How can you review a product roadmap effectively?

1 Assess the progress

The first step in reviewing a product roadmap is to evaluate how well you are progressing towards your desired outcomes. You can use various metrics and indicators to measure your performance, such as customer satisfaction, user adoption, revenue, retention, and quality. You can also collect qualitative feedback from customers, users, and internal stakeholders to understand their pain points, needs, and expectations. By assessing the progress, you can identify what is working well, what needs improvement, and what gaps or risks exist in your product roadmap.

2 Validate the assumptions

The second step in reviewing a product roadmap is to validate the assumptions that underpin your product decisions. Assumptions are the beliefs or hypotheses that you have about your customers, markets, competitors, and solutions. They are often based on research, data, or intuition, but they may not always be accurate or relevant. To validate your assumptions, you need to test them with experiments, prototypes, or MVPs. You also need to monitor the results and learn from them. By validating your assumptions, you can avoid wasting time and resources on building features or products that no one wants or needs.

5 Adapt to the changes

The fifth step in reviewing a product roadmap is to adapt to the changes that occur in your product environment. Changes can be internal or external, such as new customer insights, market trends, competitor moves, technology shifts, or business priorities. To adapt to the changes, you need to review your product roadmap frequently and regularly. You also need to be flexible and agile, and make adjustments or revisions as needed. By adapting to the changes, you can keep your product roadmap relevant, realistic, and responsive.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?