"Through great input, you get great output." — RZA
Input-output analysis is a macroeconomic method that observes the interdependencies between sectors of an economy — how a shock to one industry ripples into others. It is important because it reveals the hidden connections that a surface-level view will always miss.
The same principle applies when building your SaaS roadmap. The operations team is one of the most valuable — and most overlooked — sources of input. End users often lack purchasing authority, but they carry enormous influence over the purchasing decision and, more critically, over whether the service survives in the field once it's deployed.
I worked with a lawn care company that had developed an internal legacy software to track crew locations, schedule jobs, manage task completion, and handle accounting. We were hired to migrate the system to a cloud-based SaaS platform. When I asked to speak with the operations team, the owner directed me toward office management. I pushed back. I wanted the people in the field.
The request created visible discomfort. After a pause, the owner explained that only crew managers used the application because they were the only staff issued mobile devices. I pointed out that the new application would run on any smartphone, meaning anyone on the crew could make updates. He had genuinely never considered that possibility. He then noted that most of the crew couldn't read and that many didn't speak fluent English.
What I heard from the field workers was revelatory. The existing workflow was actively obstructing the crew's ability to complete their work. One example: the company had a single hedge trimmer, and on certain routes, an entire crew had to wait for one task to finish before moving to the next property. The application had no way to split a job into separate tasks executable by different crew members at different times.
The solution was to break tasks apart, allow crew members to update the app using graphic-based icons to overcome the language barrier, and add geo-positioning to coordinate between crews. The result was nearly a 30% improvement in task completion time — which translated directly into additional revenue. It also enabled the company to offer previously jettisoned services, such as rose pruning, that had been impractical under the legacy platform.
Roadmap Considerations
◆ Seek to understand before being understood — Steven Covey's principle is as relevant in software development as anywhere else. ◆ Listen in person or over video, where body language and hesitation reveal as much as words. ◆ Share a clear vision of the new platform's capabilities upfront — it expands the creative range of the feedback you receive. ◆ Interview stakeholders both as a group and individually. Group settings surface the "unspoken" issues that individuals might not raise alone. ◆ Filter ruthlessly. Use only the most pertinent feedback relative to the actual project scope. ◆ Manage expectations. Stakeholders can develop unrealistic hopes quickly. Dispel false assumptions early. ◆ Always end on a positive note. You will almost certainly need to return to these people for additional input.