Product Roadmap Development for Beginners


Let's take a road trip!
    
    When you decide to take a road trip you typically know where you want to go. Normally your destination is targeting vast mountain ranges, deep valleys, dessert landscapes, tropical beaches, beautiful cities, foreign lands or family. Likely it's a combination of the two, unless you're heading to Nebraska, let's be honest it's most likely family. Even if you've done the trip before you likely still use a navigation device of some kind. 


    Now why would you need a navigation tool? Well probably because you know it's not worth the hours of discovering the best route on your own. Someone, or something, already figured it out. Go back and read that last sentence in a voice used to tell scary stories around a campfire. Why would you waste your time when you could google the destination and be on your way? Fact is you don't. What does this have to do with product management you ask? 

I'm very glad you ask such good questions!


    If you haven't heard the term roadmap thrown about in conversation yet, prepare yourself. This infamous term has many different definitions, each one unique as the road trip destinations we all thought about earlier. Getting leadership and peers to get comfortable with how to use a roadmap is probably one of the harder parts of being a product manager. 

What is a product roadmap?

    Simply put, it's your products navigation tool used to show others how you plan to get to your products strategic destination. Nothing more, nothing less. 

    Let's unpack the luggage a bit more on roadmaps. They're intended to communicate what features are coming next to implement the product strategy. This also assumes you have a product strategy in place, it's your products metaphorical destination, without strategy you really don't know where you're going. You should know the value propositions users will be excited about. Your roadmap should show you and others how you plan to make those propositions real. 
    How ever you want to present this type of information is up to you. There is an endless supply of stylized preferences when it comes to roadmaps, but it's similar to your preference between using Google maps or Waze. Each option is really about how you like to use it and what you are familiar with. Here are some basic things a roadmap should and shouldn't contain. This will help you begin your trip!

Should have

  • Strategic Themes (This can be covered in the voice over but a reminder of "why" is important)
  • Outcomes (We talked to them as destinations earlier, but speak to the outcomes you want to see in order to implement your product strategy)
  • Product Swim Lanes (If it contains more than one product to keep people focused on each products strategy)
  • Features (These are what you and the teams are planning to build)
  • Flexible and Intentionally Vague Timelines (This tends to be the sticking point for leadership teams, projects and budgets tend to be the lens most people view roadmaps through)
  • A Voice Over (It's great to have stand alone views, but hearing you speak over the roadmap is important in establishing trust and confidence in the plan.)

Shouldn't have

  • Fixed Deliverable Dates
  • Feature Acceptance Criteria Detail on Everything
  • EVERY Known Feature from the Backlog
  • Placeholder Features
  • Wishful Thinking

I have done a lot of the "Shouldn't have" stuff so you don't have too.

Building your roadmap?

    You have a strategic destination for your product, you have great ideas and solid features in a backlog, now you want to build your product roadmap. I definitely don't have all the answers for you on how you need to start, but the best advice I can give is start building with the "should have" points in mind. If you've done a quick search of product roadmap tools, you realize there is a vast sea of options and flavors. Don't get overwhelmed.
    Depending on where your organization is at in it's product journey you will find varying levels of support to purchase tools for this kind of activity. Don't let that deter you, if you're organization isn't ready to take the leap. You need to first demonstrate how valuable a roadmap can be in other ways. Roadmaps are all about progress over perfection. Think about how navigation tools have advanced in the last 50 years. We went from large printed maps of major roadways to autocompleted addresses and dynamic route calculation based on real time traffic and construction on your phone. Your roadmap will go through the similar iterations. The key to success is to start and becoming consistent by keeping it up to date and referring to it often. Don't fall prey to the idea of having a roadmap. Make it real, use it so it becomes real for your teams and leaders.

Some Tools I have Used

  • Google Sheet or Excel (All my roadmaps started here)
  • Google Slides or Powerpoint
  • Canva
  • Aha!  (Used for 3 years, informally supported)
    • They also recently shared this article. Which is a great recourse of free templates!
  • Roadmunk
  • Apptio - Targetprocess (Currently using as of this post, formally supported by the organization)
  • Productboard
  • Miro
    I have had success in all of these tools, the important piece is you have a roadmap and use it regularly. As you begin to make it useful to you and the organization the more advanced tools become necessary to scale the use of your roadmap. Don't let the tool stop the progress.

Enjoy your road trip and see you at the destination!

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