I firmly believe one of the key ingredients of a successful product release starts with the product roadmap. The product roadmap should be compelling, should drive the strategy for the company and development efforts and should also provide partners, media and customers with a clear idea of where the company is headed.
A product roadmap best practice is collaboration from the get-go. As you go through the roadmap process it is critical that you explain it to your team and engage them along the way. By doing this you'll ensure that they understand how the roadmaps were developed and also ensure that they feel some ownership and that their opinions have been factored in. The outcome will be that no one will be surprised with the end results and you are much more likely to get full buy-in on the roadmap(s) you create.
Effective Roadmap Process Steps:
- Decide the detail level & amount of time you want to spend creating the roadmap(s)
- Research & assess competitive moves, market and technology trends. If you are not alleviating a market pain or filling a market need validate why you are building the product
- Gather & prioritize requirements
- Decide on the timeframe that is most appropriate to use
- Choose an organizing strategy for features
- Build your Internal Roadmap
- Get buy-in on the internal roadmap from your team(s) and finalize
- Create an External Roadmap based on the internal roadmap
It is important to carry out regular roadmap checks as market changes happen over night and a roadmap will require adjustments. I have also found that celebrating when you get to key destinations (roadmap goals or milestones) keeps teams highly motivated.