Agile Product Roadmap for Dummies in 4 Steps

Elad Simon Published: 09 Jul 2016 Updated: 23 May 2023
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Agile product roadmap template can take many forms, but basically, an agile product roadmap consists of a multilayer, chart association, which is based on the time factor, allowing to link technology development to market trends and driving forces.

Technology Roadmap identifies the critical system requirements, the product performance requirements and process technology alternatives, and intermediate steps towards the implementation of the product goals (for the complex needs of the product).

As a result, creating software product roadmap defines a technological alternative ways to achieve certain performance goals. You can choose one path and develop a plan. If there are high risks or uncertainties, you can select multiple tracks and move to the goal parallel. The roadmap defines value guidelines and helps to focus your resources on critical technologies needed to achieve the goals defined. This help is important, as it allows to use limited investments and research more effectively.

Roadmaps help big companies, research organizations and other industry foundations to plan their actions for success in the future markets.

Creation of technology roadmaps is the path to the definition of a service or product requirements, combined with their technological alternatives, and the development of necessary technology plans creating or obtaining the goals, etc.

That is why each inexperienced product manager should learn how to build effective roadmaps in their product management. Here are 4 easy steps for dummies that will enable to understand better what is a product roadmap in agile.

Step 1: Identify agile requirements to the product

When you first make your roadmap, you will more likely begin with substantial, abnormal requirements. These requirements are more likely to be of two distinct levels:

  • features,
  • themes.

Features are parts of the problem that are of high importance. They depict another ability the client will have once the feature is finished. Features usually combine into themes.

Themes are the groups of the features gathered by requirements at their most elevated pitch.

While you are making your roadmap, the components you distinguish begin to make up your sprint backlog — the full rundown of what is in degree for the product, paying little heed to the level of details. As soon as you have your 1st requirement, you get your backlog started.

Step 2: Agile feature arrangement

After you recognize the requirements of your product and their highlights, you work with the developers to bunch these necessities into topics. Meeting with the partners works well for the gathering of requirements, much the same as it works for making them. You can gather highlights using craft.io.

Questions to answer:

  • How are the customers going to use the product?
  • If we offer this requirement, what else customers would need?
  • Can the developers identify the technical affinities or dependencies?

The answers to these questions will form your themes.

Step 3:  Agile product’s feature estimation

When the features of your product are found and organized into the groups, you estimate those requirements. Prioritize and value the features and their requirements as per the customers needs. To be able to order your requirements, you should first value a score to represent the estimation and each requirement effort.

You communicate to the two unique groups if you want to score the requirements for the product:

  • the product proprietor, with backing from the partners, decides the estimation of the requirement to the client and your business.
  • the developers group decides the push to make the necessity for every product requirement.

An example of a Scrum team requirement score creation may be the use of the Fibonacci sizing sequence.

Step 4: Time frame determine

The fourth and final phase of work creating a product roadmap in Excel include reflection and criticism of the previous stages, the planning of development for the road map implementation and the results of monitoring procedures.

When you first make your product guide, your time periods for the product releases are at abnormally high level. For the initial guide, pick a coherent time increase for your task, for example, a specific number of days, weeks, months, etc., or much bigger augmentations. Utilizing both tools for creating product roadmap and old-fashioned methods will come in handy. You can add some requirements to any time frame.

Your first roadmap should identify the role of technology providers in creating the desired product future, the necessary human resources, as well as interference from the stakeholders, non-governmental organizations and others.

You can easily create a roadmap sample with craft.io and bring some more experience to your start up. Good luck!

Elad Simon
Elad Simon

CEO & Co-Founder, craft.io