What is Vendor Risk Management: A Complete Guide + Examples
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As a product manager or owner, one of the biggest dilemmas you’ll face is creating successful products. According to the Marketing Research Association, only 40% of developed products reach the market, and only 60% generate revenue.
One way to ensure your product hits the ground running is by creating a product roadmap. It’s one of the critical parts of product planning. They must be actionable with the right level of detail, provide the right information at the right time and clearly demonstrate alignment with business strategy.
Creating a product roadmap can be time-consuming and challenging. But don’t worry, we’ve got your back. This article will lead you through the process of creating the perfect roadmap that will drive the right results for your business.
Let's get started!
A product roadmap is a high-level, strategic plan for developing a product or service. It's a visual representation of what you're planning to build and when, explaining why it makes sense for your business and what your customers will get out of it.
Product managers use product roadmaps to communicate the vision and plan for their products. They are a critical part of building effective products because they help you:
The importance of creating a product roadmap for your business cannot be overstated. It allows you to plan your journey clearly and precisely while moving with purpose and determination. Let's dig deeper to understand why you should create a product roadmap for your product.
A roadmap helps you and your team align on the most important features to build, ensuring everyone is working on the same thing at the right time. This enables teams to better collaborate with each other across departments and ensures they're prioritizing features based on customer feedback or business goals rather than personal preferences or departmental objectives alone.
Creating a product roadmap is one way to extend a company's strategic planning. A product roadmap helps you create a more cohesive strategy and see how your business will evolve over time. It can also help you plan for the future, identify gaps in your strategy, and determine which opportunities are worth pursuing—all while keeping an eye on what might be coming down the line.
A product roadmap is a great way to inform your customers about upcoming features and enhancements. You can use the roadmap to let them see what's in store for them and also give them a chance to get involved in development.
Customers who are aware of new features will be more likely to purchase your product because they know what they're getting into. They also have the chance to provide feedback on these upcoming changes, allowing you to make sure that those changes meet their expectations.
When working on a product, it can be easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks and lose sight of what you're trying to achieve—and how those daily tasks fit into that larger goal. A product roadmap helps you stay focused on what matters most: achieving those goals and meeting your customers' needs.
A visual product roadmap can help you understand where your company is going, what projects are being worked on, and what features are in development.
It can help you to take inventory of your resources (tangible or intangible), such as what product management skills or tools will be needed, realistic deadlines, the cost for a specialist or timeframes for product experimentation.
You'll also see how each project relates to the others by looking at their place in the overall timeline. This information is essential for making decisions about the future direction of your business!
Product roadmaps can take many different forms. Different stakeholders want diverse information about your product's future, which makes building a product roadmap an art as much as it can be a science. You may find a wide variety of product roadmaps, but now we will discuss the seven most common types of roadmaps.
An epic product roadmap is a high-level roadmap that describes the product's vision. It should focus on the big picture and communicate the product vision to stakeholders.
Epics are typically broken down into smaller user stories or features, which can be further broken down into tasks, bugs and test cases. These smaller components will give you more detail on what needs to be done within an epic item.
This roadmap is often presented at high-level meetings and used to communicate the product strategy to stakeholders. It shows the big picture and direction of your product, as well as expectations for future growth.
While this type of roadmap may show some specific features or new products you're working on, it's not as detail oriented as other roadmaps. Instead, it provides a general idea of how you want to grow your business by showing what direction you're taking with your product over time.
A features Product Roadmap aims to define what new features will be added to the product over time. This type of road mapping helps you answer questions like: What does my customer want next? What should I work on first? Which requests should come next?
Executives typically use the portfolio product roadmap to understand how their company's products fit together and how they contribute to overall business goals. It provides a common framework for discussing upcoming work across teams. Therefore, it is useful for teams working on cross-functional initiatives requiring cooperation between different departments or divisions.
A release roadmap is used for short-term planning and communicating the next few releases of your product. If you have a product with many changes coming up soon, such as an overhaul or a new feature launch, this type of roadmap is the one you want to use.
The multiple-product roadmap is used when there are many products in development that all have different priorities. It can be thought of as a prioritized list of features for each product, but it also shows which features will be released together and which ones need to be built before others can be released.
It helps you prioritize and communicate upcoming features and updates across the different product lines. It also makes it easy to see where your company's resources are being allocated.
The agile product roadmap is a more streamlined version. It allows you to prioritize features based on how soon they need to be released and how important they are to your business. This type of roadmap can also help you manage expectations when working with clients whose projects are dependent on your team's work in progress.
The waterfall product roadmap depicts a sequential, top-down approach to product development, where each stage is completed before moving on to the next one. It’s called “waterfall” because each phase flows down into the next one—like water flowing over a series of steps.
The scope of work is defined upfront and implemented in distinct phases. Each phase has tasks and activities that must be approved before the next phase begins.
We will now discuss the key elements of a product roadmap. This section will provide a general overview of the items you'll need to consider while creating a product roadmap, making the process more manageable for you. Your product roadmap should include, but is not limited to:
Now it’s time to break down the steps on how to create a product roadmap. We have compiled a six-step approach to help you gather information and get the most out of your roadmap experience.
Before you start creating your product roadmap, it's crucial to know your company's vision and goals. A good way of doing this is by writing down what you want to achieve, who your customers are and how they use your products or services. You can also write down what you want to avoid and what your competitors are doing or not doing.
With clear and direct answers to the following, it will be easier for others in your company to understand why specific features were included, excluded or prioritized over others. Additionally you can justify expenses or resources needed to execute the product roadmap to your internal stakeholders, if or when required.
Identify your products and features to include in the product roadmap. This will be based on what you want to accomplish with your product, customer needs and industry trends. If you're working on multiple products or want to include additional information about each one, use separate sheets or slides in your presentation.
Ensure you track all the products and features that matter to your company. You don't need every single detail in your roadmap. Just choose the ones that provide the most value or impact to customers or other key stakeholders. This will help you create a list of tasks to include in the product roadmap.
Now that you have a list of tasks, it's time to categorize them into epics. An epic is an overarching product or feature that has multiple smaller tasks attached to it. Epics help break down large projects into manageable chunks and make it easier to organize your roadmap.
Epics are typically used for larger projects like redesigning an existing app or launching a new one. However, they can also be used for other types of tasks, such as updating features or fixing bugs within an existing product (e.g., "Updating the login screen"). Once you create an epic, you can turn those high-level goals into smaller individual ones by breaking down the larger goal into different parts.
The product roadmap is a visual representation of the launch or creation of a new product. But sometimes, product roadmaps can be boring, hard to understand and even intimidating. They might lead to confusion or a lack of emphasis on tasks or features presented to team members or customers. And that certainly doesn't inspire anyone!
So how do you make your product roadmap visually appealing? Here are some tips:
Data visualizations are a great way to make your product roadmap engaging and interactive. You can use Visme’s built-in data widgets to display data points such as revenue, number of customers or statistical analysis. This helps you communicate the health of your business and what you need to focus on moving forward.
Watch the video below to learn how to customize your data in Visme.
Visme offers 30+ types of chart and graph templates that you can easily customize to represent larger sets of data. Plus, you can import data from pre-existing data or apps Google Analytics, Excel and more.
Using a dull or mismatched typeface is one of the easiest ways to make your product roadmap look unprofessional. Instead, choose something more interesting to draw people in and make them want to read more.
For example, if you're using a serif font for most of your text, try breaking up that monotony with an italicized sans-serif heading here or there — just be sure not to get carried away!
Also, if you already have your brand fonts, it's better to use them in your product roadmap for consistent branding.
Visme comes with over 300 professional-looking fonts and a wide variety of font combinations ready to use in your product roadmap design.
When designing a product roadmap color coding can help organize your roadmap into sections based on their priority or timelines. For example, if you’re introducing a new feature or updating an existing one, you could use two different colors for each in your roadmap.
In addition to helping users identify their favorite features on the roadmap, team members can quickly scan through it and see what has been done so far and what still needs attention.
Icons are a great way to highlight specific features or milestones on your product roadmap. For example, if you’re planning an event, you could use a calendar icon to mark the date of the event. Similarly, you could add icons for new features or products (such as a phone icon), allowing team members to quickly identify the content without needing to read through each section in detail.
Visme comes with more than 10,000 icons that you can use in your product roadmap. Use the icon finder to find an appropriate icon for your document and customize it to match the color combination.
You don't need to start from scratch if you already have pre-existing brand colors, icons or fonts designed beforehand. Easily upload them directly into Visme. Once uploaded, you'll always be able to access them for your current or future projects.
If you need help uploading your branding faster, use our AI-powered Brand Wizard. Simply add your website URL, and the wizard will pull your branding information and even offer templates that match your brand.
Once you have a draft of your product roadmap, invite all the relevant stakeholders to give feedback. This includes the product development team and anyone else who will be working on the project. It will help you make the roadmap better and your team can understand it easily whenever they need it.
Visme offers collaborative features to help you maximize your roadmap creation process. You can make changes and see real-time updates while multiple users work on the same project. Invite team members to your Visme workspace and allow them to view, edit or comment directly on your product roadmap.
Host a brainstorming session with the team and pin annotations, add sticky notes or draw on areas you'd like to work on in your project. Use the Workflow feature to easily assign specific sections or areas of your roadmap design for other team members to work on.
See what Noah Nelson, Senior Corporate Relationship Executive of Kraft Sports + Entertainment, had to say about Visme's collaborative features:
"There's no more asking people, "Hey, can you update this?" If anyone needs something done, there's no longer a wait time. We can go into the Visme project and change it ourselves so we can get more work done and service our partners quickly like we need to."
As you work on your product, you will find new information that sheds light on the direction of your project. Your team's priorities may change, or new projects may start up. These are all good reasons to review and update your roadmap, at least one. for each stage it covers.
When reviewing your roadmap, look at the big picture and individual tasks within each stage of development. It’s not always as simple as adding or removing a product. If any changes need to be made (such as a task being completed ahead of schedule), ensure those updates are reflected in the roadmap so everyone can see them.
If you're not sure where to start with your product roadmap, we've got you covered. We've gathered 10 of the best product roadmap templates from Visme for your use.
The single product roadmap template is designed to help you outline the future of a single product. It includes sections for the product’s vision, goals, objectives, and key initiatives. You can use this template to plan how you will deliver on your business strategy and make sure your team is aligned with it.
Its bold and colorful options give it a modern twist on your typical black and white product roadmap. You replace the current colors with your brand tones as well.
The template is in presentation format, making it easier for you to explain concepts in detail to your team members. Edit this template using Visme’s powerful presentation software that comes with a presenter studio and a lot of other features where you can present asynchronously and record yourself, add interactivity along with other helpful presentation features.
Watch the video below to learn more about customizing this and other presentations in Visme.
Get started with a multi-product roadmap that will help you visualize your products and their releases in an all-in-one and easily digestible format. It's perfect for product managers working on multiple products or managing a product with various features or enhancements.
The template includes sections for planning and development, marketing and evaluation. It also has columns for the time of each release and how much time you expect it to take to complete. You can customize these fields however you want using Visme's easy-to-use editor.
Once you've finished adding the details, you can publish and share it as a live website. Share the link with your team members or stakeholders. Once they have access to the link, they'll be able to view real-time changes made to the template, helping to keep everyone updated.
Creating product roadmaps doesn’t have to be daunting. The goals product roadmap template is built for product managers and marketers who want to create agile roadmaps with team-wide alignment. It's built on the premise that your priorities are always changing, which means you need a roadmap that can change along with them.
The template comes as a whiteboard which includes columns for goals, high-level features and metrics to measure success over time.
Visme whiteboard templates offer a limitless canvas so you can expand your product roadmap as your team grows or projects expand without the need for creating additional whiteboards or documents.
When creating or executing your roadmap, you can easily embed it directly into your favorite apps like Monday.com, Hubspot, or Slack. Visme supports integration with a wide range of third-party apps.
This feature roadmap template is a great tool to track features being built and their release plan. It helps teams to prioritize their backlogs and better manage feature creation by mapping out the path from ideation to release.
The template is fully customizable, so you can add your columns, change the order of your features and more. Here is how you can do that.
Are you looking for a roadmap template for all your product efforts across an entire group? This template is designed to organize your goals, initiatives and projects across an entire portfolio of products. It’s also intended for companies that have a dedicated product team and want to establish a common language to align their efforts across the organization.
Though the template is designed for software companies, you can customize it to fit your needs regardless of the industry and business type.
This release roadmap template can be used to communicate the new features, improvements and bug fixes that will appear in your upcoming releases. It’s a great tool for planning your releases and getting stakeholder buy-in about what features will be built.
The template includes a table for listing all the features, as well as columns for explaining the benefits of each feature and the desired version.
If you and your team need extra support when it comes to filling in this template, you can use Visme's AI Writer. It can suggest ideas, offer an alternative outline based on your team's requirements, or proofread your copy before sharing it with others.
Turn your product roadmap design into a living document to ensure everyone knows the detailed steps to get there. This product roadmap template aligns your current initiatives with your product strategy and helps you prioritize the right products, features and tasks.
The easy-to-understand visuals and color coding will effectively help you to communicate the product vision. It creates a sense of urgency around targets while keeping everyone on track toward the ultimate goal.
You can also incorporate dynamic fields and personalize them with necessary values, dates, or names. This allows you to swiftly update documents used in your department, eliminating the need for manual adjustments.
The agile product roadmap template is an excellent tool for creating your product roadmap. It includes the key strategic planning aspects, like goals and milestones, that are essential but hard to define.
For example, it’s important to know what results you want your project to achieve, but it isn’t always clear how those results will be reached. With this product features roadmap, you can take a strategy-first approach that answers those questions for you.
This product roadmap template is designed for Product Managers, Scrum Masters and team lead working in agile environments. It will help them align their team and stakeholders on a product vision and concretely articulate the direction of a product or project
The template provides a simple view of the tasks to do, the tasks in progress, the tasks done and the members assigned.
Gain visibility into your product backlog and create a prioritized product roadmap with this kanban product roadmap template. It's a simple, effective way to communicate what you’re working on, what’s next, and where your product is headed. It’s the perfect tool for software development teams, agile project management in general, or anyone who needs a clear view of their work in progress.
This product roadmap example features a simple kanban column for each of your products in development and shows the current status of each item and what’s next. You can add or remove columns based on how many projects you're working on at once and customize the labels to fit your workflow needs.
At times, a roadmap can also become confusing if you're not careful. If it's too detailed, it'll be impossible to follow and update; if it's too broad, you won't know where to focus your efforts. It’s all about finding a balance.
When creating or updating your product roadmap, focus on these tips:
Your product roadmap presentation is the first step to getting everyone on your team onboard and on the same page. Effective product roadmap presentations can help you communicate the product vision and strategy, build trust, manage stakeholder expectations and avoid misunderstandings.
In this section, we’ll share some valuable tips on how to present a product roadmap.
Product roadmaps are used by various teams within an organization, including product management, development, marketing, sales, customer support, executive leadership, QA, operations, finance, design, and partnerships. These teams use product roadmaps to align efforts, plan activities, and coordinate strategies related to the development, launch, and support of a product.
The product manager–in collaboration with key stakeholders such as executives, development teams, marketing, and sales– is typically responsible for creating and managing the product roadmap.
Planning what goes on a product roadmap involves a strategic and collaborative process, typically led by the product manager. Here are the key steps involved in planning a product roadmap:
A product roadmap typically consists of several stages that guide the development and evolution of a product. These stages help outline the product's vision, goals and planned features over a specific period.
While the exact stages can vary based on the product and organization, here are the common stages of a product roadmap:
1. Vision and Strategy: Define the product's overarching vision, goals, and strategic direction.
2. Research and Planning: Understand customer needs, market trends, and competitive landscape.
3. Themes and Initiatives: Identify broad themes and strategic initiatives that align with the product vision. Group related features and improvements into thematic areas (e.g., user experience, performance, scalability). Define high-level strategic initiatives that address specific user needs or market demands.
3. Features and Functionalities: Specify the detailed features and functionalities that will be developed.
4. Timeline and Milestones: Create a timeline indicating when each feature or milestone is planned for development and release.
5. Development: Create prototypes or mockups to visualize the product's user interface and interactions.
6. Testing and Quality Assurance: Rigorously test the product for bugs, usability, and performance. Allow a select group of users to test the product in a real-world environment (User Acceptance Testing (UAT)).
7. Release and Launch Planning: Prepare for the product release and coordinate launch activities.
8. Launch: Deploy the product to the market. Launch marketing campaigns and inform stakeholders. Provide training to users and customer support teams.
9. Feedback and Iteration: Gather user feedback, analyze product performance, and iterate based on insights.
A product roadmap template is a pre-designed document or digital file that provides a structured format for creating a product roadmap. Product managers and teams use product roadmap templates to outline key milestones, features, and activities related to the product's development and release.
These templates typically include sections for goals, timelines, features, priorities, and other essential details, making it easier for teams to organize and communicate their product plans effectively.
Using a template saves time and ensures crucial information is presented clearly and consistently. You can use the templates shared in this article or check the Visme template library to find others that meet your unique needs.
Product roadmaps typically have three main phases, each representing a different aspect of the product's development and lifecycle. These phases provide a structured approach to planning and executing the product strategy. The three phases of a product roadmap are:
1. Planning Phase: The planning phase focuses on defining the product vision, goals, and overall strategy
2. Development Phase: The development phase involves designing, building, and testing the planned features and functionalities.
3. Launch and Post-Launch Phase: The launch and post-launch phases involve releasing the product to the market, gathering user feedback and making continuous improvements.
A project plan provides a step-by-step guide for executing the project, ensuring all stakeholders know their roles, responsibilities, and expectations.
A product roadmap, on the other hand, provides a broad outline of the steps necessary to reach a particular objective without going into the same level of detail as a project plan.
In summary, a project plan contains more details than a roadmap and is mostly used to manage a specific project within a defined scope. In contrast, a roadmap covers a broader range of strategic initiatives and goals.
With all the steps in place, you'll be able to create a product roadmap to help you and your team succeed. A well-crafted roadmap can be a valuable tool for managing expectations and identifying growth opportunities. If you follow this article and use our product roadmap templates, creating a practical roadmap will be easier!
Sign up for Visme's roadmap maker and get started with your product roadmap today! Or take advantage of our roadmap templates and intuitive whiteboard tool to brainstorm and create a strategic roadmap for your product or project teams.
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