How can you balance stakeholder needs in product road mapping?

1 Define your stakeholders

Before you start planning your product road map, you need to identify who your stakeholders are and what they care about. Stakeholders are anyone who has a stake in your product, such as customers, users, investors, partners, employees, or regulators. Each stakeholder group may have different goals, needs, and preferences for your product. For example, customers may want more features and functionality, investors may want more revenue and growth, and regulators may want more compliance and security. You need to understand who your stakeholders are, what they expect from your product, and how they measure its success.

2 Communicate your vision

Once you have defined your stakeholders, you need to communicate your vision for your product and how it aligns with their interests. Your vision is the overarching purpose and direction of your product, and it should guide your road mapping decisions. You need to articulate your vision clearly and consistently to your stakeholders, and explain how your product solves a problem, creates value, and differentiates from competitors. You also need to share your roadmap with your stakeholders, and show them how your planned features and releases support your vision and their goals.

4 Validate your assumptions

Another important step in product road mapping is validating your assumptions. You may have assumptions about what your customers and stakeholders want, need, and value, but you also need to test them with data and feedback. You need to validate your assumptions by conducting user research, surveys, interviews, experiments, prototypes, or beta tests. You need to collect quantitative and qualitative data that shows how your customers and stakeholders use your product, what problems they face, what benefits they gain, and what suggestions they have. You need to use this data to inform your road mapping decisions, and adjust your features and priorities accordingly.

5 Manage your scope

The final tip for balancing stakeholder needs in product road mapping is managing your scope. Scope is the extent and boundaries of your product, and it determines what you include and exclude in your road map. You need to manage your scope by setting realistic and flexible goals, defining clear and specific requirements, and avoiding scope creep. Scope creep is when your product scope expands beyond its original plan, due to changing customer needs, stakeholder requests, or market conditions. You need to avoid scope creep by sticking to your vision, prioritizing your features, validating your assumptions, and saying no to unnecessary or low-value changes.

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?