The State of B2B Product Management (with me, Saeed Khan and guest host Janna Bastow)

Apr 2, 2026

Saeed Khan, product management educator and researcher, and Janna Bastow, co-founder of Mind the Product and ProdPad, dive into the State of B2B Product Management research. They unpack sales-driven roadmaps, the shift from customer-led to market-led thinking, the costly pull of custom deals, a big leader–individual contributor perception gap, the need for internal discovery, and how AI is mostly used for efficiency.

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INSIGHT

Sales Driven Roadmaps Stem From Not Shifting To Markets

B2B roadmaps often become sales-driven because early-stage firms build deal-by-deal and never shift focus to defined markets.
Saeed Khan and Jason Knight explain this creates average products as each large customer pulls the roadmap toward one-off needs.

ANECDOTE

500k Deal Turned Into 2 Million Engineering Bill

A company accepted a $500k deal with $300k custom work and ended up spending $2m to deliver it, losing financially.
Saeed Khan uses this repeated real-world example to show hidden long-term costs of chasing big deals.

ADVICE

Carve Dedicated Capacity For Sales Requests

Carve dedicated capacity for reactive sales work so strategic roadmaps keep progressing.
Jason Knight recommends allocating a team or % of capacity (eg 60–70% strategic, remainder for big-customer work).

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On this episode, we try something a little different. ProdPad and Mind the Product co-founder Janna Bastow joins as guest host to interview me and Saeed Khan about our recently released research report "The State of B2B Product Management". We go deep on the key findings of the report and what to do about them.

Episode highlights

The sales-led roadmap reality - In many B2B organisations, roadmap ownership effectively sits with sales, driven by short-term revenue pressures rather than long-term strategy
Customers vs markets tension - Product teams often fail to shift from building for individual customers to designing for scalable market opportunities
The leadership perception gap - A stark ~50-point disconnect exists between how leaders assess themselves and how their teams experience them, pointing to either deluded leaders, poor communication or unreasonable IC expectations
Lack of strategic foundations - Weak or absent vision and objectives create a vacuum where every deal feels equally valid
Product leaders as system designers - Leaders must take responsibility for shaping environments where good product work is actually possible
Discovery isn't just external - Product teams neglect internal discovery, failing to understand stakeholders, sales processes, and organisational dynamics
The cost of short-term thinking - Chasing large deals often creates hidden long-term costs that outweigh immediate revenue gains
AI as efficiency, not transformation - Current AI usage is reported as largely tactical (summarisation, documentation), not fundamentally changing product outcomes
Optimism despite dysfunction - Even with systemic issues, many product managers remain positive about the future of the discipline

... and much more.

Check out "The State of B2B Product Management" report

You can check the full report here - no email address required: https://b2bproduct.io/?okip

Check out ProdPad

Janna is the co-founder of ProdPad, a roadmap, idea management and feedback platform that brings clarity to your organisation. She was kind enough to step in as a guest host for the episode, so why not check what the platform can do for you? https://www.prodpad.com/

Find us all on LinkedIn

Janna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jannabastow/
Saeed: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saeedwkhan/
Jason: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-knight/