A product roadmap template can assist you successfully talk and refine the technique and imaginative and prescient to your product.
Most profitable firms are always constructing and iterating on their merchandise or platforms. Because the product adjustments and grows, the remainder of the group should adapt with it. Every new function or performance adjustments the way you promote and market your product. Product tweaks would possibly have an effect on your income fashions, or require you to convey on new workforce members. Exterior purchasers or advisors will need 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 varieties — comes into play.
I’ve been creating B2B SaaS merchandise for practically 20 years. At York IE, I oversee the event of our platform for strategic development, Gasoline, and assist our purchasers launch and develop their very own merchandise. No matter measurement 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 greatest 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 firms 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 inside groups — gross sales, advertising and marketing, finance, and so on. — across the identical organizational targets. That’s as a result of every division could have enter and visibility into the roadmap. This plan can even assist your exterior stakeholders and purchasers keep knowledgeable in your product technique.
I prefer to suppose there are three ranges of highway mapping, every of which is extra appropriate for sure stakeholders. It’s essential to know the variations if you’re making a product roadmap.
Sorts of Product Roadmaps
The three essential kinds of product roadmaps are:
horizon planning roadmap;
function roadmap; and
detailed product backlog.
Individuals usually use the generic phrase “roadmap” to explain any form of planning doc. That’s why I prefer to categorize a roadmap as considered one of three varieties. Every kind communicates completely different data 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 now have 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 targets for a selected time frame.
You’ll outline your short-, medium- and long-term targets 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 might define your imaginative and prescient for the following 18 months to 5 years. You’ll work collaboratively with leaders throughout the enterprise to outline your horizons and their timelines.
It’s usually useful to assign a theme to every horizon. For instance:
Horizon 1:
Set up fast must allow gross sales and attain your minimal viable viewers.
Theme: Core Inputs (constructing the essential options of your platform)
Horizon 2:
Develop your core providing to proceed development and add worth for patrons.
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’ll provide help to determine essentially the most crucial objects inside every theme and consider what’s most important to 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 usually inbuilt PowerPoint, Excel or an analogous device that any member of your group can use.
Stage 2: Function Roadmap
A function roadmap means that you can bucket your options into completely different classes and assign a timeline for every function launch. Startups will usually plan options 4 to 6 months out, whereas a extra established firm would possibly look so far as 12 months upfront.
A function roadmap appears to be like much 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 workforce is constructing them. It’s essential that advertising and marketing, gross sales and different departments have enter into which options are launching and when.
Rising tech firms ought to replace their function roadmaps on a month-to-month foundation. Bigger firms would possibly accomplish that quarterly. This roadmap may very well be inbuilt PowerPoint or Excel, however I’d suggest migrating it to a product administration device resembling Notion or Jira if you happen to 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 function launch into backlog objects the event workforce can deal with. In different phrases, it’s time to start out planning your sprints. Many of the collaboration for this roadmap is finished inside the product improvement workforce.
By now, you’re working completely in your venture administration device. You’ll measurement every backlog merchandise and allocate it to a workforce member. Generally, you received’t be capable of 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.
Tips on how to Create a Product Roadmap
The steps to create a product roadmap are:
outline your product imaginative and prescient;
determine your targets and aims;
decide your timeline;
determine your key initiatives;
prioritize your initiatives;
assign possession; and
evaluate 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 objective 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 can assist you get began.
2. Establish Your Targets and Aims
After you have a transparent imaginative and prescient, you must break it down into particular targets and aims. These needs to be measurable and achievable inside a selected timeframe.
3. Decide Your Timeline
Based mostly in your targets and aims, you must decide a sensible timeline to your product roadmap. This could embody milestones and deadlines for every part of improvement..
4. Establish Your Key Initiatives
That is if you construct out your Stage 2 function roadmap. Establish the important thing initiatives that can provide help to obtain your targets and aims. These needs to be particular tasks, options or enhancements that can transfer your product ahead. Hold your function updates inside swim lanes to make sure the knowledge is well digestible.
5. Prioritize Your Initiatives
Time to transition to Stage 3: product backlog. After you have a listing of initiatives, you could prioritize them primarily based on their significance and influence in your minimal viable viewers. This may provide help to give attention to essentially the most crucial duties first.
6. Assign Possession
Every backlog merchandise ought to have a transparent proprietor who’s liable for driving it ahead. This may assist guarantee accountability and maintain everybody on monitor. A part of this step is sizing, through 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 repeatedly. This may provide help to keep on monitor and modify your plans as wanted. It’s best to actually be in search of suggestions and enter out of your friends at each step within the course of. Useful insights from advertising and marketing, gross sales, finance or another division might inform the way you iterate as you progress throughout your roadmaps. A change to your horizon planning will trickle all the way in which right down to your backlog, so it’s essential to be adaptable.
Product Roadmap Finest Practices
Some essential product roadmap greatest practices are:
Share and collaborate in your roadmaps.
Always 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 liable for driving the roadmap and gathering enter from throughout the enterprise. They’re additionally liable for synthesizing suggestions from the management workforce to the remainder of the group. Deliver them in control on why you made these adjustments and maintain everybody up to date on the evolutions and interactions of the roadmap.
Numerous this suggestions is gathered ad-hoc. You would possibly get insights from a proper product roadmap evaluate, however a number of the greatest concepts are gathered from water cooler conversations or Slack messages. Repeatedly work the room for enter, validation and ideas.
Always Iterate
Since you’re constantly iterating your product, a roadmap ought to evolve repeatedly. I’m not saying you need to be tweaking your horizon plan each single day, nevertheless it’s good to keep up flexibility.
I’ve made a behavior of periodically saving outdated variations of roadmaps. Whereas I at all times keep a residing 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 targets.
Take a Storytelling Method
Studying learn how to create a product roadmap contains 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 top of gross sales, they should inform the story of the product’s evolution by means of the roadmap. This ensures that the dear data from smaller conversations is captured in a residing doc that everybody can entry.
Product Roadmap Template
In case you’re making a product roadmap, it’s greatest to start out 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 together with your workforce.
Don’t let perfection get in the way in which of progress. Obtain our product roadmap template, seize your management workforce and begin aligning your group round your product imaginative and prescient. Every new model of your roadmap will get you nearer to your final targets.
