A product roadmap template might help you successfully talk and refine the technique and imaginative and prescient in your product.
Most profitable corporations are continually constructing and iterating on their merchandise or platforms. Because the product modifications and grows, the remainder of the group should adapt with it. Every new characteristic or performance modifications the way you promote and market your product. Product tweaks may have an effect on your income fashions, or require you to convey on new group members. Exterior purchasers or advisors will wish to keep knowledgeable, as nicely.
It’s important that each a part of your group understands the place your product goes and the steps required to get you there. That’s the place the product roadmap — in its numerous types — comes into play.
I’ve been growing B2B SaaS merchandise for practically 20 years. At York IE, I oversee the event of our platform for strategic development, Gas, and assist our purchasers launch and develop their very own merchandise. No matter dimension or trade, each firm wants strategic roadmaps that assist them outline and execute on their imaginative and prescient. Making a product roadmap is a collaborative, iterative course of that requires fixed communication.
Let’s learn to create a product roadmap and talk about some finest practices to get you began. Don’t overlook to obtain our product roadmap template as you begin the planning course of.
Desk of Contents
What Is a Product Roadmap?
A product roadmap is a high-level strategic doc that helps corporations outline their product technique and lay out their priorities. A well-designed product roadmap establishes a shared understanding of the product imaginative and prescient, the steps wanted to realize it and the timelines related to these steps.
Your organization’s product roadmaps ought to assist align numerous inner groups — gross sales, advertising and marketing, finance, and so forth. — across the identical organizational objectives. That’s as a result of every division could have enter and visibility into the roadmap. This plan may assist your exterior stakeholders and purchasers keep knowledgeable in your product technique.
I prefer to assume there are three ranges of highway mapping, every of which is extra appropriate for sure stakeholders. It’s necessary to know the variations if you’re making a product roadmap.
Varieties of Product Roadmaps
The three fundamental varieties of product roadmaps are:
- horizon planning roadmap;
- characteristic roadmap; and
- detailed product backlog.
Folks typically use the generic phrase “roadmap” to explain any kind of planning doc. That’s why I prefer to categorize a roadmap as one among three sorts. Every sort communicates totally different info for various audiences — and every degree is extra granular than its predecessor.
Right here’s how we outline them at York IE:
- Stage 1 (Horizon Planning Roadmap): What’s our long-term imaginative and prescient for the product?
- Stage 2 (Function Roadmap): What options do we’ve to develop to get there?
- Stage 3 (Detailed Product Backlog): What are the product backlog objects we have to full to launch these options?
Stage 1: Horizon Planning Roadmap
A horizon planning roadmap usually consists of three overlapping horizons, every of which represents your objectives for a particular time period.
You’ll outline your short-, medium- and long-term objectives in every horizon. Horizon 1 usually appears to be like at what you’re hoping to perform within the subsequent three to 6 months. Horizon 2 extends six to 18 months and Horizon 3 may define your imaginative and prescient for the subsequent 18 months to 5 years. You’ll work collaboratively with leaders throughout the enterprise to outline your horizons and their timelines.
It’s typically useful to assign a theme to every horizon. For instance:
Horizon 1:
- Set up rapid must allow gross sales and attain your minimal viable viewers.
- Theme: Core Inputs (constructing the essential options of your platform)
Horizon 2:
- Broaden your core providing to proceed development and add worth for purchasers.
- Theme: Optimization (optimizing these options)
Horizon 3:
- Define the inspirational initiatives that get you nearer to market dominance.
- Theme: Knowledge Insights (iterating primarily based on utilization information)
Splitting up your imaginative and prescient into horizons helps you ruthlessly prioritize your options. It is going to provide help to establish probably the most vital objects inside every theme and consider what’s most important in your minimal viable viewers.
Horizon planning roadmaps are usually up to date as soon as per quarter or as soon as each six months. They’re typically in-built PowerPoint, Excel or an identical software that any member of your group can use.
Stage 2: Function Roadmap
A characteristic roadmap permits you to bucket your options into totally different classes and assign a timeline for every characteristic launch. Startups will usually plan options 4 to 6 months out, whereas a extra established firm may look so far as 12 months upfront.
A characteristic roadmap appears to be like just like a Gantt chart or schedule. It’s useful to make use of swim lanes, which present the sequencing of labor inside every class. Keep in mind: You’re speaking when the options are launching, not when the product group is constructing them. It’s necessary that advertising and marketing, gross sales and different departments have enter into which options are launching and when.
Rising tech corporations ought to replace their characteristic roadmaps on a month-to-month foundation. Bigger corporations may accomplish that quarterly. This roadmap could possibly be in-built PowerPoint or Excel, however I’d advocate migrating it to a product administration software similar to Notion or Jira in case you can.
Stage 3: Detailed Product Backlog
You’ve outlined your imaginative and prescient and the options wanted to get you there. Now it’s time to interrupt up every characteristic launch into backlog objects the event group can deal with. In different phrases, it’s time to begin planning your sprints. A lot of the collaboration for this roadmap is finished inside the product improvement group.
By now, you’re working totally in your venture administration software. You’ll dimension every backlog merchandise and allocate it to a group member. Normally, you gained’t have the ability to plan your product backlog multiple or two months upfront. (Agile methodology requires flexibility!) Product backlogs are sometimes up to date weekly or bi-weekly as a part of your dash ceremonies.
Methods to Create a Product Roadmap
The steps to create a product roadmap are:
- outline your product imaginative and prescient;
- establish your objectives and goals;
- decide your timeline;
- establish your key initiatives;
- prioritize your initiatives;
- assign possession; and
- assessment and refine.
1. Outline Your Product Imaginative and prescient
Start with Stage 1, horizon planning. When making a horizon planning roadmap, begin by defining the overarching purpose of your product. This needs to be a high-level assertion that captures the essence of what you’re attempting to realize. A product roadmap template might help you get began.
2. Determine Your Targets and Targets
Upon getting a transparent imaginative and prescient, it’s essential to break it down into particular objectives and goals. These needs to be measurable and achievable inside a particular timeframe.
3. Decide Your Timeline
Primarily based in your objectives and goals, it’s essential to decide a practical timeline in your product roadmap. This could embrace milestones and deadlines for every part of improvement..
4. Determine Your Key Initiatives
That is if you construct out your Stage 2 characteristic roadmap. Determine the important thing initiatives that can provide help to obtain your objectives and goals. These needs to be particular tasks, options or enhancements that can transfer your product ahead. Hold your characteristic updates inside swim lanes to make sure the knowledge is definitely digestible.
5. Prioritize Your Initiatives
Time to transition to Stage 3: product backlog. Upon getting a listing of initiatives, you need to prioritize them primarily based on their significance and influence in your minimal viable viewers. This can provide help to deal with probably the most vital duties first.
6. Assign Possession
Every backlog merchandise ought to have a transparent proprietor who’s answerable for driving it ahead. This can assist guarantee accountability and hold everybody on monitor. A part of this step is sizing, by which you allocate how lengthy every backlog merchandise will take to finish amidst your dash.
7. Assessment and Refine
Assessment and refine your product roadmap usually. This can provide help to keep on monitor and alter your plans as wanted. You need to actually be looking for suggestions and enter out of your friends at each step within the course of. Useful insights from advertising and marketing, gross sales, finance or some other division may inform the way you iterate as you progress throughout your roadmaps. A change to your horizon planning will trickle all the best way all the way down to your backlog, so it’s necessary to be adaptable.
Product Roadmap Finest Practices
Some necessary product roadmap finest practices are:
- Share and collaborate in your roadmaps.
- Consistently iterate.
- Take a storytelling strategy.
Share and Collaborate on Your Roadmaps
No profitable firm is making a product roadmap in a vacuum. The complete course of needs to be collaborative from begin to end.
The product supervisor is answerable for driving the roadmap and gathering enter from throughout the enterprise. They’re additionally answerable for synthesizing suggestions from the management group to the remainder of the group. Carry them up to the mark on why you made these modifications and hold everybody up to date on the evolutions and interactions of the roadmap.
Numerous this suggestions is gathered ad-hoc. You may get insights from a proper product roadmap assessment, however among the finest concepts are gathered from water cooler conversations or Slack messages. Repeatedly work the room for enter, validation and ideas.
Consistently Iterate
Since you’re constantly iterating your product, a roadmap ought to evolve repeatedly. I’m not saying you ought to be tweaking your horizon plan each single day, but it surely’s good to take care of flexibility.
I’ve made a behavior of periodically saving outdated variations of roadmaps. Whereas I all the time preserve a dwelling doc, it’s good to look again at earlier variations to see the place we’ve iterated — and the way nicely we’ve caught to our preliminary objectives.
Take a Storytelling Method
Studying create a product roadmap consists of mastering the artwork of product storytelling. You could join your imaginative and prescient to your roadmaps and clarify the strategic steps you’re taking to make that imaginative and prescient a actuality. You’re basically telling the story of your product journey.
If the product supervisor has a productive dialog with the pinnacle of gross sales, they should inform the story of the product’s evolution by the roadmap. This ensures that the dear info from smaller conversations is captured in a dwelling doc that everybody can entry.
Product Roadmap Template
Should you’re making a product roadmap, it’s finest to begin instantly. As a result of highway mapping is such an iterative and collaborative course of, you’ll be higher off the earlier you begin conversing along with your group.
Don’t let perfection get in the best way of progress. Obtain our product roadmap template, seize your management group and begin aligning your group round your product imaginative and prescient. Every new model of your roadmap will get you nearer to your final objectives.
