Why do we have a roadmap? [[framework/wardley]]/why of purpose

• primarily a communications tools

• to share our thinking about

  • focus

  • sequencing

• to prompt conversations

What is a roadmap?

• a sequence of opportunity bets (aka roadmap item)

• an opportunity bet is To undertand It's a bet that we can make progress on our business needs and/or a bet we can help our users make progress on their needs. Some opportunity bets are intended to benefit just our business, but most are intended to benefit both our business and some of our users.

  • Who:

  • Because:

  • We Will Be Done When:

  • While/Without:

  • By:

• the sequence is from the past, to now, to the future, the further out they are in the future, the less detail they have

  • Later	Soon	Up Next	In-Progress	Recently Released	Completed

How do we create, revise a roadmap?

• Get clear what are our business needs framework/system

  • what does the business want

  • how will the business know when it has it?

  • what stops the business from getting it?

  • for our business

    • the progress the business wants to make

    • how the business know it was successful

      • Highest level measurable goals for business

      • aka Goal, Outcome, KPI, OKR

    • how the business changes in order to make progress

      • what are the unmet needs, for our business, that keep us from making progress towards that success?

• Get clear what are our user needs

  • for each type of user

    • Pattern/Outcome Frame/What Do You Want?

    • Pattern/Outcome Frame/How Will You Know When You Have It?

    • Pattern/Outcome Frame/What Stops You From Getting It?

  • for each type of our users

    • the progress the person wants to make

    • how the person knows it was successful

    • how the persons job changes in order to make progress

    • what are the unmet needs, for each type our users, that keep them from making progress towards their success?

    • Users will switch to a new solution if they can get their job done significantly better/faster/cheaper

• Combine them to make a roadmap (a sequence of opportunity bets)

  • To identify the opportunity bets, ask ourselves

    • What is our mental model for “value” (why, who, how, what?)

    • Where do we believe we should focus?

    • How do we think about the shape and sequence of our bets?

    • What are the opportunities that help both :our users make progress towards their success AND our business to make progress towards our success? these are the roadmap items

  • To clarify each opportunity bet, ask ourselves

    • How is our work connected and layered?

    • How do we break big things down into smaller things?

    • how do we convert assumptions into facts and adapt to what we learned

• Overall - while working on the roadmap, notice

  • What are the knowns (facts) assumptions and unknowns?

  • What is more and less clear in our heads right now? (confidence)

  • What have we more committed to, what have we less committed to?

  • That this is a living document, to be revisited and possibly revised often (e.g. monthly)

  • The tension about how much detail to commit to and when to commit to it

• Sources

  • People/John Cutler