How To Build A Product Roadmap

hey there i'm jordan from roadmonk and today i'm here to show you how to build a product roadmap but before we jump into things what exactly is a product roadmap a

product roadmap is a statement of intent it communicates both the short and long term initiatives that a team will work on and it tells you the how and the why behind a product org strategy you might

be asking do i really need a product roadmap can i just use a product backlog or a to-do list instead but as your company scales a product roadmap communicates

why you're building something and it shows that value to your customers whereas a product backlog is merely a to-do list to get to that point so to summarize a product roadmap is a visual way of

presenting your company's product strategy it can and it will change so don't get stuck thinking it won't roadmaps pretty much fall under three basic frameworks

the no dates product roadmap the hybrid product roadmap and the timeline product roadmap so how do you know which product roadmap is best for what you're working on well that depends on your product

lifecycle let's say that you're working on an early stage product and you have shifting priorities so you work in an agile team you definitely don't want to be bogged down by dates and you want flexibility when working hard to find product market

fit so for early stage products we suggest a no dates product roadmap usually in a swimlane view with the no dates product roadmap it can be helpful to create a roadmap

that's organized by themes in order to pivot your data however you want in this example roadmap items are plotted on a dynamic grid with headers that can be adjusted and customized depending on your theme

including by owner team or status to find out more about how to build a no dates product roadmap click the link in the video for a full rundown

moving on to the hybrid product roadmap as a product matures you'll want a product roadmap that includes some dates but not hard ones this type of product roadmap can be organized by months or

quarters and the great thing about it is that it allows you to plan for the future while still maintaining some flexibility when you start working with real customers and real money product teams become more date conscious when faced with

competition a hybrid product roadmap is great because it bridges the flexibility of agile with the realities of your business metrics by time boxing projects using months

you create a loose projection that's helpful but isn't constraining and finally the timeline product roadmap hot take not every product team needs this type of roadmap

but for those who do you use this type of roadmap when product marketing and sales need to work cross-functionally and understand the product's long-term vision as you might guess

timelines show a time-oriented view of items using dates to display roadmap data along well a timeline to take a deeper dive into timeline product roadmaps

click the link in this video so that's it remember roadmaps evolve along with their products and nothing is ever set in stone the key is to understand your company's

goals align all of your stakeholders and voila your beautiful roadmap is live building and managing product roadmaps can be simple with our free templates and the roadmonk tool we've also published a free

comprehensive guide to product road mapping if you'd really like to ace it we cover topics like how to get product roadmap buy-in from each department and seven product romac templates to get

you inspired if you'd like to learn more head over to roadmonk.com for all of our product

roadmap tips

and tricks you