Roadmapping Solutions Journalism Goals

This resource is primarily intended for use after taking the Solutions Journalism Assessment & Goal-setting Tool

Credit: SJN adapted this roadmapping process with permission from Emma Carew Grovum, a media consultant with expertise in product development, tech-stack transitions and DEIB, who originally designed it for the Membership Puzzle Project.

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1. Review the answers provided while filling out the Assessment Tool and, for each question, write down the list goals you are going for. These correspond to the second option you selected or the “To” phase. Write down the phase number and description.

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• Write down the goals (at least three) you have related to the solutions journalism-related project you are working on.

Prework

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1. a. Place your goals, using shorthand if needed, on the following matrix, sorting by Urgency and Importance.

b. Separate these items into 4 quadrants (template): Urgent and Important, Urgent but not Important, Important but not Urgent and Not important and not urgent. This is a decision-making matrix that helps you to prioritize.

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1. Once you've separated your items into these separate types, take a beat, make sure you review and are certain of the classification (with colleagues, if need be).

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Anything that fell into Urgent AND Important obviously is a First Step. But still, which should be done first?

Prioritization (1)

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3) For this step, we will use a tool called Impact vs. Effort (template p.2), where you evaluate how long something will take or how many resources something will take against how much impact it will create for you/your organization.

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4) Now, you should have maybe 1-3 goals that you have identified as being both Urgent and Important, as well as Low Effort and High Impact. You should also have a few items in a second level, where they are probably Urgent OR Important, but take High Effort for High Impact. Those will be key for building out your roadmap as well.

5) Now write up that list of goals in order of priority and a short description of why you chose to rank them this way.

Prioritization (2)

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Now that you have clear goals that have been prioritized according to a certain plan, it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty. We have our destination and our general route charted, but it’s time to figure out step-by-step how you’re going to move forward.

6) Going back to the notes you wrote to yourself with each question in the Assessment Tool, come up with tasks that need to be accomplished to help fulfill each goal.

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• Break down the tasks. You can create subtasks (not too granular though), particularly if the overarching task is complex, and organize them according to order of completion.
• Identify your milestones, tasks that when completed will signify major progress.
• Add ideas/resources/reminders that will help with task completion.
• Name who will/should be responsible to lead each task.

Define the tasks

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Once you have listed and organized the tasks that correspond to your prioritized goals, with explanations for your rationale where needed, it’s time to set some timelines for achieving them.

7) Set a deadline for when you’d like to achieve your goals and work backwards from there to set intermediate deadlines for the tasks related to each goal. The timelines can be different for each goal and you may anticipate varying timelines for completing different goals.

Remember to use the key considerations:

● How will you and others know whether you’re on course to meet your goal?

● Think about metrics you can track over time, and how often you will evaluate success?

Timeline

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8) Once you’ve written up key milestones and tasks for each goal, you’re ready to start mapping things out.

It doesn’t matter what tool you choose (e.g. Asana, Trello, Monday, Airtable, a simple spreadsheet … ). But it’s helpful to set up some guidelines such as, what kind of timeline are you going to use (weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc)? And what categories will you organize your work into (by goal, by product, etc)?

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9) Once you’ve drafted your roadmap, it’s time to share the vision and the plan with your team. Of course a roadmap is a living document, it’s not set in stone. You should also leave some flex space for surprises that may come up. You should also decide how a new project or goal makes its way into the roadmap’s timeline.

Build your roadmap

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10) Solicit feedback from stakeholders. Once you’ve completed a task or goal related of a product/tool or a new workflow/process, make sure to present what you’ve done to people connected to this work. Ask them to validate it or suggest changes to help you improve it. Use that feedback to iterate.

11) Decide on a regular frequency for checking in on your progress. Put the date in your calendar. Take an hour to review the tasks you have achieved in the previous working period and check off the ones that are complete. These may also mean you’ve reached your goal. For the remaining tasks, reprioritize them based on what you’ve learned and insights gleaned. Place these on a timeline for the upcoming period of work.

Revisit and update your roadmap

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• Roadmapping tip sheet by Mariah Craddick (The Atlantic / News Product Alliance)

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• Roadmapping Google sheets template by Mariah Craddick (The Atlantic / News Product Alliance)

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• The Ultimate Guide To Crafting a Product Roadmap | Hubspot

Other resources