Product Roadmaps: Creating a Compelling Vision How well are you communicating your company’s product strategy to stakeholders? This session conducted at ProductCamp LA on March 1, 2014 discussed different ways of organizing your product roadmap and grouping your initiatives into themes. It discussed processes for prioritizing what gets on to the roadmap and getting buy-in from executives and other stakeholders. We also discussed tips for presenting a compelling product roadmap to different audiences.

1. Product Roadmaps
Creating a Compelling Vision
ProductCampLA
March 1, 2014
Jim Semick

2. Have You Seen these Signs of
Roadmap Disfunction?
Strategic objectives not clear
Confusion internally about
current roadmap
Lack of transparency/decisions
not accessible
Process and roadmaps not
unified across org
Lack of consistency when
evaluating opportunities
Execs are not on board or lost in
weeds

3. How can we change this?

4. Consider Your Audience
Is it executives?
Engineers?
Sales & Customers?

5. Be Goal Oriented: Keep
Your Roadmap and Dates
High Level

6. Think in themes that
deliver value

7. Organize It
Product Line
Product Category
(e.g. Web, Mobile, Platform)
Markets Served
Strategic Initiative
(e.g. monetization, growth)
Team
Outcomes, Goals
Sales Channel
Status

8. Typical Format

9. Other Formats
romanpichler.com, S. Doubinski

10. Whatever format you choose,
make it:
Accessible
Easy to update
Collaborative
Consistent
Visual

11. Executive Engagement
Be transparent about your approach
Engage them with your process
Align decisions with Goals and Objectives
Give them access to the roadmap

12. Prioritization
Benefit versus Cost
•
Benefits: e.g. Increase revenue, growth, customer value,
strategic value
•
Costs: e.g. Implementation effort, support costs, risk
Scoring: the score isn’t the important part. It’s the
conversation.

13. Roadmap Resources
Pragmatic Marketing
280 Group: templates, training
Steve Johnson: under10consulting.com - ebook

14. Thank You!
Jim Semick
jim@productplan.com
www.productplan.com
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