Construct a roadmap to achieve your quarterly goals. Create a goal for the quarter as a whole, then break out into teams to identify objectives to be measured by key results. This roadmap will be used to generate a goal with measurable objectives and results. It can be used as a running record to evaluate progress.
The Product Roadmap template helps you:
- Map and align on quarterly goals
- Identify objectives for each team
- Identify key results
- Keep all stakeholders informed of progress
What are the steps needed to build a product development roadmap?
To create a product roadmap that'll continue to serve you in the long-term, it’s important to consider each one of the below steps:
1. What is the overall goal of the product, and what are the OKRs?
The product goal and OKRs (objective and key results) need to be defined collaboratively before any teamwork can begin. What is the goal for the quarter and what objectives need to be met to reach that goal? The key results are the measurements that will monitor whether you're meeting your objectives.
2. Who will make up the teams working on this product?
Teams need to be identified and their contributions to meeting the goals and specific objectives defined. Teams for product development could be sales and marketing, as well as research and development.
3. Who will play the role of team lead for each team involved in building this product?
The lead is the person designated by each team to hold the team accountable for meeting objectives and make sure key results are being met. This person keeps the data organized and the team meetings running on time and productively.
4. What are the objectives for each team?
What is the objective of each team? How is this event/action/product going to contribute to this quarter's goal? Make sure objectives are measurable.
5. What are the key results for each team?
Key results are the parameters that you'll use to measure if you are meeting your objectives.
6. What areas of focus should each team have to help achieve their key results?
Areas of focus help achieve key results — they can be areas for troubleshooting or areas that need minor tweaking to achieve big gains.
7. When is the production release date and what results are you looking for with the initial release?
Based on the information that's been generated, what's your production release date and desired key results?
8. When is the testing release? What does each team need to have in place in order to conduct productive testing?
Time for testing! Let's see how the projects are going and measure them against our key results. What does your team need to get testing? What are the real results you'd like to see from beta testing?
9. When is the beta release?
What projects are ready for beta release? What other resources does your team need to make this happen?
10. When is the internal release?
What projects are ready for internal release?
11. What’s being developed?
What projects are being developed? What's the timeline until they are released? Are there any resources available that might speed up the process?
12. What’s ready for development?
What projects are ready for development? What resources and how much time will that require?
13. What is being designed?
What current projects are in prototype and design mode? Which ones are most likely to contribute key results to meet our objective and reach our quarterly goal?
14. Backlog
What big ideas can be put on the back burner as a lower priority?
15. Out of backlog
Every great idea can't be done at one time. To keep the goal in mind and the objectives attainable, some ideas will be backlogged. As time allows, pick items that have been backlogged to keep from ideas getting bottlenecked.
16. Medium-term
What are the key results your team can expect to see by mid-project/quarter?
17. Long-term
What are the key results your team can expect to see in the long-term range of this project/goal?
Next steps
Once the roadmap is complete, it's important to set up regular check-ins and progress reviews to make sure that goals are being met. This can be done by setting up recurring meetings and establishing a process for tracking progress.
Regular reviews and progress measurements can help keep the team on track and ensure that goals are met in a timely manner. Additionally, it's important to review and adjust the roadmap as needed to make sure that objectives are still relevant and achievable.
Tips for running a Product Development Roadmap template exercise
To get the most out of the Mural Product Roadmap template with your team, you should:
- Make sure that everyone knows what the main goals and OKRs for your product are before the meeting — use Mural as an async resource to get everyone up to speed
- Use Mural's sticky notes and commenting features to capture broad feedback from your team and make sure that you avoid any blind spots concerning your tactics for how you'll develop your product
- Keep your product roadmap up to date so that all your stakeholders have a central, visual resource to track progress throughout the quarter
