Getting Started- Build Product Roadmaps

Roadmaps communicate your product plans, unite teams around your product vision, and give reason behind prioritization decisions. Every product manager needs one or multiple roadmaps to communicate product plans to various audiences.

With this quick start guide you’ll be able to:

1. Visualize Roadmaps
2. Create views and share with stakeholders

Your owner may have already set up your account, added data, or customized terminology so some of the language we use may not match exactly in your account view. You can review your account set up from the settings page.

1 - Visualize roadmaps 

(Estimated Time: 25 Minutes)

Visualizing your roadmap is easy with Dragonboat. You can choose from a popular roadmap template or choose from five roadmapping views to get started.

Choose a popular roadmap template

• Outcome Based Roadmap
• Quarterly Roadmap
• Now-Next- Later Lean Roadmap

Outcome Based Roadmap

An outcome based roadmap gives context to roadmap items and their prioritization by focusing not only on the “what” (outputs) but also the “why” (outcomes).

1. Group by “Goal” and then by “Roadmap”
2. Click to edit goals from demo data OR 
3. + Add a new goal
4. Roadmap reflects your teams
5. Mouse over in cell to add a new roadmap items
6. Use filter to show/ hide roadmap items
7. Save view to revisit or share later

 

Quarterly Roadmap

Quarterly roadmaps allow teams to focus on the company’s specific needs at a specific time. This type of roadmap format helps structure their product roadmap over a longer-term product roadmap and highlights how they plan to execute within each quarter.

1. Portfolio > 3D Dynamic
2. Group by “timeframe” and then by “Product Team”or “Roadmap”
3. Click to edit timeframe from demo data OR
4. Add a new time frame (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4)
5. Use the display drop-down to view different hierarchy levels 
6. Hover over and click + new to add features/ideas
7. Drag and drop epics to easily plan for current and upcoming quarters
8. Save view to revisit or share later

 

Now-Next-Later Lean Roadmap

The Now-Next-Later Lean Roadmap template focuses on time horizons and not timelines by using three buckets to communicate and align teams on the upcoming challenges, opportunities, and issues. 

1. Select Portfolio > Board View
2. Group By “timeframe”
3. Click to edit timeframes from demo data OR 
4. Add a new timeframe (Now, Next, Later)
5. Click + add new to add new roadmap items
6. Drag and drop epics to easily prioritize planning 
7. Choose additional details to display on roadmap from the three-dot menu
8. Save view to revisit or share later

Create your own using one of the 5 formats

Dragonboat has 5 roadmapping pages built in, so you can visualize your roadmap the way you need. 

Commonly Used Roadmap Views by Product Managers

1. Visualize and organize your roadmap - try the 3D Dynamic format, on Portfolio Roadmaps app
   
    
2. Prioritize and collaborate with stakeholders - use List format in Portfolio Roadmaps page, using RICE scoring and field comments.
   
    
3. Plan and manage dependencies - use Portfolio Gantt page for smart dependency tracking and alerts
   

Want to see additional roadmap formats? Check out our guide for 10 common roadmap formats to create with Dragonboat.

2 - Create views and share with stakeholders

(Estimated Time: 15 Minutes)

Create Views

A view contains the layout of a page and the set of filtered data. You can save views to come back to or to share with your stakeholders by following the steps below:

1. Use Advanced Search and Filters to select which ideas to include in this view (Here is our detailed filter guide).
2. Select Display Preferences (or Show Fields) and customize the page display, e.g. select what fields you'd like to display in this view.
3. Views can be saved for your personal use, or shared (see how). Quickly find your saved views using the Global Search in the top navigation, in the center of the page.

 

Share With Stakeholders

Invite your colleagues and include a recommended view. You can add team members by selecting Invite from the + on the top navigation. 

You can also import users or add them directly from the settings page.

More details about saving and sharing views can be found here

Ready to become a pro? 

• Collect and Manage Feedback 
• Integrate with engineering tools: Jira, Azure Dev Ops, Shortcut, etc
• Prioritize features or initiatives using RICE, MoAR, ROI, or customized drivers or scores