This is a short guide to create a Product roadmap, starting from the vision and ending into concrete objectives using the OKR method.
Mission, vision & objectives
These words all mean something different when you talk to people. Just to be clear, here is what I mean when I use them.
- Mission : What your product currently does, how you define yourself right now.
- Product Vision : What your product will do in 3 years, your long-term dream for it.
- Objectives : in X months (3 months, 6 months…) from now, what are the steps you take towards your vision. Business oriented.
Here is how these 3 concepts get along in the timeframe. Actions and Key results will be explained later
What is a Product Roadmap ?
The product roadmap is a tool to answer this question: What dev do we work on next?
- It helps the product manager to mix short-term devs & long-term vision
- It communicates on the next product devs so that everyone agrees
Imagine you split the next three years in small packages called quarters (because they are groups of 3 months). Quarters would go from Q1 to Q12. In each quarter, you list some objectives. The roadmap is just all the quarters. (the schema below only goes to Q4, but you can picture in your mind from Q5 to Q12 :) )
Your roadmap should be a high-level view of what problems your product should solve. It should not be about developing solutions or defining what your product will look like
Product Roadmap characteristics
There are three topics to tackle:
- vision
- time model
- objectives
Product Vision
We have talked a bit earlier about it. It’s here to answer the question: What is our final goal, in 3 years ? It’s composed of the target, the issue, the solution, the advantages of our product.
For startups, the product vision and the company vision are the same. But bigger companies are different. AirBnb for instance has 2 product visions: one for Places and one for Experiences. Usually, the company vision comes from the Director, but it’s up to the Product manager to define its product vision
Examples:
- “github.com helps delivering faster and conflictless IT developments, by allowing every developer in the world to store and share and contribute to code, easily, from anywhere”
- “PrivaTeaser allows anyone, of any budget, to organize a private event by booking a bar easily, and quickly”
Time model
You can choose between the two models below: by quarters or the terms. Remember though, no precise deadlines: the Roadmap has to remain blurry! It will help you to provide a timeline-ish at date of now.
| đź‘Ť gives timeline to your team | đź‘Ť for reporting to client + Flexible |
|---|---|
| in 3 months (Q1) -> you can be sure of what will be delivered | Short term |
| in 3 trimesters (Q3) -> begins to be very blurry | Middle term |
| in 3 years (Q12) -> the vision, and only the vision | Long term |
It will define the average length of each step: how long do you focus on a problem before tackling the next one.
The time model defines how often you re-define your Product Roadmap. For instance, at the beginning you put inside Q2 “increase conversion rate”. At the end of Q1, you re-define totally the PR. You may postpone “increase conversion rate” for the new Q2 again, because some more important objectives are urging for Q1.
Objectives
This is what you put in your Roadmap, inside each quarter (or term) defined by your time model. It is a bunch of features, inputs, tasks (still undefined) in order to fulfill one business goal.
The OKR method
Go in a direction (Business objectives) to reach this specific destination (Key results) by an improvement to this metrics (KPIs)
- Objectives = what you want ex: Reach critic mass of user. Not precise, business goal orientated
- Key Results = How do you get there ex: increase conversion rate by 20% in 3 months (last month it decreased by 5% and now is 57%) => measurable! Each Objective can have up to 3 key results. More on how to wirte a good Key result here (don’t forget to add the context = current value + current trend)
- Actions = What to do ex: redesign funnel buttons
The premise of the OKR (objectives and key results) framework is that objectives are specific qualitative goals, and key results are quantitative measures of progress toward achieving those objectives.
Classic objectives:
- Support the product’s core value
- Create barriers to competition
- Grow market share
- Fulfill more demand
- Develop new markets
- Improve recurring revenue
- Support higher prices
- Improve lifetime value
- Lower costs
- Leverage existing assets
The Backlog
The backlog will gather every idea to improve your product.
Get inputs
Listen to every inputs, and store them into your product backlog. Inputs will be of two types:
-
Solution ~task (ex: re-design landing page)
What to do:
First, find the Problem, then find the best Solutions (they will usually be different than the first solution that was brought to you). It will be your action to achieve your objective. -
Problem ~goal (ex: increase conversion rate). can have MANY solutions.
What to do:
Transform the problem into solution(s).
Inputs come from:
- Colleagues
- Data (ex: conversion funnel framework to know where to focus on)
- External users (Complaints, customer service, social networks, clients emails, app rating, user call…)
- Competitors (Browse the web, talk to people… know your competitors main features)
Example:
Let’s say your colleague ask for a new landing page. Better to change this input for increasing conversion rate. This way, the new landing page can be changed into increase SIGN IN btn size, make form simpler, and change SIGN IN btn color to red.
The key is to focus on understanding “why” a need or problem is worth solving (or not). The user journey map is a great way to do this because it provides context.
Objectives VS Trello Task
This could be summed up as Product Roadmap VS Project management. A Product roadmap has a higher + business point of view compared to the Project management. PM schedules small tasks, assign resources in the day-to-day life. PR sees further away. In terms of timeline: we are about days for the PM VS months for the PR. However, the same tools can be used for the two: Github project, Jira, Trello…
Difference:
Organize
Your backlog needs to be grouped by objectives (all the solutions sharing the same problem) and prioritized.
Prioritize with a Score
You need to prioritize the solutions, sometimes called the features. The idea is to rank from 0 to 10, each input according to 4 criteria, and make it a Score :
Score = (user impact + business impact + internal impact) / cost
ex: twitter through inscription
User impact: 3 (few users might use twitter - but reduce time for inscription)
User intern: 0 (no impact on marketing, no internal use)
User business: 1 (few users –> few additional revenue)
Cost: 3 (not a big task, but probably a few days)
SCORE = (3 + 0 + 1) / 3 = 1.3 ====> quite small, there’s a high chance we won’t develop this!
Group by objectives
Starting from the highest score, look at each input. Assign to it an objective. This will help you group inputs together.
Don’t hesitate to rewrite objectives if they have too many inputs.
You may encounter inputs looking more like an action than a key result. It’s not important, try to attach it to an objective anyway. When doing the product roadmap, you will keep in mind it’s on a different level.
Tools
- BackLog: google sheet, Excel …
- Grouping: post-it, miro …
ex:
Write the Roadmap
Get the main objectives
For you draft, copy your main OKRs on a text document. It basically means that your PR will have for bare bone the main product OKRs.
Go through your BackLog
Starting from the highest scores, read every Idea. Ask yourself “Will this idea help my main objectives ?”
- Yes -> copy it in your draft, under the corresponding objective
- No -> Skip it for now.
Step back
Redesign the objectives if necessary
Try to see the two main objectives stepping forward.
Clean it
FeedBacks
You need to share this draft with your collaborators. Don’t lose time: simple email, no pictures, no time lost. You need fast feedback, about the core.
Presentation
At least once a quarter. Transparency is the key to get your team with you. And don’t forget to show what has been done!
Two methods:
- Trello Like
- PowerPoint Like
Slide 1: OKRs
Sum up the OKRs your team will tackle during the first period (Q1)
Slide 2: Actions for next period
Specific plan for the next quarter, with tasks to be done from the backlog
Slide 3: Objectives for the year
Should reflect the main objectives from your backlog. Don’t forget to remind everyone what is our product vision!
Resources:
Summary of the book product roadmaps relaunched
The book: product roadmap relaunched
Key results : how to write Audience friendly goals
Bruno Correia OpenClassroom
“15min summary”
Tool for brainstorming : Miro
Free .ppt alternative
Example: the Roadmap of Github
Vision VS Mission atlassian