On Roadmaps
A product roadmap is not a list of features with delivery dates
A product roadmap is a list of features presented in a visual Gantt-like timeline with exact delivery dates that the product org updates on a quarterly basis so sales and marketing can sell the product. Right? Right?! No? … Maybe sometimes?
“Ah, if it only weren’t for those pesky product kids and their roadmaps, we’d be selling all the features!”
Let’s clarify a few things.
A product roadmap is not a list of features with delivery dates
That’s called a release plan (sometimes also a delivery plan or a release roadmap). The timeframe for a release plan is typically not longer than 12 weeks (i.e., a quarter) because software development is notoriously unpredictable, and we generally avoid promising delivery dates up until the point in time when it’s reasonable to do so.
Product roadmaps are not necessarily updated quarterly
Companies vary greatly in how they approach their strategic planning. Some roadmaps are quarterly, others are much longer and can extend up to 18 months in the B2B world. Some places have rolling roadmaps.
Product roadmaps are not laundry lists of customer requests
While we do absolutely listen to our customers’ needs and problems, and work on building solutions that address them, what we build has to work for many customers. Sometimes that means that we end up building a solution that a customer never asked for, one which ideally solves their problem even better than their original request would have.
Product roadmaps are not customer-facing, public documents used by Sales teams to close deals
While a lot of companies do share a public version of their roadmap, product roadmaps are used primarily for internal communication.
“Okay okay, what IS a product roadmap then, and what PURPOSE does it serve?”
I thought you’d never ask…
Internal Communication and Alignment
A product roadmap is an internal communication artifact that serves to align product, engineering, and design with other departments, so that the entire organization understands how the product org is tactically approaching the various bets we are taking as part of our product strategy.
Tactics
Product roadmaps specify tactics that execute a product strategy. This could mean listing one or more initiatives that feed into a strategic objective. But it could also mean describing a set of outcomes we hope to achieve through said initiative. Some product orgs prefer to describe the problems they intend to solve so as to not limit themselves to any specific outcome or solution. At any rate, neither of the above is a list of features, as we often don’t yet know what or even whether any feature is the right solution to a problem.
Sequencing and Prioritization
Time is of course a factor, but the value of product roadmaps is not in delivery dates, but in the sequencing — and therefore prioritization — of the tactical initiatives we plan to undertake, so that a product org and other departments know how to organize and what to rally around. When a roadmap item (the tactic) comes closer to becoming realized, we describe it in more specific technical and other detail as part of a release plan.
Let’s recap.
A product roadmap is an internal communication artifact listing the sequencing of tactical initiatives designed to execute on a product strategy.
Its purpose is to align internal teams and provide clarity on what problems we are solving and what outcomes we hope to achieve through those efforts.
A product roadmap is not a list of features with delivery dates, as that is a release plan, another important communication artifact.
In B2B, product roadmaps are planned for 12-18 months, and are ALWAYS subject to change, of course with a lot of advance notice, as sales teams may use the public versions of these roadmaps to sell prospects on the future vision of a product.