For a long time, I was looking for an article that taught me how to do product roadmaps. The best article I have seen so far is an article written by a former Netflix VP. The problem with that article is that it is too high-profile and not suitable for junior product managers to use and operate.
In addition, there is no article on the Internet that talks about the reliability of the product roadmap, regardless of whether it is Chinese or foreign.
It is better to ask for others than to ask for myself. After much deliberation, I decided to write an article myself. From practice, talk about how to do product roadmap.
Vision, strategy, tactics – what is the clear product roadmap?
A vision is an intentional description of a future scenario. The problem to be solved is, what kind of business does our company want to be, and what kind of product does our product want to be?
A strategy is a systematic set of actions to create value that identifies where, when, how, and why to compete. The key word here is system.
Doing strategy is to guide business, not to do theoretical research. A good strategy must not be a complicated strategy. A good strategy must be systematic. There must be a strict logical relationship between the main components to guide the team to create business value according to business logic.
Tactics are refinements of near-term strategic initiatives in strategic planning, including detailed annual product plans, detailed monthly and quarterly plans, milestones, owners, deliverables, budgets, and timelines.
Product roadmaps are at the tactical level. It must be clear where your product roadmap is. Treating a product roadmap as a vision becomes a false void. Treating the product roadmap as a strategy means that the strategy report cannot be implemented. Therefore, the product roadmap must be regarded as a concrete tactical move to realize the strategy.
How do you know that your product roadmap is tactical rather than strategic? It’s simple:
- Ask yourself, can this product roadmap be shared with competitors? Strategy can be made public, while tactics are always top secret (even two levels higher than strategic planning). If you can make it public, you have made the product roadmap into a strategy and vision;
- Ask yourself again, does this roadmap have detailed monthly, quarterly plans, milestones, responsibilities, deliverables, budgets, and timelines? If not, this is not a product roadmap;
- Ask yourself again, after seeing this roadmap, do engineers know what to do? If you know it, it’s a PRD (requirements document), not a roadmap.
How to do a good product roadmap
Because product roadmaps address how to achieve strategic wins at the tactical level, product roadmap input is critical.
The first step is to clarify what the product strategy is
Determine how your product will win in the next six months and one year? Tactics cannot be developed without strategic input.
Again, tactics cannot be specified without strategy. If your product roadmap is difficult to produce, first ask yourself, do you have a product strategy; first ask yourself, where, when, and how does your product compete, can you give a reason?
The second step is to fully research and obtain as much market information as possible
For to C products, do user research and market research, do data analysis and user analysis, and seriously answer the following questions – who are your core users? What are their characteristics? What do they need? To what extent do you see these needs being met?
This is often the most difficult problem in practice, because many small and medium-sized enterprises do not have the ability to conduct user research, nor do they have sufficient funds and resources to conduct user and market research. At this time, product managers generally rely on third-party data (mainly Google and Baidu) to support their assumptions; more extreme, they pat their heads.
To be honest, this is indeed a pain point for many SME product managers. The solution is not to get enough funding and resources. Instead, conduct user research within a limited framework.
From my practical experience, the most reliable solution is focus groups. A focus group of six or twelve people usually produces a lot of and very deep insights.
Don’t be surprised if your product roadmap doesn’t land if you omit focus groups.
For to B products, user research usually relies on direct interviews with customers, direct interviews with sales, and observation of data. To B’s products are easier to get user feedback.
Usually, after one or two rounds of user interviews and sales interviews, the product manager will form a preliminary product roadmap (to put it simply, your customer directly tells you that I want XXX features.)
The third step is to speak numbers and do business impact analysis
This is a critical step, and we must speak numbers. Roadmaps generated after user interviews are not necessarily correct and require a second verification.
As a product manager, one of the most important responsibilities is to carefully analyze how much incremental a feature can bring to the business.
If a feature cannot bring incremental benefits to the business, even though user research shows that users need it, you should resist the pressure and not do it, or try to schedule it later.
Without this step of analysis and verification, the product roadmap is still just an imagination, and even if it is finally implemented, it will not make a substantial contribution to the business.
Step 4, Communicate Your Roadmap
The final step is to communicate your roadmap. Communicate with your boss, communicate with your colleagues, communicate with the engineering team, communicate with the sales team, communicate with the marketing team, communicate with all relevant and necessary people.
The purpose of communication is to achieve consensus. What consensus was reached?
Let’s think again what is a product roadmap? A product roadmap is a concrete tactical move to achieve a strategic win.
Therefore, the consensus reached after the communication of the product roadmap should be that in order to obtain the success of the product strategy (for example, increase market share, improve user experience), we will take the following measures in the next six months and one year respectively (product feature/feature).
- Our first priority is to take xxx initiatives (the first priority is xxx features/features), this is the reason, this is the milestone, this is the person in charge, this is the point in time for delivery;
- Our second priority is to take xxx initiatives, this is the reason, this is the milestone, this is the person in charge, this is the point in time for delivery;
- Our third priority is to take xxx initiatives, this is the reason, this is the milestone, this is the person in charge, this is the point in time for delivery.
And so on.
Step 5: Don’t be a nerd
After much deliberation, I still put the fifth point here. When confused, people hope to get answers by reading books and articles, and the results are often counterproductive.
Don’t be a nerd, everything can be learned, but not everything has ready-made answers. The best way to learn is by doing it yourself. So go ahead and do it!
