How to create a roadmap from scratch
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The document outlines the process of creating a flexible roadmap, which serves as a strategic guide for organizations to transition from their current state to desired future states. It emphasizes the importance of breaking down overwhelming tasks, aligning team efforts, and maintaining focus through clear phases and categories. Additionally, it details steps for building a roadmap, including defining phases, organizing ideas by value and complexity, and encouraging ongoing learning to adapt the roadmap as needed.
How to create a roadmap from scratch
- 1. 1 How to create a roadmap from scratch www.rechartedterritory.com
- 2. 2 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.
- 3. 3 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?
- 4. 4 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
- 5. 5 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.
- 6. 6 What are the parts of a roadmap? Time scale Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 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 C Item A Item F Item H Item 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.
- 7. 7 What are the parts of a roadmap? Categories/swimlanes Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 title” 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 C Item A Item F Item H Item I Item G Item J
- 8. 8 What are the parts of a roadmap? Components Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 title” Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Item B Item D Item E Item C Item A Item F Item H Item 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.
- 9. 9 First Step Pick your roadmap scope Second Step Organize your ideas Third Step Define your last phase Fourth Step Define your first phase Fifth Step Build out the roadmap Sixth Step Build, measure, learn, and adapt How do I make a roadmap? Overview of the process
- 10. 10 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
- 11. 11 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
- 12. 12 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.
- 13. 13 Third Step: Define your last phase Figure out where you want to end up Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 title” 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.
- 14. 14 Fourth Step: Define your first phase Pick a starting place Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 title” 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.
- 15. 15 Fifth Step: Build out the phases Complete the roadmap Phase 0 “As-is” Phase 1 “Phase 1 title” Phase 2 “Phase 2 title” Phase 3 “Phase 3 title” Category 1 Category 2 Category 3 Item B Item D Item E Item C Item A Item F Item H Item 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.
- 16. 16 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.
- 17. 17 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.
- 18. 18 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