Outcome based product roadmaps using "Now, Next, Later"
All product managers face this question in one form or another. What’s next? What’s coming down the road? What are you working on?
What is a product roadmap?
A product roadmap communicates a set of ideas, initiatives, or product features that product team(s) will work upon. The way this information is communicated and the amount of details shared depend on the complexity of product(s), number of product teams, and audience (internal, external).
Why are product roadmaps needed?
To manage uncertainty and coordination among different individuals.
Examples:
Marketing and sales uses it to plan and coordinate efforts, acquiring new users to drive sales.
Customer service uses it to plan for changes in staffing to handle new product launches.
Executives use product roadmaps to evaluate if product teams are working on the highest priority problems/opportunities.
But there’s one big problem with even the best intended product roadmaps…we’re terrible at predicting the future.
The majority of ideas, initiatives, and product features on any given product roadmap won’t achieve the objectives you’ve meticulously planned. It’s because during execution, you’ll run into:
Business issues. Technical, legal, regulatory, financial, or other constraints when you try to build your product feature so it never gets off the ground.
Value issues. You’ve built it, but users aren’t as excited about it as you forecasted because it isn’t valuable.
Usability issues. Users are using it, but few and infrequent because the feature is difficult to use. At least you’ll have to go back to the drawing board to iterate.
Time issues. You run out of time because you’re out of money, out of support, or just demoralized.
How to create Outcome Based Product Roadmaps using “Now, Next, Later”
Define the outcomes for the business.
Document the resources and constraints (including time), to achieve the stated outcome.
Identify any dates that are critical, can’t miss.
Define initiatives using “How might we” statements to achieving the defined outcomes.
Prioritize initiatives using “Now, Next, Later” during prioritization exercise.
Sample Outcome Based Product Roadmap Template
Principles when creating product roadmaps
Show dates only for the most critical items and sparingly. Otherwise, the roadmap turns into a project plan and having that for every initiative will be both time consuming to manage and difficult to maintain when schedules are missed due to both foreseen and unforeseen circumstances.
An example of good versus bad:
Good -> Launch date: 10/1/2020
Bad -> Launch date: 10/1/2020, Test date: 9/1/2020, UI review date: 7/1/2020, etc.
With dates, understand why people want dates. It is just to ensure people are doing the work? Are there contractual commitments? Is it to enable someone else to do a job?
Initiatives should align to the defined outcome. If you have an initiative that doesn’t align and you’re trying to force it into the roadmap template, it’s either because you’re working on something that’s not important or have an outcome you didn’t define.
If you have multiple product teams, you’ll need to create one per team if objectives are different per team. Otherwise, if it’s shared objectives, you can color code which team is primarily owner/leading each initiative.
When people ask what exactly is going to be in each initiative, you should have much more detailed answers for initiatives in the “Now” category vs. the “Next” or “Later” since those areas act more like ideas than committed features.
Additional Resources:
Inspired: How to create tech products customers love by Marty Cagan