[nicholas483]

I agree with most of this article, down to the part about having a public 18-36 month plan. To me it sounds too obligatory. Now you are on the hook to deliver things that may change over the course of time. I know Earlyvangelists are supposed to understand the vision is "subject to change", but it's much easier to assume they are okay with it in theory. I find them much less forgiving in practice.

We've never announced a feature unless we know the day it will deploy. That way we meet or exceed customer expectations 100% of the time. Sure, we might have an idea of where the app is headed in three years, but we don't share it with customers because it will change.

When we say we're going to do something and change our mind later I think it makes the company look bad, even if it's the right decision.

We're at a point where my company is trying to get out of client work 100%. To me, selling features of a product to a company and telling them I will deliver in 18-36 months puts me right back in the client business. No thanks.

[idoh]

I agree that it is bad to preannounce specific features, but you've misread the article. What the article advises is to share is a one page "product vision or roadmap". I'd imagine that this one-page lays out what the problem space is, and generally what the approach is.

[rendezvouscp]

I think 18-36 months is probably a bit too large of a time span, but I think it’s a good idea (so much so that I did it for my own web app: http://irn.me/r).

I think the idea is most applicable when you have launched with a minimum feature set and have a list of things you know you are going to do. For example, having a mobile version of your site might make a lot of sense, but isn’t important enough to hold up launching.

I agree with you that announcing features beforehand is a bad idea—I’m slowly learning that you must resist that temptation if at all possible. However, if you know that nothing is going to stop you from implementing a feature, it might be a good idea to let your customers know that it’s on your mind (especially if it’s an industry-standard feature that will make them wonder WTF you were doing not to include it).