Product Roadmap

Definition

A product roadmap is a strategic plan that outlines the vision, direction, and development timeline of a product. It includes key milestones, features, and goals that the product team aims to achieve over time.

Analogy

Imagine you're planning a cross-country road trip. A product roadmap is like your travel itinerary, outlining the major stops and attractions you want to visit along the way. It helps you prioritize and plan your journey, ensuring you reach your destination in the most efficient and enjoyable way possible.

In other words

A product roadmap is a strategic plan that guides the development and growth of a product, similar to a travel itinerary for a road trip.

Why is a product roadmap important?

It's one thing to know what a product roadmap is, but that is worthless if you don't know why you should know what a product roadmap is in the first place. Let's break down the importance of this tech term based on two high-level categories. We'll walk through an explanation as well as provide a score, 1-10, that shows you how much you should care about product roadmap.

Pre-Product: 1/10

If you do not have a product yet, a product roadmap may not be as important. At this stage, you may be more focused on validating your idea, conducting market research, or creating a minimum viable product (MVP). However, having a basic roadmap can help you stay organized and set expectations for your team and potential investors.

Live Product: 8/10

If you have a live product, a product roadmap becomes much more important. It helps you prioritize features, allocate resources, and communicate your product's vision to your team, stakeholders, and customers. A well-structured roadmap can improve collaboration, increase customer satisfaction, and drive growth.

Tools for a product roadmap

So you know what a product roadmap is, by definition. You know if you should care about it or not depending on your situation as a business/company/product. To dig in deeper, we will walk through some tools and processes so we can make sure you really have a solid grasp on product roadmap.

Example Tools for Creating Product Roadmaps

1. Trello: Trello is a popular project management tool that can be used to create a simple, visual product roadmap. You can create boards for different product stages, and cards for individual features, allowing you to easily prioritize and track progress.
2. Aha!: Aha! is a dedicated product roadmap software that offers advanced features like strategic planning, idea management, and release planning. It provides a comprehensive view of your product's development and helps you align your team around your product vision.
3. ProductPlan: ProductPlan is another specialized product roadmap tool that offers a drag-and-drop interface for creating, sharing, and updating roadmaps. It integrates with popular project management tools like Jira and Trello, making it easy to keep your roadmap up to date.

Key Takeaways:

1. A product roadmap is a strategic plan that guides the development and growth of a product.
2. If you do not yet have a product, the importance of a product roadmap is relatively low (3/10).
3. If you do have a product, the importance of a product roadmap is high (8/10).
4. Trello, Aha!, and ProductPlan are examples of tools that can help you create and manage your product roadmap.