Realistic Product Roadmaps and Other Lies | Best Egg’s Johnny Ray Austin

When we first saw the talk titled “Space Aliens Are Among Us, Your Product Roadmap is Realistic and Other Lies you Believe,” we knew we had to sit down with Best Egg’s Johnny Ray Austin at LeadingEng SF last year.Johnny joined our host Conor Bronsdon to discuss how engineering leaders can navigate unrealistic expectations and pressures, drawing from his experiences and relating product roadmaps to the less-than-tangible UFO disclosure we’ve seen in recent years. The conversation explores the pressures engineering leaders face, how to align product roadmaps realistically, and how to manage ambiguity within teams.By aligning engineering goals with business objectives and building a transparent, high-performing engineering culture, you can give your teams the context they need to drive focus and concentration toward the right outcomes.Episode Highlights: 1:36 Where Johnny came up with the talk title "Space Aliens Are Among Us" 4:15 Advice for engineering leaders struggling with roadmap realism 6:44 Cutting through the noise to find the metrics that matter 11:41 How do teams know if they're moving fast in the right direction? 14:58 How do you handle teams that are getting the wrong input? 20:32 Lies we tell ourselves that we need to get past 28:32 What it’s like to create a new unit inside a company 33:53 Identifying and dealing with ambiguity on your teams 40:45 Johnny’s Thoughts on AIShow NotesDownload your complimentary Gartner® Market Guide: Software Engineering Intelligence (SEI) PlatformsJohnny Ray AustinPersonal Loans | Quick & Easy Application | Best EggOFFERS Start Free Trial: Get started with LinearB's AI productivity platform for free. Book a Demo: Learn how you can ship faster, improve DevEx, and lead with confidence in the AI era. LEARN ABOUT LINEARB AI Code Reviews: Automate reviews to catch bugs, security risks, and performance issues before they hit production. AI & Productivity Insights: Go beyond DORA with AI-powered recommendations and dashboards to measure and improve performance. AI-Powered Workflow Automations: Use AI-generated PR descriptions, smart routing, and other automations to reduce developer toil. MCP Server: Interact with your engineering data using natural language to build custom reports and get answers on the fly.

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