Everything You Need to Know About Product Roadmaps — Part 1

Why roadmaps are important, exploring their characteristics, and how to start creating yours.

Have you ever taken a cross-country road trip? Picture yourself planning a trip. You have a starting point, your destination, and several checkpoints in between. These checkpoints you had pinpointed are those must-visit places on your map and you keep track of all the turns you need to make. 

This is pretty much how a product roadmap works too! It's your master plan, your guide—it ensures you stay on track, and at the same time, it allows for some flexibility. A product roadmap will include key details about what is being built, why it’s being built, and a cadence of how this will be achieved.

In simpler terms, it's the strategic document you have that maps out the journey of a product over time. It includes what features are being built, why they’re important, and offers an estimation of when you aim to complete them.

Why you need a roadmap?

A roadmap it's not just some lifeless presentation slide, it’s a living document that breathes life into your product's future. From my experience, this artifact provide clear benefits from small businesses to larger organizations:

• Focus: It's easy to get swamped with tasks, but a roadmap helps to keep your eyes on the goals.

• Communication: Roadmaps provide a unified vision for everyone to refer to. It’s like playing in an orchestra; everyone comes together in harmony when the direction is clear. This is basically the PM's job.

• Prioritization: We all have endless wish lists. Roadmaps can help differentiate the 'must-haves' from the 'nice-to-haves.'

I’d love to hear from you. Do you use product roadmaps? What has been your experience? Or if you're crafting a new roadmap and still figuring out how to season it, just drop your questions below 👇

Roadmaps are a great communication tool

Let's review the communication process to its very basics:

We have a sender (that's you or someone else in your organization), the message itself (what you want to convey), and a receiver (your team, stakeholders, or audience).

Sender (PM/Company) → Message (Product Roadmap) → Receiver (Team/Stakeholder/Audience)

With this in mind, the roadmap is essentially your message. It's the story you’re telling about your product’s journey. This makes roadmaps a great tool to communicate:

• Vision: A roadmap tells your narrative on why your product exists and where it's headed. Painting this big picture brings your team and stakeholders onto the same page.

• Priorities: Roadmaps communicate what really matters. It's like highlighting the best scenes of the product’s journey, keeping the focus only where it's needed and nothing else.

• Progress: Like the chapters of a book, a roadmap signals how far you've come and how far you have to go.

Moreover, roadmaps serve three key communication outcomes:

• Alignment: At times, various departments within a company can have differing views on the product’s direction. A roadmap fosters alignment by clearly articulating the direction and priorities, ensuring everyone is working towards the same goals.

• Transparency: A roadmap is open and visible to all relevant stakeholders. This transparency helps build trust as it communicates the ‘why’ behind the decisions. It shows that decisions are made strategically – and not on whims and fancies.

• Accountability: By clearly assigning responsibilities in the roadmap, everyone knows who’s doing what and by when. This encourages ownership and holds people accountable for the results.

However, for a roadmap to be effectively communicated, it needs to be:

• Simple: It must convey the most essential information without unnecessary complexity.

• Visual: A good blend of text and visuals makes the roadmap more engaging and easier to understand.

• Up-to-Date: Change is inevitable, and a good roadmap must reflect the most current realities and expectations.

Remember that a roadmap is not a one-time thing. It must be regularly revisited, revised, and communicated to ensure that every stakeholder stays informed and involved.

How to start creating your roadmap

It all starts with your product vision. I wrote about this before here you can read this post.

I share with you some steps to help you out:

1. Define Your Goals: Start by figuring out 'what's the big picture?' This will be the destination where you want your roadmap to lead you.

2. Ask Around: You can't do it all by yourself. Gather insights from your team, stakeholders, and customers. They can provide valuable insights that will contribute to the roadmap.

3. Choose What’s Important: Now you know what needs to be done. But let's be real, not everything can be a priority! Choose your tasks carefully based on their impact and the resources at hand.

4. Plan Your Time: Make a cadence of how things should be built. It's like setting a date when you want to achieve your goals. I suggest you partner with developers, engineers, architects, etc. They can provide valuable insights of how development works and give you more realistic timeframes.

   Imagine part of your scope includes a platform or technology migration. It may sound like swapping apps to you, but the work behind this could be exhaustive.

5. Hand Out Tasks: Share the responsibilities. Assign tasks to your team members making sure that they are clear on what they need to do and by when.

6. Make it Visual: Bring your roadmap to life! Use whatever tool you're comfortable with to create your visual roadmap. It's like drawing your journey on a map for your trip, remember?

   Keep in mind, you’ll have to update this living document regularly. So choose an app that helps you modify easily every time without difficulties, unless you’re a PowerPoint guru 😉

7. Talk About It: Share your roadmap with your team, take feedback, and make changes if required. Don't forget, roadmaps are not set in stone, they evolve as you move along your journey!

Wrapping Up

Remember, a roadmap it's a communication tool. It's the story of your product's journey that you share with your team, stakeholders, and even customers. With this, everyone understands the product's direction and can contribute in the most meaningful ways.

Creating your first product roadmap can feel a bit like planning your first big road trip. It might seem daunting, but remember that each step you take is one step closer to your product's success story. I hope this has helped you understand the concept better.

Got any experiences or specific challenges with product roadmaps you'd like to share? If there's more you wish to explore, just leave a comment and let's deepen the discussion. Happy planning! 🗺️📍