How to Make A Difference with Product Roadmap during Product Development

Just like they did with Rome, if you were to ask us whether it is possible for you to build your product in a day, we would probably shake you really hard and ask if everything was okay in your home. Building a product is a thorough and a comprehensive process, something requiring focused efforts along with planning out any logistical aspects that need to be assessed.

This specific planning that is put into developing a new product is what is known as the Product Roadmap.

Having a well thought out and established product roadmap is absolutely crucial for the success of a product. The presence of one can really cement the path to greatness for you and your brand! After all, this product is the result of your blood sweat and tears - and we cannot have anything less than a dynamite tool to plan out your product development process. If you are new to this process, welcome - we are here to bring you some of the most essential aspects of having that competitive edge using a product roadmap.

Now, what would you consider to be a product roadmap in the first place? Well, a product roadmap will bring clarity by painting a picture of how the product manager will plan to build a product and acquire the budget as well as the strategy for its development. It is, quite simply put, a plan - for how your product will aim to meet your business goals as well as the strategies that are involved in building it.

It might be important to consider adding information points of value for any questions that might arise out of the actual building of your product. And since we understand that it might not be relatively easy to foresee all changes that we could expect along the way, it might be a good idea for having the product roadmap retain enough flexibility to accommodate such changes in the future.

There are multiple kinds of product roadmaps that you can make use of, namely:

Waterfall Product Roadmap

Agile Product Roadmap

While a waterfall product roadmap will lay out the long term commitment to build a specific feature of the product in a set timeline, it is the agile roadmap that will be able to accommodate those aforementioned changes that can occur during the product development processes. It will work itself towards short-term product goals that would be pliant in the face of customer value goals too.

The majority of businesses across the forum understandably undertake the agile roadmap approach because it gives them an elasticity to work around trudges and forge a less stringent path. It will also give you an option to have different teams working on different aspects of a product, when priorities and starter gives may have room for changes.

To build a roadmap, the product owner should consider the market trajectory, value propositions and engineering constraints. It is after understanding these variables that the roadmap must be ultimately constructed with initiatives and timelines. It might also be a good idea to bring in all the stakeholders of the product prior to building the roadmap itself. During these meetings, ideas and suggestions from all stakeholders should be taken into consideration and noted down.

Once you have the basics down, make sure to include the general time frame by when you are expecting to have your goals be met as well as the names and features that you wish to propose for your product. It’s also important to include the end goals of your product, I.e. the benefits that it will create for the user and your business.

The final ideas can be put together and made available for everyone to access. The entire process should be compartmentalized into stages depending upon your product in question, the needs of your company and the stakeholders involved. Lastly, it must also be insisted that you add in some metrics in the roadmap that will allow you to calculate, per se, whether the goals that have been determined in your roadmap have been met.

Now, why is there a need for Roadmaps in the first place?

Well, trying to work towards your business goals without a roadmap will be like trying to herd a pack of cats.

It’s like Elle from Legally Blonde trying to get into Harvard without having that epic study montage for her application.

Trying to build a product without a roadmap would be the visual equivalent of watery ketchup when you first open the bottle.

Have we made you queasy enough? We can go on, really.

Without a Roadmap, you run the risk of being thrown off-balance, without any real idea of the correct direction to take. This might make you susceptible to other people’s whims and fancies, no matter how ridiculous they may be. Your investor says that they need X integration in your product and you dutifully begin to work towards it. Next week, you realize that the said integration is not only incompatible with you business values, but will also put you in the crossroads of a competitor product. If you refuse your investor to include his choice of integration, you will likely lose his investment. However, if you do include it, the risks will include your own job.

Is there an easier way to avoid all this?

O ye of little faith, of course there is! Product Roadmaps!

A roadmap will give you solid groundwork that will be in line with your business values, hold you towards tangible goals and take you and your time in the desired direction.

Now let's come to the juicy parts, how do you create a roadmap that will bring you to glory?

Step 1: Ascertain the Goals of your Project

Before you sit down to build your product roadmap, you have to first make sure you and your team have clarity on the end-goal. Depending upon whether you are planning on an entirely new product or if it is simply a redefined feature of an existing one, your roadmap is going to be structured accordingly.

For instance, in case of a new product, it might be useful to look at whether the minimum viable product or the MVP will be able to go through development and production within a profitable time period or whether it requires a longer walk through with your production and development teams as well as the stakeholders of the company.

Step 2: Prioritise clarity of thought

When you and your team, the investors included, are all on the same page, you might find the development process to be smoother. For this to happen, you have to ensure that everybody is on the same page and alignment towards the same end goal.

It will be necessary to keep your roadmap simple and precise, without the usage of jargons and technical terms. While we know that having a detailed plan might ensure you towards the steps of success, however you might find this approach leading you to possible miscommunication or misconceptions. A roadmap that shows clarity of thought will help the employees stay motivated towards the same goal.

Step 3: Visualise your approach

Once you have decided upon the goal of your product, you can begin to map your user stories. Mapping out your ideas will help your team to brainstorm ideas in a holistic manner that removes the requirement for one of those dry and boring word dumps on paper.

Try to visualise your approach from the perspective of the end user which will be the turning point for identifying requirements for the administrator himself.

A roadmap will be exceptionally helpful in such a case since it will let you carry out your task lists without any hitch!

Step 4: Map out the feature sets that you want to incorporate along with the core product

Building your product roadmap should include steps to take into consideration for the features that you wish to install in your product itself. When you are creating a SaaS product, these features must include additional related characteristics.

It will also be necessary to plan out the priority of your related features and how immediate it has to be developed during your project trajectory. If a particular feature is more essential to your core product, it goes without saying that it will need to have its development process put to production right as the core product is being processed or even before the core product is being developed - depending upon your needs as well as your goals.

Step 5: Set achievable goals and targets

Now, it is time to decide on your timeline and the targets that have to be met with each time period. Here, you can go ahead and use something as simple as an excel sheet. Make sure that you are compartmentalizing your targets and achievable goals, so that with each goal that is met, you and your team can enjoy a feeling of accomplishment.

This will also make it easy for you to explain your timelines as well as the resources (in terms of the monetary requirements) that you will present in front of your stakeholders. It will give them a sign of assurance that they will be able to see for themselves all the tangible and gradual progression of the project that they have invested themselves in.

If you are going to undertake a large project, you can go onto five levels in your Roadmap or timeline. However, in case of a smaller project, simply 3 levels will suffice.

It is up to your judgement on how large or complicated your project is - and you can set up your level and timeline accordingly.

Step 6: Spend some time on a Visionary Board

Now by this time we are sure that you understand we love setting up our ideas visually. By putting everything together on a visionary board that is accessible to all your stakeholders, you are giving them the opportunity to track the progress of your product’s development.

Flowing through the agile approach for product road mapping, you can even use this board to test out your product at every level and status completion, without having to wait for the entire product to get completed. This will also be handy in giving you a general idea of the kind of resources that you can use or even dispose off and even when you need to add any more

The agile roadmap will provide you with an adaptive approach for any unexpected changes that come your way and deal with them to make the product a success!

Step 7: Revise and Review!

One thing we have to establish is that no one (barring Beyoncé) is perfect. And that’s okay! Not everyone can be a God at everything that they create! Sometimes there are things that come up that are completely out of the blue and unpredictable (like, say, a pandemic 👀). But it's all okay - because this will all account for your process.

All you have to do is to soldier through these and motivate your team to meet deadlines.

However, even that cannot be a guarantee - the best means could simply be to review and try to fine-tune your roadmap each time you face a hardship. Try to understand the core reason for any hitch, and whether it will leave any short term or any long term effects on the product. Would you say you are in  possession of the resources that would be required to meet these challenges?

Your roadmap does not have to begin perfectly, but it can be molded through the timeline to ensure that your product turns out exactly the way you envision it.

Remember, at the end of the day, your team will not include only the prominent stakeholders; but also your prod and development team, your designers and others. When you have a Roadmap tool, you give everybody equal opportunity to talk (even if amongst themselves) to resolve a situation that just seems very easy to a fresh set of eyes!

Once you have curated all input and your decisions about what it is that you will want to add to your Roadmap, the next step is to simply create it!

There are numerous ways to present your roadmap - consider checking out our services at Hellonext. We take pride in our work in keeping it clear and concise. Our platform will be able to provide your organisation with a product roadmap that will help you excel, while staying disciplined and focused.

You will be amazed at the different ways that can be curated for your organization - all customized! Since you are going to be selling an excellent product to your customer base, you really do not want to give them a less-than-ideal situation with your roadmap tools. Check us out at Hellonext!

You can be assured that we will provide you with a service you will be proud of showing off that is customized in its entirety to showcase your brand and business values. What’s even better is that we boast of a zero tracking policy, so that you have ownership over your own data.

So what are you waiting for? Try out our 14 day free trial and find out for yourself why we are among the best in the industry!