Everything (you need to know) about Product Roadmap - Part II

Part one of this article.

When to create a Product Roadmap?

As soon as you have identified your product vision, you should start building a product roadmap. (For more information, please check out: The Roadmap to Value the Agile Way.)

When to use a Product Roadmap?

As mentioned in Part one, a Product Roadmap is a plan for how a product or solution evolves over time throughout the overall product lifecycle.

Here are key areas where a Product Roadmap is instrumental:

• Product planning

• Product release planning

• Marketing planning

• Product development KPIs and Metrics

• Internal product communication

• External product communication

• Product launching

How to create a Product Roadmap?

The product owner creates the product roadmap with help from the development team. In the product roadmap phase, requirements, estimates, and timeframes start at a high-level and are being refined based on changes such as new priorities.

A product roadmap can be as simple as sticky notes arranged on a white board — which makes updates as easy as moving a sticky note from one section of the white board to another. You can also use Excel, PowerPoint, Confluence plugin,etc. to create your roadmaps. For specialized application software -- Roadmuck, ProductPlan, The GO Product Roadmap, and Aha -- offer greater flexible and cooperative functionalities.

The best approach is to start with a “goal first” and work to build consensus before building and sharing the roadmap.

Dos

• Get consensus on the product goals

• Apply it to new products or services or existing offerings

• Create a new document within the Product Management document

• Get buy-in on the Internal Roadmap from your team(s) and finalize it

• Bring releases and features together for a unified view

• Use it as a strategic communication tool

• Customize your roadmap based on who will view it

• Create an External Roadmap based on the Internal Roadmap

• Display its graphic representation

• Review, analyze, prioritize, estimate, update, and share it regularly

Don'ts

• Treat a roadmap as a project plan or Gantt chart

• Include every feature in the product backlog or engineering bug

“A good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow." -- George S. Patton

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