What is a Roadmap?
The details for roadmaps matter!
I like the word… roadmap. Road. Map. When you think of a map, what do you see?
There are details. But not ALL of the details. A map simply includes the features that specifically will help you in knowing you’re going in the right direction. My mother’s dad was adamant that his daughters (he had 8 of them!) be proficient map readers. That way they could always find their way back home. What a beautiful sentiment. Because that’s what roadmaps do best. They help us find our way. And this principle can be applied across the board. You can create roadmaps for your life, your organization, a project, a product.
When you’re looking at a map, context is important. Are you looking at a map of Iowa? Are you looking at a map of a city in Iowa? Are you looking at a map of the downtown area in that city in Iowa? Or are you looking at a map of the entire United States? Knowing the context helps you, first and foremost, determine the scope.
Identify the Scope of the Roadmap
All roadmaps require that we look at the context first. Here at Peopleside, we have an organizational roadmap – which is kind of like a map of the entire United States. There are fewer details because the scope is so large. But we also have smaller roadmaps that get into more detail. Just like if I’m trying to cross from one side of Iowa to the other, a state map will be way more helpful than a map of the U.S., these smaller roadmaps help me better determine whether I’m moving in the right direction within a certain area. Roadmaps, whether charting a project or the highways and byways of America, keep us from getting lost.
What should be on your roadmap?
Think of a roadmap as a communication tool. It’s for the people who are interested or care about whatever “directions” you’re plotting. Just like the map you might have pulled out of your glovebox back in the day. You’re trying to get from one side of Iowa to the other? That map of Iowa is for you. You are the audience.
Identifying the Audience
So, once you’ve determined your context/scope, you can start identifying what the audience of your roadmap will care about. Those are the details to include. If a cartographer determines she’s going to make a map of the state and that her audience wants to know how to drive from city to city within that state, she’s going to make sure to include highways and exits, but maybe not businesses and schools. The audience cares about directions from Point A to Point B. Therefore, the most important details on the map are the intersections. This is when a driver will have to decide – “Do I turn right, or do I turn left?”
Dates are key!
The most important details on an organizational or project management roadmap are the dates in which key decisions are being made, you are releasing something out, or an important event is transpiring. If you’re creating an organizational roadmap, you might include the dates you plan to send organizational communications or the date you’re going to have your holiday party or the date you’ll be releasing a new product. If you’re making a project roadmap, you might include the specific dates you’ll be sending updates or products to your customer.
Now, a roadmap, in this sense, is slightly different than what is known as a project plan. A project plan will include milestones, i.e.) “when we hit x goal, y will happen” and tasks. The dates on a roadmap are for the awareness of the audience, the details that help your audience find their way and not become lost.
Roadmaps as Release Plans
In product development, these roadmaps are often called Release Plans. These terms can be used interchangeably. The dates on a Release Plan simply align to when things are being released. Whether you call it a roadmap or a release plan, they are communication tools first and foremost.
Roadmaps are like the maps my grandfather was so adamant his daughters could decipher. Whether it be the highways of the good ol’ US of A or an important product launch, roadmaps keep us from getting lost or turned around along our journey.
