A roadmap broadly outlines the features and value of a project, product, or initiative in different stages of development. It gives a visual timeline of your product’s progression so all departments in your company are on the same page as to where your product is headed and how you will get there.
A roadmap can be used for any project, initiative, or task that requires a general outline of the different phases your task will go through. This is different from a Product Marketing Plan, which goes into meticulous detail on each stage of a product’s development.
Some common types of roadmaps include:
Display the product development timeline. This could include how a product will be brought to market, design modifications, feature changes, and more. The internal roadmap is for your company and team members and includes detailed descriptions of a product’s timeline. External roadmaps are broader and are for non-company personnel, including press, customers, partners, and analysts.
Try out the Resilient Product Roadmap Template to help clarify your product strategy.
Outline how you’ll bring your product to market in broad terms, like when the email campaigns should start or when the launch event will occur.
Marketing roadmaps typically illustrate the go-to-market strategy, ongoing campaigns, and strategic initiatives that accompany product releases.
These broader business roadmaps detail the “big picture” of trends, movements, or directions in a market and how your team will approach them. These are often “30,000-foot view” roadmaps that include larger initiatives and business goals.
Show you the technology trends in your industry and how your company can implement them or how they’ll affect your product (like incorporating AI). These new features will typically be broken down into smaller product updates and planned into Agile workflows.
Illustrate how certain platforms or app support will interact with your product or initiative (e.g., Windows, Google, MacOS) as well as what that platform may mean to your product or initiative in the long run.
Product roadmaps are helpful for illustrating the features and value of a product in different stages of its development. This template helps you understand a customer or user’s experience at every stage of the product and lets you strategically plan its direction.
You can create a working roadmap in a few easy steps or use this roadmap template. If you decide to create your own, follow these steps to maximize your roadmap’s effectiveness:
Some types of roadmaps are better suited for your particular project or task. Taking time to consider the different roadmaps will prevent you from wasting time on a roadmap that doesn't suit your objectives.
At the beginning of your roadmap creation, you need to ask: Why are you creating this? What do you want your end result to be? By answering these, the rest of the roadmap will be easier to complete. Think of this as a high-level overview for the roadmap that introduces the product goals.
This keeps your roadmap vague and still gives teams a visible look at long-term goals for your project. Your roadmap should be a general guide to where your product is headed.
Deadlines should be the focus of your project management software, not your roadmap. That isn’t to say you shouldn’t plan out rough time frames, just be aware that they should be fluid and change when necessary.
After your roadmap is created, you want buy-in from stakeholders and team members to see what works, what might be a problem, and what can be improved in the next iteration.
Import Jira tickets into your roadmap template. The ability to note bugs through Jira is very helpful for collaborative roadmaps. Instead of remembering to transcribe the note to another format, simply import issues from Jira as sticky notes. You can also re-import issues into a mural to receive updated statuses or priority changes.
Export mural sticky notes into Jira. You can also export sticky notes created in your mural directly into Jira and set basic attributes from that sticky note. This is especially helpful when teams are collaborating on a roadmap template, and their additions require separate bug tickets.
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