Work Product (Artifact): Product Roadmap |
This artifact captures information about the coming models or releases of products and their planned capabilities.
Purpose
To convey to stakeholders what the plans are for products to be included in the portfolio.
Relationships
Roles | Responsible: Product Manager | Modified By:
Input To | Mandatory: Monitor Changes in Conditions | Optional: None | External: None
Main Description
The creation of a product roadmap is one of the most important responsibilities of the product manager. The product roadmap is used by the product manager to communicate with customers and internal stakeholders to visualize coming models or releases of a product. It is also a high-level plan for the coming product models or releases, because it explain which features or capabilities that the new versions or new replacement products will have and when they might be available to the market.
Properties
Optional |
Planned |
Key Considerations
The product roadmap scope might vary. It can cover a single product or several products in a product family, including their variants and releases. If the roadmap covers several product families or business units and several years ahead, then the roadmap is usually referred to as the strategic product roadmap. The strategic product roadmap is not the responsibility of a single product manager. Instead, it is handled by a product development committee. A product roadmap is used to provide internal and external stakeholders with the vision of the product's future and its possible destination. Therefore, it is best to communicate it at a high level. Otherwise, it could seem that you promise to provide certain features at a certain date, which is not the intention of a roadmap. The internal roadmap can be described in more detail, such as quarterly; whereas, the external roadmap can be described at a higher level, such as yearly. Make sure to communicate the roadmap as a plan, not a commitment. Also assume that the competition might see the roadmap. Therefore, do not include information that is confidential to the business.
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