The Secret To Creating A Customer-Facing Product Roadmap

I like having customers. You like having customers. In truth, as soon as we get a client we sure would like to cling on to them. The problem is that our clients always need our merchandise to do more, more, extra for them. What this indicates is that we constantly need to be adding new capabilities and talents to our merchandise. Where things can get a bit problematic is on the subject of simply precisely how we inform our present and potential customers about what new features are coming and whilst they will arrive.

What Kind Of Information Goes Into A Customer Facing Roadmap?

Let’s face it – growing a patron dealing with roadmap is a complex balancing act. The purpose that that is such a tough element to do is due to the fact you want to provide your present and ability customers with just enough statistics, but not an excessive amount of. Just to make matters a touch bit extra complex, product managers constantly should anticipate that their consumer dealing with roadmaps will finally fall into their competition’s palms. You never want to provide them with too much facts…

So now we come all the way down to the important thing query: what to encompass? Knowing the answer to this question could be some thing that you can put on your product manager resume. The first component that we want to agree on is what do customers actually need to know? They need to realize whilst new capability may be brought to the product – this may permit them to create inner plans to start to use that capability. They do not want to have all of the details about the brand new functions, but they do need to have sufficient so that it will apprehend what they’ll be getting.

The different component that a customer facing roadmap has to definitely talk is while your customer is going to be getting the features that you have promised them? Once once more we’re venturing right into a minefield right here. If you tell your customer that they’ll have a new function on April twenty eighth of this yr, they may expect to have the feature on that date. If you have got a improvement slip, a elements hassle, and so forth. And your agenda slips, then you’ll come to be disappointing your purchaser. You need to give you a way to communicate the facts without exposing your self to letting your patron down.

What Is The Best Way To Present A Customer Facing Roadmap?

OK, so now we understand what desires to go into a patron dealing with roadmap. Now allow’s speak about how fine to put it there. The first step goes to be to come up with a timeline in your roadmap. Next you will need to lay in a description of the functionality that you will be offering at every factor in time on your roadmap. Finally, you may need to wrap the complete roadmap in a wrapper that truely communicates the time frame that it’s far valid for.

The timeline that you use to your purchaser going through roadmap may be the most important selection that you make. Let us agree that supplying too much detail on the subject of when your features may be delivered is a mistake. This approach that you want to stay far from precise dates. I’m going to take this up one step similarly, you are going to need to live faraway from unique months – it’s miles too easy to slide from one month to the subsequent. Instead, I like to talk in terms of quarters: there are 4 3-month quarters each year. Generally this gives you enough of a window that you will nearly constantly be able to supply on time.

Next, you’re going to have to talk approximately what you may be handing over. First off, permit’s speak about what you should now not speak about. Unless they’re a huge deal, do not speak approximately malicious program fixes, behind the scenes tweaks, or different adjustments that might not placed new capability in the fingers of your customers. Instead, attention at the huge features and provide each one with a call and a short description of what it will permit your clients to do.

Finally, you’re going to want to ensure that after your clients examine their roadmap, they comprehend that it only describes a factor-in-time – matters will exchange. This means that you need to honestly label which model of the patron dealing with roadmap they’re searching at. I like to put the region that the roadmap become made inside the top proper hand nook: “3Q15″. This means that if they choose up an antique roadmap, they’ll fast take into account that it’s miles out-of-date.

What Does All Of This Mean For You

In order to win new clients and to hang directly to the customers that you have already got to your product, our product supervisor job description tells us that a product manager needs to do an awesome job of telling them about all of the remarkable new matters which are going to be occurring along with his or her product. A remarkable manner to go approximately doing this is to create a customer dealing with roadmap. These roadmaps may be a chunk elaborate to create roadmap efficaciously…

Every purchaser dealing with roadmap which you create should contain simply enough data to answer your customer’s questions, but now not a lot records that it may be used towards you when it falls into the arms of your competitors. This method that you’re going to must pick a excessive-degree time frame to tell your clients whilst they will be receiving new functionality. Additionally, you’re going to have consist of descriptions of simplest the most essential capabilities at a very excessive stage. Finally, add facts to permit your customers realize what time frame this roadmap covers and you’ll have completed this venture.

A consumer dealing with product roadmap is part of every product manager’s product improvement definition. As essential as they’re, they may be elaborate to do successfully. Follow the rules that we’ve got recognized for you and you may be capable of create a roadmap that each meets the needs of your customers as well as your product. With a bit luck your customer facing roadmap will motive greater capacity clients to turn into real customers!

Dr. Jim Anderson

“America’s #1 Unforgettable Business Communication Skills Coach”