Slidebean, 2020, via Unsplash
Atlassian defines a product roadmap as a shared source of truth that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. It’s a plan of action that aligns the organization around short and long-term goals for the product or project, and how they will be achieved.
While a product roadmap is mostly responsible for informing individuals about what is being built, it is also important that the roadmap speaks about why the product is being built. Owners and builders of products use these roadmaps to collaborate with various teams and stakeholders and decide a direction for the same.
A product roadmap has several goals. Some of the most important ones are:
- Determine the vision and strategy for the product
- Provide various documents to execute the product plan
- Align with internal stakeholders and get their approval
- Facilitate discussions with concerned stakeholders or all types about options and scenario planning, leading to an optimized outcome
- Communicate with external stakeholders, which could include customers
The importance of a product roadmap
Product roadmaps are a blueprint of taking the product from a mere concept to a reality. A product roadmap also helps product owners determine their priorities when making important decisions. It also helps provide a clear and common understanding of product vision, goals, and objectives for every employee in the company.
Additionally, product roadmaps help add structure in an organization, help regain focus on product vision, and eventually lead to less wastage of resources, thus bringing the product to the market in the most efficient way possible.
Who is responsible for a product roadmap?
A product roadmap is not just the responsibility of one individual but should be a collective effort on the part of a product management team. A collaborative effort helps determine the goals and desired outcomes for the product, thus, leading to the creation of key themes for the product life cycle.
Types of product roadmaps
Strategic roadmap:
This roadmap focuses more on the strategic direction of the product which spans over a long period of time, typically at least 12 to 24 months. It informs stakeholders about the overall vision, important factors, and major expectations from the product.
Tactical roadmap:
A tactical roadmap breaks down the entire roadmap into small actionable items. This roadmap spans over a shorter period of time, between 3 to 6 months.
Release roadmap:
As its name suggests, a release roadmap focuses on the launch date/release date of the product and helps development teams get an idea of the effort at hand.
Feature-based roadmap:
This roadmap specifically focuses on features that need to be introduced and released. It provides a clear timeline for when a particular feature will be available in the market and is centered around the same.
Technology roadmap:
As the name goes, a technology roadmap focuses on a particular technology that needs to be introduced by the organization. The aim of this roadmap is to focus on perfecting the technology in question before launching it for users.
Market-driven roadmap:
A market roadmap is one that is created based on market trends, market research, and customer feedback. It is driven by the need to create a product that will be created keeping the ongoing market demand in mind.
UI/UX roadmap:
This roadmap focuses on the user experience and user interface aspects of the product. It outlines design enhancements, user-centered improvements, and visual updates planned for the product.
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