How to build strategic road maps?

  1. Establish a Product Vision
    1. Be customer-focused
    2. Focus on where you want your product to be (even if it’s a stretch)
    3. Be differentiated
    4. Last for a longer time horizon (e.g. 3-5 yrs)
    5. Be aligned with the larger organisation
  1. Set SMART goals
    1. How to set goals?
      1. Use framework like OKRs (with assigned ownership)
        1. Set company OKRs
        2. Set team OKRs that can drive company OKRs
        3. Set individual OKRs that can drive team OKRs
  1. Road map your initiatives
    1. Come up with the top initiatives that are most likely to help you hit your goals
      1. Initiative 1 - What is this and what are the outcomes/goals achieved?
      2. Initiative 2 - What is this and what are the outcomes/goals achieved?
      3. Initiative 3 - What is this and what are the outcomes/goals achieved?
      4. Initiative 4 - What is this and what are the outcomes/goals achieved?
    2. Define what high level scope is for each initiative
      1. Initiative 1 - Value : High, Effort : High
        1. Feature 1 - Value : High, Effort : Medium, Priority P0
        2. Feature 2 - Value : Medium, Effort : Medium, Priority P1
        3. Feature 3 - Value : Low, Effort : Low, Priority P2
    3. Prioritise the initiatives based on impact & effort & priorities (RICE, Impact vs Effort, etc)
      1. Initiative 1 - Value : High, Effort : High, Rank 1
      2. Initiative 2 - Value : High, Effort : Medium, Rank 2
      3. Initiative 3 - Value : Low, Effort : Medium, Rank 4
      4. Initiative 4 - Value : Medium, Effort : High, Rank 3
    4. How to prioritise initiatives?
      1. Are they aligned to your vision & goals?
      2. Think about return on investment (ROI)
      3. RICE
      4. Value vs Effort
      5. Kano Model
      6. Story mapping - good for building MVPs
    5. Get a sense of release / timeline (along with engineering team)
      1. Forecast MVP - Minimum Viable Product
      2. Forecast MLP - Minimum Lovable Product
    6. Look at all initiatives and team resourcing and put it all together (vetted by engineering team)
      1. Internal document, must not be shared with customer
  1. Measure results
    1. How to measure results?
      1. Ensure your product has instrumentation
      2. Focus on your “north star metric”
      3. Measure against the right “customer/user segment”
      4. Types of metrics include
        1. Acquisition
        2. Activation
        3. Retention
        4. Referral
        5. Revenue
      5. Drive transparency by building dashboards that everyone can access
      6. Identify areas of improvement
      7. Review results with the broader team
  1. Iterate
    1. Include time for fast follows
      1. Any unexpected changes you want to adapt to based on user feedback
    2. How to iterate
      1. Release features early and often
      2. Review results from product analytics and take action
      3. Get customer feedback
      4. Setup a Beta program
      5. Analyse customer feedback & identify areas of improvement
      6. After you release, dedicate scheduled time to “fast follows” or additional milestones within the initiative
      7. Follow through
 
Tips for success
  • Get started, take at least an hour a week to bootstrap your road map
  • Focus on your customers, talk to them, get feedback
  • Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good
  • Start at the top down, everything you do should support your company mission
  • Reflect regularly, spend time monthly updating the road map
  • Beat the drum… align internally every month, and validate with customers anytime you can
  • Document everything! It helps to use a road mapping tool!
 
Key takeaways
  • Prioritise outcomes over output
  • Align the organisation and features with your vision
  • Measure results and iterate on your approach
  • Don’t stay stagnant, stay fast, stay lean, stay agile and keep moving