Thread by @lennysan

A junior PM at a mid/large-sized product org asked me for advice on building her first product roadmap. Specifically, how to prioritize, how to structure it, how often to refresh it, and examples of great roadmaps. I'd love to hear what works for others. Here's my advice...

1/ To build (or refresh) a roadmap, you should always go through three phase: (1) Ideation, (2) Prioritization, (3) Communication. Skipping a step will cause you problems down the road. The process should take 1-3 weeks, depending on the size of the org.

2/ Ideation: Gather ideas. Give everyone on the team a chance to share their best ideas. Run brainstorms, meet with opinionated team members, and get ideas from stakeholders. Collect all ideas into a central doc, and have team members vote. Make it clear voting is just one input.

3/ Prioritization: This is the hardest part of building a roadmap. Look at all of the ideas and evaluate them based on three factors: (1) Expected impact, (2) Resources necessary, (3) Risk. Sort by ROI. PM should take the lead, working closely with the team. It's art + science.

4/ Prioritization: I suggest following the 70/20/10 rule: Roughly 70% of resources should go to low-risk, immediate impact work. Roughly 20% should go to risky, long-term bets. And roughly 10% should go to delight, fun, nice to haves that the team is excited about.

5/ Prioritization: Before sharing widely, take a second pass at this list and make adjustments based on (1) team voting results -- consider bumping up a team favorite, (2) strategic bets -- are there investments the org needs to make now, (3) sequencing -- what should come first.

6/ Prioritization: It's critical by this point to be developing a strategy and vision. You need your roadmap to be building towards something, not just be a bunch of good ideas. How will your team/company win? And how is the work you're doing supporting this? Adjust as necessary.

7/ Prioritization: Finally, work with leaders from each function to convert the flat list of priorities into a gantt chart. I personally like to have a row for each team member and a column for each week (e.g. 3 months). This will help you see what is doable. Be conservative.

8/ Communication: Throughout the process you should be keeping your team in the loop, getting feedback, bringing them along on the journey to avoid surprises. Integrate your team's feedback, make sure they are onboard. Then share with external stakeholders. Integrate their input.

9/ Communication: Once your team and your stakeholders are bought-in, share your roadmap and strategy widely. Make sure it's easy to find, visible, and a single source of truth. When things change (e.g. dates, priorities, blockers), update your roadmap.

10/ How often to refresh: I've found a quarterly cycle is the best balance between keeping things fresh, and avoiding excessive meta-work. However if you ever feel like things need a change, just do it. Often companies have their set cadence.

11/ How to structure it: I personally found Google Sheets the best place to keep a roadmap. It's flexible, fast, and anyone can use it. Many PMs like to use JIRA, Asana, and even Trello.

11/ Examples of roadmaps and additional resources:

usefyi.com/templates/road…

docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

sachinrekhi.com/how-to-priorit… and sachinrekhi.com/the-inputs-to-… by @sachinrekhi

intercom.com/blog/rice-simp… by @smcbride

foldingburritos.com/product-priori…

gusto.com/blog/growth/pr…

What other advice do folks have for building a roadmap?

A few people have asked me where research and data fit into this. They are both ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL throughout the process. Make sure to share key learnings from past research and data dives with the team before/while ideating, and prioritizing. Otherwise you are flying blind.