How to Create a Product Roadmap? (Free Templates Included)

Even before COVID-19, remote work was a trend long in the making, becoming a standard component in many people's work lives. Back in 2017, Gallup conducted a poll that found that 43% of people log out of office on exact clock timing. A complete 31% of these worked four to five days out of office.

Tools are the connecting bridges that have kept the sanity and pace of the workflow going within organizations during this transition. Everything from communicating to project management is kept afloat with different but right products.

Product development is no easy feat, but thankfully there are multiple products in the market to suit our requirements. In this whole process, product road mapping is one of the unsung heroes.

Also check out: 7+ Product Templates to help you in your product development journey

What is a Product Roadmap?

A product roadmap is a visual communication tool that gives the company a better understanding of the high-level product strategy. It provides an overview of all aspects of the upcoming project: goals, features, timeline, resources, etc.

The product roadmap simply tells you exactly what the product team is developing, the problem it will be solving, and their business goals. With product roadmaps, companies can keep track of the necessary pieces of information to align stakeholders.

As stakeholders are essential parts of a company and the products made, it is easier for them to keep track of product development with product roadmaps. It helps everyone understand how their contribution will suffice in the bigger picture and stay aligned.

Also check out: Product Launch Template to assist in your Product's Launch Planning.

Why are Product Roadmaps Important?

Product roadmaps are essential for various reasons, and most importantly it helps to communicate details about a specific product and its development to the involved stakeholders.

They are important for both the stakeholders, and the product development team. Since product roadmaps are well-organized, they give the stakeholders a complete understanding and better insight into the product development process, and end goals.

Product roadmaps are also useful for the development teams as they are intricately invested in the product development process. The map gives them a sort of progress report. It also tells them more about the areas that need more attention - where work is to be done.

Companies also use product roadmaps to determine product positioning and the competition in the market. Using a strategic framework, it is easier for teams to understand the competition the product will face to surpass the barriers.

How to Create a Product Roadmap?

Product roadmaps are created to organize a company's work; therefore, before creating a roadmap, one must be clear about their intended audience and create roadmaps accordingly.

For example, stakeholders will be more interested to see the development of the products and how their investment is providing them a profit.

At the same time, customers will be more interested to know the theme of the product and the facilities it will provide, and what makes the new product different and better from the already available products in the market.

The five main steps to follow to create a product roadmap are:

• Strategy:  defining the strategy is one of the main elements as it sets the vision, goals, and outlook for the development of the product. When a product has a strong vision, it helps the team understand its standing and the competition it will face in the market.
• Review and manage the ideas: the best way to consider the inputs by the customers is by analytically ranking the suggestions. This ensures the metric to be reflected in the improvements made by the product marketing team.
• Defining features and requirements: If the company's strategy is "why," then the teams must work to find the "how." This means that if the plan made for the product talks about the usage of the product, then the teams need to focus on the drawbacks so that the product can sustain the competitive market.
• Organize releases: Once everything is being taken care of, the teams can release the product. These can be grouped according to specific launch dates or according to the company's capacity.
• Choosing a view:  Handle your product roadmap in different views - Kanban for a status pipeline or calendar to track your releases or even create custom forms to bring feedback from your customers.

Product Roadmap Template

Stackby is a cloud-based collaborative spreadsheet-database hybrid that empowers people to create their workflows and automate them with third-party services.

It is entirely flexible and can be customized as per the needs of the user. It works best for product roadmaps as keeping track of all the product development is hectic and time-consuming.

Stackby offers you a free product roadmap template, which you can use to:

• Track the product planning roadmap and milestones on a single interface.
• Start from the top - Stories, Epics, Sprints and Releases in different linked tables.
• Record each epic that is created and attach a description.
• Track each story and attach an ID to the same. The current status is also easier to track.
• Monitor the start date and end date of each sprint and its current status.
• Use the template’s in-built calendar to monitor the releases.
• Recording the planned and actual release date.

Also check out: 100+ different templates to help you customize your workflow.

How can you create a product roadmap with Stackby?

It is pretty easy to create a product roadmap with Stackby. All you have to do is follow these steps:

First, after logging in to Stackby, move to the Dashboard and create a workspace.

After creating the workspace, click on the 'add stack’ button to create a new stack. Then choose the ‘templates’ option.

This is where you will land.

Next, look for the product roadmap template. Click on it, and you will land on the product roadmap template page.

Next, click on the ‘use this stack’ button.

You will be redirected to this screen.

Select your workspace, and then click on the ‘add stack’ button.

Click on the stack to access it. This is what it will look like:

Now, you can customize this template according to your requirements/product plan. You can also access the templates in a calendar view to understand the timelines of various milestones in your product roadmap a little better.

You can also use the gallery view to get a pictorial representation of all stages in your product roadmap.

All you have to do is click on the arrow next to the name of the stack.

Then, click on the add view option and access the stack in any view you want.

Conclusion

Product roadmaps are an undeniably important part of a product's journey. It acts as the connecting bridge between the product developers, investors, and any other people involved. Stackby aims to make this process as easy as possible for everyone. If this looks helpful, feel free to check out our other templates and use them accordingly!