The Guide To Build Agile Roadmap for Project Manager

A product roadmap describes how a product or solution will develop over time. Product owners utilize roadmaps to specify future product functionality and the release schedule for new features. In agile development, a roadmap offers vital context for the team’s daily work and should be flexible to changes in the competitive environment.

By adopting an evolutionary approach to product development, you may be more agile, frequently adjusting product plans and iterating in response to user feedback and other data.

However, it can be difficult to move quickly while pursuing the proper tasks,  the activities that enable a truly agile product strategy. This is the reason why an agile roadmap is so beneficial.

And in this article, we are going to uncover how to build an agile roadmap for your project. Let’s start, shall we?

What is an Agile Roadmap? #

An agile roadmap is an adaptable plan to achieve the product vision. It illustrates forthcoming product releases and how each story and feature relates to product strategy.

An agile roadmap visualizes all the cross-functional work needed to build and market a product or enhancement. An agile roadmap can represent high-level product goals and efforts or a more immediate plan for the next work, depending on the amount of detail you wish to record.

The Benefits of Agile Roadmap #

What are the goals that agile teams hope to accomplish with their product roadmaps?

1. The road mapping process makes it easier to plan activities #

While the final destination of an agile roadmap is critical, so is the journey to get there. Agile planning and the concept of agile roadmapping provide a tremendous lot of value. It challenges teams to think strategically and get out of the details. There is a big difference between having a plan and making plans. In agile, we do not plan our task and then execute it. Instead, we explore the concept of planning.

In this approach, we are able to remain flexible as plans change and swiftly adapt to new requirements and ideas.

2. Key focus areas are highlighted in high-level roadmaps #

The team’s success is enhanced by the use of agile planning and road mapping. Prioritizing your tasks will allow you to devote more time and effort to complete a smaller number of tasks exceptionally effectively.

A roadmap for an agile product acts as a guide. It enables teams to concentrate on where they are going and why they are going there, while simultaneously providing them with the freedom to make course adjustments as required.

3. An agile road map is an essential communication tool #

Agile roadmaps assist product teams in communicating their product strategy to various parts of their company and gaining the support of key project stakeholders.

Agile Roadmap VS Waterfall Roadmap #

Before agile methodology, the waterfall was popular. Product managers use roadmaps to represent linear product plans in a waterfall framework, where features are defined upfront and one cycle of work is completed before another.

Those who are accustomed to working with waterfall roadmaps may find the transition to agile roadmaps challenging. But, if you like to describe in detail how you will reach your product goals while giving yourself the freedom to change your plans based on what customers value, adopting an agile roadmap is necessary!

Here are the primary distinctions between Agile Roadmap and Waterfall Roadmap:

1. Goals #

• Agile roadmap : Customer-centric.
• Waterfall roadmap : Business-centric.

2. Planning horizon #

• Agile roadmap : Months or quarters.
• Waterfall roadmap : Years.

3. Resource planning #

• Agile roadmap : Allocated by sprint velocity or size of team.
• Waterfall roadmap : Major projects are set up front.

4. Investment #

• Agile roadmap : It’s step-by-step and based on data and feedback.
• Waterfall roadmap : Committed annually

5. Collaboration #

• Agile roadmap : Concurrent and cross-functional.
• Waterfall roadmap : Sequential and segmented by the department (organized by department and in order).

6. Flexibility #

• Agile roadmap : No limit.
• Waterfall roadmap : Limitless.

7 Step To Build Agile Roadmap #

An agile roadmap contains the same components as other product roadmaps, such as initiatives, releases, features or user stories, and timelines.The adaptability of your roadmap comes from the method you use to outline each component as well as your willingness to make changes to your plans. The following seven steps should be taken in order to develop an agile roadmap:

1. Start by looking at the product’s strategy and goals #

Agile teams can’t tell if they’re making progress without a defined strategy. Strategy defines the problem you’re solving for clients, while goals provide clear benchmarks for measuring progress. Set monthly or quarterly targets in an agile context.

2. Transform your objectives into actions #

Initiatives, which are also known as epics in some circles, are used to describe the areas of work that contribute to the realization of the product vision and help you move closer to achieving your goals. The process of breaking down major projects into smaller, more manageable portions is done with the use of features and user stories. Before defining new features, make sure the new plan aligns with your agile team’s initiatives when they want to pivot depending on fresh data or user input.

3. Gather feedback from all departments #

Getting input from other teams is critical to creating an accurate, full, and realistic agile roadmap. Everyone involved in the creation and delivery of a complete product experience should have an opportunity to contribute their ideas, whether they are in the realms of design or marketing, or customer service.

Software that is specifically designed to help you deal with organizations that aren’t typically agile, such as budget offices or the legal department, maybe the best way to construct your agile roadmap. Different work streams and timelines can be more easily tracked and coordinated this way.

4. Define product characteristics and link them to strategic initiatives #

When you want to break down your big ideas into smaller parts, the next step is to write feature or user stories. Feature sets are a way to show your clients what new features you’ll be giving them on a regular basis.

The development teams then break down the features into their technical requirements, which are then put into sprints. Set the order of features based on your product’s goals, vision, and aspirations. When all of your features are linked to the overall product plan, you can deliver work quickly and make changes without getting off track.

5. Schedule your product launches #

Organize your agile roadmap’s features into releases so that you can give your clients more value over a set amount of time. You have full control over how often your releases come out, whether it’s every day, every week, every month, or every three months.

Keep in mind that a release is different from a sprint or an iteration because it gives users a new experience instead of just shipping code. It also includes all the cross-functional work that is needed to make this happen. Even in an agile company, releases are still important because they tell coworkers and customers what to expect and when.

6. Recognize, collect, and utilize customer feedback #

As part of your agile development process, you should always keep a close eye on what users say. Some teams use interviews with users, usability testing, and usage data to find out what they need to know.

You can also use idea management tools like FoxPlan to collect, rank, and prioritize comments, and then add the best ones to your roadmap. All of this can be done with a single software package.

7. Always keep an eye on your progress #

When you’re moving quickly, it’s even more important to keep track of where you are. Depending on how often you release, you may look at the results and change your agile product roadmap every week, month, or three months.

Metrics that are important to you, like customer acquisition, retention, conversion rate, and churn, should be looked at after each product update or release. When you look at performance statistics, you can get a better idea of how to add new features in the future.

Distribute Roadmap to Project Team with FoxPlan #

As a product manager who uses an agile approach, you need an agile roadmap to get your product goal done quickly and well. Follow an agile roadmap and respond quickly to customer feedback to speed up the time it takes to give customers what they want.

Once a roadmap is made, it needs to be shared and distributed with the whole product team so that everyone knows the big picture and where things are going.

In many companies, product owners make their roadmaps in spreadsheets, which they then send to the team via email. Even though this plan was made with good intentions, it was never going to work. Every member of the team has their own copy of the roadmap, and it’s hard to keep everyone up-to-date when and if the roadmap changes. This is when FoxPlan comes into play.

Using FoxPlan to build your roadmap is the best solution that you and your team should consider. Not only that you can manage the project at the portfolio level, but you can also use FoxPlan agile project to start building your product roadmap.

So, what are you waiting for? Start your agile product roadmap for FREE with FoxPlan today or contact us to show you how FoxPlan works in action!