ROADMAP CREATION FOR A QUICK STARTUP LAUNCH

The most significant limitation of a startup is time, and planning process is, at best, a luxury. Without product planning, however, there is confusion, blunders, and rework. So, with that in mind, here's how to create a product roadmap that corresponds with your company's aims while not slowing down your throughput.

Why The Majority Of Startup Product Roadmaps Fail? 

A fast online search will yield dozens of upsell papers containing such lists, ranging from missing deadlines to improper document versioning. 

However, most of those digital marketing pieces will highlight, perhaps in slightly different words, that one of the most prevalent and serious issues is that the roadmap is "simply a list of features." 

This is supposed to make you turn your head. Most of those upsell components will get a little hazy as to why having a company-wide disclosed list of future features is a concern at that point.  Why be ambiguous? Because, at its heart, a product roadmap is simply a list of features.

That's also when those articles normally attempt to sell you something. 

The issue with most roadmaps isn't that they're "simply a list of features," but that they're a list of random items with limited to no link to the company's goals and little to no consideration for the speed of the company's build cycle.

Development Of Company Goals

Before you start creating roadmaps and project plans, make a chronology of your company's business goals. Each objective is comprised of a number of initiatives, programs, and projects – whatever it takes for your team to achieve that goal. Define each goal precisely, execute it flawlessly, scale the outcomes, and refine them when achieved.

The initiatives, programs, and projects that lead to the goal can then be carried out in such a way that the end is "accomplish the goal," not "complete the project." Each of the above projects, initiatives, and programs has a place on your product roadmap and in your project plans, where they can be managed by timelines, updated in status meetings, or handled anyway you see fit. 

With this goals roadmap in place, every item on your roadmap must be one of the following:

1. A strategic initiative closely tied to one of your aims, or 

2. A critical revenue tactical project that generates far more return than the costs.

A Goal-Oriented Road Map Eliminates A Lot Of Chaos

We don't mind if your roadmap is merely a list of features. In particular case, our organization isn't building one thing at a time, thus our roadmap is more epic-based than story-based terminology. However, each activity that our builders complete may be explicitly linked toa goal of the company, including how far that specific task gets us in terms of progress toward that goals' objectives. 

Not only that, but when new tactical possibilities arise, we can typically link them back to a strategic aim, or not, and then decide where that possibility should fall on our priority list. It provides flexibility and direction to our entire organization, from high management to sales executives to junior developers. 

There is less chaos. More advancement.

Velocity Is The Rate At Which You Make Progress Toward Your Objectives

Velocity is one of those overused business terms for the wrong reasons. To put it simply, velocity in startup refers to how quickly you can create runway without burning it. 

Priorities can change so oft  and so quickly in the early days of a business, all the way up through the development and scale stage and into maturity, that a product roadmap is generally out of date by the time it's released.

Did the approach change? Did the specifications change? Did the market really change? 

No. The "objectives" have shifted. That is, the objectives were not written in such a way that they would be followed from quarter to quarter when flashy new profit non-strategic opportunities appeared and vanished. In other words, the startup found new funds to pursue. 

The truth is that, until a business reaches maturity, its top priority is to do whatever it necessary to keep the doors open and promote growth. There would be no risk in startups if starting teams, investors, and boards of directors knew exactly what it required to get there. Without reward. And it wouldn't be interesting.

So, as a startup velocity isn't about product roadmap features or project plan milestones and deadlines. It is about achieving the objectives that correspond to the aims. It requires time to clarify those objectives, and doing so while sprinting a million miles per hour and making thousands of sales per day is like building the vehicle while it's driving down the highway, but also designing it for the road that's being paved in front of you without crashing. 

When your product roadmap is goal-driven, all of the tasks and projects to build the product become evident.