17 Checkpoints To Enhance Your Product Roadmap | by Karine Sabatier | Jan, 2023

So you’ve constructed a roadmap and it has ‘achieved the job’ for some time however you now really feel the necessity to push it somewhat bit additional. Here’s a listing of 17 questions that may aid you enhance it step-by-step.

1. Is the product imaginative and prescient written on high of the roadmap? If not, remind it to the groups.
2. Does everybody actually have entry to the roadmap? Or is it buried in a 20-pages doc someplace on the backside of a file listing not everybody has entry to? Transfer it to an apparent and accessible place.
3. Are all of the contributors to the roadmap conscious that they shall contribute? If not, schedule an onboarding session with them asap.
4. Does the sponsor know how you can contribute to the roadmap? If not, clarify your expectations (trace: their job is to make selections) and the way the roadmap works.
5. Is the roadmapping software accessible (in each sense of the phrase)? Higher use an excel file (all people is aware of excel) than a flowery software half the staff don’t get (Notion as an illustration is a flowery software that most individuals don’t know how you can use). Select properly.
6. Have you ever materialised the time spent engaged on work? Duties don’t magically change from “todo” to “doing”, there’s a time when folks have to consider how you can do the work. They assume, mirror, talk about, prototype, learn docs, check totally different hypotheses, and so on. Use a hillchart diagram to visualise that, it’s among the finest instruments ever invented.
7. Are the outcomes clearly said? Most roadmaps are full of options however no outcomes. Options lists make groups very task-focused and never goal-oriented. Ensure the outcomes and advantages (what the consumer can do out of the options) are clearly said.
8. Do you’ve KPIs tied to these outcomes and are they up to date at every roadmapping session? If not, you aren’t measuring the progress made, however merely monitoring a schedule.
9. Do you utilize prioritisation instruments to kind issues out within the roadmap and say No to pointless and ineffective work? If not, take into account easy instruments like MOSCOW or RICE to get began, or every other matrixes to prioritise issues.
10. Is the roadmap alive and up to date not less than each month? If not, you might be most likely a retro planning nobody desires to replace relatively than at a roadmap.
11. Does the granularity of roadmap objects match the frequency of replace? (frequent replace, small objects — much less frequent updates, larger objects)
12. Are managers and stakeholders glad with the roadmap format? In any other case they gained’t contribute.
13. Are supply groups glad with the roadmap’s format? In any other case they gained’t perceive it.
14. Is it simple to determine potential dangers, useless ends and dependencies when reviewing the roadmap? If not, you will need to deal with these points as they’ll drastically influence the success of the product.
15. Do the present enterprise challenges seem clearly? This helps groups perceive what’s at stake, the massive image and what they’re contributing to.
16. Does your roadmap encourage at the start value-based selections and prioritisation? If not, take into account engaged on an ACID check.
17. Do you’re employed on the three timeframes of the product : quick, medium and long run? If not, take into account the “now / subsequent / later” roadmap format