Software Roadmaps = Living Statements of Intent

Lots has been said and written about software roadmaps, yet in my experience everyone still has outsized expectations about:

• Their accuracy: they are just “an intended future of the product, with increasing levels of uncertainty as the time horizon extends beyond the present”
• Their finality: they are just “a reflection of the current understanding of the market, the product, the users, and the company”
• Their depth: the are just “a tool used internally to ensure that people understand the strategic direction of the company and how that translates into planned thematic areas of improvement”

When appropriately edited, they can also be used to “provide customers and prospects with a feeling of satisfaction that your company has an understanding of the direction of the market and is investing in the future of the product”, but certainly shouldn’t be used as:

• A magical prognostication of the future that predicts where the market will be
• Project plans that specifies resources, scope, and commitments
• Tactical tools that is constantly updated and changed

What makes roadmaps important?

“A lot of folks say their goal is to have a roadmap. And I say no, our goal is to have a good product strategy where we make hard choices and prioritize the right things. The roadmap is simply a reflection of this.” Rich Mironov

Roadmaps are meant to facilitate cross-functional collaboration, decision making, and generate excitement on the how the company strategy would be executed, visualizing the path to its vision.

Roadmaps must be constantly revised to incorporate new information:

• I prefer to update my roadmaps as new information arise, usually multiple times per month.
• I prefer to share updated roadmaps broadly on a quarterly basis, as such periodicity gives enough space to complete a good chunk of work, but also create the opportunity to adjust multiple times per year.
• Beyond the detailed plans for the current quarter, I find that having a view of the year ahead by quarter is helpful, despite the limited accuracy that the quarters further in the future will have.

With these few paragraphs I don’t pretend to have clarified for good what roadmaps are, but rather articulated how I use them and what you should expect you work with me.

All views are my own.