Continuous roadmapping
The continuous roadmapping process is a customer-centric approach to product development that helps review and adopt strategy, prioritize big bets, include stakeholders, and focus on what's important.
Product management teams in startups face numerous challenges that impact their ability to deliver successful products. Most importantly many teams struggle to deliver what really matters to customers and creates value for them and the business.
Opportunity and discovery are crucial in identifying what's important, but once you've determined what to focus on next, how do you integrate it into your process? When do you decide to start working on it? Do you drop everything else? How do you determine what's important to discover and where to focus your efforts?
There are numerous challenges, that make product development a very complex process:
1. Lack of effective decision making and prioritization in product development
2. Interruptions by business stakeholders with new ideas and initiatives
3. Inadequate product development process lacking outcome-based focus
4. Difficulty in incorporating customer needs and market insights into the product development process
5. Difficulty in balancing innovation and incremental improvements in product development
6. Aligning stakeholders and product teams with the same goals and strategy
7. Incorporating changing environments and priorities into product delivery process
8. Improper communication between product team and stakeholders
9. Unpredictable and discontinuous product development process
10. Lack of transparency and predictability in product team execution.
As a result of a lack of a continuous strategy review, decision and prioritization process many important decisions are often tackled in an ad-hoc manner, which leads to abrupt strategy changes or starting new big bets without planning for it. This is highly unproductive and frustrating for everyone involved. Instead, it's better to allocate time for decisions and preparation to ensure that everyone knows when changes will take place.
The continuous roadmapping process
This is where continuous roadmapping and prioritization come into play. They facilitate fixed points in time where important decisions are made based on customer feedback, learnings, data, and stakeholder input about what to do next.
It's a process for organizing big bets, reviewing and adjusting strategic alignment, and ensuring everyone is on the same page.
By doing so, it's possible to change direction without disrupting ongoing work and making everyone feel lost. Continuous roadmapping and prioritization are vital in ensuring that everyone is working towards the same goals and that the organization can adapt to changing circumstances, always keeping the main target in sight - building products that customers love and are willing to pay for.
The continuous roadmapping process is an empirical approach that emphasizes transparency, inspection, and adaptation, allowing for frequent iteration and adjustment.
It is a structured and frequent decision-making approach that helps startups overcome common challenges in product development. It prioritizes opportunities, incorporates customer feedback, stakeholder input and market insights, and ensures resources are allocated in a balanced manner. Regular updates on roadmap progress manage expectations and provide transparency.
The process also establishes cross-team communication and helps build a reliable roadmap that is updated on a regular basis.
I developed and tested this process in my own startup and implemented it in several others, with great results.
How it works in a nutshell
The continuous roadmapping process builds up on a 6-week product planning and management cycle - the RUN - that involves several key steps and meetings to ensure alignment and successful execution.
The process starts with "The Pitch" meeting, where stakeholders and the product team present their ideas and priorities.
Next, there's a 2-week refinement period where the initiatives are revised and prioritized using the RICE or any other prioritization method.
Then, in the pre-planning meeting, the product teams review the product strategy, learnings, data and goals and agree on the RUN Candidates for the next 6 weeks.
The review and planning ceremony involves reviewing the results of the previous cycle, sharing an updated product strategy and planning followed by launching a new cycle.
The RUN Detail Planning involves dividing the work into sprints and creating a detailed plan.
Finally, bi-weekly roadmap reviews are held to assess the advancement of initiatives and receive updates on their status.
Who is this process for?
This process is designed to assist
product leaders,
product managers,
multi-disciplinary product teams,
startup founders,
and startups with up to 5-7 product teams.
It can also be useful for anyone interested in streamlining the product discovery and development process.
Why 6 weeks and not 3 months or 2 weeks?
A 6-week planning and review cycle for the roadmap is more advantageous than a quarterly cycle for several reasons.
Firstly, in the fast-paced and unpredictable environment of startups, a lot can change in 3 months, but by reviewing the roadmap more frequently, teams can quickly adjust their plans in response to those changes.
Secondly, humans are prone to overcommitting when planning over a 3-month period as the time frame seems too long, but breaking it down into smaller periods helps focus on more manageable chunks of work.
On the other hand, bi-weekly planning requires a lot of effort, but there may not be enough information available to consider, and many initiatives cannot be contained within 2 weeks, leading to little to review and iterate on.
A 6-week cycle balances the ability to incorporate learnings and not overly taxing the team with excessive planning.
What it does not replace
This process does not replace your day-2-day product development processes like Scrum or Kanban.
It does not replace your regular ceremonies to plan your work for the next 2 weeks.
It does not replace your backlog management. It does not replace the management of user stories, smaller requests, bugs, etc.
This process helps manage your product strategy, big bets, features and opportunities on your roadmap.
How it works in detail
It is important to start with “The Pitch” because it provides a comprehensive view of the company's current needs and helps ensure that the planning process takes into account all relevant information. By having a Pitch ceremony two weeks before the first planning, all stakeholders have the opportunity to voice their needs and requirements, giving the planning team a better understanding of what the business needs in the next 6 weeks.
If the Pitch step is skipped and the planning process begins directly, there is a higher risk of disruption by unexpected requests or demands from stakeholders. This can result in the planning being less effective and not aligned with the needs and priorities of the business. By starting with the Pitch, the planning process is more informed and better equipped to accommodate the needs of all stakeholders, leading to a more successful outcome.
Preparations
The preparations for the first ceremony, "The Pitch," involve sending a reminder email to stakeholders two days before the meeting, including details on the time, location, and purpose. A template is provided to help them organize their thoughts and ideas, which should be added to the "Next" section in a roadmap.
The Pitch
Summary
The "The Pitch" ceremony has only one purpose: collect proposals, ideas, and initiatives from all stakeholders that the product team (multidisciplinary team, including tech, design, research, product management) should be working on in the next 6 weeks.
This includes obtaining their perspectives on priorities and enabling them to present their initiatives for consideration. Your product team will also present their ideas alongside the stakeholders.
Participants
Mandatory
Product Management Team
Tech leads, CTO
Representatives of all major stakeholders
Make sure not to blow up the list of participants. There should be only one stakeholder representative per stakeholder group.
Optional
Management, C-Level
It’s the best if the CEO or at least someone from the C-Level with insights on the current situation, goals and priority joins the meeting and shares their perspective
Agenda
Duration: 30-60 Minutes. Teams with experience in this process need less time than teams who are new to the process.
Introduction
Explain the process to the stakeholders. It is important that they understand the whole process and the purpose of this specific meeting. Repeating it in every meeting helps to create alignment on the process and onboard new joiners to it.Pitches
Start with the first stakeholder and their pitch.
Each stakeholder can pitch a maximum of 3 ideas, any additional ideas should be pitched outside of this meeting.
You should start with the stakeholders, then move on to the product team, where each person will pitch an idea.
For each initiative pitched, additional information should be added if available.
You should question the necessity of each initiative, ask questions to get a better understanding, try to understand the “Why” behind each proposal.
If time ran out and not everyone was able to pitch, contact stakeholders individually for further proposals.
Closing
Conclude the meeting with explaining the next steps of the process.
Stay with the product team for 5 more minutes in the meeting to discuss how it went.
Assign ownership to each initiative, so product managers can begin preparations for the next process step.
ToDos
Assign owners to each proposal
Artefacts
Roadmap
Watch out for
Make sure that stakeholders and everyone who brings up ideas understands a few key rules:
Only bring up ideas that the product team should work on in the next 6 weeks. It’s always about the next 6 weeks, not some time in the future.
If you have multiple ideas, consider using these questions to narrow down your choices:
Which of my ideas would have the biggest overall impact on the whole business?
What would be really harmful to the business if we didn't start working on XYZ in the next 6 weeks?
The pitched initiatives can be up for delivery and/or discovery
Manage expectations: let the stakeholders know, that not every pitched initiative will make it into the Next run
After a couple of times of conducting “The Pitch” you will start hearing repeatedly the same proposals, if you don’t tackle them at some point. The question will arise “Should we pitch them or not”. The answer is clearly yes. Because you need to know, that issue still exists. It’s hard for stakeholders not to give up after their initiatives have been constantly pushed to the next 6 weeks cycle, but it’s important that they are brought up again, to let everyone know that the issue is still there and needs attention.
Refinement
Summary
The 2-week period after "The Pitch" is dedicated to refining the suggested initiatives for the next 6-week cycle. This includes steps such as:
Contacting stakeholders to gather additional information on their proposed initiatives.
Updating the status of ongoing items.
Compiling a report that summarizes the review and outlook, which will be reviewed by the CPO and the teams.
Re-evaluating the overall strategy as a team, incorporating feedback from the CPO.
Organizing and prioritizing the initiatives based on the gathered information and revised strategy.
It's important to note that the refinement process is not a one-time event, but rather a continuous effort. Gathering additional information can be done through various methods, such as synchronous or asynchronous communication.
Participants
Product Management Team Members (I refer to the product management team as a multidisciplinary team including PMs, tech, design and researchers and everyone else who might be part of it)
CPO
Tech leads, CTO
Agenda
This process takes in total 1,5 weeks. There are no ceremonies required.
ToDos
Revise and Enhance Ongoing Initiatives:
Update status, scope, and due dates
Add missing subtasks and new information
Reprioritize as necessary, including potentially discontinuing work if new information suggests it's no longer needed
Collect Additional Information for New Initiatives:
Follow up with stakeholders for insights and details
Complete the initiatives template with additional descriptions, subtasks, RICE factors, attribution to OKRs, effort estimations, and dependencies
Set due dates
Prioritize Initiatives:
Identify the initiatives to be worked on in the next 6 weeks and mark as "Run Candidates"
Prioritize using any method, I personally prefer the RICE method
Focus Document Preparation:
CPO: Review the soon ending RUN and write a focus document, updating team OKRs if applicable
Product Team Leads: Prepare a focus document for their area, reviewing the past RUN
CPO and PMs: Share their focus documents in advance of the pre-planning meeting for review by all participants.
Artefacts
Focus document CPO
Focus document PMs (one per team)
Roadmap
Initiatives Template
Watch out for
The use of the RICE methodology for prioritization is not mandatory, you can choose to use another framework that works better for your team.
The exact RICE scores are not crucial, what is important is that you are able to compare one opportunity against another and prioritize accordingly.
When planning for the next 6 weeks, make sure you have a clear understanding of your team's capacity and what they can realistically accomplish. Keep in mind that there are also tasks from the backlog, such as small tweaks, experiments, and bug fixes, that your team needs to address during the sprints.
Make sure to include these in your capacity planning when considering delivery work. Avoid overloading your plan and try to avoid filling every second of the 6 weeks with planned work. Make sure to leave some buffer time to allow for unplanned events that will inevitably arise and to provide time for reflection.
Pre-Planing
Summary
The goal of pre-planning is to reach agreement among the product teams and their members about the RUN Candidates that will be addressed in the planning meeting.
Agenda
60-90 minutes. Teams with experience in this process need less time than teams who are new to the process.
Introduction
A 5-minute explanation of the procedure will be given to introduce the process. The main objective of the meeting is to determine the focus, align on goals and strategies, and establish the RUN Candidates for the next 6 weeks.
CPO's Key Focus
The CPO will present the crucial points of the focus document, outlining the high-level strategy by the head of the product team. Participants can ask questions.
Team Lead Strategy
Each product team lead will present their team's strategy, highlighting the key points rather than reading out the entire document. Participants can ask questions.
Team Plans for the Next 6 Weeks
Each team will explain their plans for the next 6 weeks, including ongoing initiatives and RUN Candidates.
Challenging the Plans
The plans will be evaluated to determine their priority. Participants will discuss all initiatives, verifying if all crucial information has been added to the candidates. The hypothesis and goals for each initiative should be clearly defined for later measurement when launched. Dependencies and deadlines will be checked to ensure timelines are not endangered. Overcommitment will be avoided.
Marking RUN Candidates
All Run candidates will be marked as such and set to the appropriate status. Those not being worked on will be left in the "Next" section of the roadmap.
Meeting Conclusion
The meeting will conclude with an agreement on the RUN Candidates.
Sharing Focus Documents
The focus documents will be shared with the participants in advance of the Review/Planning meeting.
ToDos
CPO: presents key information from the focus document
PMs present focus document for their teams
Each Product Team Lead explains, what their team will work on in the next 6 weeks, including ongoing and new initiatives
Check each initiative
Go through descriptions,
Check if initiatives template is filled out,
Check for sanity
Align on hypothesis, RICE and scope
Check, if all sub items were added as required
Check if, all time ad deadlines were added
Check all external dependencies
Check, if the teams did not overcommit
Discuss prioritization and plans
Mark all selected initiatives as “RUN Candidates”
Conclude the meeting with an agreement on the RUN Candidates
Artefacts
Roadmap
Run candidates
Watch out for
The primary challenge here is determining the extent of what can realistically be accomplished within the next 6 weeks.
Teams, particularly those that haven't been working together for an extended period, have a tendency to make excessive commitments. Both CPOs and management, as well as everyone else, often face difficulty in maintaining focus. This lack of focus is a significant factor contributing to overcommitment.
Please note that the current list of RUN candidates is not set in stone and may be adjusted during the following planning session.
Review and Planning
Summary
The aim of the review and planning process is to examine the results of the now ending RUN, consider its impact, finalize it, and launch a new RUN.
The RUN Candidates will be presented to stakeholders, and the plan will be aligned with their input. Afterwards, a commitment will be made to the new plan and the RUN Commitment along with the review of the previous RUN will be shared with the entire organization.
Participants
Mandatory
Product Team Leads
Tech leads, CTO
Representatives of all major stakeholders
Make sure not to blow up the list of participants. There should be only one stakeholder representative per stakeholder group.
Optional
Management, C-Level
It’s the best if the CEO or at least someone from the C-Level with insights on the current situation, goals and priority joins the meeting and shares their perspective
Agenda
60-90 minutes. Teams with experience in this process need less time than teams who are new to the process.
Introduction (5 Minutes)
In a 5-minute explanation, describe the process and its workings. The goal of the meeting is to review, provide a brief retrospective, present the RUN Candidates, engage in discussion, and make a commitment.
Review (10 Minutes)
Each team will share a summary, key facts, learnings, and achievements of the previous RUN using the focus document. Using the roadmap, each team will present what was accomplished in the last 6 weeks (this is not a demonstration, rather a review of items and an update on progress). The teams will highlight what was completed and what was not.
Retrospective (optional) (10 Minutes)
The CPO will give a brief retrospective on what went well and what didn't in the previous RUN. Others will be given the opportunity to provide feedback or ask questions.
Set Focus (10 Minutes)
The CPO will explain the key points of the Focus Document and present the high-level product strategy. A Q&A session will follow.
Each product team lead will then explain their team's strategy, focusing on the key facts and not reading out the entire document. A Q&A session will follow.
Planning (30 Minutes)
Each team will explain their plans and present their RUN Candidates for the next 6 weeks, including ongoing initiatives and new initiatives.
A Q&A and discussion session will follow, with the option to add or remove RUN Candidates.Once agreement on the final RUN Candidates has been reached, the product team will verbally commit to them.
All initiatives from the RUN Candidates should be moved to the "Now" section on the roadmap from the "Next" section.
Each initiative will be given the appropriate status, with initiatives planned for discovery receiving the status "Discovery Backlog," and initiatives ready for delivery receiving the status "Delivery Backlog."
ToDos
Review the ending run
Examine the last 6 weeks Evaluate the status of each roadmap item
Retrospective
Conduct a brief retrospective of the ending run
Establish focus
The CPO highlights the most crucial points
Product Team Lead present key information from their focus documents
Present RUN Candidates
Each team outlines their plan for the next 6 weeks Questions and answers/modification of the Run candidates
Commit to the final RUN Candidates
Initiate a new RUN Immediately
After the planning session, send a summary or the complete focus documents and RUN Candidates to the entire company
Move all RUN Candidates to the "Now" section on the roadmap
Set the appropriate status Place
Move all initiatives that were not included in the RUN into other sections, such as "Later" or "Ideas," based on their priority.
You may keep initiatives that are likely to be in the next Run in the "Next" section. However, avoid using the "Next" section as a storage place for unprioritized work. Keep the section organized.
Artefacts
Roadmap
Run Candidates
Email summary of new Run (focus documents + Run candidates)
Watch out for
The secret to successful planning lies in efficient refinement, preparation, and proper expectations management. The more thoroughly you discuss your plans with all relevant parties beforehand, the more refined your plan will become and the less resistance you will face from stakeholders.
If a discussion becomes heated and you are unable to agree on the sprint candidates, ensure that you commit to those that everyone can agree on and take the discussion about the disputed ones offline to find a resolution. It is acceptable to add them later to the RUN Candidates.
RUN detail planning
Summary
Once the RUN planning is completed, it is useful to further divide the work of the new RUN into weeks or sprints and create a detailed plan. It is crucial to allocate the necessary time for both discovery and delivery work. The main objective is to determine the amount of sprint implementation time required for each initiative and to plan the initiative's release.
Participants
Product Team Leads
Product Management Team
Tech Leads of the corresponding teams
ToDos
Plan the sprints high level
Break down initiatives and sub tasks by sprints
Aftermath
Once the plans have been made, you need to start the work on the discovery and delivery initiatives, break down the work into tasks and add them to the respective discovery and delivery backlogs. Here’s a guide, how you can proceed.
Bi-weekly status reviews
Summary
The objective is to periodically assess the advancement of the roadmap initiatives that you are working on, with a minimum frequency of bi-weekly.
During these reviews, you should receive a comprehensive update on the status of each initiative and whether it is progressing as expected.
The joint product all-hands, if held, would be an ideal venue for conducting these reviews.
If major learnings, changes and threats to due dates are discovered, share them with the stakeholder or the entire company.
Participants
Product Management team
Agenda
30 Minutes
Each product team lead gives a short summary of each initiative and where its standing
Q&A
ToDos
Review roadmap status
Get full update on each initiative
Share important changes and learning with stakeholders in a written form