I’d like to start off this post with the following excerpt from the ProductPlan website. I think it sets the stage of things quite nicely:
“We’re agile, so why do we need a long-term product roadmap?” I hear this question regularly. At first blush, the terms agile and product roadmap seem like a contradiction, but they’re not. In fact, you should have an agile product roadmap.
In most agile product development organizations, the backlog is used by the development team to track what’s coming next, at least for the next few sprints or iterations. Many agile teams rely heavily on the backlog, as it maps out short-term initiatives. But the backlog in itself is not the roadmap. This post explains why you need both.
Product Roadmap vs. Backlog
A product roadmap is different from a backlog. The roadmap defines a strategic view of where the product is headed over the mid to long term, whereas the backlog defines the product features and initiatives for the near term. The roadmap is tied to the organization’s vision and strategic goals, often for the next 12 or more months. In an agile organization, the roadmap provides guidance rather than a strict project plan.
I also sometimes equate the word Portfolio with Product Roadmap. In my mind, the two are quite synonymous.
They’re the longer-term planning of work that includes –
Business & Customer Goals
Overall Strategy
Delivery Flow
Value & ROI
Visualization
Ideation & Evolution
Internal Investment (refactoring) strategy
All focused on refining your decision-making around product composition and delivery. Since this can often be a challenging activity in organizations, I thought I’d share a few powerful and helpful references. I hope you find them useful…
Useful Roadmapping References
Strategic Roadmapping – here’s a solid reference that emphasizes the strategic nature of the roadmap.
https://productcoalition.com/the-art-of-the-strategic-product-roadmap-c881f261b4eb
Roman Pichler, Roman is one of the leading voices in the product ownership space. Here he shares some tips around the key dynamics for your roadmaps. I’ve also included a link to his outstanding book.
https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/10-tips-creating-agile-product-roadmap/
and his book: Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age
Scrum.Org, I love the idea of a Goal-oriented product roadmap. And the implication of aligning (prioritizing, valuation, communication, etc.) around your goals.
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/tips-agile-product-roadmaps-product-roadmap-examples
EBG – Ellen Gottesdiener, Ellen has written another outstanding book for this space. I’ve included a couple of her blogs around Product Canvas’ that I think will provide you value.
https://www.ebgconsulting.com/blog/using-product-canvas-define-product-getting-started/
and her book: Discover to Deliver.
Jeff Gothelf, has written a very nice how-to article that speaks to some of the more important aspects of road-mapping. If you haven’t been following Jeff’s work (books, articles, etc.) I’d suggest you start.
https://medium.com/@jboogie/what-does-an-agile-product-roadmap-look-like-cf0dbe5be4ef
John Cutler, to be honest, John Cutler is one of my favorite voices in the “product” community. He always has something important to say and I love the way he “says it”. Here he provides ideas by showing us a wide variety of roadmap boards.
https://medium.com/@johnpcutler/hybrid-boards-for-roadmapping-736a0514d3d8
Return on Effort, an important point that we often don’t consider is value or return on our investments. I think this will help fill that consideration gap.
Wrapping Up
I wanted to share a few great references on product roadmapping in agile contexts. And I think I met that goal. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention my own Scrum Product Ownership book as a reference. You can grab a copy of it here.
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.
Sidebar from Cory Bryan
Cory is the host of the popular Deliver It podcast and he shared these thoughts…
I've had yet to use any of the popular roadmapping tools that are available on the market in the last few years. For whatever reason, all the communication and sharing of roadmaps I have done has been using plain ol' PowerPoint or Excel. In a way that makes me sad, I know and see people talking about tools like ProductPlan or Aha and how useful they are for sharing roadmaps or how well they help a product person organize thoughts around them.
In a different way, they are a luxury item that you really don't need if you are comfortable talking and sharing information with those interested. Sure, it would be easier or more convenient with a shared tool (multiple versions of a roadmap are soul killers).
You will likely find more success doing a very basic format such as Roman Pichler's GO Product roadmap, Jana Barstow's Now/Then/Later, or C. Todd Lombardo's 5 components.
A few clear smells that your roadmap sucks are if looks anything like a release plan, a feature list, or has specific dates about when something is due. Those types are destined to be very wrong, fail, and cause you to spend way too much time updating them for next week's meeting.
As long as you talk about the big picture for your product, what outcomes will we hit along the way, and why our customers will care about those benefits, whichever tool or medium you use, you can iterate your way to success.
Some recommended references to check out: