How To Create

Product management is a business strat-

egy role, this means that everything that a

a Successful
product team works on, whether it’s build-
ing a new product from inception, a new

Product feature, or a minor enhancement, must re-

late to business goals.

Roadmap Business strategy is when management de-

fines the steps that the business will take
to accomplish particular objectives. Product
strategy is how the product(s) will evolve to
assist the business in accomplishing these
objectives.

How does a product manager define which

initiatives to work on, problems to solve,
and features to build?

Before creating a product roadmap, Again, everything should tie back to the
you need to be clear on what the business goals. Before thinking about what
business goals are for the year. to work on, determine the “why” and how it
may, or may not, drive business objectives.

If the goal is retention, then focus on ini-

tiatives that support retention. The same
applies if the goal is increasing sales, or a
successful expansion.

Product roadmaps are created with input

from multiple stakeholders, internal and ex-
ternal.

A stakeholder is anyone who has direct or

indirect influence on a product.
 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

Internal stakeholders are the in- External stakeholders are those who
dividuals inside of a business. For can influence the product howev-
example members of the senior er they do not work within the busi-
management team, designers, and ness. These include customers, in-
developers. For custom internal dustry analysts, trade unions, and
tools, internal stakeholders can also development agencies.
be the users of the product.

Multiple stakeholders provide feedback The design and development team should
throughout the product lifecycle on areas of have their input, sales also needs a chance
improvement. This can be via enhancement to weigh in based on the discussions
requests or feature requests. they’re having with prospects, and custom-
er success will share their thoughts from
Product managers should have one central feedback that they have received from cus-
location to store this feedback. Keeping tomers.
this feedback with details on who request-
ed it, why, priority, and more. These teams are free to share their
thoughts. However, with limited resourc-
Based on the main goals for the year and re- es and varying opinions there must be one
sources available, product managers then person to make the final decision on what
prioritize which initiatives to work on ensur- goes in the roadmap, and what is taken out.
ing that they relate to the key business goals
and the amount of resources available. This person is not the CEO, it is the product
manager.
As the roadmap is crafted internal stake-
holders should receive opportunities to
share their thoughts. This is important be-
cause product managers do not work in
silos.

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 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

6 Steps to Creating a Product Roadmap

Store stakeholder input throughout the year

1
in the product backlog with detailed notes

Clarify the business goals and determine

2
the product goals for the year

Gather a list of items from the product

3
backlog that tie to the business goals

Prioritize product backlog items with key

4 stakeholders (understanding value
and effort)

Place these items on a roadmap template

5
and share with your team

Revisit the roadmap throughout the year to

6 ensure that it is updated and modifications
are shared

3
 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

7 key ingredients of successful

product roadmap
Want a roadmap that aligns your team it off of their list and await the next one.
members, inspires them, clarifies expecta- Feature based roadmaps are feature-fo-
tions, and can be used to help your compa- cused, not outcome focused. They often
ny reach its goals? jump to the solution without fully under-
standing the customer’s needs or outcomes
If your answer is yes then pay close atten-
tion to the following advice. Product teams need to be objective ori-
ented; don’t simply build features for the
1 sake of output, but rather to align with the
goals of your business and help customers
Do not stick to feature based achieve their ultimate goal.

roadmaps
How does one get away from sticking to
feature based roadmaps? Start by begin-
Don’t get us wrong, feature based road-
ning with the end in mind and then work
maps are beneficial depending on the need.
backwards.

There is a time and a place to communicate

What specific objectives do you want to ac-
features, and that is when you fully under-
complish at the end of the year or quarter,
stand the problem that you are solving
and how will the product evolve as a result?

Unfortunately, however, many treat feature

Also, focus on themes rather than simply
based roadmaps as to-do lists; all of the
features.
items that need to be delivered by a certain
date.
New features are always nice but custom-
ers want an overall experience that will
And it’s only natural that they are used and
make their lives easier.
interpreted as a project plan. With each
item delivered, stakeholders mentally cross

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 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

So along with the formal roadmap pres-

Focus on the bigger picture. It’s not entations that you have quarterly and year-
about the number of features you have ly, when changes are made to the roadmap
but rather the quality of your features update it at the earliest (internal and exter-
and how they benefit nal). And if these changes are critical (ini-
customers. tiatives swapped, dropped, added, or de-
layed) make sure your team is aware.

This is where having a product tool like

2 airfocus is useful. Save yourself the has-
sle of constantly updating and repeated-
Keep the roadmap up to date ly sharing new files with manually created
roadmaps.

Product teams are successful when their

3
cross-functional teams are successful.

A great product manager acts as a quarter- Have an executive friendly

back for their team, giving them the tools, roadmap
information, and support that they need to
be successful. Cater your content to your audience.

A successful product is a team activity. The customer facing roadmap should

not mimic the roadmap for your internal
While the product team, with the assistance team, and the roadmap for the executive
of design and development, may build the team should not mimic the customer facing
product, the marketing team shares it with roadmap.
the world and the sales team sells it. And of
course other teams play a part as well. So when putting your roadmap together
ensure that you have one that is executive
Stakeholders both internal and external friendly. They too want to know what the
rely on the roadmap so that they can know key product initiatives are.
what’s coming, manage resources, and plan
their work so that they can be successful.

5
 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

Business executives are busy people. They

have employees to manage, initiatives to
4
manage, a company to run, and goals to
reach among their other responsibilities.
Use a timeline roadmap
They’re not concerned about the minute
details, they’re concerned about what the A timeline roadmap lists the initiatives in a
key initiatives are, when they will be deliv- timeline view.
ered, critical dependencies and risks, and
when key milestones will be met. Product managers need to give their team
the information they need to be successful.
These are the key pieces of information Having a timeline roadmap lets your team
that should be presented on an executive know what items will be expected.
friendly roadmap.
However, always set expectations by mak-
And when communicating with them it ing it clear to stakeholders that the time-
helps to spell out how the initiatives on the line roadmap should not be interpreted as a
product roadmap will tie into each depart- project plan.
ment’s goals.
5
How do you ensure that the roadmap is
aligned to the targets of other depart- Focus on users and
ments? customers

Start by understanding the business goals, A product roadmap can include internal ini-
gather inputs from team members, and in- tiatives (for example tackling tech debt).
volve key stakeholders in roadmap prioriti-
zation discussions. However a product roadmap should focus
mainly on users and customers.

Customers pay for your product and ulti-

mately keep the bills paid. Users and cus-
tomers use products to help accomplish
their goals and are happy to support prod-
ucts whose mission they believe in.

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 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

As the roadmap is crafted, put yourself in the shoes

of your customers and ask:

Does the product roadm-

ap outline key initiatives
that users and custom-
ers have requested?

Is it grouped into
themes for easy
consumption?

If it is an external roadmap,
how will they access it? Via a
shareable link, housed in your
support wiki, or do they need
Does it have the infor- to reach out to a customer suc-
mation that they need cess coach for access?
to understand what
the initiatives are?

If it is not easily accessible to your users and customers, what will

your team’s response be when customers request information on
your roadmap? Have a response and process defined with your
team.

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 5-Minute Guide −
­ How To Create Successful Product Roadmap

(internal and external) to understand what

6 pains them, how they are using the pro-
duct(s), further opportunities to be discov-
Tailor the roadmap to cus- ered, and more.
tomer feedback and insights
It should not be the case that a month be-
To ensure that your roadmap speaks to fore the roadmap is due, a product manag-
customer needs and wants ensure that er starts uncovering the key issues that are
you’re regularly gathering customer feed- paining stakeholders.
back to uncover insights on how you can
improve your product. Always gather feedback, store it in a central
location, and use it to uncover future op-
Check out our guide on How to Use Cus- portunities for product improvement.
tomer Feedback for Business Growth to
accomplish this. Also be willing to engage in discussions
when team members have a request that
7 may impact roadmap deliverables.

Prospect requests This does not mean that you have to say
“yes” to requests, in fact you should say
A product team is not beholden to stick “no” more than “yes”. However, be willing to
100% to every item listed on the product have these discussions. If something can’t
roadmap. be worked on now then maybe it can be
worked on in the future.
Other stakeholders may expect this, but
this is why it’s important to regularly level Product managers must ruthlessly prioritize
set expectations with stakeholders. and be strategic to make the right deci-
sions.
Product managers should regularly hold
conversations with their stakeholders

Create beautiful roadmaps and share them with your team in min-
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