Tips for Building Roadmaps Successfully

Part 13 - Successful Roadmaps Series

In this article of the series, let’s recap the best ideas for a building a successful roadmap. If you haven’t already read the previous articles be sure to check them out on our site.

Build Consensus on Strategy with Key Partners and Customers

Go DEEP when you elicit Stakeholder Requirements. Dive into the need and the why of the project or product. Avoid starting projects or creating products without a strong vision statement with actionable business objectives that have meaningful measurement.

Build Relationships and Trust with Key Partners and Customers

Strong relationships build strong products. Open direct conversations on capabilities is a valuable course of action. Involve a brand spectrum of teams across the organization and external customers. A successful roadmap starts with understanding the voice of the customer.

Be the Voice of Reason or Sanity

Drive conversations about priority and what is really needed. Help teams to remove roadblocks and misunderstandings. Clarity on the definition of the capability will win the day. Don’t over commit or promise more then you can realistically deliver.

Don’t forget logical sequencing. If you are building a house, you need a foundation first in which to build from. The hot tub will have to wait until the foundation is completed, water is connected to plumbing, and walls are constructed. You may want the hot tub immediately, but you don’t have the foundation to support it.

Create Meaningful Context

Ensure the capabilities and objectives relate back to the vision, mission, or goal. Ensure your roadmap is easy to understand and take action on if needed. The roadmap is a great communication tool for getting everyone on the same page.

One Roadmap to Rule Them All

There isn’t a magical ring or roadmap to rule them all. Roadmaps have different perspectives to help the organization achieve its goals. Organizations can have multiple roadmaps for a single vision, product, or strategy to help align capability prioritization, product backlog optimization, coordination between teams, and resource allocation. The trick with multiple viewpoints of the roadmap is to make sure they are aligned with the vision and aligned with each other.

Finally, drive conversations about priority. It’s not possible to do everything at the same time so conversations around what should be delivered immediately are very crucial in order to get the teams focused on developing and building the more important capabilities first.