Product Roadmaps Relaunched

The senior PM-T on the team recommended this book and wanted to follow some of the principles for our internal roadmap. I haven’t had much training for being a PM, which I’ve find common, so this book was really nice to have to learn how to design and maintain product roadmaps. I enjoy the examples in the book and it was an easy read. I read through it once and review it monthly. I think if you’re a seasoned PM it’s probably not going to be as helpful but might give you some new ideas.

Decent book. Love the authors in general. Have used some of McCarthy's concepts as part of my own roadmaps; though I've modified them somewhat. And ironically, one of the products one of the authors talks about in the book is a product I worked on in a minor capacity for a little while. So it pains me a little to not give them all five stars. But even though the core value really is there for a newbie product person, there's just a couple of things I had some minor issues with. Here's the good: If you're a new product person or you've been doing it 'by accident' as a lot of PMs fall into it... and you really have no solid structure, then you really do need this book. The core concepts are reasonably solid and will give you a framework. (And frameworks are useful. Some these days are like... maaaan.... frameworks are like too stifling. They're wrong. And foolish.) So the book is useful there. The weak: I'm not sure if using themes and sub-themes to represent problem spaces vs. features really makes sense as a structure at all, but ok... Then we get into some hierarchy in terms of opportunity/solution trees and such, and ideas like critical path journey. Which is kind of funny in a way, because these are good, but feel a bit like waterfall project planning and work breakdown structures. Not exactly, but a bit. And maybe this is the age-old question, (and where agile/scrum fails a bit), just how far to do you take an idea before it gets into a backlog? And if you're doing all that before any kind of sprint planning, are you really involving enough of a team? But ok, this is more about product than project, (which are conflated a bit with agile), so maybe we give a break there. Still, it's not wholly clear how they might reconcile this level of planning with so-called agile/lean approaches. I'm sure there's ways to do that, but the book could have used some guidance in this area along the way. On a more practical level, as others have said, there's some physical problems with the book if you go old school instead of ebook. Now, this is just an opinion. But yes, I think the reading font is a bit small and unquestionably the graphics are too small to discern some things. Others have said the paper is too thin as well, and that could affect readability. Personally, partially based on reviews, I got the paper version as I thought it might be easier to use than electronic. Even though you can usually enlarge ebook graphics, because sometimes it's easier to see some things in context. I literally needed a magnifier for a lot of the graphics; and my eyesight is just fine. OK. Bottom Line: Yes, get the book if you're a newbie PM or an experienced PM feeling like you're lacking a solid process. Perhaps the most valuable aspect is prioritization calculations; which attempts to quantify even fuzzier guesstimates. It forces a rank. Because there's always going to be a rank; the only question is how you come to it. This at least tries to get you SOMEthing structured, (and arguably defensible), in terms of coming up with a priority list.

The entire layout is awesome. The book is clear, concise, SIMPLE , easy and keeps your attention. I am so happy to see someone stressing what I am been try to convey at my company. ANYONE in product management or ANYONE who needs to do roadmaps should own this book. Thank you for writing such a wonderful useful book

The product roadmap is one of product management’s most commonly requested document and the most misunderstood. Executives reference the roadmap to monitor their pet projects. Sales people use the roadmap with customers to show features to be delivered in the future (“and if you buy today, I can guarantee these features next week!”) Marketing teams use the roadmap to align product releases with industry events. Sadly, most teams—both internal and external—see the roadmap as a commitment, not as a strategic plan. Product Roadmaps Relaunched explains what a roadmap is (and isn’t) and explores how to deal with unrealistic expectations. The authors write: “Properly done, a product roadmap can steer your entire organization toward delivering on the company strategy. A good roadmap, though, is not so much a project plan as a strategic communications tool, a statement of intent and direction.” Product Roadmaps Relaunched reveals best practices for managing product strategy using roadmaps with lots of examples, including how roadmaps change through the life cycle and how to incorporate feedback from customers, stakeholders, and your target markets. Of particular interest is the chapter on prioritization which includes what doesn’t work (voting, opinions, and popularity) and what does (Kano, ROI scorecard, and more). For product professionals, roadmaps are the artifact of choice for defining and sharing product strategy. Product Roadmaps Relaunched shows how they are developed and used to align your teams.

This is a very pragmatic guide through creating roadmaps that convey value. It pairs nicely with common Product Management practices as well as strategy (the Richard Rumelt kind). There are many fine examples in this book that you can draw from to immediately improve your own roadmaps or start from scratch.

Product Roadmaps Relaunched does a good job of making the case for resetting how we create, assemble, and use product roadmaps to express the prioritized list of themes to achieve the Product Vision (which in turns achieves the Company Mission). They have a specific hierarchy of elements needed on a roadmap, and break it down into the must-haves, the complementary, and the secondary. The authors emphasize the point that no two roadmaps are alike, and I think this is where the book starts to miss a beat for me. In trying to stay true to this point, they share a great number of individual concepts about roadmap elements that never really pull together for me into a cohesive whole. Contributing to this shortcoming are the many examples of roadmaps shared in the book, which explicitly demonstrate aspects of roadmaps that they recommend against. It also doesn't help that many of the roadmap graphics are so tiny, you can't actually read the details. The book has plenty of whitespace to burn (excessively so, IMO), where they could've afforded to use full width images without adding a single page to the overall length of the book. One other little nit - there are a lot of titles, headings, and subheadings throughout the book (in addition to the content) that use a variety of fonts and colors. It, again, felt excessive and distracting. Don't let any of this stop you from buying the book or reading it from cover to cover. I do recommend it for any product manager as a "should read" using the MoSCoW scale. Just know it's not so much a "relaunching" of product roadmaps, as it is a collection of great thought-provoking recommendations that you can (and should) pull from to build your own approach. (Sorry, one final nit - they do use a fictional company in the book so we readers can follow along in the development of their product roadmap, but again, its potential is not fully realized. First, they chose a garden hose company (physical goods). They have to know that 90% of their readership is going to be digital products, right? Second, they missed a huge opportunity to use the garden hose company's evolving product map as an evolving reference throughout the book. Instead, they dip into it when they wish to illustrate a particular element, but they never really pull it all together. Intentionally on their part, I think, but ultimately disappointing to me.)

Newbies (like me) struggle with creating a roadmap. I had to unlearn several bad roadmap creation practices after reading this book. I wish I had read this book before I created so many bad roadmaps. After reading this book, I was clear on the steps to create, socialize, and maintain a useful roadmap. A roadmap is not just a pretty diagram. It is a strategic communication tool. With an effective roadmap, you will become a trusted advisor to your stakeholders. Also, I highly recommend Bruce McCarthy's class on roadmaps. Wait, there's more! My boss was very pleased when his whole team learned how to create effective roadmaps using the concepts in this book.

I found this to be a foundational book on road-mapping. Without being another source of road-mapping info, it provides very convincing reasons for investing in vision, business objectives, themes and calls out some of the different approaches used in road-mapping and what the pitfalls are. Some of the not much talked about options that PMs do like shuttle diplomacy, differences between alignment vs consensus is defined very well. Its probably the best road-mapping resource I've found. The format makes it super easy to read - I got it on a Monday and was done by Wed. Awesome job - all the authors!

Un ottimo strumento per impostare e gestire una rodamap di prodotto, scritto bene e con esempi utili. Consigliato per qualsiasi livello di esperienza sull'argomento.

Excelente opção para o inicio do planeamento próprio dos produtos.

Si estas buscando un libro que te pueda dar una metodologia buena, simple y ejecutable para crear productos o hasta servicios.... este libro es ideal para eso. Es clave llevarlo a la ejecución.

This book is helping me develop the next stage of my career. It provides usefulness and information on what a roadmap is (and what it isn’t/shouldn’t be), why you should be making one, and how to do so. I’m a new product manager, but I’d put this high on my list of recommendations. It inspired me from the very first pages.

Solid practical content, the books format is fine however it could do with a section on release planning.