The document discusses the concept of a product roadmap, which serves as a strategic communication tool to achieve a product vision without detailing specific features or timelines. It emphasizes the importance of alignment among teams, focusing on outcomes, and iteratively evolving the roadmap based on feedback and learning. The roadmap process includes defining vision, objectives, user goals, potential solutions, and prioritizing themes to guide development and ensure that the product meets user needs.

1. Product Roadmapping
C. TODD LOMBARDO
CHIEF DESIGN STRATEGIST
@IAMCTODD

2. Overview

3. What is a Product Roadmap?

4. What is a Product Roadmap?
A strategic communication artifact that conveys the path you’ll take
to fulfill your product vision.
It’s simple and focused on the big picture.

5. What is a Product Roadmap NOT?!

6. What is a Product Roadmap NOT?!
It is not a spec or release plan - so leave out the dates!
It is not a laundry list of features and components.
It should not include job or user stories.
It is not a single path (think tree, not road).

7. What is it designed to do?

8. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future

9. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"

10. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES: forces the right strategic conversations about outcomes instead of deliverables

11. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES: forces the right strategic conversations about outcomes instead of deliverables
EVOLVE: sets a stable direction but allows stakeholders to discuss change resulting from iterative learning

12. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES: forces the right strategic conversations about outcomes instead of deliverables
EVOLVE: sets a stable direction but allows stakeholders to discuss change resulting from iterative learning
INSPIRE CONFIDENCE: answer “are we heading in the right direction?” and “is this the right order?”

13. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES: forces the right strategic conversations about outcomes instead of deliverables
EVOLVE: sets a stable direction but allows stakeholders to discuss change resulting from iterative learning
INSPIRE CONFIDENCE: answer “are we heading in the right direction?” and “is this the right order?”
PRODUCE METRICS: keeps improvement iterative and incremental through outcome based planning

14. What is it designed to do?
ALIGN: promotes buy-in from all teams and aligns everyone on the direction towards a specified future
CREATE COMMON LANGUAGE: specific enough for the ‘Traditionalists’ but not too detailed “Agile-ists"
FOCUS ON OUTCOMES: forces the right strategic conversations about outcomes instead of deliverables
EVOLVE: sets a stable direction but allows stakeholders to discuss change resulting from iterative learning
INSPIRE CONFIDENCE: answer “are we heading in the right direction?” and “is this the right order?”
PRODUCE METRICS: keeps improvement iterative and incremental through outcome based planning
PREVENT MISTAKES: avoid building the wrong thing, which is especially important for agile development

15. Who uses it? ALL Stakeholders!

16. Who uses it? ALL Stakeholders!
PRODUCT MANAGERS - communicate with stakeholders, get universal buy-in, and plan ahead.
DESIGN - understand direction and stay focused on user goals
DEVELOPMENT - allocate resources and speed future development
SALES & MARKETING- craft the story to entice new customers and upgrades
CUSTOMERS - understand value and what to expect in future versions
CUSTOMER SUPPORT - ensure reps are trained to help with new features
EXECUTIVES & BOARD- keep track of progress and align with business goals.
PARTNERS - take stock of the relationship and anticipate synergies

17. The Roadmapping Process
VISION OBJECTIVES PRIORITIZE ROADMAP
USER
GOALS
SOLUTIONS
THEMES

18. Required Inputs

19. 1) Clearly defined Problem and Solution
Why? You have to know what you’re doing and why, before you start thinking about where you’re going.
PROBLEM SOLUTION
If this hasn’t happened yet, see our work on Design Sprints!

20. Clarify the Problem and Solution
By the time you get to the Roadmapping phase you should
already have a clearly defined problem with a solution that
has been validated.
If that hasn’t happened yet, see our work on Design Sprints!
Purpose: You have to know what you’re doing and why,
before you start thinking about where you’re going.
Problem: Travelers want a better way to
find great eateries while on a trip.
Solution: A restaurant recommendation
and booking engine that mirrors our highly
successful hotel platform.
EXAMPLE
PROBLEM SOLUTION

21. 2) Developed Personas
Why? You need to be able to empathize with your users so you can understand and anticipate their needs.
Think? Feel?
Hear? See?
Do?
Think? Feel?
Hear? See?
Do?
Name: Dick
Age: 55
Job: Salesman
Tasks: Develop trust
Motivations: Happiness
Obstacles: Time
Name: Jane
Age: 27
Job: Advertising
Tasks: Create programs
Motivations: Viral reach
Obstacles: Superiors

22. 3) User Journeys for their current experience
Why? You need to fully understand how they’re currently solving the problem in order to make it better for them.
Jane
wakes up
makes
coffee
walks
dog
catches
train
reads
paper
arrives at
office

23. Personas & User Journeys
Make sure you have your personas in place, and that you
understand the steps they currently take to solve the problem in
question. What are the alternatives they’re currently using and
where are their biggest pain points?
Purpose: Empathize with your users so you can understand
and anticipate their needs.
EXAMPLE
• Extend user time in app
• Grow advertising market around restaurants
• Enhance user experience

24. 4) Talk to your users!
Why? You need to interact with actual users to validate their actions, needs and pain points.

25. The Roadmapping Process
VISION OBJECTIVES PRIORITIZE ROADMAP
USER
GOALS
SOLUTIONS
THEMES
IN
PU
TS

26. 1. Set the Vision

27. Set the Strategic Product Vision
Your Strategic Product Direction is simply the answer to When, What, How, Who, Where, Why in a few simple
sentences. Use the below framework.
Why? Get your vision into a clear statement to gain buy-in and alignment on direction from all stakeholders.
When: at a time when ___________
What: our product is the only ___________
How: that _____________
Who: for ______________
Where: in ______________
Why: who ____________

28. Think: Movies!

29. Set the Strategic Product Vision
Your Strategic Product Direction is simply the answer to
When, What, How, Who, Where, Why in a few simple
sentences. Use the below framework.
Purpose: Get your vision into a clear statement to gain buy-in
and alignment on direction from all stakeholders.
• At a time when travel is frequent, but
travelers plan less…
• our product is the only international
restaurant recommendation engine…
• that gives immediate recommendations
based on location and review…
• for the everyday traveler…
• from countries all over the world…
• who want to save time and energy finding
local eatery gems
• When: in an era of ___________
• What: our product is the only ___________
• How: that _____________
• Who: for ______________
• Where: in ______________
• Why: who ____________
EXAMPLE

30. 2. Create objectives

31. Identify 1-5 Strategic Objectives
What types of value do you want your product to add to your business? These should be high-level and define a
desired end state. They should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Why? All items in the roadmap should map back to a strategic objective to create guardrails and guide direction.
Grow the user base
Enhance customer satisfaction
Improve performance
Validate learning
Increase revenue this year

32. Strategic Objectives
Create 1 - 5 high-level objectives that define the desired end state.
These should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and
time-bound. Here are some examples:
• Grow the user base
• Increase customer satisfaction
• Improve performance
• Validate learning
• Increase revenue this year
New products may or may not benefit from multiple Strategic Goals
in the beginning because the goal is simply to build v1. Sometimes
these are best used for existing and growing products.
Purpose: Create guardrails for your roadmap. These high-
level objectives define and guide your direction. All items in
the roadmap should map back to a strategic objective.
EXAMPLE
• Extend user time in app
• Grow advertising business around restaurants
• Improve the app store ratings

33. 3. User goals

34. Define User Goals
Use your user pre-existing journeys to help you list the goals each persona needs to accomplish when using your product.
Why? Your user has to accomplish certain tasks while using your product in order to solve her problem.
Goal #1:
Goal #2:
Goal #3:
Goal #4:
Goal #5:
Persona: Jane the Business traveler

35. User Goals Step 1: Define
Use your user journeys as a guide in helping you list the
goals that each persona type needs to accomplish when
using the product. This is a good time to check-in with
actual users to really understand their needs.
Purpose: Empathize with the user and understand what
goals she wants to accomplish in order for your product (aka
solution) to solve her problem and be valuable to her.
EXAMPLE
Goal #1
Goal #2
Goal #3
Goal #4
Goal #5
Persona: Jane
Find a restaurant at the last minute
Find a restaurant near my hotel
See feedback from other patrons
Find a restaurant by cuisine
Make me look knowledgable to my
fellow travelers
Help me brag about where I’ve been
Persona: Jane

36. Prune User Goals
Purpose: Make sure everything you build relates to a goal you’ve validated as important to your user’s experience.
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Goal #1
Goal #2
Goal #3
✓
X
X
✓ ✓ ✓
✓
✓
✓
✓ ✓
Is each goal relevant and validated? Try using the 5 Why’s test here.

37. User Goals Step 2: Prune
Purpose: Make sure everything you build helps the user
address an actual need or accomplish a real goal when
using your product. Get rid of the rest.
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Goal #1
Goal #2
Goal #3
✓
X
X
✓ ✓ ✓
✓
✓
✓
✓ ✓
Take some time now to prune your goals. Is each goal
relevant and validated? The best way to do this is to talk
to actual customers! However, you can also run the 5
Why’s test on each goal. Keep asking why the goal is
important until you validate or invalidate it’s value.
EXAMPLE
Goal: Find a restaurant by cuisine
✓
✓
✓
✓
Why? Because I want to quickly find
restaurants near me that serve the kind of
food I’m in the mood for
Why? Because I don’t have time to do all
the searching for myself
Why? Because I’m traveling and want to
spend the time enjoying myself, not
worrying about where to eat
Why? Because I want to have a great trip

38. 4. Solutions

39. Purpose: Considering all options helps us determine if building something is better than what already exists.
Open your mind about how each goal might be accomplished. Don’t assume your first idea is the right path!
Diverge on Possible Solutions
Goal
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution

40. Purpose: Open your mind about how a goal might be
accomplished. Don’t assume your first idea is the right path!
Sometimes the simple or non-obvious solutions are best.
Consider every possible solution for the goal, even non-
digital solutions or solutions not related to the product.
Considering all options helps us determine if building
something is better than what already exists.
EXAMPLE
Goal: Find a restaurant by cuisine
Diverge on Possible Solutions
Goal
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
List of
Cuisines
Pictures of
food by
cuisine
Select country
of origin on a
map
Auto-populate
search box
Select flag
for country
of origin
Ask a local
Ask hotel
concierge

41. Converge on Solutions
Purpose: Narrow down the potential solutions and select
which ones to move forward with.
Work with all stakeholders to choose which solution the group thinks
is best for best for each goal you’ve identified. Do this by simple dot
voting (each stakeholder gets 3 dots to vote on his/her top choices),
or by using the $100 dollar test (each stakeholder gets $100 to
spend any way they like on the solutions they think are best).
Goal
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Goal
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
Potential
Solution
$45
$25
$20
$10

42. 5. Goals + Solutions = Themes

43. Why? Themes are the items on your roadmap. They keep track of what’s important to the user and what has to be done to
move the product towards solving their problem.
A well thought through goal plus a validated solution becomes what we call a “Theme”.
Goals/Solutions become Themes
GOAL ThemeSOLUTION =+

44. Purpose: Themes are the items on your roadmap. They keep
track of what’s important to the user and what has to be
done to move the product towards addressing their needs.
You’ve identified the most important goals your user will
need accomplish, and selected the best method for how
your product to help them do so. These goals/solutions
have now made the transition to what we call “Themes”.
Goals/Solutions become Themes
GOAL ThemeSOLUTION
=+
EXAMPLE
Find a
restaurant
by cuisine
Select
country of
origin on map
Cuisine search
and select by
map
+
User Goal Solution Theme
=

45. 6. Determine Priorities

46. Now work with your stakeholders to prioritize the themes. Base this on three factors: Feasibility (technology), Desirability
(human), and Viability (business).
Prioritize Themes
Why? Make sure you’re focusing on the most important themes, and building them in the right sequence.
Feasibility
(technical)
Desirability
(human)
Viability
(business)
Engineering Design
Sales
Marketing
Product Managers
Executives

47. Next work with stakeholders to prioritize the themes so
you can determine what is the best order to design and
build. Base this on three factors: Feasibility (technology),
Desirability (human), and Viability (business). It’s very
helpful to rate the different factors by stakeholder team.
For each theme rate the 3 factors from 1 to 5 (low to high).
Feasibility
(technical)
Desirability
(human)
Viability
(business)
Prioritize Themes
Purpose: Make sure you’re focusing on the most important
themes, and building them in th right sequence.
Engineering Design
Sales
Marketing
Product Managers
Executives
EXAMPLE
Feasibility Desirability Viability TOTALS
Restaurant
reviews
5 5 5 15
User expertise
rating
3 4 4 11
Cuisine search
and select by map
2 4 3 9
Auto-populate
search
5 2 2 9
Order of
priority

48. Another valuable step is to scope the each theme. This
helps you develop a rough understanding of how much
time it’s going to take to design and build each theme.
You don’t want to use exact dates here, but rather ballpark
measurements. A good tool for this is what is sometimes
called “T-shirt” sizing. Like the sizes of a t-shirt, each theme
can be labeled as tiny, small, medium, large, or huge. It’s
helpful to have a comparison theme you’ve built in the past
to use as your benchmark.
Scope your Themes
Purpose: Understand how each theme adds up to define the
general length and breadth of the project.
Size
Cuisine search
and select by map
Large
Restaurant
reviews
Medium
User expertise
rating
Huge
Auto-populate
search
Small
EXAMPLE

49. 7. Roadmap Visual

50. Remember, roadmapping is not a single stream. Organizing your themes into a product tree can help structure product
areas and see how the themes relate.
The Product Tree
Purpose: Visualize the structure of your product so you can see the big picture and know where to focus your resources.
Trunk = the core product
Branches = the streams,
product areas
Roots = infrastructure,
engineering operates here

51. User
Profile
User
Recomme
ndations
Map of
Cuisines
User
Expertise
Rating
Search
near me
Restauran
t Reviews
Social
media API’s
Share with
Friend
Auto-pop
Search
Search
by City
OpenTable
API
Customer
Support
FAQ’s
Trip Advisor Example

52. Now it’s time to build your theme based roadmap. Since the roadmap is focused on describing major blocks of work, it’s best
to use general timeframes.
The Timeframe
Why? Create the visual representation of your roadmap in a format that can be shared.
Current Term, Near Term, Future Term
Now, Next, Later
Next 6 weeks, next 6 months, next 6 years
3 or 6 month intervals, over 1 to 3 years

53. Finally, as we mentioned in the beginning, it’s helpful to map the themes on your roadmap back to your strategic objectives.
A great way to do this is to simply color code your objectives.
Color Coding
Why? Make sure you’re building the right things for the right reasons.
Extend user time in app
Grow advertising market around restaurants
Enhance user experience

54. Now Next Later
User Profile Auto-pop Search Social media API’s
Map of Cuisines
User Reviews and
Recommendations
Share with Friend
Restaurant Reviews Search by City
User Expertise
Rating
Customer Support OpenTable API
The Roadmap
Extend user time in app
Grow advertising market around restaurants
Enhance user experience

55. Two Versions
Generally it’s good to separate the roadmap into two versions: one internal with more detail, and external for more high-
level communication.
High-level
Detail
Internal Initiatives Public Initiatives
CEO & Execs
Sales & Marketing
Product Managers
Dev Ops
Customer Support
Trusted Customers
Development Partners
General Public

56. ctodd@freshtilledsoil.com