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Product Roadmap

Template validated by Amin Bashi, VP of Product, and Senior Director of Product at Product School

[Insert Title Here]

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Start Here!

  1. Read through to understand what a Product Roadmap is
  2. Prefer video content? Check out How to Build Strategic Roadmaps
  3. Select the best roadmap model for your needs
  4. Share with your team!
  5. Get stakeholder buy-in

☝️ Get all our Product Management Templates!

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In this template: 4 Product Roadmaps

Agile

Feature

Outcome-Based

Visual

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THE TECHNICAL:

Agile Roadmap

Good for:

Highly technical projects

To communicate with: Engineers + Product Dev

Sprint-based

Details small chunks of work linked to the epics and features that will be released with sprints.

THE GO-TO:

Feature Roadmap

Good for:

Detailed solutions and the steps to get there

To communicate with: Product Team

Time or progress-based

List of features to be developed and released for a product. Shows the solution, not the problem space.

THE MODERN: Outcome-Based Roadmap

Good for:

Aligning Product Vision + Action

To communicate with:

Product Team, influential stakeholders

Now-next-later framework

Uses Product Vision and business goals as a starting point and solves user problems that will lead to those desired outcomes.

THE NO-FRILLS:

Visual Roadmap

Good for:

An easily digestible overview

To communicate with: Influential stakeholders; non-Product team members

A high-level view of the roadmap that is simple and easy to understand.

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To explore later: The different types of roadmaps

Timeline

Technology

Agile

Feature based

Short and long term

Outcome based

Visual

Business

OKR

Experiment based

Product launch

Ready to double click into these roadmaps right now? Then you need The Ultimate Guide to Roadmapping

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Feature Roadmap

The baseline Product Roadmap that every PM has in their toolbelt. You’ve identified your solution and need detailed steps on how to get there. What to include: οΏ½

  1. Features, by category or theme
  2. Simple titles
  3. An indication of progress or time

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Example: Feature roadmap

Q1

Q2

Q3

Q4

Q1

Profile

Notifications

Community

Gamification

New Preference Settings

Login with LinkedIn

Omni Channel Notifications

Vendor Update

Integrate Reputation

Translations

New Badging System

New Graphics

Today

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Create your own feature roadmap

Create an agile roadmap in Google Sheets or download as an Excel.

Feature Product Roadmap

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Outcome-Based Roadmap

Reverse engineer the Product Roadmap process by starting with Product and Business vision, then work your way down to user behavior.

  1. Define Product Vision
  2. Define long-term goals
  3. Identify opportunities
  4. Define desired short-term outcomes
  5. Build features aligned with outcomes

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What is an Outcome?

outcome [owt-kuhm]

noun

A measurable change in customer behavior.

Define outcomes by the customer behaviors you need to change in order to achieve your goal. The goal of any feature you ship to a customer should be to change the customer’s behavior in a measurable and positive way.

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Strategy β†’ Discovery

Business Impacts

Product Vision

Principles / Values

Goal/Objective

Goal/Objective

Outcome/

Key result

Outcome/

Key result

Outcome/

Key result

Outcome/

Key result

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

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Discovery β†’ Delivery

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Idea

Idea

Idea

Idea

Solution

Solution

Solution

Solution

Feature or Experiment

Feature or Experiment

Feature or Experiment

Feature or Experiment

Idea

Idea

Idea

Idea

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Step 1: Define Product Vision

Project name

Roadmaps are only as good as your prioritization strategy.

Starting with Product Vision will help you ruthlessly prioritize and make decisions on what to build and what not to build.

What will this product be like in 5 years?

What are our business values and needs?

What would the world look like if we solved our customer problem?

Product Vision Statement

In the next 5 years, this product will ____ and address ___ business needs.

Watch this video for more guidance on Product Vision

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Step 2: Define long-term Goals/Objectives

Project name

2 to 3 goals for your company for the next 1–2 years that, if achieved, would result in you getting closer to your Product Vision.

In the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework, these are also known as Objectives.

Objective #1

Objective #2

Objective #3

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Step 3: Define Outcomes/Key Results

Project name

Now, map 1 to 3 short-term Outcomes to each Goal you’ve laid out. What are concrete actions you can take in the next few months to move towards that goal?

In the Objectives and Key Results (OKR) framework, these are also known as Key Results.

Key Result A

Maps to Objective #1

Key Result B

Maps to Objective #1

Key Result C

Maps to Objective #2

Key Result D

Maps to Objective #2

Key Result E

Maps to Objective #3

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Step 4: Identify Opportunities

Project name

Opportunities for changing customer behavior. Customer Problems, Customer Gains, or Customer Pains, which, if solved, would lead to the desired Outcomes/Key Results.

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

Opportunity

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Step 5: Features OR experiments

Project name

Modern Product Teams are increasingly Experiment- based. At this point in the process, decide whether to take the route of building features or running experiments.

If building features

Identify features that take advantage of Opportunities and move you towards Outcomes/Key Results, and decide which ones to build.

This way you know all the features you work on help solve the customer problem AND achieve business objective.

If running experiments

Define what solutions you want to test tied to Outcomes/Key Results. Explore different ideas and test their performance.

Feature/

Experiment

Feature/

Experiment

Feature/

Experiment

Feature/

Experiment

Feature/

Experiment

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Outcome-based Product Roadmap

Goal/Objective

Goal/Objective #1

Goal/Objective #2

Goal/Objective #3

Later (6+ months)

Now (1-2 months)

Outcome/Key Result

Customer behavior A changes from X% to Y% by date Z

Next (3 - 6 months)

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Workforce management app

Example: Outcome-based Product Roadmap

Product Vision Statement

In the next 3 years, this product will be the #1 mobile workforce management application for hotel maintenance across the Americas and Europe

2023 Goal

Utilized daily by 25% of hotel maintenance crews in European target markets by July 30 2023

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Example: Outcome-based Product Roadmap

Goal

Double DAU within the next 6 months

Go big in Europe with 35% usage

Later (6+ months)

Daily use

At least 80% of all app users manage at least 5 work orders weekly

Increase native language use

35% of all application usage is in Portuguese, French, or Spanish by end of 2023

Now (1-2 months)

EU Daily Usage = 34% of users

Total downloads = 120k

Work in your language

Customers create a work order in their language within 5 min of app download by Dec 31 2022

Next (3 - 6 months)

EU Usage

Mobile worker DAU increased 30% in EU by Feb 28, 2023

Total downloads

Daily app downloads up by 80% by end of 1H2023

Expand deeper in EU

Enter Easter European EU Market by 1Q2023

Compliance needs

Full GDPR compliance by 1Q2020

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Agile Roadmap

Let’s get technical. A roadmap for details, execution, and communication with engineers.

  1. Development Team ONLY
  2. Small chunks of work
  3. Detailed
  4. Changes frequently
  5. Sprint-based

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Example: Agile Roadmap

Sprint 1.1

1.2

1.3

2.1

2.2

Development

Product

QA

UX

Front-end prototype

Repository deployment

Environment setup

Back-end engine

Feature A scope

Store review

Demo staging

Feature B scope

Environment setup

Integrated prototype

Analytics engine

Unit testing

Back-end analytics

Engineering review

MVP Requirements

Roadmap brief

Feature requirements

Pilot

Feedback

Launch

Customer Testing

Backlog sweep

Feature release A-B

Wireframe

UX Design Templates

Feature-level design

UX Audit

High level design

Metrics

QA

Variance testing

UAT

PM Testing

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Create your own agile roadmap

Create an agile roadmap in Google Sheets or download as an Excel.

Agile Roadmap

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Visual Roadmap

When you need to get stakeholder buy-in, condense your plan into a visual roadmap.

  1. Removes knowledge barriers
  2. Effective communication
  3. High level, key info
  4. Streamlined, simple
  5. Visually appealing

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Create your own visual roadmap

Short description goes here

Title 01

Short description goes here

Title 02

Short description goes here

Title 03

Short description goes here

Title 04

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Example: Visual Roadmap

Q1 - transfer main web architecture to new CMS

Website launch

Q2-Q3 - identify and debug high priority issues with transfer

Debugging

Q4 - create workflows and architecture for adding new content types

New content flow

Q1-Q2 2023 - Finalize old, low priority content transfer

Transfer old content

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More resources!

Learn about OKR-Driven Product Roadmaps by Microsoft Principal PM

Or, dive deeper into Product Management with our free resource collection.

Any feedback on this template? Share it here!