Product roadmaps act as summaries, strategic documents, and communication tools simultaneously.
Perhaps most important of all, product roadmaps provide a comprehensive product development resource for all parties involved. Product managers, product teams, and external stakeholders alike are all able to refer to them when wondering about questions related to product direction, overall progress, and business goals. This encourages transparency and fosters alignment within project teams.
The contents of product roadmaps vary, but they often include the following:
If your roadmap consists of multiple different products, it's called a portfolio roadmap.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and nowadays product roadmaps include lots of different criteria, for example, related to user personas and project status.
Product roadmaps are key tools in product management because they...
Pro Tip: Having a visually pleasing product roadmap appeals to visual learners. They're much easier to follow than collections of PowerPoints and Excel sheets.
Are you ready to get started on a product roadmap for your next product launch? Here at Slite, we've got you covered. One of the most daunting aspects of putting together a product roadmap is knowing where to begin... and we've got a template for that!
Our free product roadmap templates look great, are 100% customizable, can be updated in real-time... and did we mention that they're free? What more could you ask for?
You'll be knocking your business objectives out of the park in no time.
Get started developing your project roadmap template by:
Establishing Your Product Vision & Strategy
Determine your long-term goals first. Your product vision is the overarching reason you're creating this project. Make sure you figure this out as early on in the process as you can. Brainstorm questions like: "What problem will this product solve?" and "Why does the market need this product?" with your team.
Determining A Tentative Timeline
One of the most important things that a product roadmap does for you is planning and organization. Don't put unnecessary pressure on your team by determining hard deadlines (you'll end up changing them anyway), but it's a good idea to get a rough timeframe in place as early on as possible. This allows your team to start planning their development schedule.
Consulting With Stakeholders
Make sure to achieve stakeholder buy-in as early in the process as possible. Include internal stakeholders in the product roadmap development process and make sure their voices are heard. Once you've gotten a good idea of how your product roadmap will look, external stakeholders should also be updated.
...there you have it! Keep going with your product roadmap development and we're sure that your next product launch will be a roaring (and well-organized!) success.