How can you make a product roadmap that changes with the times?

1 Define your product strategy

Before you start building your product roadmap, you need to have a clear product strategy. A product strategy is a high-level statement of what you want to achieve with your product, who you are serving, and how you will create and sustain a competitive advantage. Your product strategy should guide your decisions and actions throughout the product development process. It should also be aligned with your business objectives and stakeholder expectations. To define your product strategy, you can use frameworks such as the product vision, the value proposition, and the business model canvas.

2 Choose a suitable roadmap format

Depending on your goals, audience, and level of detail, there are different types of product roadmaps you can use. A theme-based roadmap focuses on the main problems or opportunities that you want to address with your product, rather than specific features or solutions. A goal-oriented roadmap links product initiatives to strategic objectives and key results. A timeline-based roadmap shows when you plan to deliver initiatives, based on estimates or commitments. And a lean roadmap outlines the assumptions and hypotheses that you want to test and validate with your product initiatives. All of these formats help you communicate value, measure progress, manage expectations, and learn quickly.

3 Involve your stakeholders

Creating a product roadmap is not something you do alone; it requires input and feedback from your stakeholders, such as customers, users, team members, executives, and partners. Involving your stakeholders can provide insights and perspectives to validate or challenge your assumptions and ideas. It can also help to align your roadmap with the needs of your target market and organization, build trust in your product vision and strategy, and manage any trade-offs or conflicts that may arise from competing interests or priorities. To involve stakeholders, you can use techniques such as surveys, interviews, workshops, focus groups, user testing, prototyping, and demos.

4 Review and update your roadmap regularly

A product roadmap is not a static document that you set and forget; it is a dynamic tool that reflects the current state of your product and market. Therefore, it's important to review and update your roadmap regularly. To do this, you should set a cadence for reviewing your roadmap, depending on the complexity and uncertainty of your product and market. Additionally, use data and feedback to evaluate your performance and outcomes, as well as any gaps or opportunities for improvement. When making changes or updates to your roadmap, communicate these to your stakeholders and explain the rationale behind them. Finally, keep your roadmap simple and concise, avoiding overloading it with too much detail or information.

5 Use a roadmap software tool

A roadmap software tool can help you create, manage, and share your product roadmap with greater ease and efficiency. It can provide templates and examples to help you choose a suitable roadmap format for your product, as well as drag-and-drop functionality to organize and rearrange your roadmap items. Collaboration and feedback features allow you to involve stakeholders and collect their input and opinions. Additionally, integration and synchronization features link your roadmap with other tools and platforms, such as project management or analytics. Visualization and presentation features also enable you to display and communicate your roadmap in a clear and engaging manner. Popular examples of roadmap software tools include Aha!, ProductPlan, Roadmunk, and Airfocus.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?