Using Flow-based Roadmaps & Options Cat Swetel & Matt Barcomb @catswetel @mattbarcomb
Using Flow-based Roadmaps & Options
Cat Swetel & Matt Barcomb @catswetel @mattbarcomb
How we’ll spend our time Flow-based roadmapping
Options thinking
Example metrics
How it usually starts
How it usually ends
Planning for mass construction
How much will it cost? When will it be done?
Planning for research & development
Should we start? Should we keep going?
Routine manufacturing
Complex manufacturing
Physical product dev.
Spectrum of knowable stuff
Scientific research
Mass construction
Software product dev.
Enterprise ERP impl.
How knowable is the domain
Known responses to unknowns
Relationship between cause & effect
Shift the focus
Primarily focus on understanding benefit.
Evaluate risk and opportunity costs.
Learn just enough about costs to choose to start.
Team A
Team B
A starting structure
Team A
Team B
Readiness
Support
Readiness & Support
Team A
Team B
Readiness
Infras
On Horizon
Coming Soon
Up Next
Current Goal
In Use
Time-based flow
Team A
Team B
Readiness
Infras
On Horizon
Coming Soon
Up Next
Current Goal
In UseHBD
Here be dragons!
Team A
Team B
Readiness
Infras
On Horizon
Coming Soon
Up Next
Current Goal
In UseHBD
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
Define explicit policies
Team A
Team B
Readiness
Infras
On Horizon
Coming Soon
Up Next
Current Goal
In UseHBD
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
things we do now and again for reasons
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Limit work in progress
Cadence and Roadmap structure
Your business
Your industry
Your market
But what goes IN a flow-based roadmap?
ProjectsFeatures
OPTIONS!
MVPs Epics
Framing an option
Option Name:
Testable Customer & Problem Hypothesis:
Measurable Organizational Benefit:
Results & Measures: Starting/Stopping Triggers:
Assumptions & Dependencies:
Your roadmap as options
Like a sales funnel
Farther down in the funnel,
greater investment
Your roadmap as options
IDEATION
PROTOTYPE
PILOT
PRODUCTION
-‐Not yet validated -‐Future
-‐Validated -‐Now
Information Value of Options
Tomorrow’s Core Business
Today’s Core Business
Keep the lights on
Focus
Low risk
Big investment
Lots of small, high risk/high reward bets
Pay less to obtain
information early
70 / 20 / 10
Time:
70% core business
20% related projects
10% unrelated to core business
Options
MVPs/Projects are options
triggers: starting/stopping heuristics (context, events, rules of thumb)
information value of options
Options: start/stop heuristics
Starting or Stopping Triggers
- duration - seasonality - stakeholder feedback - govt. policy - major biz activity - competition shift - media/PR event - market shift - technology shift - employee shift - major social incident - better options
Cadence for Reviewing Options
Roadmap metrics: cost of delay
How much would you pay for more time?
How long will the option have value, and at what
rate does the value decay?
Roadmap metrics
Cycle Time
Roadmap metrics
Cycle Time and/or Lead Time
Lead TimeCycle Time
Team ATeam BReadinessInfras
On Horizon
Coming Soon
Up Next
Current Goal
In UseHBD
DISCLAIMER: This is just an example.
Roadmap metrics: churn
VALIDATED
INVALIDATED
NOT YET VALIDATED
Roadmap metrics: risk and experimentation
Transitioning to flow-based roadmaps Starting a flow-based roadmap
Framing options Information value of options
Metrics and measures for roadmaps
What we covered
Questions?
Cat Swetel Matt Barcomb @catswetel @mattbarcomb