Discovery-Driven Roadmapping is Here
There’s been a lot of talk recently about moving away from linear, feature-based roadmapping. Traditional approaches to product management software are built around features and timelines. These are important, but when you start there, you end up managing a feature factory rather than shipping products that engage customers and achieve business objectives.
The best product teams determine success based on whether or not business objectives were met instead of how many features were shipped. The key to positively impacting business objectives is evidence that your users will react to a new feature or enhancement in a particular way. Product teams have many sources of input: ideas from senior management, feedback from VIP customers, qualitative user research, quantitative metrics from experiments, and much more. Objectively prioritizing all of this input is crucial. Yet too many product teams prioritize subjectively. Use of unbiased evidence is what allows the best product teams to prioritize roadmaps more effectively.
By executing on an evidence-based roadmap, newly launched features or enhancements are more likely to delight customers, or “spark joy” if you prefer.
Some of the most successful product teams we’ve been talking to are using discovery-driven roadmaps, where each item is clearly linked to evidence. In the context of an ever-evolving set of user needs and competitive landscape, this also helps ensure that what you build isn’t obsolete or irrelevant once it is finally launched.
Today, we’re excited to announce a new capability that moves GLIDR strongly towards that goal: discovery-driven roadmapping with the Product Canvas.
Until now, the GLIDR team has been focused on building the best hub for managing customer discovery activities. As we got to know our customers and saw how they used GLIDR, it became clear to us that evolving to connect roadmapping activities with discovery and user feedback was a natural next step.
Our new Product Canvas empowers teams to build evidence-based roadmaps with more effective prioritization. Link customer feedback, user research, experimental data, internal discussion and product requirements to improve access to critical data and inform product decisions. Customize product development workflows and seamlessly connect ideas to user insights and business strategies.
Everything on the roadmap and backlog can now be linked back to the discovery activities your extended team has conducted, so that you’re always focused on building what delivers the most customer value.
Put another way, GLIDR allows your product team to always understand why you’re building each new product, feature, or enhancement.
GLIDR brings everything teams know about their products together in one place so that they can make better product decisions and ship products that matter to users.
- Gather ideas and organize them to build a data-driven product roadmap
- Ideas on the roadmap can then be connected to new or existing pieces of evidence — this could take the form of user feedback, interviews from customer discovery or any form of secondary research
- The roadmap can be customized in any way that works for the team and then viewed as a kanban or list, grouped and filtered by options that facilitate planning, communication and workflow
- Opening an individual idea card, teams can access product specs, connected evidence and critical discussions. They can also connect the product idea to their business strategies
Taken as a whole, the idea, evidence, research loop acts as a discovery engine placed in the middle of the roadmapping process. It helps product teams improve ideas and find greater success in the market.
Learn more about these features and others in our Help Center article, Getting Started with the Product Canvas.
The new Product Canvas in GLIDR takes your product team one big step forward in the pursuit of improved strategic roadmapping, or what some call agile product roadmaps. You can now get more done right inside GLIDR, as it becomes your team’s central hub for everything you know about your product. Grab your free two-week trial today and see for yourself.
