Shift from Timelines and Features to Timeframes and Outcomes
Justin Woods, Founder
Have you ever found yourself working in an organisation that wasn’t fully aligned in its mission? Sometimes teams can be so focused on completing tasks that they’ve lost touch with the larger vision of solving problems and delivering value to their customers.
It’s a dangerous situation, and it’s something I discuss with my co-host Justin Woods in Episode #1 of our YouTube Show: Talking Roadmaps. And of course, we also dive into solutions that facilitate communication and alignment.
Welcome to Our Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
We’re product guys, so we’ve decided to take an MVP approach to our first two episodes of Talking Roadmaps by interviewing each other, as though we were guests. In this episode, I delve into Justin’s vast roadmapping experience.
Justin is the founder of Roadmap Heroes, a consulting and training company that empowers tech teams to plan strategy, track execution, and clearly communicate using roadmapping tools. He has guided hundreds of companies—from startups to multinationals—with their roadmapping plans and Aha! implementations.
We covered quite a few topics in this MVP, and some interesting threads emerged. One theme that weaved its way throughout the discussion was how a roadmap can give direction to a company and steer product teams toward delivering value—assuming they do it right!
What are some other key takeaways from Episode #1?
- Anchor your roadmap on data insights and outcomes to help avoid disagreements
- Everyone should contribute to a roadmap, from stakeholders and customer-facing teams to product teams and engineering
- Roadmap visualisations may vary depending on the company, culture, team, or product/service.
- Roadmaps are about timeframes, OKRs are about measurable goals, but both are important.
Curious to learn more? Watch Episode #1
So… there’s a wrong way to roadmap?
We’re not autocratic about these things. As Justin points out, “Roadmaps are like opinions. Everyone tends to have them, and they all tend to look different from each other.” They can take a variety of forms, but that doesn’t mean all roadmaps are created equal.
With this in mind, I asked Justin to identify one thing he can’t stand seeing in a roadmap—something that epitomises a “worst practice.” He cheated a bit and gave me two (closely related) answers: timelines and features.
Why are timelines and features an issue? Creating a roadmap that consists primarily of specific features that must be delivered on precise dates misses the point of roadmapping. These deliverables are focused on the team or the organisation’s demands, rather than centring the roadmap on solving problems for the customer. Solving real problems requires flexibility and broader vision, which means companies should shift their focus from timelines and features to timeframes and outcomes.
Highlighting timeframes and outcomes
What makes for a good roadmap? An effective roadmap is an aspirational journey, guiding your company from where you are now to where you want to be in the weeks, quarters, and years to come. Justin explains that roadmaps give a notion of strategic approach and intent.
As target timeframes approach, you will organise the roadmap a little tighter, prioritising certain goals and shifting others. Still, a good roadmap remains a living, breathing document that is subject to change. Unlike release plans, great roadmaps embrace flexibility by remaining open to changing priorities, shifting demand, and evolving competitive landscapes.
Communication, alignment, and buy-in
“If you communicate once, people think you’re going to stick to that [plan] throughout the year, but if you show them that the information is contemporary and up-to-date, you get people more involved. It’s a living document, and they’re more invested in what’s going on.”
Since you’re dealing with an evolving plan, Justin reminds us that regular communications and updates are vital. Not only does it signal to your team that you really are agile, but it also keeps them more engaged.
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