Have you noticed how the introduction of the technology of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) has greatly impacted our ability to get around? When I was traveling to a new place for the first time, I would pull out a map and plan my route. Or more recently, I would jump on the web and use Google Maps to give me directions to the proposed destination. Now, I jump in my car and just plug in the address of the destination and the system automatically guides me. It provides me with step by step directions with warnings about when to make turns, provides an accurate estimate of the time to the location, and will even adjust the route to respond to traffic tie ups or congestion along the planned route. I have found that I tend to get lost in an unfamiliar environment when I don’t have a GPS working. It essentially provides you with an automated, real-time roadmap to make sure that you get to where you want to go.
It would be nice to have a similar GPS type system to help plot the product roadmap for a business. The Product Development process has always been something of an art form. The planning aspects of it are often driven by internal strategic processes that are not always responsive enough to adjust to changing market conditions, competitor moves, or even technology capabilities. If such a Product Roadmap GPS was designed it would need to:
It would be nice to have a similar GPS type system to help plot the product roadmap for a business. The Product Development process has always been something of an art form. The planning aspects of it are often driven by internal strategic processes that are not always responsive enough to adjust to changing market conditions, competitor moves, or even technology capabilities. If such a Product Roadmap GPS was designed it would need to:
- Provide a standard sequence of steps to reach your destination on tried and true roads (you probably don’t want to be going off-road on this journey).
- Deliver accurate information about when you will meet your goals (acceptance of market and product requirements, development of prototype, testing, announcement, product release and roll-out and most importantly achievement of sales ramp up targets)
- Reroute your plan appropriately to adjust for changes in the marketplace that could impact the product release or overall success of the product