Who Needs a Roadmap?
Who needs a roadmap? Anyone who's going someplace they haven't been before. And creating or enhancing a product is always a new journey. A product roadmap explains where you're going, and describes your routes and stopping points along the way. Its purpose is to get you where you want to go. It's not, however, a list of what you're packing in your suitcase or what you're going to eat at each rest stop. A good roadmap lists the high level functionality that is intended for each product release, as well as the reason for choosing this configuration. The reason shouldn't just be "we have to build function A before function B", but instead should explain why the release configuration will make sense to customers…and why it will excite them enough to use it, buy it, or upgrade. The roadmap should name the release - not with numbers or code names, but referencing target markets or personas ("the health services release" or "the syste...