How to create a product roadmap: complete guide (with free template)

Building a startup can be a challenging and dynamic journey that requires fast growth and experimentation. Without proper planning, this journey can lead to mistakes and the need for extensive restructuring.

Startups creating a product from start to finish require careful planning, mapping, and taking strategic actions. This is where a product roadmap comes in. A product roadmap is essential for planning and achieving success in product development. It provides a clear vision, direction, and timeline for the entire product development process.

Building a product roadmap in Baserow offers a centralized, customizable, and collaborative solution for effective product planning and execution. With Baserow’s integration capabilities, you can connect your roadmap to project management, communication, and analytics tools. This streamlines data flow and collaboration, eliminating manual data entry and ensuring consistent information across multiple platforms.

What we’ll do

In this tutorial, we’ll provide step-by-step guidance on building and launching a product roadmap using a no-code database. We’ll cover the following steps:

• Define the product roadmap structure
• Set up your Baserow database
• Plan what goes in the roadmap
• Track the status of each feature
• Visualize the roadmap with a kanban view
• Communicate with stakeholders and team members
• Share the roadmap publicly

By following these simple steps, you’ll be able to create a visual and interactive product roadmap without writing a single line of code.

Prerequisites

To complete this tutorial, you’ll need the following:

• A Baserow account
• Familiarity with basic database operations and navigation
• A clear understanding of your product’s goals, features, and timeline

What makes an effective product roadmap?

An effective product roadmap provides a clear and visual representation of the product’s timeline, goals, and future plans. It serves to:

• Prioritize tasks and initiatives to ensure progress towards the product goal.
• Facilitate smooth coordination, collaboration, and clarity among teams regarding the direction of the product.
• Enhance transparency and improve communication with stakeholders both within and outside the organization.
• Efficiently allocate resources, guide the product lifecycle, and strategically plan for product milestones.
• Assign team members to specific phases, ensuring efficient planning, tracking, and management throughout the entire product lifecycle.
• Set clear goals and realistic timelines for achieving each milestone.

Once we’re done, the roadmap will look like this:

Build and launch an effective product roadmap

Designing a roadmap for a new product can be quite daunting. With so many crucial aspects to consider, it’s easy to feel uncertain about where to begin. But we’ve got you covered with simple steps that will help you create a product roadmap that drives an efficient product development process.

Let’s dive into how to create a well-executed product roadmap.

1. Define the product roadmap structure

Product roadmaps keep everyone aligned to ensure a successful product journey. So, it’s important to have a well-defined strategy and clearly identify the key components and structure.

In this tutorial, we will focus on important elements such as:

• Product goals and objectives: Align the product’s goals with the overall objective to show innovation, improved performance, and solutions. Always keep the organization’s vision in mind, and demonstrate how the product contributes to it.
• Key features and functionality: It is important to list features based on their priority level and how well they align with the company’s goals. If two features have the same priority, prioritize the one that has a higher completion rate or can be developed in a shorter timeframe. This way, you ensure that the most important and feasible features take precedence in the development process.
• Timeline or release dates: When planning release dates, it is important to set realistic timelines and have backup plans in place that won’t disrupt the release of other features. This way, you can avoid any chain reactions that could delay the final release. To ensure smooth execution, make sure to check these release dates against your capacity roadmap, giving you a clear picture of when your resources will be able to meet the estimated deadlines.
• Milestones or important events: Having milestones is essential for highlighting your organization’s goals, major releases, events, and achievements. When you visualize a goal or key result on a roadmap, it becomes easier for your team to grasp the steps needed to achieve success.
• Dependencies or relationships between features: Before launching any product, it’s important to have a clear and detailed vision and consider how the product will benefit the organization or the users.
• Teams and stakeholders: Assign tasks to promote transparency and accountability across all levels of your organization. This allows all team members to see who is responsible for each task and its expected delivery date. It’s a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure smooth project management.

To make informed decisions, you need a comprehensive understanding of these factors. Gathering all this information is necessary for effective planning and strategy development. This way, you’ll create a roadmap that engages and resonates with your users.

Next, we’ll define the structure of our database.

2. Set up your Baserow database

Managing a product with multiple milestones is easier with a centralized database. Baserow will serve as a centralized hub for entering, organizing, and collaborating on all the important elements of the product roadmap.

Log in to your existing Baserow account or create a new account if you don’t have one already.

Once you log in, you can access the dashboard to add workspaces and databases. Let’s start by creating a new workspace or adding a database to an existing workspace.

To create a new workspace, simply click on the + Create workspace button. Then, click on Add workspace to get started.

If you are just starting with Baserow, find out more about how to create a workspace.

Once the workspace is set up, you can create a database from scratch or choose one from our template library. In this tutorial, we’ll use a template from the library:

1. Click on the + Create new button to start creating a new database.
2. Select the “From template” option to add a database from a template.
3. Input “Product Roadmap” in the template search box.
4. Click the Use this template button to add the template to the workspace.

Use this template

That’s it! We’ve successfully created a new database. Now we can start populating, managing, and organizing data in Baserow.

3. Plan what goes in the roadmap

The Product Roadmap template is predefined with tables, fields, and views to capture the relevant information as part of the product lifecycle.

We will use the Product Roadmap template to organize tasks based on specific features in the product and assign timelines to give a clear overview of the necessary steps to achieve the product goals.

We have the following tables in the database:

Table
Features	A list of dates, estimated duration for each feature, assigned team members, and associated releases.
Staff	A list of staff members involved in product development, including their contact information.
Teams	An overview of team leads and members associated with each team.
Releases	An overview of the release, including the date and the features included in a release.

By prioritizing in-demand features, you can showcase the product’s potential and provide more value to users. This strategic process lays the foundation for a successful product launch in the market.

In the Features table,

1. Add new rows by clicking on the + button.
2. Fill in the necessary details for each feature request, such as the feature name, description, timeline, team, and priority.

The product roadmap database simplifies the process by providing a clear structure. With this template, the product has a consistent set of goals and key initiatives for product planning.

4. Track the status of each feature

Product roadmaps should typically categorize tasks or initiatives into stages. These categories are helpful to organize and prioritize the different stages of the product journey.

In order to ensure the success of your product, it’s important to prioritize tasks effectively. You can do this by taking advantage of user insights, evaluating the value and complexity of each task, and using a scoring model to aid decision-making.

We will add a new field to the Features table to capture information. Monitoring the timeline allows you to track progress at different stages of development, identify workflow bottlenecks, remove blockers, and optimize workflow.

To create a new field for tasks,

1. Click on the + button just after the last visible field in the table.
2. Select the field type as “Single select”.
3. Input a name to identify the field as “Status”.
4. Add options to the field: Backlog, Up next, In-progress, and Completed.
5. Click the Create button.

Baserow offers a high level of customization, allowing you to tailor your product roadmap to match your team’s needs. You can use color coding or conditional formatting to highlight the status or priority of each feature. Then, add more fields and views, if needed, to capture additional information.

Next, we will create a dynamic and interactive view to understand the product roadmap at a glance.

5. Visualize the roadmap with a Kanban view

We will use a kanban board to provide a visual representation of the product development process and make it easier for stakeholders to understand the overall product direction and timeline.

In a Kanban-style roadmap, you get a quick overview of various data points for each item. It shows you the product development phase it’s in.

Kanban view is available in the Baserow premium version only. Users on the free plan cannot create a Kanban view.

We want to bring together all the intricate features needed for collaboration to make it easier to visualize the product’s direction and progress:

1. Open the view dropdown by clicking on the view switcher in the top left-hand portion of the table.
2. Select Kanban + button and enter a name for this view as “By status.”
3. Click Add Kanban.
4. Select a single select field the cards should be stacked by as “Status.”

Customize the views of the product roadmap to streamline processes and adapt the roadmap as the product evolves.

Highlight critical features in unique colors to represent critical and common dependencies. So, at a single glance, you can easily grasp all this valuable information and prioritize upcoming tasks, especially if you’re sharing the document across different departments.

This visual representation will help stakeholders understand the product roadmap at a glance, identify options for improvement, and optimize the roadmap for efficiency.

6. Communicate with stakeholders and team members

Next, we want to encourage teams involved in product development to contribute and access the data directly within the database. This collaboration enables well-informed decision-making when assigning new features to specific teams.

When using Baserow to build a product roadmap, you can communicate priorities and strategies to stakeholders and your internal team. Inviting team members to collaborate, discuss tasks, and share updates promotes effective communication, reduces miscommunication, and ensures that everyone is on the same page regarding the product milestones.

Once the product roadmap is ready, we will determine who needs access to it.

To invite collaborators to have direct access to the relevant data,

1. In the workspace settings, locate the Members section.
2. Click on the Invite Member button in the top right corner of the Members page.
3. A dialog box will appear, prompting you to enter the email address of the person you wish to invite as a collaborator. Optionally, you can add a custom message to provide additional context or instructions.
4. Choose the default role level for the collaborator role at the workspace level.
5. Click on the Send Invite button.

When sharing your data, it’s important to be cautious. With advanced user management, Baserow allows admins to share access at the database level and grant members or teams the ability to view or edit specific tables of the roadmap.

In this collaborative setup, all team members with the right access can see, vote on the features, and submit new feature ideas. So, it’s an inclusive process where everyone’s input is valued. This enhances communication and collaboration during the product development process.

To share a form to request new features:

1. Open the view dropdown by clicking on the view switcher in the top left-hand portion of the Features table.
2. Switch to the New feature request form view.
3. Click the Share view link.
4. Create a private shareable view-only link to the form view and share the view.

People who have the link can use the form to request new features that they are interested in.

Finally, showcase progress and announce updates.

7. Share the roadmap publicly

It’s important to gather insights and feedback, but how do you effectively convey your plans back to them? That’s where a public roadmap comes in handy.

To improve user experience and gather feedback, we want to publicly share the roadmap and allow users to request their preferred features. By publicly sharing your product roadmap, you can transparently respond to users and communicate your realistic plans for the future. This fosters a stronger connection with your user community and builds trust in your product development process.

To share the external product roadmap with stakeholders, potential users, or clients:

1. Open the view dropdown by clicking on the view switcher in the top left-hand portion of the Features table.
2. Switch to the kanban view.
3. Click the Share view link.
4. Create a private shareable view-only link to the view and share the view.

Anyone with the link will have view-only access to the table that has been shared, whether they are a member of the workspace or not. This keeps users informed about the product’s progress, priorities, and dependencies.

To embed a view via an iframe, replace YOUR_URL in the code snippet below:

<iframe src="YOUR_URL" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>

Publish the product roadmap to enhance transparency, communication, and credibility. It is important to consistently update and improve the roadmap as the product evolves. This ensures that it remains up-to-date and serves as a reliable reference throughout the product lifecycle.

Summary

When team members and stakeholders have access to a centralized database, it significantly improves collaboration and communication. Baserow offers flexibility, integration capabilities, and valuable data insights to support informed decision-making and drive successful product launches.

By following the steps in this tutorial, you can build a well-structured product roadmap, effectively allocate resources to new features, and maintain control over the development process. So you can manage your project efficiently and deliver results on time.

Other useful resources

• How to build a Baserow PDF generator app in Appsmith
• How to model your Baserow data
• 6 time-saving Baserow formulas

In case you’ve run into an issue while following the tutorial, feel free to reach out to ask for help in the Baserow community.

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