How to create a product roadmap that truly works?

A well-thought-out product roadmap not only stimulates the development process but also brings all important stakeholders on the same page to deliver excellent results.

Quickly evolving technologies have mandated organisations to innovate effectively and get new products to the market fast. While having good ideas is definitely a positive thing to start with, the firm’s success often depends on its ability to convert ideas into real-world products. To that end, creating a product roadmap can come in handy as it helps organizations execute their ideas and swiftly launch their products into the market. Given below is the list of recommended steps that you should follow to develop an effective product roadmap that will fast-track the product development and align the process with the vision of the company:

1) Finalize Product Strategy: The fundamental step to start while creating a product roadmap is to comprehensively define your product strategy. The step entails answering in detail crucial questions pertaining to new products, target markets, unique benefits, and so on. Aligning the product strategy with the vision and mission of the organization is also a good measure to ensure coherence between stakeholders who are actively involved in the development process. Remember, your final product strategy must explain the doubts and concerns of a variety of stakeholders in the company including shareholders, suppliers, partners, and potential customers among others.

2) Define Requirments: Seeking information from a range of stakeholders in the ecosystem can prove really helpful in accurately defining the requirement for the development of new products. It is wise to start with marketing, sales, and customer support teams as these people know the target markets inside out. Their feedback can help in prioritising the product features and aligning them with the tastes and preferences of potential buyers. Direct engagement with users’ communities has also gained popularity of late and this coupled with a deep understanding of the development team can lead to the precise definition of the product requirements.

3) Anchor Broad Timelines: The process of creating a product roadmap should be anchored on the timeframe although the management should refrain from defining strict deadlines for the team to deliver on pre-agreed goals. Here the primary function of the timeline is to guide the entire development team and by loosely defining the schedule, the teams get the required headspace to adopt a flexible approach towards the innovation process. You may choose to plan the product deliverables on a monthly or quarterly basis as it will keep the pressure off the team to stick to a particular deadline while keeping the sense of urgency alive.

4) Customize Plan: To garner the full support of all stakeholders, it is essential to customize the product roadmap in line with the requirements of the specific departments and collaborators. For example, it’s intuitive to highlight the investment and sales figures while customizing the roadmap plan for the finance department. Similarly, the tone and tenor of the plan should appeal to the shareholders while it’s being produced in front of the top management for securing necessary approvals. It’s important to note that you need not change the entire roadmap document as the core components of the plan will remain the same. What you need to do is just minor tinkering and highlighting the information that is more relevant to the specific discipline. Remember, a little bit of customisation aligning with the specific interest of top management, marketing and sales teams, and the finance department will evoke a positive response towards the development process from throughout the company.

5) Share across stakeholders: Sharing the product roadmap throughout the company comes with a variety of advantages including encouraging the development teams, receiving support from the top management, and inspiring accountability throughout the organisation. A dynamic and vibrant product roadmap also infuses a fresh lease of life into the company and makes its employees optimistic towards their future. The process of sharing the product roadmap is also important to keep everyone up to date with ongoing developmental efforts in the company.

Designing an effective and successful product roadmap entails active participation from all stakeholders involved in the business ecosystem. While external stakeholders bring a lot of intuitive and insightful information to the table, internal participants help in converting these insights into dynamic real-world products. The role of two-way communication is also crucial as a constant dialogue and exchange of information ensure that all efforts are done in unison and deliver desired results on the development front.

Author: Mitesh Bulsara, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer (CTO), CoffeeBeans