{"id":52004,"date":"2021-10-21T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-21T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=52004"},"modified":"2021-10-26T10:17:13","modified_gmt":"2021-10-26T14:17:13","slug":"creating-a-product-roadmap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating a Product Roadmap: Is It Worth It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is a product roadmap? Is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product\/\">creating a product<\/a> roadmap worth your time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Product roadmaps are commonly used because they help employees prioritize tasks and allow bosses to build a completion schedule. However, in many cases, product roadmaps end up being a waste of time and resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s why you might want to think twice before creating a product roadmap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>The Roadmap Approach<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies develop products by starting with an idea and creating a product roadmap: a <strong>series of orders handed down by executives that, if completed properly, should result in a desired output. <\/strong>Roadmaps are lists of priorities. Generally, either upper management or the product manager issues a new roadmap every three months or so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Roadmaps include big picture requests and due dates, but not where engineers need to fix bugs or address smaller technical questions. There are a few reasons why managers think that roadmaps are a good management technique:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They keep employees focused on what managers see as the most important tasks to the overall success of the company first.<\/li><li>They help managers liaise with stakeholders and colleagues, because they can plan, based on their roadmaps, when they think various tasks will be completed.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Roadmaps help managers feel like they\u2019re generally more in control of their employees.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Roadmaps are popular for two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>They make sure that employees are properly prioritizing their tasks.<\/li><li>They allow bosses to build a schedule around when they believe tasks will be finished.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Are Roadmaps Useful?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>However, roadmaps generally lead to waste. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>At least half of product ideas are bound to fail. This is true for myriad reasons\u2014for example, customers don\u2019t respond positively, there\u2019s an unforeseen technical issue, or customers like a product but it\u2019s too complex to use regularly.&nbsp;<\/li><li>Additionally, products are almost never complete after one try. There are always bugs to fix or unforseen questions that focus groups must address.&nbsp;<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Both of these issues throw off the timing of the roadmap. If, as previously stated, managers are relying on a roadmap to know when products will be finished, it\u2019s more than 50% likely that the team won\u2019t meet their expectations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, roadmaps can lead to morale problems. If engineers\u2014or, in some cases, product managers\u2014feel as if they\u2019re only getting orders, and they\u2019re unable to complete them on time by no fault of their own, they blame their bosses for giving them unreasonable requests.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is a product roadmap? Is creating a product roadmap worth your time? Product roadmaps are commonly used because they help employees prioritize tasks and allow bosses to build a completion schedule. However, in many cases, product roadmaps end up being a waste of time and resources. Here&#8217;s why you might want to think twice before creating a product roadmap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":52040,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,79,14],"tags":[519],"class_list":["post-52004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entrepreneurship","category-management","tag-inspired","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Creating a Product Roadmap: Is It Worth It? - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Many companies use a roadmap when designing new products. However, creating a product roadmap may be a waste of time. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Creating a Product Roadmap: Is It Worth It?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Many companies use a roadmap when designing new products. However, creating a product roadmap may be a waste of time. Here&#039;s why.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-21T20:01:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-26T14:17:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/product-roadmap.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1138\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"631\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hannah Aster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hannah Aster\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f39f52830e4f7039a16e45d12354542f\"},\"headline\":\"Creating a Product Roadmap: Is It Worth It?\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-21T20:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-26T14:17:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\"},\"wordCount\":423,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/product-roadmap.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Inspired\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business\",\"Entrepreneurship\",\"Management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/\",\"name\":\"Creating a Product Roadmap: Is It Worth It? - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/creating-a-product-roadmap\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/product-roadmap.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-21T20:01:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-26T14:17:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"Many companies use a roadmap when designing new products. 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