I think we've all been in a situation where we've built something simply because our stakeholders told us to do so. Navigating this takes more backbone than theory.
"My customer needs this right now" is a real trap. And if you go on to build everything that your customers and stakeholders are asking for, you're going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.
See it's really simple. When you're grooming your roadmap, you've got 3 buckets to choose from:
- New features
- Versioning an existing feature
- Tackling your tech debt
80% of a PM's job is to say NO. If you aren't saying NO enough, you're setting up your team and yourself for failure. A great litmus test for figuring out what to build and what not to is your company's mission/goal/big rock or whatever you call it in your company.
Virtually everything in your roadmap is going to move the goalpost. But the real question is:
"By how much?"
That's your job as a PM to figure out. That's your only job. Everything else, you can delegate.