{"id":3889,"date":"2023-07-27T16:20:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-27T15:20:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=3889"},"modified":"2025-01-13T16:50:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:50:21","slug":"how-to-build-a-product-roadmap-everyone-understands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/how-to-build-a-product-roadmap-everyone-understands\/","title":{"rendered":"Theme-Based Product Roadmaps: Something Everyone Can Understand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Need to build a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/guides\/product-roadmaps\/\">product roadmap<\/a>? Up until recently, no one really knew what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/why-release-dates-are-irrelevant-to-product-managers\/\">product roadmaps<\/a> were supposed to look like. Should it be a Gantt chart? A feature-based or theme-based roadmap? No one knew for sure, but we all knew something had to change.<br><br>At my old companies, we were using Jira and a release planner to communicate our product plans. They were long, complicated, and detailed &#8211; because, y&#8217;know, they\u2019re made for devs. They made for messy backlogs that were extremely hard to follow.<br><br>Today, roadmapping can be <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/glossary\/product-roadmap\/\">a contentious subject<\/a>, but at least one thing is self-evident: <strong>no one reads a product&nbsp;roadmap they can&#8217;t understand<\/strong> &#8211; TLDR!<br><br>Us Product people have discovered how powerful it is when a roadmap is so clearly designed that teams can put it at the center of product decisions, and companies put it at the center of their business decisions.<br><br>We\u2019re seeing how&nbsp;a roadmap can bridge your work with everyone else\u2019s, and put you back in control of your product.&nbsp;But&nbsp;how do you build that product roadmap?<br><br>In this post, I\u2019ll show you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/about-us\/our-roadmap\/\">how we use&nbsp;our product roadmap<\/a> to communicate high-level priorities so clearly that anyone &#8211; from CEO to summer intern &#8211; could&nbsp;walk away knowing what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/downloads\/how-to-move-from-timeline-to-agile-roadmapping-course\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-1024x240.png\" alt=\"a free course on how to move from timeline roadmapping to the Now-Next-Later from ProdPad product management software\" class=\"wp-image-81549\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-1024x240.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-300x70.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-768x180.png 768w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-1536x360.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/timeline-to-agile-course-blog-banner-2048x480.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-what-does-a-good-product-roadmap-look-like\">What does a good product roadmap look like?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The litmus test for a good product roadmap template to start from is that it\u2019s <b>visual<\/b>, <b>accessible,<\/b> and <b>clear<\/b><strong>.<\/strong> Anyone should be able to scan it and find answers to the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What are we doing?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why are we doing it?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How does this tie back to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/features\/portfolio-management\/objectives-and-key-results\/\">OKRs<\/a>?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"520\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-1024x520.png\" alt=\"An image demonstrating a Now-Next-Later theme-based roadmap\" class=\"wp-image-5642\" style=\"width:768px;height:390px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-1024x520.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-300x152.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-768x390.png 768w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-1536x781.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/roadmap-1-2048x1041.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>This is the fundamental idea behind a <b>theme-based product roadmap <\/b>&#8211; and its benefits are enormous and immediate. It will help you be able to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>Have way fewer meetings<\/b> &#8211; Your priorities (what and why) are clearly documented on the roadmap. You don\u2019t have to explain things differently to different people.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Foster healthy team debates<\/b> &#8211; Your roadmap can be the reference point team members use to challenge themselves and one another to link their deliverables back to roadmap goals and OKRs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Make product decisions everyone understands<\/b> &#8211; You\u2019re no longer the bad guy batting down ideas. You can actually discuss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/features\/customer-feedback\/\">customer feedback<\/a> and ideas through the lens of your roadmap and priorities everyone can see.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In the words of product discovery coach <a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" data-href=\"http:\/\/www.producttalk.org\/2014\/04\/drop-feature-based-product-roadmaps\/\" href=\"http:\/\/www.producttalk.org\/2014\/04\/drop-feature-based-product-roadmaps\/\">Teresa Torres<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;We need to let go of the idea that we can enumerate a list of features that represents what we\u2019ll do in the future. This idea is absurd. Rather than sharing feature lists with the rest of the company, we should be communicating how we will make decisions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>A theme-based roadmap is designed to do just that: communicate problems to be solved and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/bastow\/how-to-use-your-product-roadmap-as-a-communication-tool\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">open up the conversation around&nbsp;how to solve them<\/a>.&nbsp;<br><br>If you want to dig into this more, I recommend checking out our CEO Janna Bastow&#8217;s excellent presentation on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slideshare.net\/bastow\/how-to-use-your-product-roadmap-as-a-communication-tool\">using your product roadmap as a communication tool<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-start-with-this-theme-based-product-nbsp-roadmap-template\">Start with this theme-based product&nbsp;roadmap template<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>You&#8217;re probably already familiar with&nbsp;feature roadmaps &#8211; they usually look like Gantt charts or&nbsp;release plans. These are useful for planning projects, but they don&#8217;t communicate the big picture very well.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our theme-based roadmap of choice, the <a href=\"https:\/\/userlist.com\/podcast\/now-next-later-roadmapping-with-janna-bastow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Now-Next-Later roadmap<\/a>, replaces that with<i> time horizons<\/i>, made up of three columns:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1836\" height=\"707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/now_next_later.png\" alt=\"An image showing the three columns in a theme-based roadmap\" class=\"wp-image-5643\" style=\"width:625px;height:241px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/now_next_later.png 1836w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/now_next_later-300x116.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/now_next_later-768x296.png 768w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/now_next_later-1024x394.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1836px) 100vw, 1836px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>Now<\/b>: Stuff that you are currently working on.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Next<\/b>: Stuff that\u2019s coming up soon.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Later<\/b>: Stuff that you\u2019d like to work on in the future, but need to do a bit more research before you move on.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Note that we aren&#8217;t showing any timelines. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/roadmap-versus-release-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">This is not a release planner<\/a>, it is a bird\u2019s-eye view of your priorities. Those are always subject to change &#8211; there&#8217;ll always be something that happens in the future that you can\u2019t meaningfully plan for today.<br><br>The point is to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/get-away-ambiguous-timelines\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leave room to adjust to change<\/a>. If something you&#8217;re working on was current but now you want to push it back, you can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-define-initiatives-for-your-roadmap\">Define Initiatives for your roadmap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Themes are \u201ca promise to solve problems, not build features,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.centercentre.com\/jared-live\/#about-jared\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jared Spool, founder of User Interface Engineering<\/a>.<br><br>The idea behind <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Initiatives <\/strong><\/span>is that it&#8217;s better to tackle the root of the problem with a single, elegant solution than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/dont-take-every-feature-request-seriously\/\">burden yourself with a growing\u00a0laundry list of features.<\/a> You should be working at the problem level, asking what you can do to solve specific issues, rather than plotting out what feature to build next, just for the sake of <em>having<\/em> a feature to build next.<br><br>Developing <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">initiatives <\/span>for your theme-based roadmap enables you to define priorities in terms of problem areas, which are things that everyone can understand. It also enables you to actively incorporate the daily flow of customer feedback into your product planning.<br><br>For example, if you&#8217;re getting a lot of feedback for Single Sign On, then now&#8217;s not the time to drop everything and build 10 new ways to sign into your app. Rather, it&#8217;s time to set up a new roadmap card (like the ones you see below) and start pulling all this feedback together to help you explore the best way to start solving this problem (Fun fact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/features\/ai-for-product-managers\/\">ProdPad&#8217;s AI assistant can help do this for you!<\/a>).<br><br>This enables you to communicate with your company that you&#8217;re aware of the problem and that you&#8217;re thinking about it, but you don&#8217;t have to provide anyone with\u00a0the exact solution at this stage.<br><br>Each of the following roadmap cards represents an <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">initiative<\/span> except the last one.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"459\" height=\"1076\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/stacked-cards-1.jpg\" alt=\"Stacked Product Roadmap Cards\" class=\"wp-image-5595\" style=\"width:230px;height:538px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/stacked-cards-1.jpg 459w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/stacked-cards-1-128x300.jpg 128w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/stacked-cards-1-437x1024.jpg 437w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 459px) 100vw, 459px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Why has the last one been crossed out? Because<strong> roadmap&nbsp;cards should always be strategic, not tactical<\/strong>. \u201cRewriting transactional emails\u201d is too specific to be a strategy. It\u2019s a task rather than an initiative.<br><br>At this high-level view, those are details you don&#8217;t have to worry about yet. Save the granularity for when you get into the details of each card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-build-the-case-for-each-initiative\">Build the case for each Initiative<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Once you have your<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0Initiatives down<\/span>, you can attach more supporting details for anyone who wants to drill further down. These details help us strengthen what we\u2019re putting on our roadmap, which again, could include useful information for those reading it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What are we doing?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why are we doing it?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How does this tie back to our OKRs?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Internally, your team will have access to detailed information which will help prepare them and guide them through your workflow. These details include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>Ideas<\/b> &#8211; Tactical suggestions for improvement. These ideas answer a simple business case: <i>What problem are you trying to solve?<\/i><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>Customer feedback<\/b> &#8211; We attach feedback directly to ideas in ProdPad, so they can be linked to potential improvements and we can easily track what our clients are asking for.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><b>User stories<\/b> &#8211; Use case scenarios for ideas: <i>As a user, I want to X in order to Y.<\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Cards sitting in the Later column don\u2019t have to have all those answers yet, but as a card moves closer to the Now horizon, they should become a lot more detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"info-box\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Related<\/strong>: <a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/2016\/04\/how-to-write-great-user-stories\/\">How To Write Great User Stories<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-assemble-initiatives-into-a-product-strategy\"><br>Assemble Initiatives into a product strategy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>As you build your theme-based roadmap, you can color code and tag them to allow the viewer to sort through and filter down based on a particular interest. Kind of like you do with Post-it notes!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"804\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/product-roadmap-areas.png\" alt=\"How to build Product Roadmap Areas\" class=\"wp-image-5644\" style=\"width:597px;height:333px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/product-roadmap-areas.png 1440w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/product-roadmap-areas-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/product-roadmap-areas-1024x572.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/product-roadmap-areas-768x429.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>How about that basic usability, huh? This keeps it visually easy and engaging, and everyone will be happy you didn\u2019t make them sort through herds of cards to find what they came for.<br><br>Instead of staring blankly at one big roadmap, your colleagues can focus on the ones that are relevant to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-now-tie-it-all-together-with-nbsp-the-guide-to-roadmapping\">Now tie it all together with&nbsp;&#8216;The Guide to Roadmapping&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Cool, nice roadmap! \ud83d\ude0e But what do you do with it? Our CEO, Janna Bastow, gave <a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/100642934\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the most comprehensive talk out there<\/a> about how you can introduce your new product roadmap template across your business. It&#8217;s just 20 minutes &#8211; a perfect companion to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/resources\/guides\/product-management-process\/roadmapping\/\">flexible&nbsp;roadmapping method<\/a> you&#8217;ve just learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Janna Bastow - Guide to Roadmapping\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/100642934?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We&#8217;ve also crafted a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/downloads\/how-to-move-from-timeline-to-agile-roadmapping-course\/\">free course<\/a> which takes you through all the steps to move your organization from a timeline roadmapping approach to a Now-Next-Later theme-based roadmap. <br><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"callout callout__inline-cta flex\">\n    <div class=\"callout__content\">\n        <p class=\"font-weight-bold\">FREE Course: How to Move from Timeline to Theme-based Roadmapping<\/p>\n    <\/div>\n    <div class=\"callout__cta btn-group\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/downloads\/how-to-move-from-timeline-to-agile-roadmapping-course\/\" class=\"btn btn--cta\" rel=\"noopener\">Sign up<\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p>And to really get the job done, we&#8217;ve even created a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/downloads\/convince-stakeholders-slide-deck\/\">ready-made presentation deck<\/a> that you can download and present to your stakeholders to convince them that moving to a theme-based approach is better for business! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-start-building-your-new-theme-based-roadmap-in-prodpad\">Start building your new theme-based roadmap in ProdPad<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hit the button below to start your free trial today! Discover how to build a product roadmap in a tool that&#8217;s designed by product managers, for product managers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-left\"><a id=\"freeTrialBtnBlogPost\" class=\"btn btn--primary\" data-wplink-edit=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/app.prodpad.com\/signup\">Start your free trial<\/a><br><br>Enjoyed this article? Check out our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/\">product management blog<\/a> for more key insights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/downloads\/convince-stakeholders-slide-deck\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"240\" src=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-1024x240.png\" alt=\"download a ready-made presentation to convince your stakeholders to move to the Now-Next-Later product roadmap\" class=\"wp-image-81548\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-1024x240.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-300x70.png 300w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-768x180.png 768w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-1536x360.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/convince-stakeholder-presentation-blog-banner-2048x480.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Need to build a product roadmap? Up until recently, no one really knew what product roadmaps were supposed to look like. Should it be a Gantt chart? A feature-based or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5230,10,11],"tags":[38,155,182,5272],"pp_uni_tag":[],"class_list":["post-3889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-most-popular","category-product-leadership","category-roadmaps","tag-collaboration","tag-product-backlog","tag-product-roadmap","tag-theme-based-roadmaps"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Theme-Based Roadmaps | ProdPad<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Build a theme-based Product Roadmap that puts you in control. Visual, accessible, and clear for stakeholders to see your priorities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/how-to-build-a-product-roadmap-everyone-understands\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Theme-Based Product Roadmaps: Something Everyone Can Understand | ProdPad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Need to build a product roadmap? Up until recently, no one really knew what product roadmaps were supposed to look like. Should it be a Gantt chart? 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