The following blog post summarizes the third chapter of the Product Roadmaps Relaunched book by C. Todd Lombardo, Bruce McCarthy, Evan Ryan, and Michael Connors. Published on November 28, 2017. The third chapter is reviewed and summarized using my best judgment of the most essential information.
Before drafting your roadmap, it is important to reflect on which phase of the product life cycle your product is currently in. Roadmaps will look and speak differently for products in different phases of their life. Equally important is gathering input for your roadmap; if you don’t know who you’re creating your product for, you might as well be wearing a blindfold. Insights and inputs from your market, customers and stakeholders can help you shape and guide your product down the best path for survival. In addition to input, it is also important to understand the domain in which your product resides (the technology, competitors, etc.).
New Product Phase
The new product phase is typically associated with start-ups. Still, these are not the only cases that qualify as “new product”. Many companies create and innovate new products to add to their portfolio. These all qualify as “new product”.
These first versions of your product roadmap will ultimately lead to the first complete version of your product, your MVP.
At this stage, many assumptions will be made, and the name of the game is rapid prototyping and validation. Brainstorming ideas, building a prototype and quickly validating the idea to pivot or crush the idea if it is not the right solution.
Growth Phase
At this stage, you’ve already created the first version of your product. Therefore, the next goal of your roadmap is to help you scale your product and get it in as many hands as possible; however, you decide to achieve that. At this stage, fewer assumptions are made since your first version is established; therefore, the risk is quite a bit lower.
Product Expansion Phase
This third phase englobes any expansions into new markets. This could be new geographical locations or new market sectors (shifting from medical to construction, or dogs to cats, for example).
Expansions are still for your original product but address new personas; therefore, new research, insights, messaging, and features are needed to properly address that expansion.
So, your roadmap iterations would help you guide your expansions at this stage.
Harvesting Phase
This stage referred to in the book as the “cash cow” phase, is where your product has successfully achieved product market fit, has been available to the market for some time and has a growing user base.
It may seem that at this stage, you may just sit back, kick your feet up, and relax, but it is quite the opposite. With a growing user base comes an ever-increasing list of demands, fixes and feature requests.
Therefore, your roadmap will help you decide what is most important for your users right now, what will delight your customers, and deliver the most value.
End-of-Life
The last stage, and the most dreaded stage, is the end-of-life stage. This is also one of the hardest decisions to make, to know when to end a product’s life.
Your roadmap here will help you guide your communication and strategy to this exit. Including communication with stakeholders, customers and alternatives being offered, if any.
Input from the Market
To successfully launch, build and achieve product-market fit, it is essential to have a good understanding of the market domain. Some essential knowledge and documentation you will want to have are the following:
– Problem and solution
– Value proposition
– Unfair advantage
– Key metrics
– Customer segments
– Distribution channels
– Costs
– Revenue mode
– Key partners
– Key resources
An efficient way to store this information is in a Lean Canvas document. If you google “Lean Canvas”, you will find many templates to use. Lean Canvas is typically used by small businesses or start-ups; business model canvas is usually used by companies who have established products ( in the expansion and harvesting phase ).
The most crucial piece of information here is the problem and solution. How do you address the problem? What do you do to help your customers solve that problem?
Input from Customers
Customer feedback and insights are highly effective ways to help develop your product. But to gather truly valuable feedback, you must understand who your customers really are. Typically user personas and buyer personas are used to summarize who your customer base is. It is essential to distinguish these two from each other.
In some cases, those who buy your product may not be the same people who use your product. For example, in large organizations, like a school, a product may be purchased by the school board with the intention for the children to use it. Therefore, it’s essential to outline personas for both the user and the buyers separately to understand what motivates them, what they struggle with and what their needs are because you may find that they are very different.
In these user personas, roles would also be outlined. It is important to consider what their specific roles are within the organization. Roles can be thought of as jobs or functions within an organization. For example, a student’s role would be to learn. In contrast, an administrative assistant’s role would be to keep the organization organized and informed. These roles help set the stage for your user and buyer personas and their capabilities.
Input from Stakeholders
As important as external factors, input from internal stakeholders is equally as important. Similar to your users, it is important to understand who your stakeholders are and how they contribute to the development of your product.
Not all stakeholders may contribute at all stages of product development. For example, stakeholders from the financing department may only contribute to pricing or marketing spending. In contrast, the product core team will contribute at every stage.
Summary
In summary, it is important to understand your product, its’ stages and the domain in which it resides. In addition, you must understand, in depth, who your customers, buyers’ and internal stakeholders are, their needs, and how and when they contribute to the product development process.