© Radiant Minds Software 10 Roadmap Tools A collection of tools to create, discuss and present product and technology roadmaps

© Radiant Minds Software

10 Roadmap Tools

A collection of tools to create, discuss and

present product and technology roadmaps.

http://radiantminds.com/


Tools SummaryTool Description Slide #

3 Horizons model Presentation tool to structure roadmap by time and uncertainty (extend/defend current business, create future opportunities).

3

Technology trend capitalization

Analysis and presentation tool to discuss current and future market positioning along relevant trends and implications on the product roadmap.

8

Product Canvas Communicate the key facts to a product (release) in 1 slide to align everyone on what’s the focus.

14

Technology theme Investments

Analysis tool to discover areas requiring more resource investments and areas to divest.

19

Pictures of the future Thinking framework to align short-term and long-term vision and brainstorm new opportunities.

24

Market / technology alignment

Analysis and presentation tool to align marketing messages with technology innovations.

31

Kano model Analysis tool which helps to understand product qualities and their impact on customer satisfaction in order to prioritize the roadmap.

36

Compact QFD Prioritization tool which focuses on customer needs and product qualities relative to competitive products.

41

Technology S-curve Brainstorming tool to shape the discussion around incremental improvements vs. potentially disruptive technologies.

45

The golden feature A communication tool to create a singular focus on doing one great thing.

50



3 Horizons ModelThe 3 horizons model an excellent tool to communicate the

high-level product roadmap structured into activities to extending and defending the current business and creating

future opportunities.

The original management-oriented model was proposed by Badhai, Coley and White in “Alchemy of Growth”. Geoffrey Moore picked it up and built on it in “Escape Velocity”.

http://www.escapevelocitybymoore.com/



Tool summaryStructure your roadmap themes into 3 horizons, make sure to invest into extending and defending the current business, but also into creating viable future options.

Profit

Time (years)

Horizon 1Extend and defend core businesses

Horizon 2Build emerging businesses

Horizon 3Create viable options

Know

ledge o

f M

ark

et

Knowledge of Technology

New market

Existing market that we do not

serve

Existing market that we

currently serve

Existing technology that we currently use

Existing technology that we do not use

New technology

Horizon 1

opportunities

Horizon 2

opportunities

Horizon 3

opportunities

ImprovementExtensionVariantsCost Reduction

Adjacent growth

Next gen.products

Exploration into new markets

Exploration with new technologies

10%

20%

70%



How to use for roadmapping?

Rate your current roadmap investments• How would you classify your recent and currently planned roadmap

investments?• How much did you invest per horizon? • Do you have ideas in the pipeline in all categories?

Define your target investments per horizon• How much are you willing and able to seed for long-term growth?• How much does it take to harvest from your core businesses?

Match target investments with actual roadmap ideas• Do your current investments match your target? • Align roadmap themes and budgets with horizon goals.

Share and discuss• Use the results to discuss with all business functions and align short-term as

well as long-term perspective

1

2

3

4



What’s the benefit?

Ensure your innovation pipeline does not dry up Balance investments in short and long term

opportunities Get people on board with your vision



Profit

Time (years)

Resource investment

70%

Resource investment 20%

Resource investment

10%

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…






Technology Trend Capitalization

A presentation tool to discuss current and future market positioning and implications on the product

roadmap



Tool summaryThe tech industry has historically been shaped by trends which influence both the customers’ environment and the resulting product needs. Examples of recent mega-trends in IT include Mobile, Social, Cloud, Apps or Big Data. Positioning along a trend can help to better speak the customers’ language and focus on problems with high awareness in the market.

The trend capitalization tool is both a decision support tool and a presentation tool to align a roadmap with market trends (or purposefully position outside mainstream if desired).

Tren

d Implications What does it mean for our customers and their use of our products/services?

Leverage What do we do to capitalize on this trend?

Expected end of hype cycle

Today

Risk mitigationWhat do we do to prevent threats resulting from this trend?




Identify trends relevant to your business• What’s in the media currently? • What are analysts talking about? Which buzzwords are they using? • What’s talked about on relevant industry events? • What are your customers talking and asking about?

Analyze implications of each trend• What does a trend mean for our customers? Which new challenges will they be

confronted with? What will become easier/better? • What will become mainstream, which activities/habits etc. will be obsolete? • Which tools will be obsolete? • Which new technologies will be available to be leveraged? Which technologies

will be outdated? Are we using any of these? Do we have expertise?

Identify opportunities and threats• How can we leverage a trend with new products or services? • How can we improve existing products to serve the changing needs of our

customers?• Can we shape the trend? • Could the trend negatively impact our core business? Could essential products

become obsolete?

1

2

3




Leverage current trends, speak the language of customers and the media

Anticipate changes in the customer’s environment resulting from high level industry changes and adapt products proactively

Identify and mitigate risks resulting from major paradigm shifts



Mob

ile

Socia

lA

pp

s

Implications

LeverageProduct / Service / BM change … … …

Change for customers 1 …

Risk mitigation

Product changeTech/skill

acquisitionExploration/

Research…

… …

Implications



Risk mitigation



Research…

… …

What it means for our customers and their use of our products/services

What do we do to capitalize on this trend?

What do we do to prevent threats resulting from this trend?

Implications



Risk mitigation



Research…

… …



Resource investment

70%

Resource investment 20%

Resource investment

10%

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…




Market Trends

Trend 1

Trend 2

Trend 3

Trend 4

Note: The trends can also well be integrated with tool #2 (horizon model) in a presentation.



Product CanvasCommunicate the key facts to a product (release) in

1 slide to align everyone on what’s the focus.



Tool summaryThe product canvas communicates on one page the key facts on a product or product release. Its main purpose is stakeholder communication and alignment. It aims to ensure everyone has the same understanding for what you’re building, for whom and why, and how it will be communicated to the outside.

ReferencesThe canvas has been adapted based on Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas and Roman Pichler’s Product Canvas. http://alexosterwalder.com/http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/agile-product-innovation/the-product-canvas/

Product Vision

for whom?

why? what? Success factors (product)

Key messages and drivers (market)

http://alexosterwalder.com/

http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/agile-product-innovation/the-product-canvas/




Envision the next product release• Who will be the main users? (Define personas)• Which problems will the product solve for these users? Particularly, which new

solutions will we offer with the next release?• Why is our solution unique? How are we solving the problem differently? Why is

it better for our users?

Identify success factors• What is key for the product in order to solve these problems / deliver on these

USPs? • What could make or break it? • What do we need to get absolutely right in order to succeed? (Note: these are

aspects the team will focus on afterwards in validating early with customers, designing, polishing to the last detail etc.)

Identify key marketing messages and drivers• If you got the product right, which messages will drive awareness in the market? • What should we emphasize in our content and messaging? • Which trends/changes/forces in the users’ environment will drive adoption of the

new solutions?

1

2

3

http://www.romanpichler.com/blog/agile-product-innovation/persona-template-for-agile-product-management/




Communicate the focus of a product (release) in one slide

Align the inside perspective on the product with the outside perspective (market messages)

Be clear about who benefits from a release and why



Product Vision

for whom?

Top 3-5 target personas w. their role and characteristics

why?

Which problems do they have today, why do they need a solution

what?

What are we doing differently? How are we solving the problem? Why is this product worth buying?

Success factors (product)

Which are key factors that will make or break it product-wise?

Key messages and drivers (market)

How will this be messaged to the outside? What will drive awareness and adoption? What will we emphasize marketing-wise?



Technology Theme Investments

Analysis tool to discover areas requiring more resource investments and areas to divest



Tool summaryThis tools helps you brainstorm technology areas which require increased resource investments and others, where the level of investment can be reduced. Brainstorm in a group and see how each team member judges the current situation. After having achieved an agreement on the status quo, draw conclusions on resource shifts.

Underinvested

Overinvested

Importance / Expected market impact

Resource shift

Step 1 – Brainstorm


Step 2 – Derive action items

Overinvested, and not important anymore

Underinvested and important

Tech A

Tech B

Tech C

Tech D




Create a list of existing products and/or technologies to evaluate• Be as detailed as needed to distinguish separate building blocks, but keep the

list manageable. • Sources of input: Which items are on the price list? Which technical components

exist (and could be shipped independently)? Which basic technologies/platforms did we build on? Which integration points do we have?

Have each team member position the items on the technology investments matrix• Classify all items collected in step 1 by perceived market relevance and

importance to the current/future business and whether the current level of resource investment is perceived too high or too low (relative to other products, relative to competition – make sure to agree with the time on these criteria first)

Discuss, re-arrange and get consensus• See how everyone positioned the items, discuss items with fundamental

disagreements individually

Draw conclusions on technology themes and resource investments on the next roadmap• Once the positioning is final, discuss concrete possibilities to reduce

investments into resource-intensive, but unimportant areas in order to shift to highly relevant areas with lack of resources.

1

2

3

4




Redistribute R&D resources continuously according to current market priorities

Establish shared understanding of resource situation Derive actionable measures to invest resources where

they have most impact



UnderinvestedOverinvested


Theme / Technology

Theme, Technology, or

Product

Resource shift

…

…



Pictures of the future

Pictures of the futures is a thinking framework originally developed by Siemens. It helps shaping

the thought process from the current business and products to future opportunities.



Tool summary

Strategic Visioning

Current business

Extrapolation RetropolationVia Roadmaps On the basis of scenarios

ProductsTechnologiesCustomer Needs

New MarketsNew Customer NeedsNew TechnologiesNew Business Impacts

Scenarios

IndividuumSocietyPoliticsEconomyEnvironmentTechnologyCustomersCompetitors

Influential Factors

Today Short-term Mid-term Long-term

Business area [..]

Business area [..]

Cross-sectional segment [..]

Cross-sectional segment [..]

Think “logically ahead” from the current business, and backwards from future scenarios, and align the resulting technology, product and service needs.

© Siemens AG, 2005




Start with your current business• Which customer needs are satisfied?• What‘s the current product mix and technologies?

Extrapolate from there• If you continue, what would „naturally“ be the next steps? • Which features would you build to serve current needs even better?• What are customers asking for?

Imagine future scenarios• Where do you see current customers or new customer segments in few years from now?• With which challenges will they be confronted? • Which technologies might be predominant at this point in time?

Retropolate from the future scenarios- What do I need to create short and mid-term to fulfill future customer needs? - (How) can long-term needs be aligned with short-term development? - Which product/platform features support both future and current needs? - Which risks result from my current position in relation to all future scenarios? Are we prepared?- …

1

2

3

4




Think outside the box of current customers and usage scenarios

Shape the discussion to discover potentially disruptive technologies and ideas

Align long-term vision and short-term activities – don’t just address any new greenfield area



TODAYKey personas we serve USPs / Unfair advantage

Weaknesses / Immediate Threats

Short-term focus area 1• Enter ideas here to

strengthen current USPs or address immediate threats

• Focus on todays offering• …

Short-term focus area 2• …• …• …

Short-term focus area 3• …• …• …Focus on key segments you

service today, how are they characterized and why do they use the products/services?

What’s unique today? Which USPs work with current customers?

Any immediate threats from competition, new technologies, dissatisfaction with the offering, perceived weaknesses in the market,..?



TOMORROW

Long-term focus area 1• Enter ideas here to

address future scenarios

• Focus on potential future USPs in case a scenario materializes

• …

Long-term focus area 1• …• …• …

Long-term focus area 3• …• …• …

Future scenario 1

Key assumptions Expected impact

Future scenario 1


Future scenario 1


Describe the most important assumptions in your future scenario

What’s the potential impact on your current business?

… …

… …



Long-term focus area 1



Short-term focus area 1



Roadmap Theme 1

Roadmap focus area catering to short-

term needs in alignment with long-

term vision

Roadmap Theme 2…

Roadmap Theme 3…

Roadmap Theme 4…



Market / Technology Alignment

Analysis and presentation tool to align marketing messages with technology innovations



Tool summaryContent is product, and vice versa. Everything a company presents and offers to the outside, either products or free content should be in sync and communicate one message. Avoid marketing a technology which you don’t have, or leaving technologies unleveraged.

The market / technology alignment tool simply puts the key items from technology and market perspective next to each other in order to identify if these are in line. Fill out the template with the top 5 content themes and next top 5 technology innovations. If you can’t clearly relate them to each other, it’s a red flag for misalignment!

MarketTop 5 Messages / Content Themes

TechnologyTop 5 Product Innovations

“Core message /theme which shall be communicated to customer segment XY…

New product / Product enhancement & key USP?

… …




Collect top 5 marketing messages / content themes• What are you planning to message alongside upcoming releases? • Which aspects/benefits will be emphasized?• Which customer needs/pain points will be addressed to create awareness?

Collect top 5 upcoming technology and product advancements• What’s new in the product in the upcoming releases? • Which problems will these advancements solve?

Analyze linkages and relations• Does a market message relate directly to the upcoming product

advancements? • Does a technology advancement deliver on a particular message/content? • Do marketing content and product advancements reach the same group of

users/buyers?

Identify out-of-context items and react if necessary• Technology advancements with no linkage to any marketing message are

not leveraged currently and might get lost – make sure these improvements will be visible to the market!

• Marketing messages with to linkage to technology advancements are in danger to be just marketing buzzwords on which you can’t deliver. Reconsider these messages (unless they are based on technology which you already have for longer time).

1

2

3

4




Ensure your content and products speak the same language and present a consistent message to the outside

Avoid to disappoint customers by not having product depth and substance behind marketing sizzle

Discover unleveraged technology advancements to create content



MarketTop 5 Messages / Content Themes

TechnologyTop 5 Product Innovations

“Core message /theme which shall be communicated to customer segment XY…

“…

“…

“…

“…

New product / Product enhancement & key USP

…

…

…

…



Kano ModelOriginally developed by Professor Noriaki Kano in

1984, this tool helps to understand product qualities and their impact on customer satisfaction.



Tool summaryThe Kano model is a tool to analyze customer needs in relation to expected satisfaction/excitement. It helps prioritizing features, and identify excitement attributes which are great to emphasize in marketing messages. Kano differentiates 5 types of customer preferences:

• Attractive quality – provides satisfaction if achieved fully, do not cause dissatisfaction if not fulfilled

• One-dimensional quality – Satisfaction if fulfilled, dissatisfaction if not fulfilled• Must-be quality – taken for granted if fulfilled, dissatisfaction if not fulfilled• Indifferent quality – Neither good nor bad• Reverse quality – High degree of achievement results in dissatisfaction (e.g. due

to feature overload)

Another good discussion on using the Kano model can be found here.

dissatisfied

satisfied

Fully implementedNot implemented

Delighters

Performance needs

Basic needs

Indifference

Source: N. Kano, 1984

dissatisfied

satisfied

Fully implementedNot implemented

Over time, exciting innovations turn into perceived basic needs.

http://www.uie.com/articles/kano_model/




List the key features for a new products or the enhancements in an upcoming release

Discuss and categorize which product qualities they add according to Kano’s categories • Which are attractive qualities and potential delighters? • Which one-dimensional quality attributes do we serve and do which degree? • Which are must-be to be viable? • Anything that is in danger to be “too much”, i.e., a threat for a reverse quality?

Brainstorm gaps based on your target personas• Look at your target personas – any must-have’s you do not fulfill on yet? • Which one-dimensional quality attributes might not be well-served yet after a release?

Balance resource investments and leverage the “delighters”• Complete your features list based on the analysis• Categorize and communicate as part of your roadmap• Figure out ways to underline and leverage the delighters among your product qualities

1

2

3

4




Understand and manage customers’ expectations with regards to different product qualities

Balance the roadmap to be viable by fulfilling basic needs but also excite with delighters

Identify those product qualities which really make a visible difference and focus the positioning and go-to-market



Very satisfied / excited

Need well fulfilledNeed not fulfilled

Performance Features

Basic needs

Delighters

Unsatisfied

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

Theme / Epic

…

…

…

How we’ll delight users The more, the better

What is simply expected to be viable?

Reverse qualities

We should not: - …- …

What could be even counterproductive?



Compact QFDPrioritization tool which focuses on customer needs

and product qualities relative to competitive products.



Tool summaryCompact QFD is a simplified variant of the quality function deployment methodology originally described by Dr. Yoji Akao. It aims to prioritize product features based on underlying customer needs and their importance relative to competitive solutions. The analysis is done in two steps:

1. Identify relevant product qualitites and compare your product relative to competition

2. Weight the quality attributes: the more your product is behind, the higher the weight

3. Classify enhancements/projects according to whether they improve a particular quality attribute (from 1 to 10) and calculate a weighted total score to prioritize the enhancements

Product quality attribute

Our product

Competitor A Competitor B … …

…

Product quality attribute Weighting

Enhancement 1

Enhancement 2

Enhancement 3

Enhancement 4

… …

Weighted Total 20




Prioritize a roadmap based on the competitive landscape Focus on emphasizing your strengths or catching up with

competition Clearly explain why certain features are chosen over

others



Product quality attribute

Our product Competitor A Competitor B Competitor C Competitor D

PQA 1 10 6 4 8 7

PQA 2 2 8 10 4 3

PQA 3 6 10 9 5 4

PQA 4 7 5 6 8 7

…

Product quality attribute Weighting

Enhancement 1

Enhancement 2

Enhancement 3

Enhancement 4

PQA 1 1 4 10 1

PQA 2 10 3 1 7

PQA 3 7 1 2

PQA 4 4

… …

Weighted Total 11 30 20 85



Technology S-Curve

Brainstorming tool to shape the discussion around incremental improvements vs. potentially

disruptive technologies



Tool summaryProposed by Clayton Christensen* in order to explain how disruptive innovations rise and ultimately wipe existing players out of the market, this tool can be used well to spark a discussion around the status quo of a firms’ current product and idea pipeline, as well as how resources are invested currently.

Tthe S-curve indicates that technologies, after an inception phase, will see a steep curve of advancement, until the boundaries of a solution approach are reached and improvements are only marginal. Disruptive technologies might be inferior first, but by taking the route of advancement, they have the potential to ultimately outpace previous solutions.

Mea

sure

of a

dvan

cem

ent

Measure of applied effort

Existing technologyNew technology

*Clayton Christensen: The Innovator’s Dilemma. http://www.claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-dilemma/

http://www.claytonchristensen.com/books/the-innovators-dilemma/




List the assets in your current product portfolio, and the technologies you are working on• Focus on groups / themes of technology, not individual features

Position your products and technologies on the S-curve• Where do you see yourself? • Is a technology still in its infancy with lots of opportunities for a big performance

jump forward? Is it well established and mature?• Is it a new solution to a problem?

Position competitive solutions from your market research• Who’s competing along the lines of an established technology? • Who’s solving the same problem, but with different technologies and solution

approaches?

Balance your pipeline• Reconsider your resource investments based on the results• Focus on ideation for novel solutions if you mostly invest in established solutions• Focus on improving and maturing emerging technologies ahead of competition

1

2

3

4




Get potential substitute solutions and disruptive technologies on your radar

Identify “dead ends” of a technology early enough to react

Align resource investments and balance them across technology horizons



Advancement

Applied effort

Current product(s) and pipeline vs. competition

Core product 1

Core product 2

Product 3

Competitor ACompetitor B



The golden featureA communication tool to create a singular focus on

doing one great thing.

http://www.mii.lt/files/product_roadmap_white_paper.pdf





Tool summaryThe golden feature methodology was originally proposed by the experts at the 280group. In Brian Lawley’s words* “The idea behind the Golden Feature technique is that you choose a single feature that is the absolute most important priority for the release, and then you get the entire team to rally around it as the focus. This single feature provides enough customer value to hang the entire release on.”

*Source: Brian Lawlay, 280 Group LLC: How to Create Compelling Product RoadmapsAvailable from http://www.mii.lt/files/product_roadmap_white_paper.pdf

http://www.280group.com/





Focus around a simple, compelling message for a release Focus the team to get this one aspect really right from all

perspectives Be flexible and clear in planning – the golden feature

needs to be in for sure, cut scope in other areas if necessary

Increase likelihood to get the release you want to market on time due to singular focus



Other roadmap themes and features

…

Release v1.0

Golden Feature of Release 1.0USP of golden feature– what is it and what makes it unique? What do we need to do to make it great?

…

…

…



Closing remarks

• Tools don’t solve problems, but they can help structure the path to find a solution

• There’s no right or wrong approach – tweak the tools to make them work for your team!

• We’d love to hear from you! • You have other tools we definitely have to include in this collection?

Disagree with a methodology or see downsides we should mention? Any other thoughts on roadmaps and roadmap tools? Feedback on how a tool worked for your team?

• Mail it to me at [email protected] or reach us via Twitter (@RadiantMindsHQ), LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook or whatever media works best for you!

Martin SuntingerFounder, CEO @ Radiant Minds Software

Happy roadmapping!

mailto:[email protected]


Documents

© Radiant Minds Software 10 Roadmap Tools A collection of tools to create, discuss and present product and technology roadmaps