A roadmap is essentially a strategic guide that gives you an overview of goals, plans, and milestones for a project, product, or an entire company. Think of it as a plan that shows where you’re going, what you need to do to get there, and when things need to happen.
Roadmaps are often used in product development, business development, and project management to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards the same objectives.
Different Types of Roadmaps
1. Product Roadmap
A product roadmap outlines how a product will develop, from launch dates to new features and key milestones. There are several types:
- Feature-based roadmap: Focuses on which features will be developed and released.
- Goal-based roadmap: Focuses on the major goals and what needs to be done to achieve them.
- Timeline-based roadmap: Gives a schedule for when different parts of the product should be completed.
- Now-Next-Later roadmap: Shows what is prioritized now, what’s coming up next, and what’s planned further down the line.
2. Technology Roadmap
A technology roadmap shows the development plan for technologies that support a product or service. It can include:
- Architecture roadmap: Focuses on how the technical architecture will evolve over time.
- Platform roadmap: Plans the development of platforms to support future products and services.
- Infrastructure roadmap: Outlines improvements to the company’s IT infrastructure.
3. Business Roadmap
A business roadmap provides an overview of a company’s strategic goals and how to achieve them, from marketing to sales and expansion.
- Strategic roadmap: Displays the company’s long-term goals and the key initiatives to reach them.
- Growth roadmap: Focuses on how the company plans to grow, whether through new markets or new product lines.
- Sales and marketing roadmap: Outlines plans for sales and marketing activities.
- HR roadmap: Shows plans for recruitment, training, and building company culture.
4. Project Roadmap
A project roadmap gives you a high-level view of a specific project’s timeline, milestones, and resource allocation.
- Gantt chart roadmap: A timeline-based roadmap showing how different tasks are interconnected.
- Milestone roadmap: Focuses on key milestones and deliverables in the project.
- Resource roadmap: Shows how resources will be allocated throughout the project lifecycle.
Roadmaps in PRINCE2
PRINCE2 is all about dividing a project into phases, and roadmaps fit perfectly into this framework.
Think of it this way: each phase in PRINCE2 is essentially a checkpoint on a roadmap, but you can also use roadmaps to track what’s happening within each individual phase.
For example:
- Initiation phase: A roadmap can provide an overview of what needs to be done to set up the project, like creating a business case and a project plan.
- Management phases: Each new phase can have its own roadmap showing the goals for that phase and how to stay on track.
The benefits of using roadmaps in PRINCE2 include:
- Better planning: A roadmap gives you a visual overview of the project’s progress and helps keep it on course.
- Clear communication: Roadmaps make it easy to share the project’s status and future plans with everyone involved.
- Risk and change management: At every stage transition in PRINCE2, you can use roadmaps to assess risks and adjust the plan as needed.
Roadmaps Through a Company’s Lifecycle
Roadmaps aren’t just useful for projects – they can guide an entire company’s development over time:
- Startup phase: Developing and testing new ideas.
- Growth phase: Scaling up and expanding into new markets.
- Maturity phase: Focus shifts to maintaining leadership and improving existing offerings.
- Renewal phase: Innovating and adapting to new trends.
By using roadmaps, companies can navigate complex processes, ensure efficient use of resources, and reach their goals in a structured way.
Why Are Roadmaps So Useful?
Whether you’re working in product development, business strategy, or project management, a roadmap is one of the most important tools for ensuring structure and direction.
It helps everyone stay aligned, manage risks, and communicate clearly with both the team and external stakeholders.
But a roadmap is only as good as how it’s used – and how it’s presented.
Have you ever spent more time perfecting the design of a roadmap presentation than on the actual plan itself? You’re not alone!
Roadmaps in Practice – A Visual Challenge?
One thing I’ve experienced over the years is that I often spent more time making a roadmap visually appealing than perfecting the content.
And that’s a classic problem!
A roadmap isn’t just a plan – it also needs to communicate the right message to the right audience.
Should it be presented to developers, the organization, investors, customers, or partners?
Each audience requires a different approach for engagement and understanding.
PowerPoint was often my go-to tool, but luckily there are now plenty of great templates available.
Microsoft Create offers free timeline and roadmap templates that are easy to customize, while SlideEgg provides a wide range of professional roadmap designs for different use cases.
Slidesgo and SlidesCarnival also have great templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides, making it easier to create roadmaps that are both visually appealing and informative.
Additionally, Canva is a fantastic tool with built-in solutions for quickly creating clear and engaging roadmaps.
Choosing the right format and visualization can make the difference between a roadmap that inspires and one that gets lost in the noise.
