When Roadmaps Become Roadblocks
By: Ishita Mehta
Tags: Technology, Product Management, Projects, Roadmapping, Roadblocks

For any product manager, one of the most important responsibilities is to build strategic roadmaps. Roadmaps play a crucial role in the success of any project. They are high-level visual explanations of the steps the team will take to deliver a result. They include the milestones, as well as when each task starts and ends. Once these are made, everyone in the crew (from engineering to the design team, the boss to management) can understand when to expect things to be completed. While roadmaps are supposed to be developed as accurately as possible, there is a good chance they may undergo changes (minor, usually). This is completely fine — or Agile, as someone in the software field would say.

Roadmaps are pretty much a must for any successful project. However, there is something else that can take place: roadmaps becoming roadblocks. This probably sounds bizarre, considering how roadmaps are supposed to be built in a way that eliminates roadblocks. Let me share some signs that indicate how your roadmap might be acting as more of a roadblock than something useful.

Signs of roadmaps becoming roadblocks

Too much time for making roadmaps

While roadmaps should clearly cover the what, why and how much time, the overall time to create them should not be much. If you spend so much time on the planning phase, then you and your team will have less time in the next phases, such as execution, testing and so forth. So when you are building roadmaps, ask yourself how much time you are taking to make the roadmap. If making the roadmap is becoming a project, it’s advisable to stop and redo things.

Never-ending changes

Before you make the roadmap, it’s very important you and your team are fully aware of the scope of the project. Only when you know this can you divide the tasks into phases. Sometimes, when you are unclear about the scope, and you go ahead and make a roadmap, what happens next is constant changes. Just as you are about to finish the roadmap, a new task will be added, or something will be removed. Due to this, you end up never getting past the planning phase.

Not considering possible future roadblocks

A good roadmap is one that is well aware of roadblocks that may take place in areas such as design, UI development, QA and elsewhere. However, if you make a roadmap in which possible obstacles are not kept in mind, soon you will find the roadmap is a cause of many problems, such as delayed deliveries.

How to prevent roadmaps from becoming roadblocks

Be clear about the scope

Before you start making a roadmap, make sure you and your team know the overall goals that need to be achieved through the project. In case there are any doubts, get clarification from your client, then proceed to make the roadmap.

Consider all the subtasks for each task

While the roadmap is a high-level summary of what will happen and when, in order to provide the estimated dates for each task, you will need to know the subtasks for each. For instance, when coming up with how much time UI development takes for desktop design, consider the sub-tasks, such as installations, integrations and others.

Crosscheck the estimates given by the team

In no way am I trying to say the estimates given by your development, design and QA teams will not be right. However, in order to ensure the estimates are reasonable, go ahead and cross-check. Perhaps a task is assigned more time than it generally takes. By reviewing the dates, you can see if you need to discuss anything important with the team prior to execution. Also, if at any point the client or your boss feels an estimate seems unreasonable, you have to be ready with an explanation.

Review the overall roadmap with the team again

Generally, when building the roadmap, you will be asking the development, design, QA and other teams to provide you with the milestones and dates separately. However, once you have made the roadmap, it’s a good idea to bring together the whole team that will be working on it. Review with everyone, so everyone knows which step will follow another.

Use simple tool(s) to build a roadmap

Sometimes you are doing everything right to build your roadmap. You and your team know the scope, you have cross-checked the estimates, and everyone has reviewed it. However, one thing that can still cause your roadmapping to be ineffective is using complicated tools. There is a wide range of options for how you can build it. Choose one that is simple. Believe it or not, an Excel sheet is good enough to share with your management. It’s not about how pretty your roadmap looks; it’s about how accurate your roadmap is.

Certain ways of roadmapping can slow down productivity, but you can prevent this from happening. In the end, roadmaps are supposed to be a constant guide for the entire team to deliver quality. Projects can even be done with just verbal planning. However, when made correctly, roadmaps can do wonders for all in the long run.

Have you experienced this kind of situation, where your roadmaps felt rather unuseful? How do you build roadmaps strategically? Comment in the section below, as I would love to know!