A good product roadmap is one of the most important and influential documents an organization can develop, publish, and continuously update. In fact, this one document can steer an entire organization when it comes delivering on company strategy.
This practical guide teaches you how create an effective product roadmap, and demonstrates how to use the roadmap to align stakeholders and prioritize ideas and requests. With it, you’ll learn to communicate how your products will make your customers and organization successful.
Whether you're a product manager, product owner, business analyst, program manager, project manager, scrum master, lead developer, designer, development manager, entrepreneur, business owner, this book will show you how to:
- Articulate an inspiring vision and goals for their product
- Prioritize ruthlessly and scientifically
- Protect against pursuing seemingly good ideas without evaluation and prioritization
- Ensure alignment with stakeholders
- Inspire loyalty and overdelivery from their team
- Get your sales team working with you instead of against you
- Bring a user and buyercentric approach to planning and decision-making
- Anticipate opportunities and stay ahead of the game
- Publish a comprehensive roadmap without overcommitting
| Foreword |
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xi | |
| Preface |
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xiii | |
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Chapter 1 Relaunching Roadmaps |
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3 | (26) |
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A Roadmap Should Embrace Learning |
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14 | (15) |
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Chapter 2 Components of a Roadmap |
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29 | (24) |
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Complementary Information |
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40 | (2) |
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42 | (8) |
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50 | (3) |
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Chapter 3 Gathering Inputs |
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53 | (14) |
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64 | (3) |
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Chapter 4 Establishing the Why with Product Vision and Strategy |
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67 | (20) |
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Mission Defines Your Intent |
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67 | (1) |
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Vision Is the Outcome You Seek |
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68 | (14) |
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82 | (2) |
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84 | (3) |
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Chapter 5 Uncovering Customer Needs Through Themes |
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87 | (26) |
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Expressing Customer Needs |
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87 | (16) |
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103 | (5) |
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"But I Need to Include Features!!" |
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108 | (5) |
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Chapter 6 Deepening Your Roadmap |
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113 | (14) |
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Secondary Components Summary |
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123 | (1) |
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124 | (3) |
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Chapter 7 Prioritizing--with Science! |
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127 | (30) |
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Why Prioritization Is Crucial |
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128 | (19) |
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A Formula for Prioritization |
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147 | (5) |
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Prioritization Frameworks |
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152 | (5) |
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Chapter 8 Achieving Alignment and Buy-in |
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157 | (16) |
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168 | (5) |
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Chapter 9 Presenting and Sharing Your Roadmap |
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173 | (30) |
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196 | (4) |
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200 | (3) |
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Chapter 10 Keeping It Fresh |
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203 | (24) |
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207 | (1) |
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208 | (16) |
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224 | (3) |
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Chapter 11 Relaunching Roadmaps in Your Organization |
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227 | (7) |
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228 | (6) |
| Postscript |
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234 | (4) |
| Index |
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238 | |
C. Todd Lombardo wears many hats, all at once: author, designer, scientist, professor, and visualizer. After beginning his career in science, C. Todd shifted his focus to product and design, ultimately innovating, designing, and managing products for countless companies large and small. In his role as Chief Design Strategist at Fresh Tilled Soil, he employs strategic thinking to craft smart, impactful solutions that radically transform clients product strategies. C. Todd serves as Adjunct Faculty at IE business School in Madrid, where he teaches courses on design in business and data visualization. Bruce McCarthy is CEO of UpUp Labs and President of the Boston Product Management Association. Having spent a lifetime as a builder and innovator, Bruce has a passion for helping crossfunctional product development teams work better together to deliver great products to market faster. Bruce is an internationally recognized thought leader and sought after speaker on product roadmapping and prioritization. Bruce and his team work with companies such as Vistaprint, Localytics, Zipcar, Johnson & Johnson, and Huawei, ?providing coaching, mentoring, and tools such as R?eqqs?, the simple, affordable roadmapping tool, and Awesomeness, ?a tool for measurably enhancing team effectiveness. Evan Ryan is a seasoned entrepreneur and product specialist, with over a decade of experience bringing products from concept to market. In that time he built two of his own companies and helped launch numerous others. As an Senior Design Strategist at Fresh Tilled Soil, Evan focuses on understanding ecosystems and extracting user insights to guide strategy and drive innovation. He works with a variety of organizations to solve mission critical problems and affect change; from startups, to nonprofits, to Fortune 500 companies. Michael Connors is the Executive Creative Director of Fresh Tilled Soil, a Boston-based design firm. He primarily leads strategic design thinking sessions for projects of all sizes. Throughout his 25+ year design career, he has been a hands-on designer for a wide range of deliverables for digital and print products. He was formally trained as a fine artist with an MFA in Painting. He has been a design consultant for major universities for many years and has regularly taught design at the higher ed level. He is currently Adjunct Faculty at IE Business School in Madrid, teaching workshops on design thinking. "
