A Guide To Building A Product Roadmap In The Best Way

The product roadmap is arguably the most essential document in a company. It defines the direction of the company and helps predict future opportunities. Building a product roadmap requires a lot of research and planning, which is why it’s a good idea to have a team of people working on it.

Product roadmaps are an essential part of any company’s strategy, and they can help you avoid spending too much time on features that aren’t important to your business. They also help you stay on track and keep your team focused on the most important areas of development. This article will provide you with a guide to building a product roadmap.

Our discussion will also focus on the top templates of the product roadmaps, creating a proper product roadmap, and also the best ways to do product road mapping. So without any further delay, let's get started.

What is a Product Roadmap? 

A product roadmap is a diagram that depicts the planned path of a product’s development.

Planning a product roadmap is an essential part of running a successful business. It lets you know what you need to build, and most importantly, what your customers need.

Planning a roadmap also helps you avoid building the same thing repeatedly, which keeps your business from becoming stale and predictable. Creating a proper roadmap is vital to keeping your team focused on the most important areas of development and avoiding spending time on features that aren't relevant. That is why, we’ve created this guide to building a product roadmap that is efficient, cost-effective, and easy to implement.

Have a look at the best examples of the product roadmap below that'll help you in creating a proper product roadmap for your business:

The Top Templates of the Product Roadmap

1. Goal-Oriented Product Roadmap Template 

Product roadmaps are often connected to a company’s goals. A goal-oriented product roadmap template depicts the planned path of a product’s development and shows where the team plans to be in the future.

This type of product roadmap is helpful for companies that have a clear direction and want to show their customers where they plan to be in the future. 

Five rows make up a goal-oriented product roadmap template: "Date," "Name," "Goal," "Features," and "Metrics." You can use as many columns from those rows as necessary to separate the associated Epics, Stories, and Tasks from each row.

The best way to create a product that adheres to Scrum or Lean Principles is to use a Goal-Oriented product roadmap template. It can be used to launch various products, manage release planning, communicate with developers, and set product goals.

Pro-Tip: Use the goal-oriented type included in this guide to build a product roadmap if you want to show your customers where you plan to be in the future.

2. Strategy-Based Product Roadmap Template 

Product roadmaps are also helpful for companies that have a clear vision for the product’s direction but aren’t sure where to start. A strategy-based product roadmap template depicts the planned path of a product’s development and shows where the team plans to be in the future.

Some companies prefer to use a combination of goal-oriented and strategy-based product roadmap templates to create a more flexible roadmap that's still connected to their goals and vision. This guide to building a product roadmap focuses on the strategy-based scripts too so that you don't fall off track.

A strategy-based roadmap is typically arranged according to the highest-priority initiative determined by the business' KPIs (e.g. total daily orders, average time per order, etc.). These initiatives can be spread out over several months or even several quarters.

3. Status-Oriented Product Roadmap Template 

Without having to make any kind of time commitment or release date commitment, a status-oriented roadmap will enable the development teams and other team members to understand where the development team's progress is at.

This type of roadmap is helpful for companies that are working on a project that has a specific timeline and fixed or jumping release dates.

Additionally, status-oriented roadmaps are frequently the best choice for quick roadmap "prototyping" when you need to present a concept to a large group of internal or external stakeholders without having all of the estimates or resources finalized.

The best way to do product road mapping is by using a product roadmap template that doesn’t require much analysis. Roadmap templates give companies the ability to see where their product is headed and help to make sure that the development team is on the right track in no time.

This guide to building a product roadmap includes the top templates of the product road map and discusses the different types of product road maps that you can use to target diverse types of products.

4. Bonus: Maintain a Concise and Clear Roadmap 

The process of developing a product is much easier when everyone on your team is working toward the same objective. But this can only take place if every member of the team is aware of the product and its part in its creation.

Your roadmap should be easy to understand. You might believe that a detailed game plan will outline every step to your success, but this strategy will only cause misunderstandings and missed deadlines. The secret to keeping workers motivated and focused on the same objective is to provide them with a clear and concise roadmap.

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Be it a guide to building a product roadmap or a simple product description, having the right team of professionals doing the job is the key to a successful product launch. With the right team, you can make sure that everything related to the product is taken care of and that your product is launched on time and within budget.

But for this to be a reality, you need to hire the right people. And the best way to do that is to hire AI-powered talent acquisition tools by Pitch N Hire. Pitch N Hire is one of the leading providers of recruitment and talent acquisition services.

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Conclusion 

This guide to building a product roadmap is all you need to get started with developing a product based on a strategic roadmap. Roadmaps allow you to make strategic decisions about what to build and when.

All three types of roadmaps mentioned in the blog are very useful in different situations. Everything depends on the product and the market you are building for. In this blog, we’ve discussed the best examples of the product roadmap so that you can create your roadmap for your product.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 

Q1. What does a Roadmap Guide consist of? 

A guide to building a product roadmap is a strategic plan that identifies a goal or desired result and lists the significant steps or turning points that must be overcome to achieve it. It also acts as a communication tool, a high-level document that helps explain the strategic thinking—the why—behind the objective and the strategy for achieving it. 

Q2. What are the Advantages of a Roadmap? 

The main advantage of road mapping is that it helps you to visualize your business strategy, which makes it simpler to explain to all stakeholders and align with business goals. To increase stakeholder engagement and buy-in, your roadmap must be visually appealing.

Q3. What does a Product Roadmap Serve?

A product roadmap serves as a source of truth for all parties when describing the long-term objectives, top priorities, and development of a product. The company is brought together by this strategy around the project's short- and long-term goals and how they will be achieved.

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