How to Create a Product Roadmap (with available cash)

When developing a new product, one of the most challenging parts is to decide the product roadmap. This is a plan of action showing how the product you are developing will evolve. The aim is to outline the future functionality, uses, and features of the product. If you are involved in agile development (if not, you should be), the product roadmap provides the crucial content needed to build the product in a certain way. This will give direction to your entire team and most likely to all the organisation.

What do I need to consider when creating a roadmap?

What you need to consider when building a roadmap is:

1. Market trajectories.
2. Strategic foals.
3. Customer value propositions
4. What could be monetised
5. Effort (& costs) constraints. 

These factors help you prioritise initiatives and identify key points of the roadmap. The content you choose will usually depend on the audience and the purpose of the roadmap. For instance, a roadmap for the executive may cover several products while the one for the development team will highlight only a single product. The roadmap may also span multiple teams working on the same products or multiple products that are aligned with common customer needs. 

When should I Create Product Roadmaps?

You should create or update a roadmap every time you are developing a new product or when any of the considerations (above written) changes. Most common examples: After a market testing the company decides to pivot strategy, or after receiving a funding and you have more resources available, or if there is a change in the market landscape, or a local policy, and many other options.

Your roadmap ensures everyone is on the same page and heading in the same direction.  There are other types of roadmaps for example for your development team, the executive, and the sales team. You may also consider external roadmaps meant to excite customers about what you are planning to introduce with your product. All these should align accordingly.

Depending on the situation, a product roadmap can be used as a strategic vision for stakeholders in an organisation. You get to update the organisational leadership about the work you are doing and the next steps to be taken in product development. You can also unify the teams working on the product and communicate areas that need to be prioritised. If you are a developer, you can utilize roadmaps to gain a better understanding of the product’s big picture and focus on the most important tasks. It becomes easier to make autonomous decisions fast and avoid scope creep. 

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Best Practices for Developing Roadmaps

Developing product roadmaps should be an ongoing process. You will want to keep the team focused on the goals and working on the same things. While there could be multiple approaches to use, some of the best practices include:

• Bring together all the leaders of the main areas of the organisation.
• Brainstorm all problems using How-might-we’s... (HMW) statements. 
• Brainstorm solutions to these problems. -and do not fall in love with these solutions only about solving the problem.
• Define all the constraints.
• Choose the most important features based on considerations (defined in the first paragraph).
• After that, create the roadmap.
• Review your product roadmap frequently and make adjustments as needed.
• Align your short-term tactics with the long-term goals of the development process.
• Test & Update and stay connected with customers, users & key stakeholders to ensure alignment.
• Make sure everyone involved has access to the roadmap and can review it regularly. - It should not be an exercise that it’s done once and forgotten, it should be in the core of the organisation.
  
  

Presenting a Product Roadmap

When presenting a product roadmap to the rest of the organisation, aim for buy-in from the organisational leadership and the agile development team. Do it with enthusiasm! Demonstrate to the key stakeholders that the company’s strategic objectives and customers’ needs have been clearly articulated in the plan, and that you are eager to make it happen. Inspire your team and enjoy the ride!