How to Write a Product Roadmap

Writing your product roadmap can be challenging, especially if it is your first time. I remember the first time I had to write a product roadmap, I spent hours on Google trying to find a direct and easy way to write it, and I flopped. In this article, I will be sharing tips on how to write a star product roadmap.

When writing a product roadmap, you should have in mind who the roadmap will be shared with, this will guide you in building your product roadmap. It could be engineers, stakeholders, marketing and sales, and customer support. It is your responsibility as a product manager to share the product roadmap with your team members so that everyone is aware of where they are heading, why they are building, and what role each team has to play.

What is a Product Roadmap

In my own words, a product roadmap is a visual representation of how you plan to achieve your product goals within a timeframe.

I like this particular definition by Product Plan because it gives an elaborate answer to what a product roadmap is. 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 the what behind what you’re building. A roadmap is a guiding strategic document as well as a plan for executing the product strategy”.

A roadmap, just like any other map, is a guide to show where you are, and how to get to a destination, and how long it should take you to get there. It sounds cool yeah, but how do I go about it:

How do I build a Product Roadmap?

Your product roadmap contains Features or Epics with a time assigned for execution.

1. Strategy

First product strategy, you cannot start building a product roadmap without knowing what the product strategy is. you need to know the plans and actions needed to achieve the product vision as it aligns with the overall business goal. If you don’t have a product strategy, create one for your product.

Answer the question “Why am I building this product”. Remember to clearly state the product goals, vision, and how it will support the overall business goal.

2. Ideas and Feedbacks

You are doing this to get ideas on features to implement, carrying out a market analysis survey, user survey, what features do your competitors have that you don’t have, what are their users saying, what are your users saying, what features are your users asking for? Prepare a graph and score the ideas, this will help you prioritize what features to build.

3. Features and Requirement Definition

Identify the specific features that best support your product strategy and prioritize those features.

4. Organize into Releases

At this point, you can organize ideas and Requirements into Epics and set the time to implement them.

5. Roadmap Team Review

As the Product Manager, you are responsible for drawing a Product Roadmap, however, you need to choose the right team to go through your Product Roadmap.

As a PM, you can’t just decide the features/epics, attach timelines without the views of the following.

• Product Owner: should have proper knowledge of the features on the roadmap and will help break down the features or epics in a way that can be understood by the development team.
• Head of Engineering or a Representative of the Development Team: will determine if a feature can be completed within the timeframe you’ve assigned, if there’s development capacity to build that feature or you will need to hire or outsource, what integrations or dependencies does a feature require, etc.
• Executive Stakeholders: will give a high-level approval on the roadmap.

Note: A product Manager should gather enough evidence and data when presenting a Product Roadmap to team members, it will enable them to make proper decisions.

Product Roadmap Tools

There are lots of Product Roadmap software such as Miro, Aha, Product Board, etc. Usually, organizations pay for this software and share it with team members, however, if your organization does not have any product roadmap tools, you can also use a spreadsheet or PowerPoint to build your product roadmap.

In conclusion, a product roadmap is not a strict document that MUST be followed strictly, it can change depending on current Market research or situation.