What separates a good product roadmap from a bad one?

We create a product roadmap to envision what lies ahead for the product to communicate with the team, senior management, customers and all stakeholders. It provides clarity, adds purpose and a sense of direction for everyone. As the name suggests, it should tell you the map for going from point A to point B. Few characteristics of a good product roadmap are:

1. Future looking: Not only it is solving current issues, but also building future benefits
2. Goal oriented: It aligns with the Objectives & Key results that you have identified for the next quarter or two. In short, the roadmap must be aligned with the GPS
3. Prioritised: It must reflect items that have been prioritised by the team for the product, company & customer
4. User journey driven: The items on the product roadmap must be based on user journeys, rather than being a group of stand-alone features
5. Reason: You must have a reason for the selection of the roadmap items, their priority order on the roadmap, and the benefits it would bring

On the other hand, a bad roadmap could be the one that doesn’t have the above listed characteristics and/or has any combination of the below:

• Random list of items grouped together to be done
• List of tasks or features placed in a serial order
• No reasoning behind their selection, order or benefits
• No collaboration with the team
• No sense of guidance as to where does this roadmap leads you to

Note: The product roadmap tells us the ‘What’ and not ‘How’ to get things done.