What is a Product Roadmap?
A product roadmap is a guide that describes the steps you need to take in order to reach your product goals. It's a plan of action that lines up a product's short-term and long-term goals and outlines how they will be achieved.
Product roadmaps can span a variety of timeframes. That's because different companies and teams can have different timelines.
For example, one way to pull together a product roadmap is to paint a forecast 12 months into the future, or 4 quarters. The first quarter is at 90% confidence, the second quarter is at 70% confidence, the third quarter is at 50% confidence, and the fourth quarter is at 30% confidence.
Types of Product Roadmaps
There are different types of product roadmaps that will be more or less useful depending on different factors. Let's take a look at some of the most common types of product roadmaps and how they will help you achieve your product goals.
1. The Evolutionary Roadmap
This roadmap is a great tool for keeping everyone in sync when there isn't a lot of information about how the final product will look. It's great for keeping developers, designers, and project managers in sync.
2. The Release Roadmap
This is the product or marketing team's most important tool to communicate with the customer community about what features are going to be released and when. It's usually created once a significant amount of work has been completed on all major features planned for the release.
3. The Theme Roadmap
This roadmap is a logical way to communicate the next features that will be implemented in an effort to meet company goals or unmet customer needs. This map indicates where the product is going and how it plans to get there.
4. The Timeboxed Roadmap
This is similar to the release roadmap but has more specifics about certain features or types of releases. This map is detailed, like the release roadmap, but does not include dates. It serves as a reminder and communication for the team that work should be completed in time for a certain date.
5. The Capacity Roadmap
This one is similar to the release roadmap but without dates; it is used as a communication tool among departments or functions and shows what types of products are expected to be created. This map is mostly used to discuss resources needed, not specific deliverables.
6. The Market Requirements Roadmap
This roadmap helps a company steer its product and market positioning. This roadmap shows how the plan and types of products match requirements from the customer or user base.
7. The Opportunity Roadmap
This one is used for companies that sell to businesses. It helps align business development efforts with strategic initiatives so that customers can be acquired in a coordinated way. For example, It's usually created once a significant amount of work has been completed on all major features planned for the release.
You can learn more about product roadmaps here: producthq.org/agile/product-m...
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