roadmapping 101
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Product Roadmapping 101Annu Augustine@annuaMarch 2014, Sugsa
Agenda• Vision, strategy, roadmaps• Two approaches to roadmapping• Prioritization – Prioritising for profit• Organizational buy in – Shuttle diplomacy
Vision
“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
“We believe that we are on the face of the earth to make great products and that’s not changing. We are constantly focusing on innovating. We believe in the simple not the complex.”
“Never enter a 16-digit number again.”
Strategy
Vision
Strategy
ProductRoadmap
Lean Startup, Eric Ries
Strategy in the agile world
Alice came to a fork in the road. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ responded the Cheshire Cat. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the Cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.’ Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“A roadmap is a planned future”
A roadmap is not….100% guaranteed
“These plans are our best estimate at this point in time for what we should be able to do, given our resources and our understanding of the technology landscape in which we operate. Any dates given are estimates.
We strongly advise our customers not to make firm plans based on what they see here: in an industry such as ours, things can change very quickly and we have to react just as rapidly to new opportunities that may present themselves.”
Disclaimer
Roadmap, ReleaseTimeframe Granularity Certainty Driven by
Release Near term (months)
Features or stories
High Short term objectives, aligned with a longer term plan.
Roadmap Medium term(many release cycles)
Themes or epics with some feature/story details
Moderate Company and product strategy, competitive pressures and market trends.
By Saeed Khan
“Roadmapping is a technique for strategic planning; the roadmap is a key artifact
showing current plans.”Steven Johnson
How do you develop and maintain a product roadmap?
Bottom-up approach• Look for common themes• Group similar capabilities• Get rough sizes• Plot on timeline
Product Backlog
Identifying Market NeedsIdentifying Market Needs
Competitor Analysis
Market Research
Trends
Elaboration
Market NeedsFeedback
Feeds CreatesProvides
Customer
Product Manager
Top down approach• Look at big ideas• Get rough sizes• Spread them across time
Sample roadmaps
Prioritization
Objective prioritization
This is not:• Sales requests• CEO’s opinion• Popularity
Prioritise for scale
Learn from Goldilocks….
Technique - Prioritizing for profit
(Luke Hohmann)
Prioritizing means ordering
Epic 1 Epic 2 Epic 3
Epic 1
Epic 2
Epic 3
Epic 2
Epic 1
Epic 3
Epic 3
Epic 2
Epic 1
To order you need attributes
Epic 1
Epic 2
Epic 3
Attribute 1 Attribute 2
Step 1 - Identify prioritization attributes.
To sort you need values
Value Value
Value Value
Epic 1
Epic 2
Attribute 1 Attribute 2
Step 2 – Assign values to the attributes.
Internal Stakeholders
Yes No
No Yes
It helps to group attributes
Epic 1
Epic 2
Sales Support
Internal Stakeholders
Weight 20 10
Yes No
No Yes
Not everyone is equal
Epic 1
Epic 2
Sales SupportSales has twice the influence
Step 3 – Weight the attributes
Attribute selection
• Valid across a few releases• Value can be established in a timely and cost-effective
manner• Support the politics of effective product management• Align the roadmap to company and product goals
Recap of steps• Step 1 - Identify prioritization attributes• Step 2 – Assign values to the attributes• Step 3 – Assign weight to the attributes• Step 4 – Calculate the weighted sum across the attributes
Three core attributes
Stakeholder Alignment Strategic Alignment Driving Profit
Who?Shows how you are meeting market needs
Why?Shows how you align with the big picture
MoneyShows how you are going to make money.
StakeholdersExternal Customers
PartnersChannel
Internal Sales & Marketing Professional Service Customer CareThe System
Strategic alignment• Understand your company strategy• Work with executive team to understand weighting• Demonstrate alignment with roadmap
Strategic alignment
Weight 20 15 5
1 1
1 1
Epic 1
Epic 2
Emerging Markets
Reduce operational
costsMobile
Confirm these weightings with executives
Driving profit• Understand what are the primary drivers of profit• Show how you will be driving profit in your roadmap
Driving profit example
Weight 35 15 10
1 1
1
1 1 1
Epic 1
Epic 2
More paid enterprise
components
More paid consumer
components
More free components
Epic 3
Roadmap prioritized for profit
Stakeholder Alignment Strategic Alignment Driving Profit
At least one item for every stakeholder.
At least one item that aligns to strategy.
At least one item that drives profit.
How do you get organizational buy-in?
Stakeholders
You
PartnersCustomers
Sales
Support
Other PMs
Tech lead
Architects
LegalMarketing
Analysts
CEO
Show them your process.
Shuttle Diplomacy
shuttle diplomacy “..serving as an intermediary
between (or among) principals in a dispute, without direct
principal-to-principal contact” Wikipedia
“Think in leaps, but iterate in steps”
Learn more• Prioritization 301 – Bruce McCarthy• Prioritization for profit – Luke Hohmann• Product prioritization - Martin Eriksson• Releases, Roadmaps and Visions - Saeed Khan• Roadmaps and roadmapping – Steve Johnson