{"id":77406,"date":"2022-01-05T15:17:31","date_gmt":"2022-01-05T15:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?p=77406"},"modified":"2025-01-13T16:26:03","modified_gmt":"2025-01-13T16:26:03","slug":"product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year, New Product Roadmap – Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As we enter a new year and a new planning cycle, many product people find themselves in a knot about what to include in their product roadmap<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the biggest challenges is figuring out how to fit in all the things that weren\u2019t done from last year, AND all the things that have made it to the wishlist for this year. Roadmaps come with a lot of baggage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Product roadmap bankruptcy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a concept I call Roadmap Bankruptcy<\/strong>, and it\u2019s actually really freeing. If you\u2019ve got a crap roadmap, just go push it all to the side tomorrow and start with fresh eyes. Throw out your old roadmap and start again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only when you\u2019ve gone through the process of recreating and checking your assumptions with colleagues about what should be on there, should you go back and compare to your old roadmap. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Building<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You might find that there\u2019s a bunch of stuff that didn\u2019t get back on there. Features that seemed important last year, but when stacked against the problems and opportunities you\u2019ve faced this year, they just don\u2019t make as big a difference as you once thought. That\u2019s okay and healthy! It\u2019s a sign that you and your team are learning and adapting based on what you\u2019re seeing in the market and with your customers\u2019 needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anything that didn\u2019t get added back in represents a whole bunch of unnecessary work that you just avoided for you and your team. There\u2019s nothing more lean than that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll also probably find that new initiatives will find their way into your product roadmap this year\u2014things that weren\u2019t even mentioned in a previous roadmap. This is healthy too. Oftentimes, the act of putting aside your attachments to previous plans\u2014ie. Last year\u2019s roadmap\u2014means you can think more freely and openly about what you should really<\/em> be working on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try this out today:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A risk-free way to rethink your roadmap and check if you\u2019re on the right path.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Step 1: Starting afresh<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Save your existing roadmap somewhere safe. You\u2019ll refer back to this later, but you probably won\u2019t return to that<\/em> particular roadmap again. You\u2019re starting afresh \ud83d\ude0e<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Step 2: Start a free trial<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Start a ProdPad trial<\/a>, and head on over to the Roadmap builder page for your product. It gives you lots of space to work through the initiatives and related product work ahead.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Step 3: Create initiatives <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In the Candidates column, create initiatives to represent each problem or opportunity that lays ahead for your business. These aren\u2019t generally feature-related, but a level above\u2014more like the problem that needs to be solved. We\u2019ll add potential solutions and feature-level details later on, but it\u2019s important to start with problems<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our product experts sometimes find it helpful to phrase these initiatives like questions, rather than like statements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Click to enlarge<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Step 4:\u00a0Prioritize these problems into Now-Next-Later<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t feel like you have to get this perfect on your first stab. Your aim here is to lay out the steps you think the product should take in order to progress towards the objectives<\/a> and vision<\/a> that have been outlined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think of this process more like prototyping rather than \u2018pixel-perfect\u2019 designing your plan. Your goal is to lay out your assumptions of what problems exist and which order you could tackle them to maximize your success, and then use your roadmap to share those assumptions with others so they can be checked and adjusted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more open and flexible your roadmap is at this point in time, the more robust of a strategy you\u2019ll ultimately come up with. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Step 5: Roadmap solutions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Map out potential ideas or experiments that could solve each problem. Once you have a good idea of the overarching steps in the strategy (the set of problems to be solved, and the order you\u2019ll tackle them), you can start seeing how you might break it down into concrete product experiments and iterations that\u2019ll make the impact you\u2019re aiming for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In general, you want to identify at least 3-5 different experiments (we call them \u2018Ideas<\/a>\u2019 in ProdPad) that could be run to try to solve each problem identified on the roadmap. This way, you\u2019re not \u2018falling in love with your idea\u2019, a warning shared by Teresa Torres <\/a>when she talks about her Opportunity Solution Tree<\/a> (which works really well in conjunction with the ProdPad format of Now-Next-Later!<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Step 6: Compare with your old roadmap<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Compare your new Now\/Next\/Later roadmap with the one you left off within Step 1. What new problems did you identify that you\u2019d missed off with your previous version? If these are, in fact, important problems, then this roadmapping exercise has been well worth it! Anything that helps identify problems that might have been unrecognized or uncommunicated is time well spent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was left off the new roadmap? Now that they didn\u2019t fit the mold for your new year’s plans, are they really that important? If you forgot something that was truly important, then it\u2019s a good time to reassess this new roadmap and figure out where these sit in the bigger picture. More important or less important than the other things you and your team identified?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You will almost certainly find that some things are left off the roadmap, and frankly, don\u2019t need to be added back on. By taking this step back, you\u2019ve been able to put your fresh eyes on things and see a new path to meeting your goals. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n

Step 7 and beyond…<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Continue sharing and iterating on this new roadmap as you learn more and more each day this year.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we enter a new year and a new planning cycle, many product people find themselves in a knot about what to include in their product roadmap. One of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"pp_uni_tag":[],"class_list":["post-77406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roadmaps"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew Year Product Roadmap - Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s a concept called Product Roadmap Bankruptcy that's actually really freeing. Learn how to throw out your old roadmap and start again.\" \/>\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\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New Year, New Product Roadmap - Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy | ProdPad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As we enter a new year and a new planning cycle, many product people find themselves in a knot about what to include in their product roadmap. One of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ProdPad\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-05T15:17:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-13T16:26:03+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Blog.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2040\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Janna Bastow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@simplybastow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@prodpad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Janna Bastow\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New Year Product Roadmap - Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy","description":"There\u2019s a concept called Product Roadmap Bankruptcy that's actually really freeing. Learn how to throw out your old roadmap and start again.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New Year, New Product Roadmap - Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy | ProdPad","og_description":"As we enter a new year and a new planning cycle, many product people find themselves in a knot about what to include in their product roadmap. One of the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/","og_site_name":"ProdPad","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow","article_published_time":"2022-01-05T15:17:31+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-01-13T16:26:03+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2040,"height":1100,"url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/New-Blog.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Janna Bastow","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@simplybastow","twitter_site":"@prodpad","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Janna Bastow","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/"},"author":{"name":"Janna Bastow","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ceec8b615b0ad09e9199ba2fa8545e8c"},"headline":"New Year, New Product Roadmap – Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy","datePublished":"2022-01-05T15:17:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-13T16:26:03+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/"},"wordCount":980,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Roadmap-Building-Image.svg","articleSection":["Roadmaps"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/","name":"New Year Product Roadmap - Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Roadmap-Building-Image.svg","datePublished":"2022-01-05T15:17:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-01-13T16:26:03+00:00","description":"There\u2019s a concept called Product Roadmap Bankruptcy that's actually really freeing. Learn how to throw out your old roadmap and start again.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Roadmap-Building-Image.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Roadmap-Building-Image.svg","width":500,"height":290,"caption":"Building a lean roadmap"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/product-roadmap-embrace-roadmap-bankruptcy\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Latest Blogs","item":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/category\/latest-blogs\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Roadmaps","item":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/category\/latest-blogs\/roadmaps\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"New Year, New Product Roadmap – Embrace Roadmap Bankruptcy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/","name":"ProdPad","description":"Product Management Software","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#organization","name":"ProdPad","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blue-full.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/blue-full.png","width":2050,"height":400,"caption":"ProdPad"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ProdPad\/","https:\/\/x.com\/prodpad","https:\/\/instagram.com\/prodpad","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/prodpad\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCXHOx5Ed-6sHPujypIlhdMA"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ceec8b615b0ad09e9199ba2fa8545e8c","name":"Janna Bastow","description":"Janna Bastow is co-founder of ProdPad, software that helps product managers plan and deliver better products. Janna also organizes ProductTank events around the world, including Mind The Product, a global community of product managers. She likes to inspire great product conversations by asking: \u201cWhat problem are you trying to solve?\u201d","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bastow","https:\/\/x.com\/simplybastow"],"url":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/blog\/author\/janna-bastow\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77406"},{"taxonomy":"pp_uni_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prodpad.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pp_uni_tag?post=77406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}