Product Roadmap Management For Growing SaaS Companies – insights from Allan Wilson

From MVP to Scaling: The Evolution of Team Alert

Oskar (Host): We do have people coming in, so welcome everybody to Around The Product Development, our weekly series where we deep dive into the world of digital product development and creation. And this is all in just 25 minutes.

Here we explore every stage—from ideation to conversion and monetization—providing you with actionable insights and practical knowledge. All this is possible thanks to our Agile Product Builders community, a Slack community powered by Boldare digital product creators and consultants.

And today, we’re diving into a crucial topic for growing SaaS companies: product roadmap management. To help us unpack these challenges, I’m joined today by Allan Wilson, CEO of Team Alert—a company specializing in security solutions that save lives. Allan, could you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about Team Alert?

Allan (Guest): Sure, yeah, sounds good. Thanks for having me. Great to be here. My name’s Allan Wilson, and we’re based in the Southeastern United States. We’ve been in business for about nine years now, with customers all across the U.S. and in five additional countries.

We essentially provide a panic button solution, helping customers connect their computers, cell phones, and hardware devices to the cloud, allowing them to notify others when they need assistance. Originally, it was designed for active shooter situations, but as we gathered customer feedback, we expanded its functionality. Now, our customers use it for a variety of scenarios.

One of the biggest things that we’ve grown at is getting feedback from the customers and trying to develop something that they want. And that’s been exciting and fun—to hear how much better it makes them feel.

Balancing Product Development and Business Growth

Oskar: I’ve been privileged to observe your journey—from early prototypes and MVPs to scaling up and focusing on enterprise clients. As a founder and CEO, managing multiple aspects of the business is a daily challenge. How do you balance product development with your other responsibilities?

Allan: In the beginning, product development was everything. It was all about getting the minimum viable product (MVP) out as fast as possible.

Once we had a working product and started getting feedback, we shifted focus toward sales and market validation.

Now that we’ve grown, we’re in a full-time development model, with a dedicated development team working in the background while I focus more on business strategy and growth.

What we originally thought would be the way the product works actually morphed into something different.

Pivoting to Meet Market Needs: When Should You Adapt?

Oskar: That’s fascinating! And I’d love to dive deeper into that pivot moment—when you realized your initial vision wasn’t quite aligned with the market needs. How did you handle that transition?

Allan: Originally, we thought Team Alert would be a community-based product, allowing organizations in proximity to notify each other of emergencies.

But when we got it into customers’ hands, we realized they didn’t think that way. They wanted it for internal use, keeping alerts private within their own teams.

So we had a choice to make:

• Do we stick to our original vision and try to convince customers they need it?
• Or do we listen to them and pivot to better meet their needs?

We chose the latter—because at the end of the day, a great product is the one that customers actually want and are willing to pay for. This shift led us to build an internal communication feature, where once an alert is triggered, a private chat room is created just for that event. Customers loved it, and it became one of our most valued features.

Data-Driven Decisions vs. Gut Instinct: Finding the Right Balance

Oskar: That’s a really interesting point. It seems like you followed both data and intuition. So how do you balance data-driven decisions with your gut feeling as a founder?

Allan: Yeah, I come from an engineering background, so I’m very data-driven. But as a CEO, you also develop intuition over time.

For me, intuition is the trigger—it’s that feeling that something isn’t working. It feels like you’re pushing upstream instead of flowing with the current.

That’s when I turn to data to validate those instincts.

I start asking:

• What data points do we need to analyze?
• How many more customer conversations do we need to confirm our assumptions?

So, my biggest takeaway:

• Intuition sparks the process, but data drives the decision.

When to Bring in External Partners?

Oskar: One of the things we often discuss with SaaS founders is when to consider external support. At what stage did you decide to collaborate with external partners like Boldare?

Allan: Outsourcing and working with external partners has been incredibly valuable for us. For example, Boldare helped us stay ahead of tech trends—introducing new AI-driven features that we might not have considered on our own.

Also, working with an external team gave us stability:

• No worries about turnover or hiring delays.
• We could focus on product growth while Boldare handled development.

Key Lessons for SaaS Founders

Oskar: This has been an incredibly insightful conversation. If you had one piece of advice for SaaS founders listening to us, what would it be?

Allan: Stay flexible. Your initial vision will evolve, and that’s okay.

And when things get tough—when you’re under pressure—take a breath before making big decisions.

Sometimes the best thing you can do is step back, listen to your customers, and trust the data.

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