Introduction
What do you think of when you hear the word ‘Roadmap?’ If you’re like me, situations like this come to mind: It was a normal day until it wasn’t. I was at my desk, ready to dig in, when the VP of Sales walked up and blurted out, “The competition just announced a new product with features X, Y, and Z. Why aren’t WE developing these features? We need to add them to the roadmap immediately; when will they be ready?”
Suddenly, it felt like my roadmap was expected to predict the future, and if it didn’t, I wasn’t doing my job. This single request threatened to disrupt projects already in development, making my product strategy impossible to execute. Moments like this highlight how the pressure to commit to hard dates can turn the best-laid plans into a ticking time bomb.
After speaking with many product managers, I realize my experiences with roadmaps are not unique. Product managers everywhere are stuck in roadmap purgatory, struggling to reach their full potential. But there is a better way. I’ll show you how to make your roadmap your strategic sidekick.
Roadmaps Are Not Release Plans
Most product roadmaps today are mislabeled—glorified timelines, not true roadmaps. A roadmap should visualize product strategy, communicating the outcomes a product is meant to achieve. It’s like a compass guiding you toward impact.
In contrast, a release plan is a prioritized list of outputs, features, and initiatives with associated timing for delivery. It’s like a calendar providing target dates and deadlines. While confusion exists between these tools, they are closely connected. The roadmap guides the release plan, and the release plan drives motion toward achieving the roadmap’s outcomes. Now that we know the tools, let’s use them right.
Outcome-Based Product Roadmaps
Confusing release plans for product roadmaps leads to a focus on features rather than results. An outcome-based product roadmap shifts from outputs to outcomes, putting outcomes on the front lines so we never lose sight of the impact we intend to achieve. It’s your strategic North Star, guiding every decision toward impact—let’s explore how to make it work.
We can’t talk about an outcome-based product roadmap without discussing strategy. Strategy is about aligning goals, making decisions, and executing the plan. An outcome-based roadmap connects these dots, creating a visual strategy. It shifts attention away from fixed deadlines and toward the impact your product is meant to achieve, giving you the flexibility to adapt without being tied to dates.
Elements of an Outcome-Based Product Roadmap
Outcome-based product roadmaps contain three core elements: business outcomes, product outcomes, and priorities.
- Business Outcomes: These are your product roadmap’s guiding light, like ‘Increase Monthly Recurring Revenue 10%.’ They are the strategic goals your product efforts must support and align with.
- Product Outcomes: These focus on the customer and define how you create value. For example, if you’re zipping around town on an electric bike, your goal might be to cut your commute in half—that’s a product outcome.
- Priorities: An outcome-based roadmap organizes business and product outcomes to focus on the most important items first. See our Q&A about product roadmap prioritization for more on this.
How to Build an Outcome-Based Product Roadmap
Follow these steps, and you’ll do more than survive your next roadmap meeting—you’ll own it.
- Business Outcomes: Start by finding your why. Talk to business leaders to define goals and outcomes, understanding which are most important. A strong ‘why’ provides direction and purpose for the rest of your roadmap.
- Product Outcomes: Define your product outcomes, the results your customers want to achieve. Market research and discovery help uncover these outcomes, which you then collect as opportunities to explore and refine.
- Prioritize Outcomes: Use customer insights to determine which product outcomes will best achieve the selected business outcome. Janna Bastow’s ‘Now, Next, Later’ format helps you organize outcomes and communicate priorities without needing specific dates. This approach reduces pressure while still providing direction.
As you prioritize nail the ‘Now, Next, Later’ approach
- NOW – The product outcomes you have most confidence in will drive progress towards your business outcome. These direct the team towards the things you will do.
- NEXT – “Next” are the product outcomes you are aware of, but less confident in their connection to the business outcome. These tell you what you should discover to refine your understanding.
- LATER – The “Later” outcomes are distant opportunities. The organization is dreaming about achieving them at a point in the future and exploration is needed to build insight into their importance and connection to business outcomes.
Connecting the Product Roadmap to a Release Plan
The roadmap and product release plan go together like peanut butter and jelly—complementing and supporting each other. With an outcome-based roadmap, you can organize your release plan.
- Define Outputs: Explore your backlog for outputs and ideate solutions that block progress toward product outcomes. These become the features and initiatives that will populate your release plan.
- Prioritize Outputs: Select features or initiatives that will drive progress toward the product outcomes in the ‘Now’ section of your outcome-based roadmap. As with the outcomes, the outputs with greater confidence are prioritized in the ‘Now’ section, while those needing validation go in the ‘Next’ section, and ideas to explore go in the ‘Later’ section.
- Prioritize Discovery: The final piece of the release plan connects delivery with discovery, ensuring you’re always building confidence to update the roadmap and release plan. Test assumptions from the ‘Next’ section immediately, and tackle those from the ‘Later’ section afterward.
Using the outcome-based product roadmap to set development priorities, the release plan can align with strategic goals without making premature promises. As outcomes become clearer, through product discovery, the release plan evolves, ensuring deadlines are based on well-informed decisions rather than assumptions.
Applying Outcome-Based Product Roadmaps
Are you feeling a little intimidated? Don’t be. By taking these small steps, you’ll transform how your team approaches product strategy.
- Both product roadmaps and product release plans are living documents and should be updated regularly to align teams. It’s okay to adjust as you iterate.
- Uncover business outcomes to prioritize your existing roadmap. Talk to your manager or leaders to identify what’s important so you can prioritize effectively.
- Find ways to incorporate outcomes into your release plan. Even if you’re not using a full outcome-based roadmap, including outcomes helps stakeholders align with your goals.
- Measure product outcomes. Break the output habit and focus on the results your customers want to achieve. Take this first step toward steering stakeholders toward outcome-based thinking.
Incorporating outcomes into your existing roadmaps shifts the conversation from ‘when will this be done?’ to ‘what are we trying to achieve?’ This small but meaningful change helps you manage expectations and keeps the focus on ‘why’ and ‘what,’ instead of ‘when’ and ‘how.’
Navigating product roadmaps and product release plans can be a daunting task, so why not benefit from the expertise of the Productside team and gain a certification in product management by completing one of our product management training courses. Learn from the best in the business to master roadmaps and much more!
