What are the most user-friendly product roadmap tools for non-technical product managers?
As a non-technical product manager, you understand the importance of clear and effective communication, especially when it comes to conveying your product's vision and progress. Product roadmaps are vital tools for this purpose, serving as visual representations that outline the direction and timeline of a product's development. However, not all product managers come from a technical background, and the complexity of some roadmap tools can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are user-friendly options available that cater to your needs, allowing you to focus on strategy and planning without getting bogged down by technicalities.
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Seif AbdelghanyHead of Product | Category Director | Master Product Manager | Product Management Consultant & Coach | PDMA Global…
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Pradeep J. BhedaVice President of Products | Sr. Product Management Leader for Cloud, SaaS and Application Security | Networking |…
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Betty BiyansaCo-founder @ Invigo Technologies | Software Product Manager |Quality Assurance
When you're looking for a product roadmap tool, the ease of getting started is crucial. You want something that allows you to jump right in without a steep learning curve. The best tools for non-technical product managers are those that offer intuitive interfaces and simple drag-and-drop functionality. This way, you can quickly create a visual roadmap that communicates your plan to stakeholders and team members with minimal fuss.
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I personally recommend jira because of its flexibility and extensive capabilities. Jira is a widely used tool for product management and issue tracking, including for product roadmap planning. Non-technical product managers find Jira useful for product roadmap planning due to its customizable workflows, agile methodology support, integration capabilities, and robust reporting features. With Jira, non-technical product managers can effectively prioritize tasks, plan releases, track progress, and communicate project status, ultimately improving collaboration and the success of their products.
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For product managers who want user-friendly tools, Roadmunk, Aha!, Trello, Asana, and Monday.com are top choices. Roadmunk lets you drag and drop with ease and offers customizable templates. Aha! has comprehensive features for strategic roadmapping aligned with business goals. Trello's visual boards and simple interface make task organization a breeze. Asana's customizable views and collaboration tools simplify roadmap creation and sharing. Monday.com's customizable boards and visual timelines make managing roadmaps a cinch. These five tools are simple and easy to use, and perfect for product managers new to product roadmapping.
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When searching for a product roadmap tool, the ease of getting started is essential. It is important to find a tool that allows you to dive right in without facing a steep learning curve. The ideal tools for non-technical product managers are those that provide intuitive interfaces and simple drag-and-drop functionalities. With these features, you can swiftly create a visual roadmap that effectively communicates your plan to stakeholders and team members with minimal hassle.
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Use a product roadmap tools based on how you want to collaborate with rest of product team. Few tools are the useful: 1. Google Sheets: Ubiquitous and simple to use. If you collaborate with non-tech folks, this can be quite handy 2. Miro: Easy to use and great visualization. Good for cross functional collaboration 3. Aha!: Good for end to end strategic planning, goal alignment, and roadmap creation. Recommended for strong product culture organization. 4. ProductPlan: Good tool to use based on features. Made for product teams - hence quite handy.
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For non-technical product managers, there are several user-friendly product roadmap tools that can help visualize and manage product development. Here are a few good options to consider: monday.com: This platform offers a drag-and-drop interface with pre-built product roadmap templates. It's great for beginners due to its intuitive design and visual features. Airfocus: This tool provides a clean and customizable interface for roadmaps. It allows for easy prioritization and facilitates collaboration with different teams. ProductPlan: This popular option offers beautiful and clear roadmap presentations. It includes features like user stories and roadblocks, making it well-suited for product managers. And in last Trello.
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You can effectively build an actionable roadmap as follows: - Set up a Jira kanban board to visualize workflows (backlog, design, dev, testing/QA, Go-Live) - Leverage LucidChart, starting with a relevant template to edit, if needed. New AI features include text-to-diagram functionality to help you focus. Want your team involved? There’s LucidSpark for that. - To better present it, use PPT & show the roadmap, adding notes to guide your audience. - Let the roadmap accurately reflect the intended project methodology, whether it’s agile and/or waterfall. Aha! boasts powerful, strategy-focused features ideal for enterprise-level roadmapping. Otherwise, the above tools can do wonders in communicating your vision to stakeholders & your team.
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Big advocate of the team 'Tools dont matter' Honestly a Google Sheet is excellent as well to manage roadmap if the template is good for the nature of product Dont worry too much about it Choose any tool you feel is intuitive and easy to use and fits the nature of action items that you will have in your product and use that
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For non-technical product managers seeking user-friendly product roadmap tools, it's essential to start with platforms that offer intuitive interfaces and straightforward onboarding processes. Free options like Monday.com, Trello and Asana provide easy entry points with customizable boards and simple task management features. Paid tools such as Productboard and Roadmunk offer more advanced functionalities for those willing to invest in a more comprehensive solution.
A product roadmap should be a beacon of clarity in the complex sea of product development. The right tool will help you create a roadmap that's not only easy for you to manage but also easy for others to understand. Look for tools that offer a variety of visual layouts and customization options so you can present information in the most digestible way, whether it's through timelines, swimlanes, or Kanban boards.
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In my experience, visual clarity is paramount when selecting a product roadmap tool, especially in the home appliances industry where product development involves diverse teams. I have utilized tools that provide robust customization options—like adjustable timelines, swimlanes, and Kanban boards—which have been instrumental in enhancing cross-functional understanding. These visual tools allow non-technical managers to effectively communicate complex product timelines and dependencies, ensuring that all team members, regardless of their technical expertise, are on the same page. Choosing a tool that offers these versatile visual options is crucial for maintaining clear and effective communication across various departments.
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I couldn't agree more! A roadmap shows the product's journey, and clarity is essential for navigating the twists and turns. Visual layouts are instrumental in achieving this clarity. Tools like swimlanes and Kanban boards offer a bird's-eye view of progress, which makes it easy to spot bottlenecks and prioritize. Kanban makes it easy to see who's responsible for what and where things stand at a glance.
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Clarity is about stakeholders. The roadmap is to be shared with the rest of the company, and different departments have different needs. So make sure the view can be tailored to tell the story that resonates with that department.
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A product roadmap should serve as a beacon of clarity amidst the complexity of product development. The right tool will assist you in creating a roadmap that is not only easy for you to manage but also easy for others to comprehend. When searching for a tool, seek out ones that provide a range of visual layouts and customization options. This way, you can present information in the most comprehensible way possible, whether it be through timelines, swimlanes, or Kanban boards.
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For a product roadmap, clarity is paramount amidst the complexities of product development. Seek a tool that not only facilitates your management but also ensures comprehension for others. Opt for platforms offering diverse visual layouts and customization features, enabling you to present information in the most digestible manner. Whether through timelines, swimlanes, or Kanban boards, these tools should empower you to create a roadmap that resonates with stakeholders and team members alike.
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One key takeaway from the article is the importance of choosing a roadmap tool that enhances clarity and adaptability in communication. As a product manager, I’ve found that having a tool that allows for various visual representations, like timelines, swimlanes, and Kanban boards, is crucial. This flexibility helps ensure that complex information is presented in a way that’s accessible to all stakeholders. In my experience, tools like Aha! and ProductPlan stand out because they offer extensive customization options, making it easier to tailor the roadmap to meet the specific needs of different audiences, thus driving better alignment and decision-making across the team.
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When crafting a product roadmap, clarity is paramount amidst the complexities of product development. Opt for a tool that facilitates the creation of a roadmap that is both easily manageable for you and comprehensible for others. Seek out platforms that provide diverse visual layouts and customization features, empowering you to present information in the most digestible manner possible. Whether it's through timelines, swimlanes, or Kanban boards, such tools enable you to tailor your roadmap to suit the needs of your audience, fostering better understanding and alignment across your team and stakeholders.
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Forget complex tools – I need visuals that pop. Timelines, swimlanes, Kanban boards – the right tool will offer options to best showcase the plan. Easy for me to manage, easy for everyone to understand. That's the key.
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Visual clarity is vital for product roadmaps, particularly for non-technical product managers. Ensuring visual clarity makes your roadmap a guiding light for development teams, facilitating better communication and alignment. Here are some often-overlooked points on visual clarity: - Use consistent colors and symbols to represent different elements of the roadmap. This uniformity helps stakeholders quickly grasp the roadmap’s structure and easily identify the status of various tasks and milestones. - Include a clear legend and annotations to explain the meaning of colors, symbols, and other visual elements. This ensures that everyone, regardless of their familiarity with the roadmap tool, can easily interpret the information presented.
Product management is not a solo endeavor; it requires constant collaboration with your team. The ideal roadmap tool for non-technical managers facilitates this by allowing multiple users to view, edit, and comment on the roadmap in real-time. This collaborative approach ensures that everyone is on the same page and can contribute their insights and feedback without technical barriers.
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I recommend the Miro tool for teamwork and roadmap discussions. Simple to use, it offers rapid onboarding and allows you to integrate Jira cards. This gives a clear view of the features (via Epics or Portfolio Epics) included in the roadmap. Miro enables teams to have an overview of the roadmap and simply edit, modify and discuss its content. This saves time, allowing you to concentrate on the risks inherent in the roadmap.
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Product management thrives on teamwork, technical or not. The ideal roadmap tool ditches the steep learning curve and fosters smooth collaboration with features like real-time editing, commenting, and visibility for all team members. Automated reminders, notifications, task allocations, and prioritization features built-in further streamline the process, ensuring everyone stays on the same page, contributes seamlessly, and keeps moving forward without technical hurdles.
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Facilitating collaboration among cross-functional teams is essential for successful product management. Notion provides collaboration features such as real-time editing and commenting, allowing product managers to gather feedback and align stakeholders efficiently. Additional platforms like Monday.com and Wrike offer enhanced collaboration functionalities with task assignments, project timelines, and integrations with other tools.
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Product Management is always about the team effort. Multiple tools give easier integration with Jira and TFS like Project Management software. For easier collaboration, one can use Asana, Miro, Trello, and Slack. Asana allows you to manage your project management timelines and roadmaps effectively alongside your peers, assigning them their tasks. Miro gives easier integration with tools like Jira with clear view of epics and features. Trello gives you access to real-time collaboration with boards, cards, and commenting features that make it easy to discuss and refine your roadmap.
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Effective product management hinges on seamless collaboration, and the right roadmap tool is pivotal in facilitating this. Tools that allow multiple users to interact with the roadmap in real-time are essential. This capability ensures that team members can view, edit, and comment on the roadmap as it evolves. Such an approach not only keeps everyone aligned but also empowers the entire team to contribute their insights and feedback promptly, making the development process more inclusive and dynamic. This collaborative environment is especially beneficial for non-technical managers, as it reduces technical hurdles and enhances team communication.
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here are top picks for user-friendly roadmaps with smooth collaboration: 1. Miro: Think digital whiteboard! Real-time collaboration and easy brainstorming for teams (think sticky notes!). 2. Notion: Shared workspace with flexible layouts. Great for centralizing discussions and feedback on roadmaps. 3. Asana: Task management with roadmap views. Assign tasks, track progress, and keep everyone on the same page. These tools prioritize real-time editing, commenting features, and clear task delegation. Non-technical PMs can collaborate with designers, developers, and stakeholders seamlessly.
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The roadmap is a great tool for aligning and communicating product evolution. To create it, we must involve several interested parties, such as business stakeholders, the Tech Lead and others. Each of these will collaborate in the creation of the product roadmap. O roadmap é uma baita ferramenta de alinhamento e comunicação da evolução do produto. Para criá-lo devemos envolver várias partes interessadas, como por exemplo os stakeholders do negócio, o Tech Lead e outros. Cada um desses vai colaborar na criação do roadmap do produto.
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In product management, collaboration is essential, and the right roadmap tool should support seamless teamwork. Look for a platform that enables multiple users to access, edit, and comment on the roadmap simultaneously in real-time. This collaborative functionality fosters transparency and ensures that everyone involved can contribute their perspectives and feedback without encountering technical obstacles. By embracing a collaborative approach, you empower your team to work together effectively, driving alignment and enhancing the overall quality of your product roadmap.
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Collaboration features are crucial for non-technical PMs to engage stakeholders in the roadmap planning process. User-friendly tools offer features like real-time editing, commenting, and task assignments, facilitating seamless collaboration across teams. Integration with popular communication platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams enhances communication channels, ensuring that everyone stays aligned on the roadmap's progress.
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My team's gotta stay in the loop. That means a roadmap tool where everyone can jump in, see the plan, and share ideas. Real-time editing and commenting keep us all aligned. No more email tag or confusing version control – just a central hub for product strategy discussions.
Keeping track of your product's progress is essential, and the right roadmap tool will make this task effortless. Look for features that enable you to set milestones, track completion rates, and update statuses easily. This will help you maintain a clear overview of where your product stands at any given moment and make informed decisions on the fly.
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Monitoring the progress of your product is crucial, and choosing the right roadmap tool can streamline this process significantly. It’s important to select a tool that includes features like setting milestones, tracking completion rates, and updating statuses effortlessly. These capabilities not only provide a clear snapshot of where your product currently stands but also enable you to make quick, informed decisions. This kind of functionality is essential for maintaining transparency across teams and ensuring that everyone is aligned on the product’s development trajectory.
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Tracking progress against roadmap milestones is crucial for keeping projects on schedule. A tool like Jira offer robust progress tracking capabilities with agile project management features such as sprint planning and burndown charts. It enables product managers to monitor team progress and identify potential bottlenecks.
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We all need to see the roadmap come to life. Easy status updates and tracking completion rates keep me on top of progress. This transparency helps me adapt and make smart decisions to keep us moving forward.
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Jira: Provides robust tracking capabilities, including progress bars, milestones, and customizable workflows, allowing product managers to monitor the status of roadmap items and track their progress over time. Monday.com: Offers visual dashboards and timeline views to track project milestones and deadlines, empowering product managers to stay on top of roadmap progress and make data-driven decisions.
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Effective roadmap goes beyond mere visualization – it requires the ability to track progress, adjust priorities, and communicate updates with ease. At MAF, we recognized the value of leveraging tools that our non-technical teams were already familiar with, such as Jira. While primarily known as an issue-tracking tool, Jira's flexibility and integrations allowed us to repurpose it for roadmap management. Our product managers could easily create and update roadmap items within Jira, associating them with epics, sprints, and releases. This seamless integration with our development workflows ensured that our roadmaps always reflected the latest progress and changes, without requiring separate, dedicated roadmapping tool.
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- Tracking progress is crucial for keeping projects on schedule. - Tools like Jira or ClickUp offer features for setting milestones, tracking completion rates, and updating statuses. - This allows non-technical product managers to maintain a clear overview of the product's progress and make informed decisions based on real-time data.
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Even with the best tools, the best way to track progress is with consistent rituals. Making sure to hear from the team, plan, retros, and demos are essential.
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In my experience, the most user-friendly product roadmap tools for non-technical product managers prioritize progress tracking. I utilize platforms like Asana or Trello, which offer intuitive interfaces and customizable features, enabling seamless collaboration and task management. Additionally, integrating feedback loops and milestone tracking enhances clarity and alignment across teams, ensuring efficient roadmap execution and delivering better results.
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Keeping tabs on your product's journey is key. Find tools that let you set goals, see how much is done, and update progress with a snap. It's like having a map for your product's adventure, helping you stay on course and make smart moves along the way.
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Choosing a roadmap tool with milestone setting, completion tracking, and status updates simplifies progress monitoring, providing a clear product overview. This facilitates informed decision-making and efficient project management.
Your product's journey is bound to encounter unexpected twists and turns, so a rigid roadmap won't do. You need a tool that is flexible enough to adapt to changes without requiring extensive rework. The best tools for non-technical managers allow you to reorganize priorities, shift timelines, and alter objectives with ease, ensuring your roadmap remains relevant and actionable.
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The journey of your product is bound to face unexpected twists and turns, making a rigid roadmap inadequate. You need a tool that offers flexibility to adapt to changes without requiring extensive rework. The best tools for non-technical managers enable you to reorganize priorities, shift timelines, and alter objectives with ease. This ensures that your roadmap remains relevant and actionable, even in the face of uncertainties.
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The dynamic nature of product development means that your roadmap needs to be flexible. It’s essential to choose a tool that allows you to adjust priorities, shift timelines, and modify objectives easily. This flexibility ensures that your roadmap can adapt to unforeseen changes without extensive rework. For non-technical managers, having a tool that simplifies these adjustments is crucial, as it helps maintain the roadmap’s relevance and keeps your strategy actionable, even as project conditions evolve. This adaptability is key to navigating the complexities of product management and ensuring sustained success.
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Navigate your product journey smoothly with user-friendly roadmap tools designed for non-tech managers. These tools offer flexibility, letting you tweak priorities, timelines, and goals effortlessly. No need for major overhauls when the unexpected arises; these tools keep your roadmap adaptable and ready for action.
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Airtable: Provides a flexible and customizable platform for building product roadmaps using grids, calendars, and kanban boards, accommodating various planning methodologies and workflow preferences. Wrike: Offers customizable workflows and project views, allowing product managers to adapt their roadmap structure and content to changing priorities and stakeholder needs.
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- Product development often involves adapting to changes in priorities or market conditions. - It offers flexibility to reorganize priorities, shift timelines, and alter objectives easily. - This ensures that the roadmap remains relevant and adaptable to evolving needs without requiring extensive rework.
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In my experience, the most user-friendly product roadmap tools for non-technical product managers prioritize flexibility. I utilize tools like Trello and Asana, which offer intuitive interfaces and customizable features, allowing for seamless adaptation to diverse project needs. Additionally, I never directly used these collaborative platforms like Monday.com, fostering team alignment and efficiency through interactive planning and real-time updates but these seems better considering moment of truth.
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A flexible roadmap tool is vital, enabling easy adjustments to priorities, timelines, and objectives, keeping the plan relevant and actionable.
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A flexible roadmap tool is vital, enabling easy adjustments to priorities, timelines, and objectives, keeping the plan relevant and actionable.
Finally, integrating feedback into your product roadmap is key to its success. A user-friendly tool should provide a straightforward way for stakeholders to offer their input directly within the roadmap. This integration ensures that valuable insights are not lost and that your product development is guided by a diverse range of perspectives.
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Integrating user feedback into the product roadmap is critical for delivering customer-centric solutions. Free tools like UserVoice and SurveyMonkey offer feedback collection and analysis functionalities, enabling product managers to gather insights directly from users. Other platforms like ProdPad and Productboard offer dedicated feedback management modules, streamlining the process of prioritizing feature requests and bug fixes based on customer input.
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ProdPad: Integrates with various feedback channels such as customer support tickets, emails, and user forums, enabling product managers to capture and prioritize user feedback directly within the roadmap. UserVoice: Allows users to submit and upvote feature requests directly on the roadmap, facilitating feedback collection and prioritization based on customer input.
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Collecting and incorporating stakeholder feedback is a critical component of successful roadmap management. At Borderfree, we empowered our PMs to leverage simple yet powerful tools like Google Forms and Surveymonkey to gather feedback from internal teams, external partners, and even end-users. By embedding these feedback mechanisms directly into our roadmap presentations and documentation, we fostered a culture of continuous improvement and ensured that our roadmaps remained dynamic and responsive to the evolving needs of our stakeholders.
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One of the key elements for our organisation is ensuring that everyone can see how customer (and internal) feedback is being used, supporting prioritisation, and helping to drive our product roadmap. This visibility and transparency is really powerful to help invest in our engaged culture. I really like the opportunity of a dedicated feedback management module, like the one in Productboard, to easily *show* what we're doing with feedback, and why it's important!
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O ProdPad é uma ferramenta projetada especificamente para gerenciamento de produtos, oferecendo uma entrada fácil e uma interface intuitiva para os gerentes de produto. Ele permite que os usuários capturem ideias, organizem itens de backlog e priorizem recursos de forma visual. O ProdPad também facilita a integração de feedback dos clientes, permitindo que os usuários coletem e priorizem feedback diretamente na plataforma.
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- Integrating feedback into the roadmap is essential for aligning with stakeholder expectations. - Tools such as SurveyMonkey provides features for stakeholders to offer input directly within the roadmap. - This integration ensures that valuable insights are captured and incorporated into the product development process, leading to better outcomes.
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CDP and CEP tools make this process even easier. Consider using tools like Segment and Braze to collect and engage with customers.
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User feedback: Product decisions should always stem from user insight. Whether qualitative or quantitative. Even high-level strategy decisions will have been informed by user feedback of some kind. Having an easy way to record your insights directly in a roadmapping tool makes it so much easier to recognise potential opportunities and roadmapping helps structure that feedback into meaningful actions. Team feedback: It seems simple but one of the best high-level feedback mechanisms I’ve used with teams is emoji. Whether it be in Slack when sharing my roadmaps or directly in Miro or Figjam, I can quite quickly judge reactions. Those that want to contribute deeper feedback can do, but it also opens up a channel for those to feedback quickly.
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Having worked in both waterfall and agile environments, I have extensively used both AHA and JIRA. The choice between using waterfall or agile methodologies can significantly influence which product roadmapping tool. AHA provides extensive options for strategic planning and gathering external input directly from account teams who interact with customers, and is well suited for both waterfall and agile enviornments. JIRA is a popular choice for agile teams, offering features like scrum and kanban boards, backlog management, and sprint planning. Its flexibility and integration with development tools make it well-suited for highly iterative and incremental development cycles
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Along with all the factors mentioned it should help the product manager to be flexible with scale in the changing dynamics in an organization with capabilities like better user experience, integration capabilities and technical support.
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Integrations: Look for tools that integrate seamlessly with other software used in your organization, such as project management tools, collaboration platforms, and customer feedback systems. Scalability: Consider whether the tool can scale with your product and team as your roadmap grows in complexity and scope.
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Just like a product manager would build a product, in order to build a roadmap we need to think about who the audience for your roadmap is. Is it a customer, a stakeholder from a different business unit,someone from sales and although they say they want to see a roadmap, everyone means different things when they say roadmap so evaluate what they’re looking for which may be anything from the priority of the backlog item, the ability to see that you are thinking about it or the actual timeline of execution. The timeline typically would come from a product delivery team rather than a product manager, so you may also want to think about what role you’re performing.
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Personally, I use Jira to manage my projects, but there are many other tools available that can be used depending on the project size and budget. In the past, I have even used MS Excel to manage a project successfully. It may seem unconventional but with a good understanding of the product and the product roadmap, it is possible to visualize it correctly. Ultimately, the tool used is not as important as the PM skills and the level of involvement of the PM in the product development process.
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In addition, product managers should consider factors such as scalability, security, and customer support when selecting a product roadmap tool. Assessing the scalability of the tool to accommodate future growth, ensuring data security and compliance with industry regulations, and evaluating the quality of customer support are all crucial considerations for long-term success.
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For non-technical product managers, navigating the world of product roadmaps can feel like deciphering a foreign language. Feature dependencies, user stories, and Agile sprints might sound intimidating, but the right roadmap tool can be your secret weapon. Here's a look at some user-friendly options: Trello and Monday.com: Kanban Boards for the Win These visual tools function like digital sticky notes. Drag and drop features make it easy to organize initiatives by stage (e.g., In Progress, Done) and prioritize tasks. With intuitive interfaces and free plans, they're a great starting point. 2. ProductPlan: Focus on Features ProductPlan keeps things simple. Create roadmaps with features, releases, and timelines.
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Having features that enable prioritization on the roadmap is crucial. Such features empower product managers to make well-informed decisions regarding which items should be included and when they should be scheduled, thereby ensuring that the roadmap reflects the most important and timely initiatives for the team and organization.
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A Product Roadmap has to be functionally correct i.e. it must satisfy the core need of having a product roadmap. A couple of things which must be considered while evaluating a tool for Product Roadmapping are : - Easy Sharing and Integration - Visually Easy to Comprehend - Ease in Modification - Access Control and Sign Off Mechanism available - Integration with Internal Tools
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Evaluate the pricing structure of the tool to ensure it aligns with your budget and offers good value for money. Look for transparent pricing plans without hidden fees and consider whether the features included in each plan meet your requirements.
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