Great post and just the right level of detail too. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. We're just about to encounter this problem with our own startu

Great post and just the right level of detail too. Thanks for taking the time to write this up. We're just about to encounter this problem with our own startup (http://www.staffsquared.com http://www.staffsquared.com) and my head of ops has been on my back for weeks about how we're going to handle our roadmap for the product vs. bug fixes vs. user feedback. One point I would make as a brand new start up - I'm not sure how willing/able I'd be to handle the uncertainty of not forcing my dev team to tell me the number of hours a fix/feature will take to implement. I say this because sometimes our road map will include a feature request that upon receiving an estimate for I then decide not to proceed with as the cost/benefit ratio doesn't add up. When this happens I de prioritise the task and put it in a backlog. Having said that, we're at the stage where every second counts; perhaps when we've got a steady stream of income I'll be less picky.