Week 2 - Week in Product Series - Product Strategy, Vision and Roadmap
Quote
“Feedback is the breakfast of champions”. -Ken Blanchard
💯 Framework - Product Strategy, Vision and Roadmaps
💡 Did you ever wonder how does Product Strategy, Vision, Mission and roadmaps for products sit together
Vision describes the ultimate reason for creating a product.
Product Strategy states what are we building to achieve the vision.
Product roadmap Prioritizes the sequence of features(Value) you will work on.
Vision → Why
Strategy → What
Roadmap → When
Product Vision - Why
Vision should be timeless and not connected to technology trends, Make it as easy as possible so that every person in the company works towards the mission which would be broken down by individual teams based on their competence and capacity. Make sure the vision is not short-term, Disconnecting vision from time and trends is essential to creating a long-term goal.
Microsoft in 1992 " Putting a PC in every home”
Product Strategy - What
Vision gives rise to specific product goals which could be things that must be accomplished over the next year, for example, growing revenue, reducing churn, and improving customer satisfaction. Product strategy is about how to attain the vision.
Product Strategy states what are we building to achieve the vision
Product strategy tells you key focussing points on the roadmap
Elements of product strategy
Market - Describes target customers and users of you product.
Needs - Comprise the main problems your product solves.
Key feature and differentiators - are those aspects that create value and entice people to choose over completing offers.
Business goals - How you product is going to benefit your company and ties back to the companies vision.
Credits: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/the-product-vision-board/
Roadmap - When
A product roadmap is a plan of action for how a product or solution will evolve over time and I see #Roadmaps falling apart when people start putting concrete dates and treating it as a set of features rather than themes or customer problems.
"Be stubborn on vision, flexible on details" ~ Jeff Bezo
Key takeaways
Product strategy connects product roadmaps and vision.
Product strategy is what are you going to build to achieve your vision.
Product strategy helps prioritize.
Product vision is timeless and gives you the why for your product.
Roadmap is the when of you product.
Roadmap is a plan of action how your product will evolve over time.
📚 Book
Strategize: Product Strategy and Product Roadmap Practices for the Digital Age
This book focuses on Product development, Strategy and roadmapping. The author provides you with several tools and techniques for developing product strategy and product roadmaps.
🎧 Podcast:
The Product Podcast - Product Vision & Strategy by fmr Amazon Product Executive
😎 Meme
Product strategy will help you prioritize what to build next to achieve the product vision.
Are roadmaps a when or a how? You mentioned that roadmaps shouldn’t be tied to timelines (when). I think it should be a how. Let me know what you think