When you travel, you usually have a destination in mind, but what if you didn't? Imagine setting out on a journey without a plan or itinerary. Any route, any destination, any airplane will do. For some, this might be an exciting prospect, but for many, the idea of traveling without a clear plan can be daunting. The result can be an unforgettable adventure, but the risk of disappointment is also very high. In the same way, creating a product roadmap without a clear plan can lead to missed opportunities, wasted resources, and unhappy stakeholders.
For organizations with digital products or services, having a clear roadmap is essential. It helps to align resources, set priorities, and communicate goals to stakeholders. However, creating a roadmap that balances short-term wins with long-term goals can be a challenge. In this post, we will outline the steps to create an effective roadmap that delivers value to both the organization and its customers.
Define Organizational Objectives
The first step is to define the organization's objectives. These objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, an organization's objective could be to increase customer growth by 20% within the next year.
Translate Objectives into Product Objectives
The next step is to translate organizational objectives into product objectives. This involves understanding the customer's needs and how the organization's product or service can meet those needs. For example, a product objective could be to improve the onboarding process to increase customer retention.
Formulate the Future Vision of the Product
The next step is to formulate the future vision of the product. This involves identifying the product's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) and formulating a vision that addresses these factors. For example, a future vision for a product could be to become the market leader in a specific niche within the next five years.
Translate the Future Vision into Concrete Steps
The next step is to translate the future vision into concrete steps. This involves identifying the process changes, new functionalities, or improving existing functionalities and propositions that are necessary to achieve the future vision. For example, concrete steps could include improving the product's performance, introducing new features, or optimizing internal processes.
Balance Short-term Wins with Long-term Goals
It is essential to balance short-term wins with long-term goals in the roadmap. Quick-wins are technical and UX changes that take relatively little time but have a big impact on improving the product. Strategic changes involve deeper thinking about goals and adjustments within the business. By correctly balancing short and long term development, it becomes easier to combine the two.
Measure the Effect of Changes
It is important to measure the effect of changes on internal processes and services and capture them in desired key performance indicators (KPIs). This provides insight into the elements of the roadmap that need more attention and determines whether objectives have been achieved.
Communicate the Roadmap Clearly
To ensure that the roadmap is clear to everyone, it is helpful to include the following components in the roadmap:
- Themes which can include different topics and improvements
- Timeframe for changes
- A clear description of the functionality to be built
- The problem or challenge that the improvement will solve
- Priority of functionalities
By incorporating these topics into the roadmap, you get a clear picture of the improvements that will be picked up, and the timeframe in which this will take place.
In conclusion, creating an effective roadmap involves going through all the steps in formulating a roadmap, from mapping out the organizational objectives to translating the future vision into concrete steps. By balancing short-term wins with long-term goals, measuring the effect of changes, and communicating the roadmap clearly, you can give direction to your organization, product portfolio, and goals.