Prioritise roadmap initiatives by including your team members
Prioritisation of roadmap initiatives is one of the most important recurring activities of product managers. Typically you want to include stakeholders and team members in that process. It is our experience that it can be a practical challenge on how to effectively collect people’s input, normalise their data, and then review it in a meaningful way. Often, input comes fragmented and in different forms and people can be in different locations or time-zones.
OKRs and product roadmaps
OKRs have become a popular way to set and track company objectives and associated results. They have been successfully applied both in large corporates and small startups. And rightfully so: OKRs are a simple, yet powerful way to align teams on company goals. This also applies to product teams. One immediate question that arises often is: how do product roadmaps and OKRs relate? In the outstanding book “Inspired” Marty Cagan suggests that OKRs are to some extent a superior alternative to product roadmaps.
Should you use Gantt charts for your product roadmap?
Gantt charts are one of the most common ways to visualize project plans. Hence they are also frequently used for product roadmaps, and most roadmapping tools offer Gantt chart views. But are Gantt charts the appropriate way to plan and visualize your product roadmap? This article explores alternative ways to show your product roadmap, and how to use Gantt charts without creating conflict with modern approaches such as Agile or outcomes over output.
Using shipit to present your product roadmap in PowerPoint or Keynote presentations
Most product managers have to deal with the recurring task of presenting an updated product roadmap to whoever needs to be informed. I know it was- and still is in all of my cases. Often, these presentations cover more than a roadmap alone and are part of a larger deck using PowerPoint, Keynote, or Google’s Slides. Making a visually attractive roadmap (and updating it manually for every presentation) can be a bit of a pain.
How to embed your shipit roadmap in Confluence
Atlassian Confluence is quickly becoming the standard for teams to share their knowledge, and what better way to inform your colleagues of the future plans than embedding a live roadmap into Confluence. Many Shipit clients are already using Confluence integration to keep their product requirements documents there. Some of the benefits of having a roadmap accessible in your wiki: Easy access where everyone can find it Time saving by not needing to share screenshots or PDF with your plans No need to add extra team members to shipit just to view the roadmap No need to share the public link in chats Here is a step-by-step instruction on how to integrate your roadmap into Confluence:
Building your first roadmap
Building your first roadmap Product roadmap is an important strategic tool that helps you align all of the stakeholders on your direction. It is vitally important for the whole company, including clients, to know where you are heading. Here we will cover the process we have in place and tools we use to build a roadmap. Why you need a roadmap This is a very common question people may ask, especially if you’re trying to build things the agile way.