How to best create and manage product roadmaps?

Product RoadmapHow to best create and manage roadmaps?

Why this talk?

Not just features & dates

Take a step back!

http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/agile-product-planning-vision-strategy-tactics/

Outline

Product vision & strategy

Creating a product roadmap

Managing a product roadmap

What are product roadmaps?

What are product roadmaps?

Provide direction

Pair objectives & strategy

Aid communication

By Martin Eriksson, http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2011/10/what-exactly-is-a-product-manager/

What are product roadmaps?Provide strategic and product direction

Offers rationale for decisions, resource allocation and prioritisation

Effective communication tool

Facilitate stakeholder collaboration & decision making

Create continuity of purpose

Product vision & strategy

http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/agile-product-planning-vision-strategy-tactics/

Business vision

Business vision

Product vision

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/VisionStatement

Strategy - ‘Bit in the middle’

Business goals

Revenue & profit

User Experience

Business model

Value chain

Customer segmentation Design principles

Competitors User needs

Technology Compliance

Domain Geography

Strategy

Constraints

Product vision & strategyThink big – A good vision is lofty and aspirational

A shared vision – Create a common sense of purpose which is shared widely across the company

Motivating – Outlines product benefits for others

Use for decision-making – Use your vision as guide when making business or product decisions

Distinguish between vision and strategy – A vision should not be a plan that outlines how to reach a goal

Creating a product roadmap

Roadmap Wish list

Roadmap Customer only

‘Old School’

‘Old School’

What’s wrong?What is the context?

Why are we doing certain things? Why not?

What value are we looking to deliver and why?

What business or user problems are we looking to solve, for whom and why?

Don’t forget that your roadmap is a communication and collaboration tool!

Pitfalls when creatingCommon pitfalls when creating a roadmap:

Why? - Just a collection of features and timings

Dependencies - Not thinking about cross-product or team dependencies

“Solution sickness” - Fixating on a feature or solution upfront

‘New School’: Goal oriented

Create a roadmap

Roadmap themes

Creating a product roadmapDon’t fixate on features; focus on problems, goals, assumptions or themes instead

Important to not lose sight of measurable results

Consider adding extra layers to allow for risks, dependencies and product discovery (‘unknowns’)

Managing a product roadmap

By Janna Bastow, http://www.mindtheproduct.com/2014/07/product-roadmapping-prioritisation-portfolio/

Roadmap a one off

Roadmap Set in stone

Roadmap updates

Things can change

As long as you’re transparent

As long as you’re transparent

Managing a product roadmap

Treat your product roadmap as a living document

Be transparent about roadmap progress

Keep communicating to your stakeholders

Product Roadmap - 3 things

3 things to take away:

Take a step back before creating a roadmap

A roadmap needs strategic context and goals

Stakeholder communication is critical

Thank you!

@MAA1

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abrahammarc

https://marcabraham.wordpress.com/

https://medium.com/@maa1