Product Roadmap: What You Need to Know.
If you are in tech, you’ll hear the words “Product Roadmap” being thrown around indiscriminately. In case you’ve been wondering what it means, you’ve come to the right place.
Note: A Product Roadmap is different from a Product Requirement Document (PRD).
A Product Roadmap is used to get you from where you are to where you want to be
See two more definitions of Product Roadmap from Product Plan and Atlassian (respectively) below:
Product Plan’s definition: A product roadmap is a high-level visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of your product offering over time. A product roadmap communicates the why and what behind what you’re building. A roadmap is a guiding strategic document as well as a plan for executing the product strategy.
Atlassian’s definition: A product roadmap is a plan of action for how a product or solution will evolve over time. Product owners use roadmaps to outline future product functionality and when new features will be released. When used in agile development, a roadmap provides crucial context for the team’s everyday work and should be responsive to shifts in the competitive landscape.
It lays out the big plans required to meet your organizational goals and the timeline and requirements needed to implement features and requirements needed to achieve this strategy.
A product roadmap is a tool that lays out the big efforts required to meet your overall business objectives and the timeline for implementing features and requirements that align with your strategy.
It should be separate from other planning materials, such as lists of ideas and feature requests, a backlog of work, or bug reports. Those materials inform what goes on your roadmap, after careful review and consideration from you — the product manager.
A product roadmap is a high-level representation that usually shows your product strategy over time and where you are trying to get to.
Tips for Creating a Roadmap
- When creating a roadmap, leverage the art of storytelling. Tell a cohesive story. Focus on themes and goals and link your story to them.
2. Ensure to share your roadmap with your team.
3. Be assertive. Knowing when to say no when you ought to is an underrated must-have skill for product managers.
“Innovation is not about saying yes to everything. It is about saying “No” to all but the most critical feature.” — Steve Jobs.
4. Attach goals to your roadmap. Ensure your roadmap is perfectly (or at least) aligned with the goals and vision of your team/organization.
Summary
- A product roadmap helps keep the team about priorities and projects.
2. It helps to know how the products come together
3. A product roadmap is the plan that the team will be executing.
4. It is not a fixed carved-in-stone kind of document. It can always be updated, especially when the product vision changes.
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