How to create a roadmap from scratch

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How to create a roadmap from scratch

www.rechartedterritory.com

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A roadmap is like a travel itinerary in that in gives you a rough idea of how to go from where you are to where you want

to be, including stops you want to make along the way. It breaks down an overwhelming set of work into smaller chunks

that can be implemented over time to reach your vision.

What’s a roadmap?

A roadmap is a guide

Starting point

Destination (vision of the

future)

Roadmap

The roadmap is flexible (just like a good itinerary) so you can always make changes if you learn something new, but the

structure it provides can help you stay focused and maximize your time.

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Rework could be required if short-term decisions are made without knowledge of where the organization might go in the future.

Rework

It will be difficult for your team or for other teams to support the initiative if they don’t understand where you are trying to go and how the effort will be phased. Just like with your friends, springing something on them at the last minute isn’t always successful.

Coordination issues

Without a roadmap, the future of the project could be at the mercy of the whims of the day. Sharing a roadmap helps to explain what’s coming and align your whole team to that effort. By pointing to a roadmap, you can tell a story of what the future could be and discuss how the new item either complements or doesn’t fit into that narrative.

Direction shifts too often

Without a plan to reference, prioritization and decision making can take a lot longer, especially if there’s a large list

of possibilities to sort through.

Delayed decision making

Just like working out or eating well, tracking progress towards goals can help with compliance. If there’s no

roadmap or overview of your work, there’s potential to move down multiple paths slowly, resulting in minimal

progress towards any one goal.

Slow progress towards goals

People like to be part of a broader purpose, so if they don’t see the connection of their current work to the bigger

picture you might lose some of your best players.

Low team morale

What happens if you don’t have a roadmap?

Issues to watch out for

Does your team have a roadmap? If not, do you recognize any of these issues?

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What’s an example of a roadmap?

Example roadmap

Phase 0“As-is”

Phase 1“Teacher resources”

Phase 2“Local impact”

Phase 3“National impact”

Students

Teachers

Parents

Worksheets

Customized reports & tips

Group programs

Tutoring

Homework guides

Teacher/Parent online portal

Here’s a sample roadmap for a fictional tutoring business.

Teacher/Parent online portal

Tutoring apps

Aggregate reports & tips

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What are the parts of a roadmap?

The anatomy of a roadmap

Time scale

Categories Components

You can get creative with the formatting of your roadmap, but in general most roadmaps contain three major elements:

1) a time scale, 2) categories and 3) components. We’ll walk through more details about each one.

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Time scale

Phase 0“As-is”

Phase 1“Phase 1 title”



Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Item B

Regardless of the roadmap design, the time scale usually runs with the near-term phases on the left and the long-term on the right.

3-5 phases is a good rule of thumb for executive presentations and high-level roadmaps. With more than that, people can get lost in the details and the big picture strategy gets muddled.

Item B

Item D

Item E

Item CItem A

Item F

Item HItem I

Item G

Item J

Starting with the current state can help you see what you’re working with. If you’re building something from scratch then start with Phase 1.

You could use phases, quarters, months, dates, or the phrases “near term”, “medium term”, and “long term” to label your time scale.

Consider adding phase titles to each phase to highlight the theme. This content is also useful for when you start publicizing the changes to your customers.

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Categories/swimlanes

Phase 0“As-is”




Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Categories could be organized by customer type, program, product, or any other category.

Categories or “swimlanes” are typically represented in horizontal rows.

Item B

Item D

Item E

Item CItem A

Item F

Item HItem I

Item G

Item J

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Components

Phase 0“As-is”




Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Item B

Item D

Item E

Item CItem A

Item F

Item HItem I

Item G

Item J

This is the core of your roadmap. Create a box for each initiative and place it in the corresponding phase and category. We’ll talk about how to determine which phase to choose in upcoming slides.

Fill in each box with the initiative title, value proposition, product, service, or feature name. Don’t forget any key research initiatives.

You could also add other information such as goals, effort, value, etc. with symbols, numbers, text, or color coding.

Dependencies are typically indicated with a solid arrow connecting the items.

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First StepPick your roadmap

scope

Second StepOrganize your ideas

Third StepDefine your last

phase

Fourth StepDefine your first

phase

Fifth StepBuild out the

roadmap

Sixth StepBuild, measure,

learn, and adapt

How do I make a roadmap?

Overview of the process

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A roll-up of all of the work you’ll be doing over

time to create new products for your customers.

Product Development Roadmap Product Roadmap

A view of all of the current and planned initiatives

for improving your customer relationships.

Customer Relationship Roadmap

All of the backend work needed to keep your

business humming and scalable.

Operations Roadmap

Product Roadmap

Consulting Roadmap

Marketing Roadmap

Infrastructure Roadmap

Training Roadmap

This graphic illustrates an example of how you could decompose the work you’re doing into different roadmaps.

Towards the right, you have your most detailed and specific roadmaps. Those could be consolidated into a combined

view within a particular theme, such as the examples in the middle. And finally, at the far left you have your enterprise

roadmap. Generally, detail increases from left to right and the type of detail is tweaked to appeal to the needs and

interests of decision makers who will be viewing the roadmap (ex. CEO vs. department lead, vs. team lead).

First Step: Pick your roadmap scope

Think about a hierarchy of roadmaps

Enterprise

Roadmap

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By customer type

For example, if your product or business serves

doctors and patients, try drawing out a roadmap just

for the initiatives serving doctors.

By organizational structure

If you work in a department within a larger organization, make a roadmap that only

depicts what your department plans to accomplish.

Alternatively, create a high-level view of everything going on in

the organization.

By product or product line

Maybe your business includes selling both apparel

and apps. You could split your plan out into two

different product roadmaps.

By goal

Try out building a roadmap just including items related

to improving one metric. Examples could be

improving education levels or increasing profits.

First Step: Pick your roadmap scope

Some options for narrowing your scope

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Sub-steps

Second Step: Organize your ideas

Plot value vs. complexity

Value

Complexity

Phase large and valuable initiatives

Implement quick wins

Avoid spending time or $ on anything low value and complex

Defer low value, simple changes

a) Draw out a value vs. complexity chart on a whiteboard or a large sheet of paper.

b) Write each relevant idea on a 3”x3” post-it.

c) Use a value framework or dot voting to determine the relative value and complexity of ideas.

d) Review the high value/complex initiatives. Brainstorm ways to break them apart or radically simplify the solution without sacrificing value.

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Third Step: Define your last phase

Figure out where you want to end up

Phase 0“As-is”




Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Item I

Item G

Item JPut your most complex, highest investment, yet still valuable initiatives in this phase. Good candidates are anything that requires a lot of organizational buy-in, investment, or is dependent on the framework set up in earlier phases.

Put your most complex, highest investment, yet still valuable initiatives in this phase. Anything that requires a lot of organizational buy-in, investment, or is dependent on work to be completed in earlier phases.

This is also a good phase for any “nice to haves” or final upgrades that are slightly lower value.

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Fourth Step: Define your first phase

Pick a starting place

Phase 0“As-is”




Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Item B

Item D

Item E

Item A

Item I

Item G

Item J

Describe your current state here. If you are building something completely new then you can remove this column.

Put your easiest, high value wins in the first phase. Make sure to add in methods to capture data so you can adjust future phases if necessary.

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Fifth Step: Build out the phases

Complete the roadmap

Phase 0“As-is”




Category 1

Category 2

Category 3

Item B

Item D

Item E

Item CItem A

Item F

Item HItem I

Item G

Item J

Fill in the middle phase(s) with anything that builds on phase 1 but is less complex than items in the last phase.

Don’t hesitate to move items between phases as you identify dependencies.

A good goal is for each phase to have a cohesive theme. Fill in all of the phase titles once you’re happy with the setup.

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Sixth Step: Build, measure, learn, and adapt

Map out paths to alternative futures

Starting point

Destination B (alternative vision of

the future)

Roadmap B

Destination A (vision of the

future)

Roadmap A

Do you have lots of ideas of where you could end up? Go through the roadmapping exercise again, this time outlining a

path to an alternative end state.

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Sixth Step: Build, measure, learn, and adapt

Track your progress and make adjustments if necessary

Starting point Destination B

(alternative vision of the future)

Roadmap B

Destination A (vision of the

future)

Roadmap A

Roadmap A

As you start moving down any roadmap set up opportunities to continually learn and gather feedback. Then you can

review the data to decide if you should continue down your original roadmap or pivot to another one.

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To achieve great things two things are needed; a plan and not quite enough time.

— Leonard Bernstein, Composer

How will you use your roadmap to achieve great things?

www.rechartedterritory.com

How to create a roadmap from scratch

Business

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