How do you rapidly validate your product roadmap?

Validating the product roadmap is crucial for ensuring it aligns with organizational goals. This relies on two factors: 1) Alignment with the product strategy. 2) Feasibility from a development perspective. It's essential to assess if proposed initiatives contribute to strategic objectives and if the timeline and resources are realistic. Additionally, the roadmap should reflect the product's themes. Moreover, the roadmap should be guided by the overarching themes and vision of the product. For instance, if transparency is a core theme of the product, all milestones and initiatives within the roadmap should align with this theme.

In my last role when I first joined, I received my predecessor product roadmap which I had to know review and starting updating based on company strategy and my own for the category. First thing I had to list down from my predecessor was what were the assumptions and hypothesis upon which was the current roadmap built. And then I had to look for new trends and assess existing situation. Second, I had to review consumer research/ pain points, jobs to be done, competitive landscape and what competitor brands did in other markets to predict their next move. Third, I had to assess what would my strategy be building on company’s and category SWOT analysis and our competitive advantages from organization and competency point of view

Embarking on the path to a validated product roadmap commences with a thorough examination and articulation of your assumptions. They are beliefs you hold to be true, hunches that guide your decisions, but as yet, they remain unverified by concrete data or direct user feedback. Picture this! You might believe fervently that your target market is of a certain size, convinced that your customers are grappling with specific pain points, or confident that your solution possesses a competitive edge. These convictions are the sparks that ignite your product roadmap. However, at this juncture, they are merely hypotheses, and it's paramount to recognize them as such.

First, it's important to acknowledge that product roadmaps are not permanent; they are flexible and subject to various influences as the product progresses to the next stage. The validation of the product roadmap relies on these influencers, which play a significant role in making decisions in the current, previous, and upcoming phases of product development. These validators can include the following: - User Feedback - Existing metrics - Various analytics and analyses - Stakeholder inputs - Market research and interactions - Performance indicators - Backlogs and prioritization frameworks, among others. Also, recognizing that roadmaps are flexible gives room for more development and more precise decision-making and objectives.

Many product roadmaps are often based on intuition versus validation/data because experimentation feels effortful! It doesn't have to be that way though. You don't have to build a prototype and test it for every feature in your backlog. Running an experiment can mean: - Leveraging your product analytics to answer questions around existing user behavior - Reviewing customer interviews and reviews for sentiment - Running online surveys The goal is to gather relevant information without an extensive investment of time and resources.

Once you've defined your assumptions as the foundation of your product roadmap validation journey, the next pivotal step is to design the experiments that serves as your compass in the uncharted territory. These experiments are structured tools for gathering and analyzing data or feedback from an array of sources, including your customers, users, and other stakeholders. This phase is where the rubber meets the road, where your assumptions are put to the test. The toolbox of experimentation is diverse: - Surveys - Interviews - Usability Tests - Landing Pages - Prototypes - Beta Versions

Two years ago we conducted an experiment to test something on our product roadmap and when we recieved the results we have seen several discrepancies that were somehow minor yet, due to the expertise of our market research team, we were recommended to do additional checks before using the results to implement in our roadmap 1) list down clearly your hypothesis 2) Review the results and compare vs initial hypothesis 3) Review data discrepancy to ensure data is sufficient or additional check are needed 4) share the outcome with your main stakeholder and list down the impacts to your product roadmap 5) prioritize the actions plan points and ensure your team understand this and implements this in their detailed roadmap

By assessing the progress, you can identify what is working well, what needs improvement, and what gaps or risks exist in your product roadmap

Experiment results are like treasure maps for your roadmap. They reveal unexpected paths, potential roadblocks, and hidden opportunities. Based on these findings, reviewing your vision, goals, and priorities makes perfect sense.

In 2015, Spotify wanted to continuously improve user engagement and satisfaction. They decided to develop a feature called "Discover Weekly" - a personalized playlist of music recommendations for each user. Two key approaches Spotify took to validate their roadmap were: 1. Rapid Prototyping: Instead of spending months developing a complex feature, Spotify opted for a rapid prototype. They created a simplified version of Discover Weekly to test user reactions quickly. 2. Beta Testing: Spotify launched the feature as a limited beta, making it available to a small group of users. This allowed them to gather early feedback and make necessary adjustments.