Roadmapping workshop - Bruce McCarthy

Inspiring Roadmaps

20+ years in product development, Product Manager, Scrum Master, Development Manager, Designer, VP, CPO, Coach & Mentor, Founded 3 companies, Acquired (2x), Acquirer (2x),

Currently beta testing Reqqs, the smart roadmapping tool for product people, sports car & craft beer enthusiast

Inspiring Roadmaps

A Roadmap Is a Path to Your Goals

“Is this more important than what’s already on the

roadmap?”

Roadmaps Inspire

  Buy-in from execs

  Confidence from salespeople

  Loyalty from customers

  Stick-to-itiveness & over-delivery from your team

9 Steps to an Inspiring Roadmap

1.  Vision 2.  Strategy 3.  Measureable Goals 4.  Relevant Ideas 5.  Objective Prioritization 6.  Shuttle Diplomacy 7.  Benefit-oriented Themes 8.  Appropriate Format & Cadence 9.  Punctuated Equilibrium

Flip Over Your Business Card

Write 1-3 goals on the back

Hand it forward

(3 mins)

The leading supplier of landscape equipment

and materials to affluent Americans

Vision = What we want to be when we grow up

The go-to source for tweens and teenage

girls around the world for fun collectibles

Vision = What we want to be when we grow up

The #1 source of B2B contact information

for marketers

Vision = What we want to be when we grow up

Strategy = How you will achieve your vision

Leverage crowd-sourcing to develop

the largest and most-accurate B2B contact

database

The #1 source of B2B contact information

for marketers

Setting Goals

Goals = How we will measure execution of our strategy

The 9 Business Goals Growth   Grow market share

  Fulfill more demand

  Develop new markets

  Improve recurring revenue

  Create competitive barriers

Profit   Support higher prices

  Lower COGS

  Lower lifecycle costs

  Leverage assets

Adapted from the PTC Value Roadmap

NetProspex Goals The largest and most-accurate B2B contact database

  Fulfill more demand by growing the database by X%

  Create competitive barriers by raising accuracy by Y%

The #1 source of B2B contact information

  Grow revenue by Z% this year by fulfilling more demand

  Test potential new sources of future growth & profit by leveraging existing assets

Review of Your Goals

(10 mins)

Vision-Strategy-Goals Worksheet

Gather with your table

Fill out a VSG Worksheet for 1 product

(15 mins)

There will be a review!

Setting Priorities

“Startups that succeed are those that manage to iterate enough times before running out of resources.” – Eric Ries

Why Is Prioritization Important?

Opportunity Cost

Bad Ways to Rank Ideas

Your CEO’s gut No longer in touch with customers

Analyst opinions Mostly backward-looking

Popularity Most of your customers are small

Sales requests Change every week

Services requests Mostly incremental

Short-term revenue New opportunities require investment

Goals + Math = better

Value / Effort = Priority

Value / Effort = Priority

Value = Expected Contribution to Defined

Goals

Contribution to Goals

  Exact numbers

  1-10

  1-100

  Fibonacci

  1 to 5 stars

  0,1,2

Value / Effort = Priority

Effort = Work the organization must do to

realize value

Estimating Effort

  DO NOT ask Engineering for an estimate

  Do it yourself

  NOT person-months

  NOT sprints

  0-5 scale

Feature G1 G2 E Raw C Score

A 1 1 2 1 75% 0.75

B 1 0 2 0.5 90% 0.45

C 2 -1 1 1 40% 0.4

(G1+G2)/E x C = Score (G1+G2)/E = Raw

Reasons to Take Things Out of Priority

  Commitments

  Dependencies

  Synergies

  Specialized resources

  More information needed

  Themes

Themes

“A group of features tied together by a simple, clear

benefit, usually to the customer”

Bruce McCarthy

Themes Are Vague

  High-level, few words

  Make the benefit obvious

  Many details rolled up

  Cut features & still declare victory!

Cutting a theme

needs an explanation

Theme Formula

Problem + Ideas = Expected Benefit

Example PROBLEM: Users abandon their carts too often because checkout is too difficult

1.  Consolidate steps

2.  Save payment info

3.  Pre-load pages

4.  Add guest checkout

BENEFIT: “Faster Checkout” saves you time

Inspiring Roadmaps

H1‘14 H2’14 2015 2016

Benefit A Likely Feature 1 Likely Feature 2 Likely Feature 3

Benefit B Benefit D Benefit E, Phase II

Benefit C Benefit E, Phase I Benefit F

Weaselly Safe Harbor Statement

Product X is focused on solving problem Y best for market Z

H1‘14 H2’14 2015 2016

Indestruct-ible hose

20’ length Easy connections No-kink armor

Delicate Flower

Management

Putting Green Evenness for

Lawns

Infinite Extensibility

Severe Weather Handling

Extended Reach

Permanent Installations

Weaselly Safe Harbor Statement

The Wombat Garden Hose is focused on perfecting the landscapes of affluent Americans

Roadmap Worksheet

Gather with your table again

Fill out the Roadmap Worksheet for your chosen product

(15 mins)

I Help Product People Team coaching via UpUp Labs

Tools: Reqqs - the smart roadmap tool for product people

Blog: ProductPowers.com

Twitter: @d8a_driven

Email: [email protected]

Want to chat? sohelpful.me/brucemccarthy

Excel Scorecard Template: ProductPowers.com/utility_belt