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Product Roadmap

A product roadmap is a high-level visual summary that maps out the vision and direction of your product offering over time. It communicates the 'why' and 'what' behind what you are building.

Purpose of a product roadmap

  • Communicate Strategy: Articulates the product vision and strategy to stakeholders.
  • Align Teams: Provides a shared understanding of priorities and direction across development, marketing, sales, and support.
  • Guide Execution: Informs the development team about upcoming priorities and themes.
  • Facilitate Planning: Helps in planning resource allocation and coordinating dependencies.
  • Manage Stakeholder Expectations: Provides visibility into the planned evolution of the product (Note: Roadmaps typically avoid specific dates for future items to maintain flexibility).

Key components

  • Themes/Initiatives: High-level strategic goals or areas of focus (e.g., "Improve User Onboarding," "Expand Mobile Capabilities").
  • Features/Epics: Larger pieces of functionality that contribute to themes (though granular features are often left to the backlog).
  • Timeframes: Broad time horizons (e.g., Now, Next, Later; Quarters; H1/H2) rather than exact deadlines.
  • Goals/Outcomes: Sometimes included to show the intended impact of the initiatives.

Common types of roadmaps

  • Theme-based Roadmap: Focuses on strategic goals.
  • Outcome-based Roadmap: Focuses on the problems to solve or metrics to move.
  • Feature-based Roadmap: Lists specific features (can become outdated quickly).
  • Release-based Roadmap: Organizes work around planned releases.

Roadmaps vs. Backlogs

A roadmap is strategic and focuses on the 'why' and high-level 'what' over broader timeframes. A product backlog is tactical, containing detailed, prioritized items (like user stories) ready for development in the near term.

Effective product roadmaps are living documents, regularly reviewed and updated to reflect changes in strategy, market conditions, and customer feedback.

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