ve said before that it’s harder to argue against something you helped create.
That’s still true. But here’s the uncomfortable follow-up:
Even the people who helped create the roadmap will forget it.
What Alignment Decay Looks Like in the Wild
You’ve seen this.
It shows up as:
Stakeholders reversing on decisions they agreed to.
A “new urgent request” that suddenly trumps everything.
Pressure from their stakeholders to get answers.
Simple, honest forgetting.
Why does this happen?
Not because people are jerks. (At least not most of the time.)
It happens for two reasons.
Why Alignment Decays
1. Business reasons
New customer opportunities
Competitive moves
Strategy shifts
Board or investor pressure
New fires to put out
2. Human reasons
People are busy
They move on quickly after meetings
They don’t live in your product world
They have their own goals and metrics
And here’s the key reminder:
It is not their job to protect product priorities.
That job belongs to you.
What Doesn’t Work
When I first hit this problem, I tried:
Whining to my boss.
Stomping around the house.
Ranting to my extremely patient wife.
Lecturing stakeholders about “the process.”
Lamenting at PM meetups about the “lack of product mindset.”
Shockingly… none of this worked.
Preventing Alignment Decay Is Your Job
I first heard the term alignment decay from Bruce McCarthy.
Alignment erodes over time. And much faster than you expect.
If you don’t address it, the consequences are real:
Loss of trust in the roadmap.
Loss of confidence in the product team.
Frustration and disengagement across the org.
You can blame the system. You can blame stakeholders.
But the hard truth is this:
No one is going to fix it for you.
The Surprisingly Simple Fix
I wish I’d learned this sooner.
(It would have saved me a lot of money in ice cream tubs.)
Do regular check-ins.
That’s it.
Once or twice per planning cycle, reconnect with stakeholders to:
Review what’s changed
Re-align on priorities
The cadence depends on your context. For example:
Startup:
Founder/CEO and key leaders
Weekly, biweekly, or every four weeks, depending on the urgency, visibility, and stakes
Mid-size org:
Weekly with the team
Biweekly or monthly with senior leaders
Large org:
Monthly or quarterly with execs
What to Cover in Alignment Check-Ins
Every check-in should cover five things:
The original plan
What you’ve learned
Customer feedback
New opportunities
New requests or issues
What you’re proposing to change (and why)
The impact of those changes (pro tip: talk in money)
Explicit agreement on what will and won’t change
For #5, shuttle diplomacy can be incredibly helpful, especially when there are many stakeholders.
Turn Alignment Into a Continuous Process
This isn’t about reopening the roadmap every week.
It’s about extending the same collaborative approach you used to create it.
Done well, this:
Keeps stakeholders feeling heard
Reduces surprise objections
Increases trust
Preserves your agency
Does it guarantee perfect alignment forever?
Of course not.
Business changes. People change.
What it does is reduce the risk of major derailment or loss of trust.
This is risk management, not magic.
The Real Payoff
Handled well, this approach earns you credit for:
Responsiveness
Inclusiveness
Transparency
Collaboration
Leadership
All without giving up control.
Give it a try and let me know how it goes.
That’s all for this week.
Have a joyful week, and, if you can, make it joyful for someone else too.
cheers,
shardul
Here are 4 ways I can help you today:
Strategy Design Workshop: Transform scattered priorities into clear, actionable direction. I’ll facilitate your team through a customized workshop to align stakeholders and create strategies that actually get executed instead of forgotten. Book a call.
Product Management Audit: Get a clear picture of what’s working and what’s holding your team back. Through a systematic analysis, I’ll evaluate your strategy, processes, roles, metrics, and culture. You’ll walk away a practical set of findings and actionable recommendations to strengthen your product organization. Book a call.
Corporate Training: Elevate your entire product organization. I’ll teach your team how to think and act strategically, craft outcome-driven roadmaps, and dramatically improve how they deliver measurable results that matter to your business. Book a call.
Improv Based Team Building Workshop: Boost creativity, trust, and collaboration through improv. Your team will problem-solve faster and work better together. Book a call.
Shardul Mehta
I ❤️ product managers.