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What Is A Roadmap? How To Create A Roadmap Presentation?

Have to present a roadmap in an upcoming meeting but don’t know what is a roadmap? Wondering how to conduct more effective roadmap presentations in your meetings? Well, we have the answers for you. A roadmap is a dynamic visual representation of your plan, which provides insight into current, upcoming, and future events. A crucial point of reference for maintaining alignment between product strategy, business goals, and execution is the roadmap. 

A well-executed and widely disseminated product roadmap can inspire, unite, and align cross-functional teams to accomplish more. Moreover, publicizing your roadmap is the first step toward sharing it throughout your organization. This blog will cover what is a roadmap and road mapping, why they are important, their benefits and examples, alongside how to create a roadmap presentation.

What Is A Roadmap?

Before jumping onto how to create a roadmap, let’s first understand what is a roadmap: 

A visually illustrated strategic plan is called a roadmap. Perhaps you are leading an interdisciplinary project, launching a new company, or developing a new product. To transform your dreams into reality, you need a well-thought-out plan that outlines your goals and objectives in an efficient order.

You can attach goals to specific tasks and indicate their completion deadlines based on your resources and ability. A roadmap helps track progress toward your goals and share plans with stakeholders. You can construct a visual timeline for projects, goals, or tasks with a professional roadmap, an essential tool for project management . It facilitates monitoring development and guarantees that your vision aligns with all project members. 

There are various types of roadmaps , including product, career, strategic, agile, and other most commonly used roadmaps. Using different kinds of roadmaps for different purposes, teams can see their project progress and what changes will occur over time. Therefore, a roadmap is an excellent and versatile tool for business professionals to bring all stakeholders together around a single, high-level business strategy since it is a visual plan that looks impressive in a presentation.

A strong roadmap should ideally be able to convey the following key points:

• Sources: How a group will accomplish the given objectives and what materials they need, including the tools and other resources.
• Expected time: Feel free to set dates according to your delivery needs and use the relevant tool to identify deadlines for significant deliverables.
• Collaboration with different teams: You must define which team members will be involved in the project and why.

What Is Road Mapping?

Now that you understand what is a roadmap, let’s explore the concept of road mapping to delve deeper into the subject:

The creation and implementation of strategy and innovation are made possible by the flexible strategic planning method known as roadmapping. It is widely employed by governmental, corporate, and academic institutions to promote goal alignment and clarify complicated issues because of its adaptability and usefulness. Road mapping is a powerful strategic planning method. Hence, many organizations use it to enhance development, innovation, and strategy implementation. 

Recommended: Strategic Plan Templates

While many define road mapping as a visualization of a product’s timeline, it can extend beyond that depending on the specific ambitions of a company’s product portfolio. For example, a chemical company’s roadmap could emphasize more the factors like regulatory considerations that will affect the product and its development process rather than technology. In contrast, a car manufacturer will employ road mapping to comprehend a complicated, connected collection of technology and product elements.

Why do you need a roadmap?

Now that you know about road mapping and what is a roadmap, another vital thing to understand is why you need a roadmap to utilize it correctly: 

A project roadmap aids in setting clear objectives, managing team resources, and controlling stakeholder expectations. Teams can use roadmaps to track and manage the various factors in every project, including ideas, tasks assigned, and resources. Project managers use project roadmaps to inform stakeholders about the project and update them on its status. They offer a high-level overview of the project instead of in-detail information. Project roadmaps can be helpful in additional ways as well. They are as follows:

1. Setting Objectives:

Well-crafted project roadmaps spell out every objective you intend to accomplish during the undertaking. Your team will be better able to comprehend their goals and concentrate on working more productively to finish their jobs. Setting targets can also help you anticipate the team’s time requirements for each project stage more precisely. 

2. Establishing Priorities:

You can link each task in your project to your overarching goals with the use of project roadmaps. They can also determine the level of complexity or potential work involved in a task. It might help you better identify the jobs that need to be completed in a certain amount of time or with additional resources. The roadmap ensures that each step you take contributes effectively towards achieving your objectives.

3. Interacting With Interested Parties

A project roadmap can help prevent misunderstandings with your stakeholders by ensuring all parties know your team’s actions to accomplish project objectives. It can also guarantee that you give them only the most relevant details regarding the project, including the expected completion date, the milestones you’ve reached, and the required budget. It will enable you to set trustworthy and transparent expectations with each party.

What should you include in a roadmap?

Let’s discuss the essential things you should include in your project roadmap. They are as follows: 

1. A clear depiction of dependencies: Projects typically involve many stakeholder teams. Early in the road mapping process, it’s critical to specify project dependencies as they have different vital stages.

2. The right amount of detail:  You need to use the correct dates and milestones to build a linear visualization in the roadmap for stakeholders to keep track of everything happening in the organization.

3. Make good use of color and templates:   A well-designed roadmap should use color to build connections between its elements to tell a story. Utilize color schemes to link categories on the roadmap visually.

How to create a roadmap & a roadmap presentation? 

Even if you know what is a roadmap, it is of no use if you don’t know how to create one. You can create a roadmap in PowerPoint presentations using one of two methods:

• Make use of a Microsoft Pre-designed Roadmap template.
• With SmartArt Graphic, start from the beginning when creating a roadmap.

Let’s examine these techniques in more detail!

1. Utilize A Microsoft Pre-designed Roadmap Template:

Using a Microsoft pre-designed template is the simplest and fastest way to create a roadmap. The online PowerPoint collection contains numerous roadmap templates you can import and utilize in your presentation. You can later alter the roadmap to suit your needs.

Follow the below steps to create a roadmap using a template from Microsoft.

• Start PowerPoint first, then select “File” from the menu. Select the “New” option now, and then type “roadmap” into the search bar before hitting Enter. There will be a variety of roadmap timeline templates available for selection.
• After making your choice, click the “Create” button. It will include a roadmap in your PowerPoint presentation.
• Now that the tools are accessible, you can edit the roadmap’s text, milestones, and overall design.

2. Use SmartArt Graphic to start from scratch and create a roadmap:

With SmartArt Graphic , you can also start from zero when creating a new roadmap. SmartArt Graphics enables you to generate numerous diagrams within PowerPoint or any other Office module. Together with a roadmap, it allows you to generate a variety of diagrams, including process, hierarchy, matrix, relationship, and pyramid diagrams.

The main stages to start from scratch when creating a roadmap are:

• Open a presentation in PowerPoint.
• Include an arrow or timeline SmartArt graphic.
• Add text and icons to the SmartArt design that has been inserted, such as timelines and milestones.
• Personalize the roadmap’s appearance and feel.
• Save the presentation.

Let’s discuss these actions in more depth!

First, open Microsoft PowerPoint and either make a new presentation or open an old one. After that, select Illustration > SmartArt from the Insert tab.

You can add different SmartArt diagrams that you see. Proceed to the Process tab to view a variety of workflow diagrams. Any similar diagram template might be utilized, such as an Upward Arrow Process, Circle Accent Timeline, Continuous Arrow Process, or Basic Timeline.

The selected SmartArt graphic will then have a basic blueprint added to the slide, and you can edit the roadmap by viewing the SmartArt Design tab on the ribbon. Add text to the diagram to display project phases and milestones in your roadmap. Use the Text pane and add bullets to text fields to accomplish that. To include more milestones in a roadmap, you can also add shapes. By adding relevant icons from the Insert > Icons menu, you may further customize your roadmap.

You can further rotate the arrow shape, format shape, tweak its size and location, change theme color, customize diagram style, etc. From the Illustrations > Shapes menu, you can add more shapes to the roadmap. The Animations option also allows you to animate the roadmap.

All you have to do is save the prepared roadmap as a picture and save the presentation. Right-click on the roadmap and choose “Save as Picture” from the context menu.

Types of Roadmap

Now that you know how to create a roadmap, let us see different kinds of roadmaps below: 

1. Business Roadmap

Business roadmaps complement the business strategy in creating a startup program, as the business plan does not provide specific guidance or context. The roadmap outlines the tasks and timelines and assigns responsibility for their execution. It is clear how using a business roadmap fits together with various roles, responsibilities, and functions.

2. Project Roadmap

Project roadmaps provide a strategic overview of the main elements of a project, such as objectives, benchmarks, resources, deliverables, and a predicted timeline. Project managers use roadmaps as a helpful tool to inform stakeholders about their projects’ state and strategic goals. Similar to how a product roadmap describes the reasoning behind products, a project roadmap explains the strategic justification for building a project.

3. Product Roadmap:

A Product roadmap outlines the product’s long-term goals, objectives, priorities, and development. It is a tactic that brings the organization together around the project’s short- and long-term objectives and how teams and individuals intend to meet them. You need to closely tie the items on the roadmap to your company’s approach to product development, competitive environment, and consumer feedback.

4. Agile Roadmap:

An agile roadmap is a flexible action plan for achieving product vision, alerting consumers to upcoming releases, and showcasing the importance of each epic and feature to the overall product strategy. Teams create the agile roadmap to visualize the cross-functional work required to develop and market a product or enhancement. Depending on how much information you want to include in a project calendar, an agile roadmap can show high-level product goals and activities or a more immediate plan for the next task.

Who needs a Roadmap?

In the above sections, we have already discussed what is a roadmap and how to create a roadmap, so now let’s see who needs a roadmap: 

• Project Managers use roadmaps for strategic planning, task coordination, and project oversight.
• Team members use it to gain full knowledge of project objectives, schedules, and individual duties.
• Stakeholders use roadmaps to stay current on project status, significant milestones, and strategic direction.
• Executives use them when making strategic decisions to align with the company objectives using roadmaps.
• Customers obtain insight into project schedules and objectives to manage expectations efficiently.

Components of a Roadmap

To completely understand how to create a roadmap, you must know what components to include in it: 

A roadmap’s elements are the same for every team. The fundamentals don’t change, but the specifics might. Your roadmap can give you the clarity to proceed by incorporating time frames, strategic information, and prioritized tasks. These are some typical components:

• Objectives and initiatives : Demonstrate the benefits your work provides and how it helps the company achieve its goals.
• Releases and Milestones: Answer the questions about when work will commence and be made accessible to the public.
• Epics and features: Share dedicated work ranked according to total value.
• Dependencies and risk: Show how related tasks could affect delivery and other risks.

Benefits & Drawbacks of a Roadmap 

Here are some common advantages of using a roadmap:

• Customer-Centric Approach: You can ensure your product stays relevant and helpful to your customers by emphasizing the value of its features using a roadmap.
• Flexibility and Adaptability: The roadmaps quickly adjust to changes, so your product can shift course when necessary.
• Alignment: Roadmaps help concentrate on broad value themes rather than specific features or activities and promote alignment among teams and stakeholders.
• Visibility and Transparency: Value roadmaps clearly show the team’s priorities and motivations to the stakeholders.

Just like the benefits, there are also some drawbacks of a roadmap that you must know of: 

• Overemphasis on Planning: Excessive focus on roadmap details can slow down execution, particularly in fast-paced industries requiring agility.
• Risk of Obsolescence: Static roadmaps may become outdated, leading to pursuing irrelevant goals or missing out on new opportunities.
• Communication Challenges: Roadmaps may not convey complexities effectively, leading to misunderstandings among stakeholders if not communicated and updated appropriately and regularly.
• Resource Allocation Issues: Inaccurate resource estimates or failure to adapt to changing priorities can lead to inefficient resource allocation, causing bottlenecks or project failures.

How does a Roadmap affect a Business?

Roadmaps help you visualize and act on a strategic plan, showcasing the “why” behind the process. A well-executed roadmap positively impacts the business and proves useful because:

• Make your company plan clear.
• Inform internal teams about company-wide objectives and initiatives.
• Connect departmental objectives to corporate objectives.
• Communicate time-bound plans (quarterly, annual, monthly, etc.) to outside parties like partners and advisory boards.
• Monitor company performance and provide KPI reports.

Best Practices for a Roadmap

Here are some best practices for a roadmap:

• Inclusivity: Include various stakeholders while creating the roadmap to guarantee a comprehensive viewpoint and support from all relevant parties.
• Progressive Detailing: As the project progresses, start with a high-level overview and gradually add additional information to provide clarity without becoming overpowering.
• Data-Based Perspectives: To help with decision-making and progress monitoring, incorporate data-driven insights, measurements, and KPIs into the roadmap.
• Engaging Components: Include interactive components, such as hyperlinks or clickable portions, so interested parties can smoothly examine particular facts.
• Planning Scenarios: Incorporate scenario planning components to handle possible hazards or different routes, encouraging proactive problem-solving.
• Interdepartmental Cooperation: Encourage cooperation amongst several teams or departments to ensure the roadmap accurately captures the interconnectedness of the project.

What is the difference between a project roadmap and a product roadmap?

A product is an item or service for end users or clients. Anything from a tangible item to a computer program could qualify as a product. A project is an accumulation of work finished in a predetermined time. Thus, it stands to reason that their roadmaps will differ. 

The Roadmaps’ Overarching Goals Are Distinct

A product roadmap will cover the entire process of developing and releasing the product. It will also provide the optimal strategic course for accomplishing organizational objectives. 

On the other hand, a project roadmap will outline the actions a team must take to complete a project on schedule. 

The Elements & Objectives Differ

Project managers and product managers have different objectives while they work. Hence, the roadmaps’ components differ from one another. Reaching product goals that align with business goals is the main focus of a product roadmap. On the other hand, a project roadmap’s primary focal area is the schedule for the tasks that must be completed. 

The Method of Creation is Distinctive

Product managers collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop product roadmaps. The core engineering, marketing, or sales teams are examples of these cross-functional teams. On the other hand, project managers draft roadmaps to guarantee that the projects are completed on schedule and with well-managed activities. The team’s capability, resources, and desired outcomes are considered when creating the roadmaps. 

Different Roles for Internal & External Organizational Aspects

Project roadmaps assist the organization in understanding the product’s strategy. The group is also skilled at adding the necessary functionality to a product. Additionally, the group knows how to explain the special qualities to clients. Thus, the team is also aware of how the component modifications would affect the input from the consumers. 

Examples of a Project Roadmap

Let’s see some examples of a project roadmap:

Strategic Plan roadmap examples:

High-level objectives and projects are visualized through a strategic roadmap. The relevant goal of a project strategy is highlighted in this roadmap, along with the deliverables and timelines.

Marketing roadmap examples:

A marketing roadmap outlines marketing objectives and associated initiatives that complement company goals. Depending on the organization’s complexity, you can have a marketing roadmap that shows the primary campaigns associated with particular goods or divides work by function.

Business plan roadmap examples:

A business roadmap displays the company’s top strategic initiatives. Usually, CEOs draft these and provide them to functional teams so they can use the information to shape their roadmaps. Business roadmaps align with an organization’s quarterly or biannual strategic planning process.

IT project roadmap examples:

An IT project roadmap integrates releases, features, and strategy into a single timeline view. It is evident how every release and feature contributes to the overarching IT objectives of enhancing business process automation, internal mobilization, and business data aggregation.

Examples of a Product Roadmap

Example 1: release plan.

Release plans are your high-level blueprint for how you’ll carry out the work you’ve determined to perform and when you’ll do it. A release plan gives senior executives, stakeholders, cross-functional teams, and customers a high-level overview of impending product releases. It’s perfect for scheduling milestones that aren’t time-bound but have a set scope or for releasing fresh updates of your product regularly, like mobile apps. It does not bind your team to a specific launch date; instead, it notifies other teams when the features are coming.

Example 2: Roadmap for a sprint plan

Roadmaps for sprint plans are naturally delivery-oriented and helpful for sprint planning. To keep their development teams informed and in sync with forthcoming work, product teams utilize sprint plans to align them. To monitor your team’s workload, you can schedule delivery across several sprints and display the owners and effort for each feature. Swimlanes can even be used for further context or grouping. Your sprint plan can be as detailed as necessary. The only people who can see this roadmap are your product and development team.

Example 3: The path from now to later

With a focus on the short term, now-next-later roadmaps convey your priorities throughout extended periods. As you work on them, features in the “later” bucket will be more high-level and represent your long-term approach, while features in the “now” slot will have more depth. These are ideal for teams working in dynamic contexts where release dates are subject to change. You can convey detailed ideas to clients without adhering to strict timelines. Now-next-later roadmaps work well when presenting your product strategy and priorities to large groups of people, such as in a Town Hall or All-Hands meeting.

Best roadmap templates by SlideUpLift 

Providing a wide range of expertly created PowerPoint templates and tools, SlideUpLift is your go-to option for professionally designed pre-made templates. It delivers visually stunning and productive presentations for various disciplines, focusing on simplicity and creativity. SlideUpLift serves professionals, educators, and individuals by offering a one-stop shop for improving presentation content. The templates below will help you know how to create a roadmap presentation

1. Customer Journey Roadmap PowerPoint template

The Customer Journey Roadmap PowerPoint template is an eye-catching tool that uses the road metaphor to illustrate the various stages of a customer’s journey. This template helps organizations analyze and optimize each step of the customer journey for a more engaging and fulfilling customer experience by clearly communicating the customer’s journey.

2. Business Strategy PowerPoint template

For businesses looking to create and present their strategic plans, the Business Strategy 1 PowerPoint template is perfect. It offers an organized and aesthetically pleasing way to convey important business plan components, facilitating efficient coordination and communication across stakeholders and teams.

3. Vision Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Organizations may effectively express their long-term vision and strategic goals using the Vision Roadmap PowerPoint Template. This template allows you to present the organization’s vision in a visually appealing roadmap manner. This PowerPoint template will help you clearly communicate your company’s mission and strategic direction.

4. Product Roadmap PowerPoint Template

A product roadmap is a detailed chronological plan that outlines the goals for the product’s success and market penetration. Professionals can use this product roadmap execution plan PowerPoint Template for their team members and stakeholders to ensure that the ideas of the contributing employees are in line with the product strategy and expected outcomes.

Use the top-notch roadmap templates from SlideUpLift to elevate your presentations. SlideUpLift provides the ideal template for managing agile projects, presenting thorough schedules, or summarizing strategic ideas. Enhance your presentations with polished layouts and clear, concise messaging. If you want presentation resources to improve your storytelling and enthrall your audience, visit SlideUpLift’s website now!

We discussed what is a Roadmap in this detailed blog. You can quickly create a professional-looking roadmap in PowerPoint—the process just takes a few minutes. The complexity and skill level of your project will dictate the time required for its creation. Creating roadmaps in PowerPoint instead of on paper has the added advantage of allowing you to go back and make changes whenever new information becomes available.

By applying the tips and methods outlined in this article, you can craft efficient digital versions of your roadmap. It ensures that all team members stay informed in case revisions are made to the original version, leaving no one behind.

How to Create a Roadmap Presentation in PowerPoint?

Use PowerPoint’s SmartArt or shapes to visually represent project milestones, adding text and visuals for clarity.

How to Make a Roadmap Presentation Efficiently?

Efficiently create a roadmap presentation by structuring content logically, emphasizing key points, and leveraging templates for streamlined design.

What is a Roadmap in Project Management?

A roadmap in project management is a visual guide outlining strategic plans, milestones, and timelines for effective project communication.

How to Present a Roadmap Presentation?

Present a roadmap by clearly articulating goals, using visuals for impact, explaining key milestones, and encouraging engagement through Q&A sessions.

Where to Find the Best Roadmap Templates?

Explore online platforms like SlideUpLift for professionally designed roadmap templates tailored to various topics and presentation needs.

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Learn / Guides / Product roadmaps guide

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9 tips to create compelling product roadmap presentations

A crystal-clear roadmap is the best strategic communication tool for a product manager. When properly presented and shared across an organization, a product roadmap sheds light on what’s happening today, tomorrow, and in the future—and motivates teams to achieve more.

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A great product roadmap presentation helps you build trust with your team and stakeholders —letting them all see how you’re creating real value for the company. How you present a roadmap to your internal team can also inform how you should present it to your customers and get them on board with what’s to come.

This chapter dives into the best tips for roadmap presentations to keep every stakeholder invested and engaged before, during, and after you’re done presenting.

Boost your product roadmap presentation with product experience insights

Heatmaps, Recordings, Surveys, and Feedback tools help you build your product roadmap presentation on a solid, user-centric foundation.

Why your product roadmap presentation matters

When it comes to keeping product strategy, business objectives, and execution aligned, the product roadmap is your key point of reference. Your work as a product manager (PM) involves working with internal teams and stakeholders to build a crystal-clear roadmap that clearly communicates deliverables, and the expectations for where the product is going and why .

Next, you need to get everyone else involved with the product on board and on the same page. The first step to evangelizing your product roadmaps across your organization is to get them out there for all to see with a product roadmap presentation.

Presenting your roadmap to key stakeholders is a great opportunity to tell a compelling story about where your product is going. 

A well-thought-out roadmap presentation will help you:

Align and validate your team’s roadmap

Reduce the risk of eleventh-hour surprises stopping you in your tracks

Smoothly deliver against your product strategy

Avoid stakeholder confusion or dissatisfaction on where the product is going

Make sure your goals stay customer-centric and align with both your users’ needs and wants, as well as your business objectives

How the product roadmap presentation helps you achieve your goals

Your goal with the product roadmap presentation is to gain alignment around the set of priorities you’ve arrived at. That includes:

5 components of a great product roadmap presentation

Every product roadmap presentation is different. In fact, to address every stakeholder’s needs, you may need to first create and present a general strategic product roadmap template, and then move on to discuss lower-level field roadmaps. 

However, there are some components that most product roadmap presentations have in common:

An introduction/agenda: this tells your audience what to expect, what the presentation is about, and how long it’ll last

Your purpose and product vision : the reasoning behind the new product (or new iterations) to give your audience some context and help them see the rationale behind your product direction

The product’s target audience: who are you trying to target with your new product/features? It could be your existing audience, or you might want to reach a new audience in a different market.

Your product roadmap: a top-level view of what you’ve outlined in your product roadmap. For example, you can showcase the anticipated timeline, but don't go into detail about each deliverable along the way.

Feedback and questions: at the end of the presentation, leave space for your audience to ask questions and provide feedback

💡 Pro tip : keep your presentation user-focused with a data-informed strategy and roadmap.

Use Hotjar to gather a rich mix of quantitative and qualitative product experience data for a user-centric approach. 

By providing a steady inflow of user data, Hotjar’s tools can help you ensure your product strategy and roadmap are always relevant.

A Hotjar heatmap in action

9 tips to ace your product roadmap presentation

Before you go ahead with your product roadmap presentation, think about how you communicate your roadmap at these stages:

Before the presentation

When you’re working on your product roadmap presentation, your main goal is to set it up for the best results . To do that, get to know your stakeholders’ needs and motivations, and try to anticipate questions and feedback that might come up in the presentation.

1. Know your audience

As you build your product roadmap presentation, focus on sharing the most relevant information with your audience. 

For example, the C-Suite and the Sales team care about different aspects of the product strategy, while customers and engineers are likely invested in different aspects of the product's direction. Every one of these groups has a varying degree of understanding around the inner workings of the product —and different ways of relating to you as the PM.

To tailor your presentation to the interests of the audience involved, you need to get to know them: their motivations, their deadlines, their pressures, what’s keeping them up at night. This will help you empathize with your stakeholders and create trust.

💡 Pro tip: if you don’t know your stakeholders, set up interviews so you can begin to understand them and their interests. Stakeholder interviews can be informal, simple conversations to get to know their motivations and challenges. They’ll also provide you with some less-obvious opportunities to influence your project’s chances of success.

Once you know your audience, you can tailor your product roadmap presentation to address what they care about and communicate your roadmap for successful buy-in . For example:

Engineering: they want to understand the value of their effort to the business, to customers, and towards improving the product. Keep it short-term and focus on developer-oriented themes—like scalability, usability, quality, performance, infrastructure, and product features.

Executives : these stakeholders care about the company's vision and goals, and how the plan depicted by the roadmap will help the company achieve them. Make sure your roadmap ties each initiative to customer value and business goals. Explain what features you’re adding, and more importantly, how the initiatives will help the product capture the market.

Customer-facing teams : these include Sales and Customer Success and Support teams that mainly care about what they can promise customers, when it will be ready, how it affects pricing, building trust and loyalty, and ways to reduce churn. Give them a transparent timeline they can communicate to customers and users, and show how the roadmap will introduce ways to reduce churn and improve conversion.

2. Channel your inner PANDA 

Building an effective and engaging presentation is all about product roadmap prioritization in the wild. As a PM, that can mean dealing with some pretty dangerous animals. 

From HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) to ZEBRAs (Zero Evidence But Really Arrogant) to RHINOs (Really Here In Name Only), these types of stakeholders can hold up the product development process or force you to focus resources on the wrong priorities.

PANDAs (Prioritizes Amazingly and Needs Data Always) make the best product managers because they prioritize strategically and take a data-informed approach. 

When it comes to developing a stellar product roadmap presentation, channeling your inner PANDA helps you:

Communicate convincing product narratives

Share user and business data that keeps team members aligned

Manage your backlog effectively

Highlight clear, measurable metrics that let you know you’re on the right track 

Keep the product team aligned on shared priorities and initiatives

Build trust with stakeholders who can see that you’re creating real value for the company

Product managers who Prioritize Amazingly and Need Data Always can confidently show that their product decisions will benefit their team, their organization, and most importantly, their users. This is the basis for cross-functional communication and buy-in from execs and other stakeholders.

💡 Pro tip : sharpen your user data to make better decisions for your product roadmap.

The best product managers use research for product prioritization , and Hotjar gives you the user data you need to prioritize brilliantly. 

Ask users direct questions and gather information on what’s important to them by using Hotjar’s non-invasive survey tools—like Feedback widgets.

Use Heatmaps and Session Recordings to spot issues and determine which bug fixes and product optimizations should be top of your list.  

When you’re guided by how your users experience your product and what their needs are, you can stop your priorities from being hijacked by loud-mouthed HiPPOs, arrogant ZEBRAs, or unfocused WOLF types.

A session recording captured using Hotjar

3. Structure the roadmap in themes, not features

Theme-based roadmaps are one of the best ways to give your product roadmap a memorable and meaningful narrative . As they highlight the big picture, themes show the broader objectives at play and make it easier for you to sell your product strategy.

High-level themes are great for structuring the roadmap and setting up your audience for the context you’re presenting in. To anticipate needs and questions during the presentation, make sure you can provide details into what’s behind each high-level item. 

For example, if you've called a theme 'essential services', break it down into key initiatives and epics that will be required to deliver the theme.

During the presentation

To get everyone on board during product roadmap presentations, your goal is to communicate clearly with your stakeholders and ensure everyone is on the same page.

4. Focus on the why 

Whether it’s a traditional feature roadmap or a problem-focused set of objectives and key results (OKRs), why you want to do these things matters. Is it to explore a new business opportunity? To increase satisfaction among a key segment of users? Something else?

If you expect your team to own building solutions—as well as defining and measuring their success—they need to understand why these initiatives matter to your users and the business as a whole. 

As you present, highlight the context for why you are including something on a roadmap, and remember to tailor your message depending on the audience. Technical teams need to see evidence for why you see demand for a feature. Executives want to see a strong connection between the development initiatives and the priorities of the business.

Remember to address different stakeholders' needs, which you may have uncovered in earlier stakeholder interviews or catch-ups. Be clear on the trade-offs you’ve had to make so stakeholders understand the different considerations you and your team have made.

💡 Pro tip : the data speaks for itself, but you can also tell a powerful story from the perspective of your users. 

Include user insights to prove the value of your ideas, and talk about some alternatives that you've excluded—and why.

Use Hotjar's product experience tools to Observe and Ask for user feedback that helps your audience understand the ‘why’ as much as the ‘what’.

The Hotjar Feedback widget

5. Communicate a convincing product narrative

Great product storytelling can get powerful exec HiPPOs on board, motivate disconnected RHINOs, and convince arrogant ZEBRAs and distractible WOLF (Working On Latest Fire) personas to get behind your product plans. 

As you tell the story of how your roadmap came together, use it as a tool to keep your audience engaged and rally their support around the plan . Include details like customer requests that inspired a new feature, features and functionalities that help push you closer to the product’s vision, or any particularly difficult prioritization decisions you can share.

Use simple and clear language and avoid industry jargon, especially if you're trying to align a wide variety of stakeholders. This will help communicate your product roadmap.

6. Engage your audience with visual aids

People need to see how all the components of your product strategy fit together, so invest time in making sure your product roadmap presentation template is well-designed .

Whether it’s dedicated product roadmapping or project management tools, PowerPoint presentations, infographics, Gantt charts, or Excel spreadsheets, every type of product roadmap presentation template uses graphic elements to help stakeholders visualize your overall product strategy, and help you chart the development and release of specific iterations .

A few key points to keep in mind: 

Vary your versions : present different versions of your roadmap for different audiences. A good way to do this can be to filter your roadmap content by epics or outcomes, and only show the ones relevant to the departments or teams you're presenting to.

Colormap : use color to distinguish between different themes, objectives, or categories on your roadmap. Don’t forget to include a legend outlining what each color signifies.

Keep it relevant : don’t overwhelm your audience with too many details. Your visual product roadmap should contain only the most relevant insights and graphics. When in doubt, take it out.

After the presentation

It’s time to tie up any loose ends and check in with your audience. As you do so, continue to request feedback and iterate on your roadmap presentation.

7. Tie in metrics

If you’re having a difficult time rallying the audience around your roadmap, remember that metrics are a great arbitrator . They are a powerful tool for selling your product strategy and getting buy-in across your organization.

Metrics related to the success of your product help you make objective decisions and not rely on intuition alone. You likely used these product metrics to make your roadmap decisions in the first place, so put them back to work for you when presenting your product strategy.

Your visual roadmap should present how initiatives influence key business metrics or a 'north star metric'. They’re an important part of the narrative around your product roadmap, so put these numbers front and center in your presentation. 

8. Leave room for questions and feedback

Make sure you give participants the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback on your product roadmap presentation. This will help you improve and have better ongoing communication around your roadmap.

This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to act on every single piece of feedback. Instead, actively listen and hear people out and make sure stakeholders feel heard and understood.

Some areas you can seek feedback on are:

Is the meeting cadence working for stakeholders?

Do they understand your product team’s priorities and trade-offs?

Do they understand the roadmap’s impact on them?

Then, follow up on any feedback shared during the presentation. After all, alignment isn’t one-sided—it’s an exercise in negotiating different views and opinions.

9. Keep the product roadmap updated and accessible

Once you’ve done a good job selling your product strategy, don’t hide it away. Make sure you follow up your roadmap presentation with thorough meeting notes and the updated roadmap. 

By now it’s clear that roadmaps can’t just be static documents—like an Excel spreadsheet or a PowerPoint template. This also means th e roadmapping lifecycle doesn’t simply end with a presentation . You need to follow up on KPIs and progress, as well as keep your stakeholders and customers informed.

Continue to communicate updates and changes to your roadmap outside of meetings. Create a concrete, editable, and accessible space where stakeholders can continuously check-in, provide feedback, and keep up-to-date on changes. 

Some ideas of how to do this include:

A product roadmapping tool

A shared document

A dedicated space in your company’s knowledge sharing tool

A dedicated channel in your company’s messaging platform

A dedicated space for feedback in the roadmap artifact itself

Next steps for product roadmap presentations

Roadmap alignment is a continuous, ongoing process. And the way you approach your roadmap presentations can be decisive in how your product moves forward toward success. 

As you gear up to present your product strategy and the specific iterations it involves, consider what you do before, during, and after the roadmap presentation to build alignment.  

Understanding why certain product initiatives matter to your users and the business will allow your team, stakeholders, and customers to rally behind them much more than just being told they need to happen.

FAQs about product roadmap presentations

What should you include in a product roadmap presentation.

An effective, coherent roadmap presentation includes:

The context and ‘why’ behind each initiative 

Substance and concrete outcomes at each stage of the roadmap

A clear business impact of completing the initiative

Details about the product’s target audience to demonstrate how well you know the market, the users, the product, and the business goals

When should you deliver a product roadmap presentation?

There are a few situations where you might need to deliver a roadmap presentation. Here are a few of the most common: 

To get approval from business leaders for new products, features, or a change in product strategy

To alleviate conflicting messages from different stakeholders

To create a release plan that can be shared with customers

To get your team on the same page with and advocate for the product opportunities that will help your company reach its goals

How long should a product roadmap presentation be?

The ideal duration of a product roadmap presentation depends on how many products and features you need to discuss. We recommend reserving around 1–2 hours, including time for brainstorming and feedback at the end.

Product roadmap templates

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How to nail your roadmap presentation.

22 minute read

Ever felt a bit nervous before a big roadmap presentation? You’re not alone! It’s one of those nail-bitingly important moments in Product Management – you get to share your vision, align your team, and really get everyone excited about where the product is heading. But let’s be honest: it can also be a bit overwhelming. The good news? There are tools and strategies you can use that’ll help you show off your roadmap with confidence and clarity. We’re going to take a look at:

• What a roadmap presentation is
• How to prepare for one

How to give your roadmap presentation

• How to align stakeholder expectations during the presentation
• How to handle feedback during the presentation
• Common mistakes and how to avoid them
• How detailed your presentation should be
• How to follow up

What is a roadmap presentation?

Presenting your product roadmap is your chance to share with everyone, from your team to stakeholders and even your customers, the exciting directions your product is heading in. It’s about painting a picture of what’s to come and laying out how and why you want to get there.

What are the key elements of a product roadmap presentation?

These are the core building blocks of your presentation. Once you’ve got all of these clear in your mind, you’ll already have the foundation of your presentation at your fingertips. You’ll need to include:

• Vision and strategy: Everything starts with a clear product vision . What are you aiming to achieve? What’s your game plan? This vision sets the foundation for everything that follows in your presentation. It’s your North Star, guiding every decision and strategy you discuss.
• Key objectives: Here, you spell out the major goals. What milestones do you need to hit along the way? What outcomes do you expect from your work? These objectives should mesh seamlessly with your overall business goals and help bring your vision to life.
• Initiatives and features: This part gets down to brass tacks – what specific actions, features, or enhancements are you planning to tackle these objectives? It’s about connecting the dots between your grand strategy and the tangible steps you’ll take.
• Metrics: How will you know you’re on track? By setting specific metrics or KPIs to measure your progress. These metrics are crucial for keeping the presentation grounded and focused on tangible outcomes.

Why present your roadmap?

This is your best chance to get everyone on the same page. A well-delivered roadmap presentation ensures that everyone, from your development team to your executive board, understands and supports the direction you’re taking. It’s your platform to talk strategy and progress. It’s where you manage expectations and keep everyone informed about where the product is headed. With a clear and concise presentation, you help the senior decision makers what you think needs to be done and why. Knowing what’s important will help them make better-informed strategic decisions – so tell them what resources are required, what challenges you might face, and how you plan to tackle them. A roadmap shouldn’t be set in stone. This presentation is also a great opportunity to gather feedback, making it a dynamic tool that adapts and evolves based on real input from those involved. There are few things worse than a roadmap made behind locked doors – you need to have your assumptions challenged! Nailing your roadmap presentation will do more than just give everyone an outline of your plan – it’ll build trust and confidence among your stakeholders as they get some transparency on what you’re doing and, importantly, why you’re doing it. It ensures everyone is committed to the strategic path laid out and understands their role in making the vision a reality. So when you step up to give a roadmap presentation, you’re really setting the stage for the future success of your product.

How to prepare for your roadmap presentation

The key to a successful roadmap presentation starts long before you step into the meeting room. It’s all in the preparation. In the words of Shakespeare, “All things are ready, if our mind be so.” Here’s how to set yourself up for a successful presentation:

Understand your audience

First things first, know who you’re talking to. Is it your Tech team, the Marketing department, or perhaps senior executives? Each audience has different interests and concerns. Tech teams might look for technical challenges and milestones, whereas executives are more interested in strategic alignment and ROI. Tailoring your presentation to the specific interests of your audience will make it more engaging and relevant (more on this below).

Set clear objectives for the roadmap presentation

What do you want to achieve with this presentation? Are you looking to gain approval, solicit feedback, or simply inform? Much like with product initiatives and ideas, make certain you know the outcome you want to achieve before you begin work. Setting yourself clear objectives will help you structure your presentation more effectively and guide how you interact with your audience during the session.

Structure your content

A well-structured roadmap presentation helps your audience follow along and absorb information.  Start with the big picture – where your product is headed. Break down the roadmap into manageable parts, explaining the why behind each step. This will help you demonstrate how each part of the roadmap contributes to the overall strategy. Keep reading for a full breakdown of what to include in your roadmap presentation and in what order. 

Rehearse and revise

Never underestimate the power of rehearsal. Practice delivering your roadmap presentation a few times to smooth off any rough edges. Rehearsing will help you refine your messaging, adjust the pacing, and get comfortable with the material. As you practice, you might find areas that need simplification or more detailed explanations – perfect for fine-tuning.

Use tools for clarity

This is where ProdPad can be your best friend: it helps you visualize your roadmap in a way that’s easy to understand and engaging. You can use its features to highlight different aspects of the roadmap depending on your audience’s interests. For example, filtering capabilities allow you to show only the most relevant information, keeping your presentation focused and on point. Although it’s useful to have a presentation deck for your introduction – somewhere you can map out what you’re going to cover, it’s always best to then move to the live environment in which your roadmap lives. This will not only make your life a lot easier and cut down on the work involved in preparing a deck, but it will also help your stakeholders get familiar with your roadmapping tool and how to navigate it.  With ProdPad you can save filtered views of your roadmap that contain the exact level of detail that you require. So when you’re preparing for your presentation for the first time, simply set up the view you want to present and it’ll be there each and every time you need it.  Using ProdPad, you can even publish this view and embed it on your intranet or somewhere else that your stakeholders can easily find it. This means they can self-serve the updates they need and you might find yourself having to do fewer roadmap presentations in future! 

What to include in a roadmap presentation

Ok, so you know how important getting your presentation right, and some useful tips on how to do it, let’s get into the real nitty gritty: what you need to actually put in the damn thing! Here are the ten things you’ll want to make sure you include when you present a product roadmap:

1. The agenda

Set out what you are going to cover and the outcome you want from the session. Also, consider defining the scope of the presentation so people also understand what you won’t be covering and where they can go to get that information should they need it. 

2. The bigger picture 

Whether you’re introducing it for the first time, or reminding everyone in the room, make sure to outline your Product Vision to set the stage. Also include your value proposition, target audience, and differentiators.   

3. An overview of your objectives

Whatever goal-setting framework you use (here at ProdPad we use OKRs ), include a slide where you outline the main objectives you are focused on as a Product Team .

4. The roadmap (obviously!) 

Start by introducing the full roadmap. If you’re using Now-Next-Later ( and we recommend that you do ), now is the time to define your time horizons so everyone is clear and expectations are aligned. 

5. What’s coming up ‘Now’

Go through each Initiative in your Now column, introducing the problem to solve, the objective this will impact, and the target outcomes. Then briefly introduce the Ideas you are tackling as part of this Initiative, and give an update on their status in your workflow, taking time to explain how you will measure results. 

6. What you’re doing ‘Next’

Do the same with the Initiatives in your Next column.

7. What you’re planning ‘Later’

Here you shouldn’t go into each and every roadmap card, but rather list out the key problems to solve you will be tackling in the future. 

8. How they can stay updated

Be sure to include a slide that tells your stakeholders where to go to stay up-to-date with roadmap progress. Give them a link to your roadmap tool or the location of the appropriate published view.

9. Submission guidelines

It’s worth including this in every presentation you give – a short, fast reminder for everyone on how to submit feedback (either their own feedback or feedback from a customer) and how to submit product ideas. Briefly remind people of the process you go through to review incoming feedback and ideas. 

10. A Q&A session

Once you’re done talking, open it up to the floor! Hopefully, everyone’s still awake. Right. Now you know what to include in your roadmap presentation. Great stuff! But… how should you deliver it? 

When you’re gearing up to deliver your roadmap presentation, think of it as your moment to shine and really connect with your audience. Here’s how you can make that connection meaningful and impactful:

Kick off with the vision

As we’ve suggested above, start strong by sharing the overarching vision and strategic goals of your product. But make sure you deliver this with some passion! Hype it up and get your audience enthusiastic about what you’re building here. Starting with the vision sets the stage and helps everyone understand the ‘why’ behind the roadmap, which can often be one of the hardest things to get across. You’re setting the context for the rest of your presentation – think of it as giving your audience the destination before you show them the path.

Customize your content

Remember, one size doesn’t fit all when it comes to presentations. Who you’re talking to should shape what you’re talking about:

• Executives: For the C-suite, keep the altitude high. They’re keen on seeing how the roadmap aligns with broader business goals, the return on investment, and market positioning. Focus on key milestones that impact business outcomes and support strategic objectives. They’ll appreciate concise, data-backed arguments that reinforce the product’s contribution to the company’s success.
• Technical teams: Your tech folks need the down-and-dirty details. They’re looking at what’s under the hood—technical requirements, specific features, and the challenges those features might bring. Share details about technical dependencies, resources needed, and potential hurdles. Using time horizons like in the Now-Next-Later roadmap will help them see when things need to happen and why.
• Sales and Marketing: These folks need to know all about how the product can be sold. They want to know about new features, enhancements, and how these changes solve customer problems or add value. Explain how these features will attract new customers or improve retention. This perspective helps them craft compelling narratives for their campaigns and pitches.
• Customer Support: Support needs to brace for the influx of customer queries each new update might bring. Give them a heads-up on new features and any anticipated issues or common questions these might trigger. They need this info to provide stellar support and keep customer satisfaction high.
• External stakeholders: Partners and investors are eyeing the bigger picture – how the roadmap influences growth and stability. Highlight aspects of the roadmap that show promising market expansion, risk management, and long-term profitability. They’re particularly interested in how strategic initiatives align with market opportunities.
• Customers: Yes, your customers! They’re your audience too, especially if you’re a SaaS company, in a B2B space, or launching a major update that might significantly change how customers interact with your product. Show them directly how the updates will improve their experience or solve problems they care about. This builds trust and reinforces their loyalty to your product.

Bring in the visuals

A picture speaks a thousand words, as the old saying goes, so let them do the heavy lifting in your presentation. Use clear, straightforward diagrams and charts to map out time horizons, dependencies, and major milestones. This can make complex information more accessible and easier to grasp. If you’re using ProdPad, you can tailor what you are showing to your audience, and use it to demonstrate the linked Ideas and customer feedback that you used to determine why an initiative is worth the resources it will need. This can make communicating the “why” a lot easier!

Ask for feedback

Who says presentations have to be a one-way street? Sprinkle in some interactive elements like live polls or as I mentioned above, a short Q&A session to keep things lively. It’ll keep your audience engaged and make them feel like part of the conversation. It’ll also give you a chance to test your assumptions about your roadmap, and to ask more questions. This is your chance to get everyone on the same page. Don’t limit the conversation to the presentation. Be sure to ask for any further feedback when you follow up after the presentation (again, more on that below).

How do I align stakeholder expectations during my roadmap presentation?

When you’re rolling out your roadmap presentation, making sure everyone’s expectations are in sync can be a bit like herding cats – everyone comes to the table with different ideas and hopes. But don’t worry, there are some solid ways to get everyone on the same wavelength:

Communicate transparently

Start with the basics: be crystal clear. Share where your product stands today, where you plan to take it, and why. Being upfront about potential hurdles and limitations is also crucial. This kind of open communication prevents misunderstandings and helps everyone understand what’s realistic and what’s not.

Set realistic goals

It’s tempting to promise the moon to please everyone, but resist the urge! Overselling what you can deliver only leads to disappointment and erodes trust. Aim to set goals that are within reach – achievable and manageable. This way, you can avoid the pitfalls of expectations that outpace your actual capacity.

Explain how you prioritize

Sometimes, people’s frustration can stem from not really getting why you’re doing things in the order you’ve picked. Take some time to explain the logic behind how you’ve prioritized your roadmap . Show how the sequence of initiatives and features ties into the broader business goals. This transparency can help soothe any irritation about timing or perceived oversights.

Engage in interactive discussions

Get everyone involved in the conversation. Interactive sessions, like workshops or games like “ Prune the Product Tree ,” can be great for this. It’s engaging and fun, but importantly you’ll be giving your stakeholders a firsthand look at the constraints and trade-offs you have to juggle. Basically, you’re getting them to manage their own expectations.

Download our Product Tree template and workshop guide

Regular updates

Keep the communication flowing even after the presentation. Regular updates on your roadmap’s progress help keep everyone informed about how things are evolving based on their feedback and market changes. Closing your feedback loops fosters trust and keeps everyone committed over the long haul. Aligning stakeholder expectations is less about managing demands and more about building a shared commitment to the roadmap. By fostering this shared understanding, you’re not just smoothing the way for your plans; you’re also strengthening relationships with the people who help make your product a success.

How to handle feedback during your roadmap presentation

Alright, so you’re in the middle of nailing your roadmap presentation, then someone asks a cutting question that challenges everything you’ve shown them so far. Do you curl up in a ball on the floor and panic? Hopefully not! How you handle feedback, both during and after, can be as crucial as the presentation itself. It can really shape how your product evolves, so let’s dive into how you can manage it smoothly:

Encourage open dialogue

First up, make sure everyone knows their feedback isn’t just welcome, it’s wanted. Set the tone from the start by creating an environment that values input. You’ll gather a wider range of viewpoints, and it helps your stakeholders feel like they’re a meaningful part of the process. Remember, the more involved they feel, the more invested they’ll become.

Listen actively

Now, when you’re in the thick of getting feedback, focus on really listening . This means tuning in closely, asking questions to clear up any doubts, and repeating back what you’ve heard to confirm you’ve got it right. Active listening takes more than just hearing the words coming out of people’s faces – you need to make an effort to understand the deeper concerns and ideas behind them. This can lead to richer, more productive conversations.

Prioritize feedback

Not all feedback is created equal. Some of it will be spot-on, aligning perfectly with where you want your product to go. Some might not fit the bill as closely. Get good at spotting the feedback that aligns well with your strategic goals, and prioritize that. It’s not about ignoring the rest, but rather focusing on what will really push your product forward.

Manage conflicts

Sometimes, feedback will clash. When it does, it’s on you to steer these conversations toward a common ground. This part can be tricky – it might mean making tough calls or finding compromises, but keeping your strategic goals in sight can help navigate these waters. Again, keep asking questions. You might feel like the moderator in a debate, but you’ll probably generate some really useful insights if you can get everyone involved to help you find a solution to their disagreements.

Document and analyze

Here’s where tools like ProdPad come in handy. Use it to collate all the feedback you get, and attach that to each initiative on your roadmap. This helps you organize it and think it over later, especially when you need to share or revisit insights with your team.

Common roadmap presentation mistakes and how to avoid them

Roadmap presentations can be a tightrope walk – get it right, and you align your whole team; slip up, and you could end up faceplanting on the sidewalk. Let’s talk about some of the usual suspects when things go awry and how you can dodge these common pitfalls:

Information overload 

Ever sat through a presentation that felt like drinking from a firehose? Yeah, not fun. It’s easy to want to show off everything you’ve planned, but too much information can confuse your audience. Stick to the essentials: key milestones and strategic goals. Keep it tight and make sure everything you mention connects clearly to your bigger picture.

Ignoring audience needs

This one’s big: not tuning your presentation to the vibe of the room. Who’s listening matters. I’ve covered this already, but it bears repeating – know your audience, and adjust accordingly.

Lacking flexibility

If your roadmap feels like it’s carved in stone, people might hesitate to give you honest feedback – they might think it’s just shouting into the void. Show that you welcome their ideas and that you’re ready and willing to make adjustments. This doesn’t just make your plan better; it also makes everyone feel like they’re truly part of the process.

Overpromising

We all want to be the hero who says yes to everything, but overcommitting can backfire. If you promise the moon without a rocket, you’re going to lose trust. Be realistic about what your team can deliver. Clear, honest communication builds credibility and trust, and it helps everyone plan better.

Neglecting follow-up

Sure, cool guys don’t look at explosions, but if you just walk away after dropping your presentation bomb on your audience, you miss the chance to deepen both your and their understanding. Send out a summary, highlight the next steps, and keep everyone in the loop as things progress. Regular updates not only maintain momentum but also strengthen your team’s commitment to the roadmap.

How detailed should a roadmap presentation be?

Figuring out the right amount of detail for a roadmap presentation can feel like you’re trying to hit a moving target. It’s all about understanding your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and just how much information you need to share without leaving your stakeholders feeling swamped or scratching their heads. Here’s how you can find the Goldilocks zone and get your presentation just right :

• Keep it clear and simple: Start with the basics. Your roadmap should easily communicate where your product stands now and where you hope to take it. Avoid complex jargon or acronyms that could confuse people who aren’t familiar with the daily grind of your product development.
• Focus on what matters: It’s easy to get lost in the weeds with too many details. Highlight only the key milestones and significant updates. This keeps your presentation from becoming overwhelming and helps your audience focus on the strategic objectives that matter.
• Streamline your content: Aim to fit your roadmap on a single page or screen. If you find the content spilling over, it might be a sign that you’re diving too deep. Keep it concise to maintain a strategic overview.
• Adjust the depth: Different audiences need different levels of detail. For internal teams who are more involved, go a bit deeper. For external stakeholders or less technical audiences, keep it high-level to ensure it’s digestible.
• Use the product line view: If you’re discussing multiple products, integrate these into a unified presentation using ProdPad’s Portfolio view . This will help your stakeholders understand the broader strategy without the need to jump between different documents.

Remember, the goal is clarity and relevance, making sure everyone walks away with a good understanding of your product’s direction.

How to follow up on your roadmap presentation

Alright, you’ve just wrapped up your roadmap presentation and it went great! But what now? Well, the journey’s only just begun. Here’s how you can keep the momentum going and make sure all that planning doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust.

Send a thank-you note and recap

Kick things off by shooting a quick thank-you email to everyone who attended. Attach the presentation slides, links to the appropriate view of your roadmap in ProdPad, and any extra materials that could help them remember the key points. This isn’t just good manners – it’s also a gentle reminder of the discussions and commitments from the session.

Gather and organize feedback

You probably got a lot of feedback during your presentation. Make sure it doesn’t slip through the cracks. Write it all down, categorize it, and maybe even use ProdPad to help you track and organize it all.  This organized approach means you won’t miss out on any nuggets of wisdom that could make your roadmap even better.

Set up a feedback review session

Now, pull your core team together for a deep dive into the feedback. This isn’t just a casual chat; it’s a strategic session to sift through the insights and figure out what changes need to be made. It’s your chance to align everyone’s understanding and decide on the next steps together.

Update the roadmap

Here’s probably the most important step – now you’re armed with all that feedback, you’ll need to go ahead and adjust your roadmap. Maybe some time horizons need shifting, or priorities need tweaking. These updates are really important – they show that you’re responsive and that your plan isn’t etched in stone.

Communicate the updates

Once you’ve made your changes, let everyone know. A quick update, whether through an email blast or a short meeting, can do the trick. It’s about keeping everyone in the loop, so they see how their input has shaped the roadmap.

Keep the check-ins coming

Finally, don’t just set and forget. Schedule regular check-ins to go over the roadmap’s progress. These can be as formal or informal as you like, but they’re essential for staying on track and making any necessary adjustments along the way.

And map’s a wrap!

Remember, it’s all about how clearly and engagingly you communicate your roadmap. Whether you’re mapping out your plans in ProdPad or diving into strategic discussions, you have to adjust your presentation to your audience. Make your roadmap presentation not just accessible but truly engaging, and then watch the magic happen as everyone pulls together, rallying behind your vision. Get ready to see your project spark to life as everyone jumps on board, filled with enthusiasm and understanding. Your roadmap presentation is more than just a one-off event. It’s the beginning of a dynamic roadmapping process that keeps everyone engaged and drives your project forward. So keep the communication clear, the feedback flowing, and the updates coming – your roadmap’s success depends on it!

Check out some best practice roadmap examples in the ProdPad Sandbox

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Product roadmaps: A complete guide [+ templates]

When I'm managing even a small project, I have a system of notes, file folders, color codes, and lists ( so many lists) that I use to have any chance of keeping the project on schedule. My system works because I'm the only one who has to use it.

As a product manager, you don't have the luxury of maintaining total control over your project planning systems. You have to allow entire teams to share your organizing systems and still find a way to keep everything running smoothly. 

That's where the product roadmap comes in. A product roadmap keeps everyone on the same page as to where a product is and where it's headed next. It's also a status updater, a communication tool, and a governing authority that defines how product work needs to be documented, who's responsible for different tasks, and what milestones and deadlines need to be met. 

This guide will take you through every step of the product roadmapping process and even provide you with templates to get you started.

Table of contents:

What is a product roadmap.

A product roadmap (or product development roadmap) is a document that acts as the singular authority for information on a product's progress, including roles and timelines for all related teams and stakeholders. Roadmaps can be as simple or complex as necessary, but they're always easy to understand and accessible to everyone who is or will be involved in the product's development. 

A roadmap is what's called a "single source of truth": it aggregates all product information from every team involved in the development project. Individual teams can also have their own department-wide systems, but all of that information should also be stored in the product roadmap. That way, everyone on the project is referencing the same source for updated information.

What are the key components of a product roadmap?

Roadmaps are unique snowflakes (and honestly as complex): each one is different depending on the type of product in development, the industry the product belongs to, the size and shape of the product team, and the particular needs of the company producing the product. 

All differences aside, nearly all product roadmaps contain these key components:

Product features: Features are the functions the product needs to perform and the problems it should solve. Typically, the development team is in charge of sifting through feedback from users and deciding what features to implement next.

User stories: User stories make up the most basic units on a roadmap within an agile framework. Written from the end user's perspective, they describe the ultimate goal of a product feature. ("Story" and "feature" are sometimes used interchangeably.) Collections of related stories make up epics.

Epics: In agile product roadmaps, epics are collections of stories. They can span across multiple teams (or even across multiple software version launches), and there can be many of them involved in a given roadmap.

Product initiatives: Initiatives show how sets of stories, features, tasks, and projects come together to actualize product goals. Initiatives keep teams focused on goal-centric efforts.

Product goals: Goals correspond to product features and outline how and when that feature will be implemented. Goals should be time-bound and measurable, and a roadmap might include multiple goals on the path toward completing a single feature.

Product timelines: Usually, a product roadmap timeline will include not only the dates associated with each milestone, but also a list of the teams and individuals responsible for each process as well as the stakeholders affected by different updates and goal completions.

Why are product roadmaps important?

Product roadmaps keep every member of every team focused on the same goal. It can be all too easy to get caught up in the cycle of completing isolated tasks within individual teams, but with a unified roadmap, stakeholders at every level and in every department know where they stand in the development process and how their individual contributions factor in.

Let's say a software company is releasing an update to one of their products. The engineering team plays many of the key roles in executing the technical aspect of the release and accounts for the biggest chunk of the roadmap. Meanwhile, the UX team has its own tasks to ensure the updates are aligning with user experience standards. As all this is going on, the marketing team is updating social media, scheduling email campaigns, and building awareness for the key features of the upcoming update. At any given time, each of these teams can consult the roadmap to see where their roles fit into the project timeline as they continue performing separate tasks on projects related to other products.

A well-conceived product roadmap has these key benefits:

Improved goal alignment across teams and stakeholders

Transparency about timelines and progress toward milestones

More effective product planning

Clear translation of product strategy

Creation of a single source of truth for all teams and stakeholders

Streamlined development strategy

Development of a single, shareable visualization of product timelines, relevant teams, and required milestones

Clear outlining of priorities to fend off non-outcome-driven tasks and keep teams focused

Who uses a product roadmap?

This isn't exactly a shocker: the product manager and their team are responsible for building, maintaining, and facilitating the product roadmap. And if you're the product manager, you want to do everything possible to make sure that only your team manages the roadmap—especially when operating at scale, roadmap planning can very quickly become a "too many cooks in the kitchen" situation.

Some concrete tasks that the product management team is responsible for include:

Building the product roadmap

Updating the product roadmap with changes and new information from all teams and stakeholders

Ensuring all stakeholders document their work correctly

Troubleshooting obstacles and bottlenecks in the product development process

Product managers will probably have to interact with other departments throughout the company to build a roadmap that aligns with greater company goals. Once a roadmap is created, it applies to everyone with a role to play in its execution. For example, marketing teams might reference it to align their publicity deliverable timelines, and customer service teams may need to plan for an influx of support tickets around the release date.

How to create a product roadmap

Product roadmaps can vary widely in complexity, from shorter-term timelines (like a now/next/later roadmap) to complex ones that span years (like a detailed capacity roadmap). And when a product manager is plotting out a full development cycle, they'll often use a combination of roadmap styles for different aspects of the process.

A comprehensive, full-scale product roadmap is a beast of a document, so the best way to build one is the same way you would eat an elephant: one bite at a time.

2. Gather stakeholder perspectives: Working closely with your teams and stakeholders, collect firsthand information about the work, what it requires, and common problems.

4. Define feature priorities: Once you've accumulated a general list of potential features, it's a good idea to prioritize them, so you can schedule gradual releases or delegate resources to high-priority features first. Consider common frameworks like Cost/Benefit, Value/Complexity, Story Mapping, MoSCoW Analysis, or Kano Analysis.

5. Match goals with releases: Once you've determined the parameters of your MVP, you can map the steps and milestones necessary to produce the earliest version of the product and schedule your first (beta) release.

6. Set a timeline: Tie your features, goals, and releases to scheduled milestones, consulting directly with stakeholders before setting deadlines to make sure they're feasible.

7 types of product roadmaps (with templates)

Starting a product roadmap from scratch? These templates each provide a structure for different facets or views depending on the scope of your particular roadmap. 

You can use just one to focus on a particular aspect of your process, or you can combine multiple templates to create a more comprehensive plan for your product's development. Don't let our preset labels limit you, either—we've also included blanks for you to modify and use however works best for you.

1. Theme roadmaps

It's essential for a project manager to start the roadmapping process with an understanding of the company's larger product strategy and business goals. 

A Themes x Features roadmap can help keep your thoughts organized as you start to determine where your planned features fit into these broader initiatives or "themes."

When you begin to break your features down into smaller goals and the projects dedicated to achieving those goals, a Themes x Projects roadmap can help keep all of the decisions you make about smaller processes and milestones in alignment with broader business goals.

2. Product portfolio roadmap

When first starting to map out the basics of your product roadmap, the four main items you need to determine are the product's goals, features, projected releases, and the teams that will be involved in the product development project. This high-level view gives you a framework to start with before filling in more details, and it also allows you to keep track of multiple products you may be managing at once.

3. Releases x Features roadmap

This roadmap zooms in to organize one very specific aspect of your project planning: which features will be grouped into each release. With a Release x Features roadmap in hand, you can run your plans by developers to ensure each group of features isn't too large to be feasible, and you can get more accurate estimates as to how much time will need to go into each release.

4. Capacity roadmap

Once you know what your product features and goals will be—but before you tie product milestones to a timeline—you need to determine who will be responsible for the different tasks involved in the product's development. A capacity roadmap aligns different tasks with the departments responsible for them and the period of time in which that team will be working on those tasks. Our version also allows you to assign tasks to different teams within a department. 

5. Task management roadmap

Different types of roadmaps allow you to view the same issue from different frames. With a task management roadmap, you're focusing on tasks and teams—just like in the capacity map—but the focus here is on determining when, generally speaking, those teams will tackle those tasks. You can also fill in what other things each team has on its plate, so you can see when they have the most availability to work on your product.

6. Now/next/later roadmap

Most product roadmaps are laid out across several months, fiscal quarters, or even years. A now/next/later roadmap takes the opposite approach and zooms in for a "snapshot" of the product development process in its current state. Now/next/later roadmaps can be especially useful for getting a project or process back on track after an obstacle or delay.

7. Product vision roadmap

It's a product manager's job to always know what's coming next, and that includes which development projects and new goals are lined up after the completion of the current product. A product vision roadmap is a strategic way to simultaneously brainstorm future opportunities and begin to plan what projects are on the horizon for your product team.

Bonus: Blank horizontal, vertical, and matrix roadmap templates

The templates above offer just a small selection of the different tasks, processes, and goals that can be organized using a roadmap. If you want to start a more custom roadmap from a truly blank template, you can download the basic structure of these by layout to fill in your own labels and titles:

How to present a product roadmap to stakeholders

Even a perfectly executed roadmap doesn't mean much if it doesn't get buy-in. And to get buy-in, you need to be able to present it effectively to both executive stakeholders and the development teams responsible for executing (cue the nail-biting). Here's how to position your roadmap to give it the best possible chance for adoption (while keeping your vision and nail beds intact).

Tailor it to your audience: Since you may be presenting to multiple audiences with different roles in the organization, it's important to tailor your roadmap presentation to them. Implementation teams may be concerned with scoping and having long enough timelines, while executives may be more interested in implementation costs and time to value.

Map back to company goals: Ultimately, your roadmap should advance the broader company goals. Show your audience how successful execution will connect to what the company as a whole values and strives for.

Tell a story: The best way to get people invested in your roadmap is to take them along its journey. Frame it with a beginning, middle, and end, just like any story, so you can walk stakeholders through the process and make it less abstract.

Show proof: It's not enough to say what you want to do—you need to also be able to prove the accuracy of your estimates for timelines, resources, and outcomes as much as possible. Back your claims up with real data to make the presentation believable.

Make it airtight: If there's an element of your roadmap that still feels a little rocky, the last thing you want is for someone to ask questions about it. If you feel any hesitation about any part of your roadmap, iron it out first, so you don't end up scrambling during the presentation. If you can't, acknowledge the gap straight on.

Be realistic, not optimistic: This is basically the old "under-promise, over-deliver" adage. Stakeholders want to know your roadmap is viable, not that it's going to be finished in record time. Resist the temptation to strive for impressive promises and instead lean on real data and unbiased projections.

Tips for creating a product roadmap

In the end, everyone wants to prioritize the most impactful projects. A well-designed product roadmap will communicate value, give all teams a single source of truth for timelines and expectations, and help keep everyone focused on goal-centric work. 

Here are a few key takeaways to help you get the most out of yours:

Cater your roadmap presentations to your audience.

Be as realistic as possible about timelines, deliverables, and values.

Keep your roadmap concise.

Always relate features, stories, epics, and other tasks to agreed-upon product goals.

Align the roadmap to the greater company goals.

Make the roadmap accessible to every stakeholder, but limit editing permission.

Related reading:

This post was originally published in May 2022 and was most recently updated win contributions from Bryce Emley in June 2023.

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Amanda Pell

Amanda is a writer and content strategist who built her career writing on campaigns for brands like Nature Valley, Disney, and the NFL. When she's not knee-deep in research, you'll likely find her hiking with her dog or with her nose in a good book.

• Software & web development
• Product management

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Product Roadmap Presentation: 6 Examples Included Templates

Simon Sinek’s rise to fame is marked by his unwavering determination to challenge conventional thinking.

He consistently questions corporate practices and fearlessly presents bold opinions that disrupt the status quo.

In his book “Start with Why” , Simon Sinek boldly claims that the ‘Why’ behind your actions matters more than the ‘What’. This principle isn’t limited to leadership or personal motivation; it extends to every facet of the business, including product roadmaps. Product roadmaps transcend mere slides or visuals; they serve as the linchpin for strategically aligning internal teams and external stakeholders with the product vision and strategy .

They act as the bridge that connects the visionary ‘Why’ with the practical ‘What’, bringing the envisioned goals within the realm of execution.

So how to create and present roadmaps effectively?

In this article, we’ll reveal the art of creating roadmap presentations that don’t just align internal teams and external users but also set the stage for a successful execution. 

Limitations of relying on PowerPoint

During my early days in Product Management , I was introduced to PowerPoint for building roadmaps.

Our former product manager shared a bunch of Powerpoint templates with us and we loved the flexibility and versatility the tool provided.

However, it didn’t take long for us to realize that it had a number of limitations that we couldn’t ignore.

While it is a versatile tool for various presentation needs, it may not be the best fit for roadmap presentations. 

Please look at the PowerPoint template above that I have frequently used to present roadmaps during the early days.

Maintenance challenges

Roadmaps often evolve with changing business priorities and require a more dynamic platform that can reflect real-time changes and updates.

Anyone who has used PowerPoint would know how easy it is to become disoriented by the misalignments of the visual elements and how hard it can get to maintain and update.

Moreover, given that the Powerpoint roadmaps always sit in their own silos, away from the tools used by the product development teams, any updates in the roadmap have to be manually translated into the development plans each time to ensure consistency. 

Presentation challenges

Modern roadmaps are not just about displaying information but also about engaging the audience.

Powerpoint’s lack of interactive elements can make a roadmap feel one-dimensional, missing out on the depth and engagement that interactive platforms offer.

Consider you are presenting your product’s roadmap at your annual town hall. You might want to resort to multiple views of the visual product roadmap, starting with a bucketized view, then a timeline view, and maybe a private/public view for different types of audience. With Powerpoint, it would mean duplicating all the effort to create each view you need.

Unlike specialized roadmapping tools, Powerpoint presentations lacks the capability to prioritize items on the go, making it challenging to convey behind-the-scenes efforts for choosing certain work items to stakeholders.

Collaboration challenges

Most product teams share roadmaps with stakeholders and external users to get their feedback and input. But sharing a Powerpoint roadmap presentation is like sending a message in a bottle. You have no way of knowing who accessed it, how they interacted with it, or what parts caught their attention. 

It also doesn’t allow users to provide qualitative feedback or upvote features directly on the roadmap.

This missed opportunity for engagement can be a significant blind spot and may lead to a disconnect between the product team and its users.

Relying solely on Powerpoint can be akin to using a compass in the age of GPS. 

Recognizing these limitations and exploring specialized roadmapping tools can lead to more effective, engaging, and insightful presentations.

The dynamic, interactive, and collaborative nature of roadmaps demands a platform that can keep pace.

6 templates for product roadmap presentations

Each style and methodology of roadmapping guides the product’s voyage, ensuring that every stakeholder, internal and external, is privy to the course ahead, its landmarks, and its destinations. 

Crafting your roadmap to echo both the intricacies your sales team and the broad strokes of your product’s journey ensures an informed, engaged, and collaborative voyage toward product success.

1. Kanban view

Netflix Roadmap, as taken from Gibson Hiddle’s blog

The Kanban View, with its intuitive design and inherent flexibility, serves as a potent tool for product roadmap presentation, ensuring tasks and initiatives are succinctly organized under buckets of time (monthly, quarterly or yearly), allowing stakeholders to clearly see where the development is headed in the future.

However, with a Kanban view , there is a risk of oversimplifying complex details as intrinsic dependencies and specific timelines may be underrepresented.

Additionally, the straightforward visual layout may also pose challenges when it comes to prioritization within each bucket, especially in larger and more complex product scenarios.

👉 Real-world Examples: Github Roadmap , Trello Roadmap , Netflix Roadmap

2. Now, Next, Later

The Now, Next, Later framework is an adaptation of the Kanban view and brings a high-level perspective to product roadmaps, distinctly categorizing items into immediate (Now), short-term (Next), and future (Later) buckets. 

It acts as a telescope scanning horizons, providing insights and maintaining a focus that spans from present tasks to future endeavors without committing to exact timelines. It does so without binding itself to precise timelines. This flexibility is especially vital for startups, where the ability to adapt to rapid shifts in priority is essential. Now, Next, Later roadmap can server as a effective product roadmap presentation.

👉 Real-world Examples: Lasso Roadmap , ProductBoard Template

3. Calendar or Timeline-Based roadmap

The Timeline view of a product roadmap (or some people’s saying timeline roadmaps) provides a clear, logical outline of the product’s development cycle, aiding transparent communication and efficient resource management.

It effectively conveys the product’s chronological progression, presenting start and end dates and facilitating stakeholder understanding and anticipating project phases. It also captures task dependencies, offering a realistic view of the project’s progression and helping teams avoid bottlenecks and delays.

👉 Real-world Examples: Notion Template

4. Private and Public roadmap views

Private roadmaps function as the organizational blueprint, keeping detailed strategies, technical specs, and precise timelines shielded from external view. It ensures all internal teams are aligned with the developmental, marketing, and deployment strategy, offering a detailed, confidential space for open internal discussions and strategic planning. 

On the flip side, Public roadmaps invite and incorporate user feedback , encouraging a community-driven development approach. They enable users to interact directly with the roadmap, voicing their preferences through upvotes and comments. This transparent strategy provides tangible data on user preferences and desires, aiding teams in prioritizing and refining features based on actual user input and demand.

Together, they facilitate a balanced development approach, harmonizing user involvement with technical teams and internal strategic alignment to navigate through the intricate path of product development.

👉 Real-world Examples: Usersnap Public Roadmap , Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap , Google Classroom Public Roadmap , Loom Public Roadmap , Airtable Public Roadmap

5. Roadmap swimlanes

Multifaceted organizations often employ multiple swimlanes to visualize parallel developments across different products or departments. 

A Portfolio Roadmap brings together product development trajectories of varied, albeit interconnected products such as Google Search, Maps, Gmail and Drive.

This panoramic view enables business stakeholders and product managers to quickly apprehend the status, progress, and future plans for an entire portfolio, facilitating informed strategic decisions and efficient resource allocation across varied products.

Simultaneously, Department specific roadmap roadmaps carve out a dedicated lane for each department, such as Marketing team or Development team, to detail their particular journey, milestones, and activities. While providing a detailed breakdown of activities, they also offer a lens to visualize how each team’s efforts contribute to the overall product and organizational objectives.

👉 Real-world Examples: Aha! Template , Jenkins Roadmap

6. Goals-based roadmaps

Goals or outcome-based roadmaps adeptly center the strategic narrative on overarching objectives, minimizing the explicit focus on granular details.

This abstraction allows stakeholders to grasp the overarching strategy and direction without getting mired in the specifics of features, which may evolve over time. 

By focusing primarily on outcomes, these roadmaps inherently embed resilience against the tides of technological changes and varying feedback, as they’re not tied to specific features or solutions that may need to shift in response to evolving contexts or insights. 

👉 Real-world Examples: GO template , Airfocus Template , Miro template

Best practices and ideas for roadmap presentation

In the grand theater of business, a roadmap presentation is your spotlight moment.

It’s where visions are shared, strategies are unveiled, and futures are shaped.

Here are some tips on how to craft a roadmap presentation that’s both an informative guide and a work of art.

Tip #1 – Start with the ‘Why’

Apple, under the visionary leadership of Steve Jobs, always began with the ‘why’. Before diving into the intricacies of a product, they delved into its purpose.

Similarly, start your roadmap presentation by addressing the ‘why’. Why this product? Why now? This sets the stage for a compelling, memorable, and meaningful narrative itself.

For internal presentations, I have also found that starting a product roadmap presentation off with a refresher of the product’s strategy can help make your next couple of hours much more peaceful.

Tip #2 – Unveil the BTS work

Akin to the BTS episodes of any show on Netflix, sharing all the effort that went into production (the direction, the schedules, the travelling, the equipment, the retakes etc) makes the audience appreciate the end result more.

Therefore, it is always helpful to demonstrate the discovery process you followed for conducting your market research, brainstorming and validating ideas, generating usability reports, conducting focus groups, surveys etc. This adds credibility.

And never be shy to show the hiccups and the wrong turns during your journey. Because you never know, just like a Friend’s blooper reel, the retakes might find more traction with your audience than the actual episodes.

Tip #3 – Stay away from the sharks

Whether you are presenting to internal stakeholders or external users, both would be interesting to know your product’s positioning through your roadmap. 

I recently attended a product fair where a CEO introduced his product roadmap with “think of it as AWS Cloud”, without differentiating it in any way. I spent the next 30 mins of the presentation connecting all their features with AWS Cloud features. 

It is crucial to establish a differentiating factor against your competition and build your presentation around that. Tesla entered the automotive space several decades later than its competitors like Toyota, Ford, Ferrari and others. However, by differentiating itself as a leader in the EV space, it created a new market landscape for itself.

Tip #4 – Focus on the outcomes

The roadmap features you spent weeks fine-tuning all the details are great. However, the audience is mostly only interested in what it really means for them.

Therefore, in your presentation, it is critical to shift the focus from features to outcomes.

If it is the external users of the product, you need to focus on how the roadmap aligns with their needs. How does the roadmap solve their pain points? For example, adding the social login capability will allow you the flexibility of SSO, where you don’t have to remember an extra set of login credentials.

On the other side, if it is the executive stakeholders or the investors, the focus should be to present how each roadmap item would help achieve the key business metrics and goals. Using the same example, adding the social login will help reduce the drop-offs during registration and increase our user acquisition rate by 15%.

This perspective resonates more with stakeholders than merely going over the buy in the features list.

Tip #5 – The ending

Once again, I am a big Steve Jobs fan. The master of marketing that he was, leaving an impression on the audience was his forte.

He would always save the big picture and the biggest announcement for the end. His famous “One more thing…” technique has since been copied by many leaders across the industry to conclude their presentation on a high-note.

Leveraging feedback for roadmap presentation and varied board views of Usersnap

Feedback is the lifeblood of any product. Integrating feedback into your roadmap presentations ensures they remain relevant and aligned with user needs. 

The importance of internal and external board views cannot be overstated.

While a public board view with upvoting engages customers and end-users, a limited board view ensures stakeholders are aligned, setting the stage for successful project execution. With the right tools, practices, and request feedback mechanisms, they can be the difference between product success and obscurity.

Usersnap’s varied board views offer a versatile way to present and gather feedback. Whether it’s the public portal for guest users or the limited board view for stakeholders, you can use the power of advanced filters to present different views of your roadmap to different users.

The variety of roadmap presentation styles is tailored to address specific product development needs and audience types. However, leveraging tools like Usersnap, which offer dynamic multiple views and capture customer feedback, can be instrumental in effectively presenting and adapting these roadmaps to various scenarios and stakeholder preferences.

Capture user feedback easily. Get more insights and make confident product decisions.

And if you’re ready to try out a customer feedback software, Usersnap offers a free trial. Sign up today or book a demo with our feedback specialists.

Roadmap Presentation 101: How to Present a Roadmap to Stakeholders

What is a roadmap presentation, why presenting your roadmap is important, how to present a roadmap, what happens after the presentation, how to create a winning product roadmap presentation with tips and examples .

Have you ever gotten close to launching a feature...only to be surprised by unexpected stakeholder feedback?

Perhaps this new information caused you to delay?

Or waste effort and time?

Most of us product people have found ourselves in this unfortunate situation. Happily, this problem can be overcome with a bit of planning.

A well-thought-out product roadmap presentation will help you smoothly deliver against your product strategy.

Teams use roadmaps to communicate where we're going with our product. Product managers put tons of thought into them.

Roadmap delivery states are carefully considered. We ruminate over whether we communicate our roadmap in outcomes or features. 

But to get the most out of our treasured product roadmaps, we need to get buy-in from our wider teams and  stakeholders .

Get started with product management templates

One important way to create buy-in is an effective product roadmap presentation to your roadmap to stakeholders. Presenting your roadmap to key stakeholders is a great opportunity to tell a compelling story about where you're going. It's a chance to align and validate your team's roadmap.

Thoughtfully present your roadmap and you will ensure your stakeholders can get behind your roadmap.

You will also reduce the risk of those nasty eleventh-hour surprises stopping you (and your product) in your tracks.

Before you go ahead with your next roadmap presentation, think about how you communicate your roadmap at these stages:

Before: get to know your stakeholders' needs and motivations. Anticipate questions and feedback that might come up in the presentation.

During: clearly communicate with your stakeholders and check-in for feedback .

After: continue to request feedback and iterate on your roadmap presentation.

.css-uphcpb{position:absolute;left:0;top:-87px;} What is a roadmap

Roadmaps are a common way of expressing product direction to teams.

They come in all sorts of different formats.

But one thing good roadmaps have in common is that they map where you're going with your product.

A roadmap provides a high-level overview of a product or project's vision and direction over time.  

A roadmap serves several purposes :

It maps out your vision and strategic goals.

Details how you’ll deliver against that vision and strategy.

Communicates the necessary information to align stakeholders.

Sets your priorities so that you focus on what’s important. 

A roadmap is meaningless unless you can deliver against it.

This is why it's so important to create alignment with your sales team.

You want to make sure they are behind your roadmap so you can solve all the important problems you've prioritized!

A roadmap presentation is a communication and alignment exercise around key business metrics. It is part of your wider ongoing stakeholder management strategy.

The presentation shouldn't be the first time your stakeholders see your product roadmap. It should be part of an ongoing series of meetings or updates to communicate where your product is going.

The format and cadence of your roadmap presentation depend on your organization and stakeholders.

Some common types of updates are smaller check-ins as well as more formalized leadership presentations. 

Smaller team check-ins

You might set up regular check-ins (e.g. weekly or bi-weekly) to talk about your roadmap with team members who are close to your product.

For example, if you are in a small  startup , you may report directly to a CEO.

With a small check-in, you can regularly walk your CEO through your product roadmap every two weeks to ensure she has a firm grasp of where you're going.

These check-ins will give her the chance to feedback and ensure she is on board.

Another example is a regular check-in with the developers in your team. This sync will help them understand how their daily work fits into the bigger picture.

It will also give them the opportunity to feedback on the roadmap.

Recurring leadership presentations

Product managers also use more formal product roadmap presentations to communicate with leadership and other key stakeholders.

This is often the case in larger, product manager-led organizations.

These organizations likely have a well-established product practice and hierarchy.

Your organization may already have an agreed-upon roadmap presentation process for technical teams.

For example, your leadership team may ask that you present your roadmap at the beginning of each quarter, or each month.

This might be a more formal session with less room for back and forth, depending on time constraints.

In these types of meetings, concise messaging is critical. It is also important to have a clear view of your roadmap's impact on other teams, departments, and the wider organization.

This way, you are anticipating dependencies and cross-over between your product team, and other teams.

Presenting your roadmap to key stakeholders is a great opportunity to tell a memorable and meaningful narrative and compelling story about where you're going.

It's a chance to bring to life your product roadmap artifact.

By presenting your roadmap to relevant business stakeholders, you can build alignment and validate your team's roadmap. This will help you and your team avoid:

Stakeholder confusion or dissatisfaction on where the product is going;

Conflicting messages from different stakeholders.

Last-minute stakeholder feedback and unanticipated surprises that might result in wasted effort;

A good roadmap presentation will ensure your stakeholders can get behind your roadmap. You and your team will feel confident that you have the right buy-in to deliver against your strategy.

Preparing for your roadmap presentations

Think ahead about how you'll communicate your roadmap so that you can get the most out of your presentation. Your future self will thank you for putting in the time!

1. Ensure your roadmap aligns with the overall organization strategy and goals

Your roadmap should ladder up to your business’s strategy and goals.

Make sure you've put in all the work necessary to tally your product vision and roadmap up with the organization's strategy and goals.

Make it clear how where you're going is in line with where the business is going.

If your roadmap doesn't fit in with where the business is going, it's unlikely that you'll be able to get key stakeholders on board with it.

2. Identify your stakeholders’ interest and influence

Get a firm understanding of stakeholders' interests and influence on your product. This will help you communicate effectively with them.

Spend some time figuring who your stakeholders are, and mapping them out. A simple and impactful approach to this is the   interest and influence  matrix.

Stakeholder mapping will help you determine who you're communicating your roadmap with, and how to communicate with them.

Take time to think about who will be in the room (or call), and whether you have all the right people you need for buy-in. Review your stakeholder map to help you make decisions about the guest list beforehand.

If the right people are there, you'll be able to have a concise conversation and get the feedback and alignment you need.

3. Empathise with your stakeholders

Stakeholders have different goals, motivations, and challenges. Get to know your stakeholders before you hold your session.

This will help you understand them and create trust. Note that this is more relevant for more formalized leadership presentations. If you're presenting to a close team, you'll likely know those team members better already.

If you don't know your stakeholders before your session, set up some stakeholder interviews. This will help you to understand them. Stakeholder interviews can be informal. They're simply conversations to get to know stakeholders' motivations and challenges.

“Stakeholder interviews will help you understand the essential structure of the organization, how your work fits into the organization as a whole, and the approval process for various aspects of your project. They'll also provide you with some less obvious opportunities to influence your project's chances of success.”  —  Erika Hall,   Just Enough Research

If you are very unfamiliar with your stakeholders, you can approach your conversations with more structure. Consider   some guidelines  to prepare for them.

4. Create buy-in with your stakeholders

You may already know stakeholders and their goals well.

Still, individual meetings are important for creating before your roadmap presentation.

This buy-in is most relevant for higher stakes leadership roadmap presentations.

Even if your roadmap presentation is more of an informal team sync, take the time to communicate your roadmap before the meeting to avoid surprises.

Early conversations will help you anticipate feedback and challenges that may come up in your presentation. It will also be useful to consider how your roadmap impacts on stakeholders and other parts of your organization. Listen actively to understand points of friction and potential pushback.

Aim to get stakeholders on board with your roadmap before your roadmap presentation. Remember that your presentation is to create alignment. You'll be far more likely to align with a wide group of stakeholders if you've created buy-in 1:1 beforehand.

During your product roadmap presentation

1. set the agenda.

I find it useful to spend time upfront being clear on the purpose of a session, and the format. Some areas to cover early on include:

Your roadmap presentation objective(s)

Outcomes you want to achieve with this roadmap presentation

The stage your team is at with your roadmap (are things largely defined at this stage, or is there ample opportunity for stakeholders to shape the roadmap at this stage?).

How you'll take feedback during the session, and outside of the session

You may also want to spend some time aligning on what a roadmap is. Don't assume that everyone knows! Tailor your message depending on the stakeholders you're speaking with and how product-led your organization is.

You can also cover any key principles that underpin your roadmap. For example, you may want to highlight to stakeholders that your roadmap is outcome-driven, rather than feature-driven.

Discussing what a roadmap is and its principles will create a shared understanding before you go into the artifact in more detail.

2. Communicate clearly and address your stakeholders’ needs

Using simple and clear language is a good bet in any setting. Avoid using industry jargon. Accessible language will go a long way to helping communicate your product roadmap. This is especially true if you're trying to align a wide variety of stakeholders.

Tailor your message depending on the audience. If you're speaking to leadership removed from your team's day-to-day, your message should be concise and to the point. If you're holding a more regular roadmap catch-up, you'll naturally want to cover more detail.

Be clear on the trade-offs you've had to make so that stakeholders get a good understanding of the different considerations you and your team make.

Give stakeholders the big picture so that they can understand where they fit in.

Remember to try and address your different stakeholders' needs. You may have uncovered these in earlier stakeholder interviews or catch-ups.

A good way to do this can be to filter your roadmap content by “epics” or outcomes. You can show the ones that are relevant to the departments or practices that you are speaking with.

3. Leave room for questions and feedback

One of the key goals of a roadmap presentation is to validate your roadmap with stakeholders.

Make sure you give participants an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback. After all, alignment isn't one-sided! It's an exercise in negotiating different views and opinions.

Actively listen and hear people out. This doesn't necessarily mean you need to act on every single piece of feedback, but make sure stakeholders feel heard and understood.

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Presenting your roadmap is part of your wider ongoing stakeholder management strategy. This means that once you've shared your product roadmap, things don't end there.

1. Make the roadmap artifact accessible

Create ongoing alignment by sharing your roadmap with stakeholders in an accessible place. This means putting it somewhere obvious where people can go and look at it regularly.

This will allow them to continuously check-in and keep up to date on changes. You should continue to communicate updates and changes to your roadmap outside of meetings. For example, you can update regularly using your company's messaging platform (e.g.   Slack ,   Microsoft Teams ) or other communication tools like   Loom .

2. Follow up on feedback

Don't leave stakeholders hanging. Be deliberate about feedback on your roadmap. Make sure to follow up on any feedback shared during the presentation.

Also, consider creating a space where stakeholders can continue to provide feedback on your roadmap on an ongoing basis. Some ideas of how you can do this:

A shared document

A dedicated space in your company's knowledge sharing tool, if you have one (e.g.  Notion ,  Confluence ,  Coda )

A dedicated channel in your company's messaging platform

A dedicated space for feedback in the roadmap artifact itself

Be sure to manage expectations on how this feedback will be reviewed and actioned.

3. Iterate on your product roadmap presentation

Get feedback from stakeholders on if your presentations and updates are working for them. This will help you improve and have better ongoing communication around your roadmap.

You may have been presenting product roadmaps in the same way for years but there is likely still room for improvement! Some areas you can seek feedback on:

Is the meeting cadence working for stakeholders?

Do they understand your product team's priorities and trade-offs?

Do they understand the roadmap's impact on them?

A roadmap presentation is a great way to align with stakeholders and get the buy-in you need to get on with delivering against it.

Roadmap alignment is a continuous, ongoing process. Be thoughtful about how you approach your roadmap presentations. Consider before, during, and after the roadmap presentation to build successful alignment.

We know what a  product roadmap  presentation is. And we know why presenting your roadmap matters. But before we explore how to present a roadmap to stakeholders, let's look at how to build a powerful roadmap presentation with examples. 

In this section, we'll use an example product that we have created a roadmap for — a project management platform for SMBs. 

1. Define the goal and purpose of your presentation

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when creating a presentation for stakeholders? Overlooking the value of  a clear goal and purpose .

You  need  to understand what you hope to achieve by the end of your presentation. Otherwise, you risk delivering a vague speech that leaves your audience confused or feeling like you're wasting their time. 

Your goal and purpose may be to:

Convince stakeholders to support your new product or feature

Update your team on the latest feature to make sure they know why it matters and what their work will involve

Inform stakeholders of a new change in direction with an established feature and gain their approval

Let's say we want to add a video chat function to our  project management  platform. It will give our customers more flexibility to communicate and collaborate without leaving our platform to host video conferences elsewhere. 

We want our presentation to highlight how this new  feature  will improve our platform and persuade stakeholders to green-light it. 

With that goal and purpose in mind, we can structure the roadmap presentation to focus on the feature's benefits and secure the necessary support. 

2. Understand the audience

Knowing who you're talking to and what matters to them is paramount to creating a successful roadmap presentation. If you're speaking to the people responsible for the budget, highlight key financial information. They want to know the costs involved, the potential revenue, and anything else that could affect the company's finances. 

And tailor your presentation style and length to the people listening. For instance, a senior manager will likely be busy on any given day and appreciate a shorter, formal presentation that gets straight to the point. 

3. Highlight the product vision

What's the most important part of your next product roadmap presentation anyway?

Your product vision .  

Let's give it the attention it deserves. Define your  product vision  in a way that excites stakeholders and wins them over. Explain your long-term goal for your product. What do you want it to be in, say, two years? Five years? Ten years?

For example, we want our example project management platform to become the  only  solution our customers need within three years. We want to be synonymous with successful project management and empower SMBs to unlock their full potential with streamlined features and cutting-edge functionality. 

Whatever your product,  keep your vision realistic , or you could lose credibility with stakeholders. 

4. Explain and showcase the roadmap

Define  your roadmap 's value and determine the most effective way to present that information. Our project management platform roadmap is a comprehensive plan that delivers all the details our stakeholders need to understand why they should support it. 

Go through the roadmap's key points clearly and honestly. Put yourself in the stakeholders' shoes and consider what you'd want to hear. Incorporate visuals (see below) to add context, clarity, and inspire stakeholders' imaginations. 

5. Use visual product roadmap aids 

The best, most successful presentations feature visual components to reinforce their points and boost their persuasive power. But only use visuals if they're clear and easy on the eye. Two points to consider:

Use colors to distinguish different areas of your roadmap (like blue for our platform's low-priority features, red for high-priority ones).

Avoid adding too much visual information to your presentation. Focus on presenting essential details and explain the rest to boost engagement.

Never add visuals as an afterthought, though. Always make sure they  add value . 

6. Create a clear CTA

Do you know exactly what you want stakeholders to do after your presentation (e.g. provide funding)? 

You should create a compelling call to action (CTA) that propels them toward that goal. Your CTA should be simple, concise, and inspirational. If your presentation is engaging enough, a well-written CTA should be irresistible.  

Hilary Johnson

Andrea Saez

Vishal Chaudhary

21 Sep 2023

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Guide to building a product roadmap (with template and examples)

Editor’s note : This article was last updated on 30 May 2023 with more information about the components of a product roadmap, product roadmapping tools, and steps to fill out the product roadmap templates described herein. We’ve also added some FAQ about product roadmaps.

The world of product management thrives on planning and visualization, and one tool stands out as an embodiment of both: the product roadmap.

A product roadmap is a strategic document that outlines the vision, direction, and progress of a product over time. It highlights what a product team plans to achieve and how they intend to do it.

The ability to craft a good product roadmap is an essential PM skill. In this guide, we’ll define exactly what a product roadmap is and look at some examples. We’ll also walk through how to build a product roadmap and offer some general guidelines to help you choose the right format.

If you’d like to follow along as you go, these product roadmap templates can help you get started.

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap is a shared, living document that outlines the vision and direction of your product throughout its lifecycle.

The roadmap, at its most basic level, articulates what you are building and why. It also lays out the team’s strategy for delivering value and serves as a plan for executing the overall product strategy.

What is the purpose of a product roadmap?

The primary purpose of a product roadmap is to communicate the strategic direction of the product. It aligns all stakeholders — product managers, developers, marketers, executives, and even customers — around the product vision and goals.

Beyond communication, a product roadmap serves as a guiding tool for decision-making, helping teams prioritize initiatives and features based on their alignment with the product vision and goals.

Key components of a product roadmap

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to building a product roadmap, a well-constructed roadmap typically includes the following components that, together, help convey the product’s trajectory:

• Vision — A description of the overarching goal or destination for the product. It sets the direction for all product activities
• Goals — The specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives that contribute to the realization of the product vision
• Initiatives — High-level efforts or projects that the product team undertakes to achieve the product goals
• Features — Tangible deliverables or functionality that the product team develops and releases over time
• Timeframes — Rough estimates of when the product team aims to deliver initiatives and features

How to create a product roadmap

Building a product roadmap involves the careful balancing of business objectives, customer needs, and technical feasibility. It’s about understanding what your market wants, what your team can deliver, and how these align with your company’s goals.

Let’s look at an example. Suppose you’re a product manager for a productivity app:

• Your product vision is to be the go-to app for personal productivity
• One of your goals is to improve user engagement by 20 percent in the next six months
• To achieve this, you might initiate a project to revamp the user interface
• This initiative could involve features like a new dashboard, task prioritization functionality, and a daily summary email
• You might aim to deliver these features in the next two to three months

Embarking on the journey of creating a product roadmap may seem daunting at first because it depends heavily on your organization’s unique goals and circumstances. However, broadly speaking, the following steps will help ensure you cover all your bases when building your product roadmap:

• Define the product vision
• Set the product goals
• Identify initiatives
• Detail the features
• Estimate timeframes

1. Define the product vision

The product vision is the long-term destination for your product. It should be an inspiring and guiding statement that provides direction for your product over the next few years.

The vision should be broad enough to allow for flexibility, yet specific enough to provide clear direction.

2. Set the product goals

Product goals are SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) objectives that, when achieved, will bring the product closer to its vision.

Your goals should be aligned with the overall business objectives and provide a clear path to the realization of the product vision.

3. Identify initiatives

Initiatives are the high-level efforts needed to achieve the product goals. They should be strategic and directly contribute to the achievement of the product goals.

Initiatives can span multiple releases and typically involve multiple features or tasks.

4. Detail the features

Features are the specific functionalities or tasks that need to be completed as part of an initiative. They provide the granular details of what will be developed and delivered.

Detailing the features involves breaking down the initiatives into actionable tasks that can be assigned to the development team.

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5. Estimate timeframes

Timeframes provide a rough estimate of when the initiatives and features will be delivered . These estimates are not set in stone but provide a guideline for when to expect certain features.

Estimating timeframes involves considering factors such as resource availability, technical complexity, and business priorities.

Product roadmap formats (with examples)

There are debates within the product community as to which roadmap format is the best. The truth is, none of them is perfect. The best format will depend on your organizational culture, company stage, team setup, and the nature of your product.

Regardless of which format you choose, every product roadmap should consist of three foundational elements:

Each element can come in several variations. Let’s review them one by one:

1. The ‘when’

This is the horizontal axis on a roadmap that indicates the timeline of your initiatives. It can be displayed in the following formats:

Calendar (monthly/quarterly)

Now-next-later.

Mapping your initiatives on a calendar is the most common way of visualizing a roadmap. The calendar should be either quarterly or monthly. Any longer unit will be too broad, and any shorter unit will be too unrealistically precise.

The benefit of using a calendar-based roadmap is that anyone can understand it without further explanation. The downside is that whenever you give people a timeline, it will be treated as a promise, no matter how much you insist it is not.

Below is an example of a calendar-based product roadmap:

Click here for a calendar-based roadmap template .

Note : Before attempting to fill out the template, be sure to select File > Make a copy from the menu above the spreadsheet.

The Now-Next-Later roadmap was invented by Janna Bastow, co-founder of Mind the Product . The idea is to remove the false certainty of absolute dates by replacing them with relative timeframes:

• What are we working on now?
• What will we start next?
• What are we saving for the future?

A Now-Next-Later roadmap can help your organization escape the certainty trap. Instead of wasting time discussing when things will be done, it forces a discussion on what is more important.

However, while the idea of omitting dates makes sense in theory, it’s not always practical.

If internal stakeholders are always asking, “How long are we talking here? Weeks? Quarters?”, you might want to rethink whether the Now-Next-Later roadmap is bringing more focus or confusion.

2. The ‘what’

These are the core items on your roadmap that represent what you will be working on. They might include:

Non-feature initiatives

Also in this section:

• Product roadmap example

Can you mix and match roadmap items?

A product team’s main responsibility is building features users want , so it makes sense that features make up the bulk of product roadmaps out there.

However, if you think features are the only thing that should go on a roadmap, then you would be wrong.

There are many activities that a product team has to perform to facilitate the creation of new features, such as user research, tech debt cleanup , internal tool implementation, and product launch .

Including these non-feature initiatives on a roadmap can increase transparency and help educate the rest of the company about why a seemingly small feature can take so much time.

Again, this doesn’t mean you should put every task on the roadmap. Make sure to only include initiatives that offer strategic alignment.

A feature is a solution to a user problem, but you often don’t know what the best solution is ahead of time.

If you are not sure what features to commit to, it is best to simply state the problems you want to solve on a roadmap. This leaves you with more room to explore different solutions and gets everyone to focus on the core problems .

In addition to stating the problems you want to solve, you can also describe the outcomes you want to achieve on a roadmap.

These outcomes can be either user outcomes (e.g., “Users can find what they want easily”) or company outcomes (e.g., “Increase conversion rate by 50 percent”).

They don’t have to be written as quantitative metrics , but it always helps to have some objective criteria by which to define success.

Below are examples of items that might be included in a product roadmap:

3. Categories

You can use categories to group initiatives on a roadmap. They can be displayed as either swimlanes or tags.

Product teams commonly categorize initiatives on the roadmap by things like:

• Product area
• Nature of product work (feature, growth, product-market-fit expansion , scaling)
• Strategic pillar

You should not group initiatives by more than two dimensions on a given roadmap. After all, categories are there to help internal stakeholders digest your roadmap. Introducing too many concepts will do the opposite.

If you really have to, you can create different versions of the roadmap for different audiences.

How to choose the best product roadmap format

Remember, a product roadmap needs to be tailored to your specific context. Blindly following what other companies (especially FAANG) do is like wearing an outfit tailored-made for someone else — it will look sloppy.

There is no set formula that will tell you how to create a perfect roadmap, but I will share some general guidelines and best practices for choosing the best roadmap format for your product and business:

• If your organization is culturally more traditional, has complex dependencies across different teams, or offers a time-sensitive product, sticking to a calendar-based roadmap will be your best bet
• If your organization is still small or has a product-led culture , a Now-Next-Later roadmap could be a good option.
• If your product is in an established category where features don’t differ much between competitors, having only features on your roadmap is likely enough
• If the nature of your work requires more solution exploration (e.g., growth or innovation teams), having problems or outcomes on your roadmap will give you more flexibility
• If you work on a product so large that shipping a meaningful feature could take months or even quarters, you might want to break your work down into smaller chunks and include non-feature initiatives (e.g., user research) on your roadmap
• If your audience cares more about how you are balancing your bets, you can group your initiatives by product area, size, or type of product work
• If your audience cares about how your plan contributes to higher-level goals, group your initiatives by objective or strategic pillar
• If you are a product leader managing multiple sub-teams, your audience will likely want to see initiatives grouped by team

Product roadmap templates

We’ve created customizable templates for each product roadmap format described above (you can access each template in Google Sheets below):

• Monthly product roadmap template  ( access in Google Sheets )
• Quarterly product roadmap template ( access in Google Sheets )
• Now-Next-Later product roadmap template  ( access in Google Sheets )

Note : Before attempting to fill out a template, be sure to select File > Make a copy from the menu above the spreadsheet.

These templates are also available in Miro and Figma  formats.

Monthly product roadmap template

Time-based product roadmaps are a great way to visualize your product’s journey and development over time:

To fill out the monthly product roadmap template, take the following steps:

• Identify your categories — Start by dividing your roadmap into various categories or strategic themes
• Tag your initiatives — For each category, identify the initiatives that you plan to undertake. These can represent high-level projects or features that are aligned with the specific theme of the category. Tag each initiative for easier tracking
• Understand the nature of the roadmap — Remember that this roadmap is a living document and will change according to the latest information. It’s not a release plan, and it only contains strategic items. The timeframes are only rough estimations​
• Align with product strategy — The roadmap is only part of the product strategy. Make sure to align it with your broader product vision and strategy. Provide links or references to more information about your product vision and strategy, if available​

Remember, the key is to keep it updated as your product and strategy evolve over time.

Quarterly product roadmap template

To fill out the quarterly product roadmap template, follow the same steps as above, but split your timeframes into quarters rather than months:

Now-Next-Later product roadmap template

The same steps apply to the Now-Next-Later roadmap template, except you’re not defining concrete timelines for any of your initiatives. Instead, this roadmap template calls for organizing initiatives into one of three buckets — things to do now, things to do next, and things to do later:

Project plan vs. product roadmap: What’s the difference?

While both a project plan and a product roadmap provide a framework for organizing and executing work, they serve different purposes and operate at different levels of granularity.

A project plan is more detailed and short-term focused, outlining specific tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. A product roadmap, on the other hand, is more strategic and long-term oriented, detailing the high-level initiatives and features that contribute to the product vision.

The table below outlines the key differences between a project plan vs. a product roadmap:

(Image: A side-by-side comparison of a project plan and a product roadmap with key differences highlighted)

Agile product roadmaps

In the context of agile product management, a product roadmap is a strategic tool, but with an added layer of flexibility.

An agile product roadmap is designed to adapt to changes, learning, and feedback over time. It prioritizes outcomes over outputs, focusing more on achieving goals and solving customer problems than on delivering a fixed set of features.

For example, instead of committing to deliver Feature X in Q2, an agile roadmap might commit to solve Customer Problem Y in Q2, leaving open the possibility of what that solution might look like.

Whereas a typical product roadmap might show expected release dates for these enhancements, in agile, the notion of sticking to deadlines becomes counterintuitive:

Agile development requires an ability to respond to change and address evolving needs at any particular moment. Agile teams also spend less time estimating and forecasting how long something will take and put that time back into experimenting and actually building the product.

As a result, we expect things to change in agile and dates quickly become wishful thinking or empty promises.

Another core principle of agile is fixed capacity. We achieve this by creating stable, long-lived, cross-functional teams. In doing so, we fix our capacity, meaning that scope and/or time are the dimensions that shift. Therefore, it is not possible to pin features to dates in agile.

When we do want to fix dates in agile, scope remains flexible. Both scope and time cannot be fixed in agile:

An agile roadmap, therefore, removes the notion of product deadlines . It still maintains the concept of time (i.e., feature A will come before feature B), but nothing is tied to a specific date.

Software and tools for product roadmapping

Product roadmapping software makes it simpler to keep track of large to-do lists, backlogs, and ideas. A roadmapping tool helps to keep the various teams and stakeholders involved in building a product on track to meet development goals . It can also facilitate online collaboration and communication between employees.

Choosing the right product roadmap software will completely depend on your team, its work style, and your budget and business goals. You’ll want to consider tools that enable you to more effectively:

• Communicate priorities — A roadmapping tool should help you visibly demonstrate why it’s important for a particular task to be completed in the grand scheme of a project
• Engage stakeholders — Stakeholders require updates on progress and what is happening, and roadmapping software should help you produce an easy visual aid to ensure efficient communication and build consensus for your product vision
• Provide visibility into work — Transparency is crucial to building trust with stakeholders. You should look for roadmapping tools that help provide visibility into what your team is working on and why
• Drive efficiency — Your roadmapping software should contain all critical information in one place, making it easier for cross-functional teams to understand priorities and what they should be working on
• Foster collaboration — The best product roadmapping software provides real-time communication tools, enabling teams to quickly huddle (virtually) to answer questions and discuss new ideas

Popular tools and software for creating product roadmaps include:

• Trello — Trello is a visual and easy-to-use project management tool. It’s a kanban-style list-making application that provides a simple way to organize your team’s tasks
• airfocus — airfocus is specifically designed for product roadmapping. It has an easy-to-use roadmap builder and can be customized to meet the needs of the product team
• ProductPlan — ProductPlan prides itself on its ability to help product managers easily build and share roadmaps. It has many templates that can be customized using a drag-and-drop builder
• Productboard — Productboard helps teams organize feedback, prioritize tasks , and create a visual roadmap. By putting a focus on customer feedback, product teams are more likely to focus on meaningful backlog items, which will improve sprint planning , the customer experience, and, subsequently, revenue
• Wrike — Wrike is a product management tool with a focus on improving internal collaboration and communication and boosting employee productivity by ensuring everyone is aligned with the product roadmap
• Aha! — Aha! is one of the most popular product management tools, boasting more than 500,000 users. This product management tool can easily create a timeline with details tailored to specific stakeholders
• Roadmunk — Roadmunk has several product roadmapping features, such as milestones, various roadmap styles, and tracking ownership of tasks. It’s easy to import your data and use the drag-and-drop feature to quickly create a product roadmap
• Monday.com — Monday.com ‘s product roadmap tool is more complex than most other options, so it’s best for larger teams that can really make the most out of all of its features and tools. One of it’s main highlights is its “high-level visual summary that explains the vision and direction of your product over time”
• Asana — Asana is a popular, comprehensive tool for work and project management. It’s quite user-friendly and doesn’t require a lot of time to build it out
• ClickUp — ClickUp is a paid tool, but its free plan is very generous. In terms of product roadmaps, it doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as some of its competitors, but roadmapping is listed as an “advanced” feature
• Craft.io — Craft.io is designed specifically for building product roadmaps. It’s highly customizable and has been pushing continuous updates to improve its tools and features

If you’re on a fixed budget, you could do worse than the following free tools for product roadmapping:

• Bitrix24 —  Bitrix24 offers simple product management tools and a variety of views, including a GANTT chart, kanban board, calendar, or planner. It also provides tools to help you efficiently manage scrum teams and projects
• TeamGantt — TeamGantt has a simple drag-and-drop interface that makes it easy to customize prebuilt templates. Since it’s all online, TeamGantt allows for easy collaboration between team members
• OpenProject — If you’re looking for an on-premise solution, OpenProject may be a viable product management tool. It’s also available on the cloud
• FreedCamp — Freedcamp is not specifically built for product roadmapping but can certainly be modified and adapted for that purpose. It has unlimited projects, tasks, and users under its free plan and comes with customizable tasks, subtasks, and milestones

Product roadmap strategy, planning, and communication

Product roadmap strategy involves making decisions about what to include on your roadmap and why. It’s about aligning your roadmap with your product strategy and business objectives.

During the planning phase, you might consider factors like market trends, competitive landscape, customer feedback, resource availability, and more. Your roadmap should serve as a visual representation of your strategic decisions so that you can clearly and effectively communicate your vision, goals, and expectations to key stakeholders.

Below are some considerations and best practices for communicating your strategy and short- and long-term plans to key stakeholders with your product roadmap:

• Get your stakeholders excited
• Know your audience
• Collect feedback (and mute the noise)

1. Get your stakeholders excited

It’s the product manager’s responsibility to build and manage a live roadmap that is fluid and resilient. They must convince stakeholders why the investment makes sense, obtain buy-in and the support system from inside and outside the organization, set expectations, and deliver a sense of excitement about what’s to come.

You can generate the support they you to successfully push for investment in a new product or feature by:

• Securing executive buy-in to build and sustain the product
• Specifying short- and long-term needs from all teams
• Demonstrating cohesion with ecosystem partners
• Showing customers why the product is aligned to their needs
• Applying principles that offer flexibility to adapt while minimizing noise

The first step in defining a product is to convince leadership that the offering aligns with the corporate strategy. While a product vision presents this alignment and a cash flow analysis demonstrates the value, it becomes real when leadership views the product roadmap.

The information included in the roadmap should give the executive team confidence that the offering is viable and worthy of organizational and financial support. It should include a clearly defined goal and a list of key steps or milestones toward achieving that objective.

A product roadmap should also articulate the overall product strategy and provide context to explain how it will help the team deliver on the goals spelled out in the product vision.

2. Know your audience

The key to building a good product roadmap is to understand your audience. A roadmap designed to gain buy-in from company leadership looks very different from one meant to appeal to customers. This is where a theme-based product roadmap can really come in handy, as described in this helpful guide by Andrea Saez.

In the following sections, we’ll explain how to create a product roadmap that will gain buy-in from executive leadership, the organization as a whole, partners, and customers.

Executive leadership

A roadmap for leadership needs to capture when the MVP will be available, the target customers, expected revenue, and demographics of product usage. Stakeholders will want to know when attaining total market potential is feasible (general release) and considerations for upsell opportunities. With each feature, they will want to understand the purpose and sequencing.

The main purpose of a product roadmap is to educate and convince leadership that the product or feature is worth their investment. Another key reason is to seek their direction. You have some of the best minds on the call, so you might as well leverage it!

Leadership also needs to know the KPIs you monitor and will expect updates on how you track periodically. A product roadmap sets the stage for critical thinking. It sets expectations on when volumes will ramp so that leadership has a direction on the short and long-term outlook.

Be creative about what you present as a roadmap. Typically, presentations demonstrate a timeline at the top, the critical features, and a two-line summary. That isn’t sufficient in many cases. The narrative that captures the essential customers at each phase is vital.

Peer organizations

Creating product roadmaps for peer organizations requires a much broader perspective beyond the engineering team.

For example, consider the operations team when processing claims; manual processing might be necessary for some scenarios when starting a new initiative. Your ability to identify these scenarios, the number of transactions expected every month, and features that make such processing unnecessary can make or break a project. Consider every team the product touches internally, including legal, procurement, analytics, and implementation (we will gate to sales in a bit).

Turning our attention back to the product development team, understanding what “done” looks like is very important. While a customer or leadership-facing roadmap does not need a detailed view, this is crucial for a development team. The roadmap must break down further to articulate parts of a more extensive feature that needs prioritization versus later enhancements.

Implementation and customer success teams need clarity on when features are available in sandbox and production environments to prepare their teams with the requisite training. The analytics team needs communication when new datasets are obtainable to drive KPI measurements.

Development teams need a roadmap to devise the product architecture. Most successful products work because of a tacit alignment between product management and engineering .

I find it valuable to work with the team to get creative about breaking down a more significant feature. My rule of thumb is that if it takes more than two weeks to develop, a further breakdown might be necessary. This feature breakdown translates into a more detailed roadmap that drives cross-functional alignment.

Note that the feature split should be outcome-driven — it shouldn’t be a breakdown to measure progress alone. You may ask, why wouldn’t a leadership team care about this? To put it simply, they would, and communication is critical if the feature split is significant enough. Frequently, these splits are a matter of UX enhancements, not revenue-blocking ones.

System integrators (SIs) are frequently the medium between the product and the user. Their adoption could make or break your offering.

Consider an ERP system. Product companies such as SAP rely on system integrators such as Accenture to deploy and manage the solution for the client.

Imagine that your product’s enhancement (however well-intended) breaks existing customization. Suppose the SI didn’t see this coming, or this occurs frequently. In that case, the SI might stop upgrading the product because the client now considers the downtime due to an upgrade to be unacceptable. Don’t be that product!

Webinars are a great way to relay the product roadmap for the next quarter. While that constitutes a good start, it is critical to document, especially UI or API changes, and present a forewarning of possible compatibility issues. The bottleneck isn’t the work to prepare for an upgrade but showing poorly in front of the client.

Customers and users

Customers expect your product to provide immediate relief to a current pain point while also demanding that it goes above and beyond.

For an example, take this tale of two vendors. In one of my previous roles, our operations depended heavily on solutions from third-party vendors. Without getting into specific details, both vendors offered overlapping products.

The pain point was that data resided in their systems. Vendor 1 did not provide a standard interface to retrieve data for deeper analytics. Vendor 2 did, but there was considerable pressure to set up our AI and automation environments.

During our next quarterly, we requested both vendors to present their roadmaps. When vendor 2 showed us its roadmap, it was apparent that their reps had listened to our needs. More crucially, the roadmap included well-defined timelines. Vendor 1 had plans to deliver significant updates, including ones that would have made our issues disappear. Unfortunately, it never presented anything aside from a motivational speech. This eliminated vendor 1 and we consolidated our solutions through Vendor 2.

The account manager for Vendor-1 admitted offline that he never got the product team’s backing to present anything to the customer. Put yourself in their shoes: Why would a sales manager sell your product to the customer? If you cannot provide a roadmap, pricing, and timing for a product, you might as well not build it.

Another consideration is building a suite of product capabilities that enables incremental opportunities. Think of your product as a set of Lego blocks where the outcomes are more remarkable than the sum of the parts. You are overdelivering to most of your customers when you build something as an all-inclusive product.

A customer-facing roadmap is typically a quarterly or monthly timeline highlighting significant enhancements to the product. It needs to relay in about 15–20 words why the feature drives value for them.

The sales team prefers a similar snapshot. However, I recommend customizing it depending on the sales team’s audience.

3. Collect feedback (and mute the noise)

Knowing what feedback is crucial versus what is noise is essential to building sustainable products.

When introducing a new product, you can always expect feedback, which is god. However, most of it is tactical, and suggestions tend to resolve a symptom rather than a root cause.

As an example, once I had a customer demand a feature for a unique scenario. The sales team was adamant that the product was a no-go until we added the feature. We got on a call with the customer, talked through it, and determined it was an arcane rule that wasn’t even valid.

In other cases, I’ve seen product teams turn an enhancement request into an opportunity for a new revenue stream. The point is to separate the signal from the noise. Don’t be afraid to reprioritize your product roadmap when there is a good rationale.

Get on a call with the customer and have an open-ended discussion; you might discover unpolished diamonds that could lead to new avenues for success. Once you deliver an MVP, get close with the users and measure the product’s results against expectations. Understand the critical pain points. Then, brutally prioritize them against ROI, ease of development, the product’s readiness, and the market.

A well-designed product roadmap can be a powerful tool to help product managers secure buy-in from stakeholders and communicate their vision across the organization. It provides clarity, fosters alignment, facilitates communication, guides decision-making, and ultimately, helps drive product success.

Understanding how to create a product roadmap — and, more importantly, the power it can wield when communicated effectively — is a key step in the product manager career development journey and a crucial factor in getting any product development lifecycle off on the right track.

Product roadmap FAQ

How long should a product roadmap be, does a product roadmap include deadlines, how does a product roadmap relate to a product backlog.

In most cases, your roadmap should focus on the upcoming six to 18 months.

It is very rare for a product team to produce a meaningful plan any further into the future. If you ask 10 product managers how long they tend to stick to their roadmaps, nine of them will tell you less than three months.

Generally speaking, you should avoid committing to deadlines because software product development is full of uncertainties. There is no point making promises when you can’t fulfill them.

Unfortunately, the real world has constraints we can’t bypass, which sometimes makes deadlines a necessary evil. Don’t be afraid to impose deadlines if you have to, as long as you understand that they are the exception, not the rule.

It is perfectly fine to combine multiple approaches on the same roadmap.

For example, you can:

• Share concrete features you will soon build and high-level problems you want to solve in the future
• Pair initiatives with the outcomes you hope they’ll achieve

As a product manager, you own the backlog . Make sure to capture backlog items, drive transparency within the organization, and provide a rationale.

The product roadmap is a fluid document; it may evolve based on a wide range of parameters, such as a change in organization’s strategy, a shift in the market or user behavior, or the arrival of a new competitor.

The backlog needs to be regularly updated and realigned to keep up with changes in the product roadmap. It’s common for user stories and tasks to become outdated during this process, so you should remove these irrelevant items from the backlog as soon as you receive clear-cut direction from the stakeholders.

Remember that product management is 70 percent science and 30 percent craft, so get creative!

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Product Roadmaps - The Ultimate Guide

• Resources /

Roadmaps are vitally important to help product managers create alignment around a plan that builds trust and confidence among stakeholders. This guide can help product managers plan, build, and share a beautiful product roadmap that will make them look great in front of all their teams.

Choose from 45+ free customizable templates and start using one in minutes. Visit our roadmap templates library to get started with just a few clicks ?

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap is a visual communication tool that aligns a company around a high-level product strategy. Depending on the type of organization, product roadmaps can include upcoming features and technical considerations, and often demonstrate how a product will evolve over time. Roadmaps communicate the intention of what customer and business outcomes a plan will achieve within a period of time.

A product roadmap is also a coordination tool: It gives stakeholders and team members the information they need to focus on their goals and priorities. Roadmaps bring visibility to all the moving pieces that help product teams coordinate their efforts, like scope and resource allocation, and the reasons behind those decisions.

Why are product roadmaps important?

When product managers establish a healthy product roadmapping process and culture at their organization, it helps achieve a few things:

1. Alignment and excitement around a product strategy A product roadmap is the perfect tool if you want to create product strategy literacy across your organization.

2. Visibility into what is happening, changing, or progressing within the strategy A great product roadmap creates stakeholder confidence in company progress.

3. Cross-functional team collaboration and clarity around priorities Having a product roadmap encourages teams to narrow down the focus of the problems that can be solved using the available resources―a prioritization exercise in and of itself.

4. Ongoing communication These ongoing conversations―about the why, how and who of the work to be done―create a culture of alignment and deep understanding of the vision and direction for the product.

How to plan what goes in the roadmap

1. generate goal(s) for a specific, narrow period of time.

Product managers rarely know what’s going to happen a year from now (market changes, discovery of new user needs, etc.), so planning for a one-year timeline doesn’t make sense. You only need the details of the who, what and how for the month and quarter, focused on working towards achieving a high-level goal or two (for agile teams and startups, even that time frame can be a stretch!).

How do you determine what the product goals for a quarter should be? No matter where you’re at in your company’s lifecycle—whether you’re a scrappy 20-person startup or a 2,000-person multi-product portfolio enterprise—it all starts with the product vision . It’s what Roman Pichler calls: "The reason for creating the product." Everything you do should be aligned with that unique positioning for your product.

2. Identify the problems that can be solved

Once you know your business goals and have a product strategy rooted in measuring and improving metrics related to those goals, it’s time to move into the problem discovery phase.

What user problems can you solve in order to impact those metrics you defined? Look for the problems that will create the biggest impact on the business goals.

• Customer feedback : Talk to your users frequently. We can't repeat this enough! Feature requests coming from sales and CS/CX messages are useful, but a product manager needs to be deeply embedded in user conversations. Look for the problems that can be potentially solved within the block of time you’ve defined for the roadmap.

Pro tip ?: Use a model like Ash Maurya’s lean canvas ) or the Jobs to be done framework to conceptualize and segment your understanding of customer problems and needs.

Usage data: How are your users interacting with your product and features? Look for the problems, barriers, and common trends in the behavior that can be potentially solved for.

Product competitive analysis : Experiencing your competitors’ products helps you gain a more comprehensive frame of reference for where your product stands in the market. Do a deep analysis, measure the experiences, and benchmark them against your product.

This depth of research and problem discovery during the product roadmap planning phase is crucial to targeting the right problems you’ll commit to solving over a period of time. This research is the evidence you’ll use to justify why certain features and initiatives should be on the roadmap during alignment discussions.

3. Align with your internal teams and stakeholders

Your product roadmap planning needs to be collaborative from start to finish.

Customer facing teams are key touchpoints for product managers during the product roadmap planning process. More than 70% of the Pragmatic Institute’s 2019 survey respondents said that they spend fewer than five hours a month processing customer feedback, and most product managers don’t have time to do ongoing, comprehensive user research.

How can you build relationships with your teams during the product roadmap planning phase? Have ongoing conversations with customers and customer-facing teams and be curious about their input on proposed solutions.

Lead your customer-facing team conversations with questions like:

• What problems do you feel are urgent? Can you walk me through why you feel that way?
• What evidence are you basing that on?
• What do you think is the impact of acting on/not acting on this piece of feedback?

4. Define metrics of success and KPIs for the initiatives in the product roadmap

What’s the best way to quantify the impact of the goals to be reached and problems to be solved within a period of time? Ensure that your roadmap is connected to well-defined key performance indicators (KPIs). Your roadmap should illustrate, or be informed, by the answers to the questions:

• What will our long-term impact be?
• How will we measure if this impact has been achieved?
• What’s the process for updating and communicating the progress of this impact?

One popular method that helps product teams answer these questions is Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) . OKRs are a great goal-setting framework because they take a high-level vision and break it into manageable objectives.

OKR objectives are time-bound and actionable, as well as inspirational. Key results, on the other hand, take the qualitative aspect of objectives and turn it into quantifiable milestones. For example:

• Triple average weekly sessions on mobile by the end of February

Key Results:

• KR1: QA all mobile functions
• KR2: Improve loading time by 40%
• KR3: Add one new integration to the mobile version

5. Create priorities for the product roadmap

A prioritization framework comes in handy during the product roadmap planning phase. Start by asking the questions: What initiatives will create the most impact? What’s the most urgent thing that needs to be tackled? What’s our scope of resources (time, effort, technology)? Then, move toward quantifying those answers to make prioritization decisions.

Free book alert ⚠️. We wrote a whole book about the prioritization process and the best frameworks you can adapt to your organization's needs. Get it here .

There are two weighted-score methods we like:

RICE. RICE stands for Reach, Impact, Confidence and Effort. It’s a simple weighted score method for quantifying the potential value of features, project ideas and initiatives. A RICE score helps product managers quantify the estimated value of a feature or project idea so they’re easier to sort when it’s time to decide the order they should be worked on. Sean McBride, who co-developed RICE prioritization as a PM at Intercom, walked us through how to best use this ( prioritization method ) .

Value vs Effort. A popular, easy-to-communicate way to prioritize ideas is to compare the value gained from an idea against the effort required to complete it. By using a standard ranking scale from one to five, product managers or teams can make decisions quickly and easily. Check out our breakdown of the factors that define value and effort .

You can use both RICE and value vs. effort as templates in Roadmunk to start surfacing high-impact ideas. Try it here .

How to build a product roadmap

Roadmap formats.

Roadmap formats tend to fall in three categories.

The no-dates product roadmap: This offers more flexibility than roadmaps built on timelines. They’re helpful for companies whose priorities are constantly shifting. This is usually the case when your product is still in its earliest stages—when you’re processing new information frequently.

The hybrid product roadmap: This type of product roadmap includes dates—but not hard dates. For example, a company might create a product roadmap that is organized by month or quarter. This style of roadmap allows you to plan into the future while maintaining flexibility.

Items here are plotted by month, and designated as either Current, Near-Term, or Future. By time-boxing projects according to months, you create a loose projection that’s helpful but not constraining.

The timeline product roadmap: A complex timeline product roadmap really isn’t helpful or necessary until you’re juggling multiple departments, dependencies, and deadlines.

A timeline product roadmap gives a visual structure to the many moving parts that have to work together to ensure product success. They also show the product’s long-term vision—since some departments must plan a year or more in advance.

Along with working with a format that fits your company's needs, there are a few roadmap components that will make it a visual communication tool that your stakeholders can easily digest. (You can build a roadmap that includes all of these components using Roadmunk, by the way!):

• Identify dependencies early on. Every project, team, and initiative is related to one another, so it’s important to define those dependencies early on in the roadmapping process.

• Mark milestones . Having milestones can spotlight your organization's goals, major releases, events, and achievements, and visualizing a goal or key result on a roadmap helps your team rally behind it and understand what it takes to get there. This is especially useful if you’re using the OKR method.

How to present a product roadmap to get buy-in

Your roadmap presentation is the perfect time to shine as a product manager in front of your stakeholders: You’re able to demonstrate how well you know the market, the users, the product, and the business goals.

Before getting into a room with stakeholders, ask: What information does each department and stakeholder care about? What will affect their work the most?

Engineering

What they care about: Scalability, code, integrity of work, efficiency of work, and building features that add actual value (not just perceived value).

How to communicate your roadmap for successful buy-in: Engineering wants to understand the value versus effort. For developers, integrity is a top priority, and they’ll push back on features that seem difficult to scale or solutions that seem inelegant. You need to be able to explain the intrinsic value of each feature and milestone: value to the business, value to customers, value towards improving the product. Set realistic time frames (i.e., pad your estimates!), while striking a balance between urgency and limited resources.

What to show them: Focus on developer-oriented themes, like scalability, usability, quality, performance, infrastructure, and features. And keep it short-term!

Sales, CS and other customer-facing teams

What they care about: WHAT they can promise customers and WHEN those will be ready; building trust and loyalty; performance improvements for the product; ways to reduce churn.

How to communicate your roadmap for successful buy-in: Focus on the timeline. When will different outputs be ready? What can they promise customers and prospects now? Show how the roadmap will introduce ways to reduce churn and improve conversion. And go big: Highlight how the needs of large clients will be met, and how your roadmap creates opportunities for significant deals.

What to show them: The what and the when. Give them a transparent timeline they can communicate to customeThe “what” and the “when.” Give a transparent timeline they can communicate to customers and users. (Some schools of thought around roadmaps believe that you should keep dates out of the roadmap due to the risk of committing to something that might not be delivered. Assess that risk internally and decide if a dateless approach works best for you.)

CEO/Executive team

What they care about: The business goals and how the plan depicted by the roadmap will help the company achieve them. They want to see a strong connection between the development initiatives and the priorities of the business. Execs are more concerned with the investments a company is making (resource allocation) and how those investments will create a return.

How to communicate your roadmap for successful buy-in: CEOs think high-level and inter-departmental, so make sure your roadmap ties each initiative to customer value and business goals.

What to show them: The exec team will want to see what features you’re adding, but more importantly, they’ll want to see how the initiatives will help the product capture the market. They also want to understand any risks.

For a more in-depth look at how to present the roadmap to execs, check out this guide: Managing executives in the roadmapping process .

Customers (optional)

What they care about: If you decide to have a customer-facing roadmap, it’s important that they see the value your product will deliver.

What to show them: Customer-facing roadmaps should not include the “what,” “how” and “when” you’d show internal teams (so, no dates, documentation, or team capacity). Under-promise and over-deliver! Focus on the things they care about achieving, and define roadmap themes around those categories.

Suggested reading How to ace your roadmap presentation

Product roadmap examples

Here’s a roadmap for visualizing your product strategy and getting your entire organization aligned. You can use this roadmap to chart how your product will grow over time.

The classic product roadmap example

Here’s a roadmap for visualizing your product strategy and getting your entire organization aligned. You can use this roadmap to chart how your product will grow over time and when.

Start using this product roadmap :

Agile product roadmap example

An agile roadmap illustrates how your product or technology will evolve—with a lot of flexibility. Unlike time-based roadmaps, which focus on dates and deadlines, agile roadmaps focus on themes and progress. Agile roadmaps encapsulate the flexibility of the agile philosophy: They’re a statement of where you’re going, not a hard-and-fast plan.

Start using this agile roadmap :

Feature roadmap example

Feature roadmaps track the development and releases of a product’s key features, communicating direction and progress.

Feature roadmaps manage an organization's resource allocation in development cycles and prioritize key releases. They keep focus on initiatives that add value for customers, without going into detail on other areas of a business.

Start using this feature roadmap :

Product launch roadmap example

A product launch roadmap illustrates how a new product will hit the market. It crosses all teams involved—product, development, marketing, and sales. It outlines all tasks required to ensure pre-launch, launch, and post-launch tactics are successfully executed.

Start using this product launch roadmap :

For more examples, visit our roadmap templates library . Choose from 45+ free templates and start using one with just a few clicks.

Final product roadmap best practices

It’s not a project management tool or a release plan. Ideally, your product roadmap doesn’t include the granular details of resource management and shipping dates. Your product roadmap focuses on what business and user outcomes it will create within a period of time (month, quarter, or year).

Keep your product roadmap flexible. Executive stakeholders want to know what’s going on over a number of quarters—sometimes even a year. But technology moves fast and different priorities emerge from ongoing conversations and product discovery interviews with users. Also, development timelines are often unpredictable; when you present your roadmap, you have to communicate how change is part of the development process.

Measure performance and share status updates. Roadmaps can’t be static documents like Excel and PowerPoint roadmaps. The roadmapping “lifecycle” doesn’t simply end with a presentation. You need to follow up on KPIs and progress, as well as keep your customers informed.

There are countless ways you can bring a roadmap to life. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and build your first product roadmap with just a few clicks.

Suggested reading Product roadmap best practices by product managers 5 common questions about the roadmap 8+ free customizable product roadmap templates How to focus on the right qualitative and quantitative data for the product roadmap Why a roadmap tool is better than a Microsoft Office roadmap

Continue exploring this guide

How to create a product roadmap, you might also like these, try roadmunk for free.

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How Should I Present My Roadmap to the Executive Team?

Have you ever given a roadmap presentation that felt more like an interrogation? I know that many product managers have experienced this. The executive team demands to see your slides in advance. By the time your meeting comes around, you are not really doing much presenting — everyone has seen the deck already. You are mostly fielding a barrage of questions under what feels like a massive microscope.

Now, not every company is this controlling. But you can bet that nearly every executive wants presentations that get to the point — no delays, no wasted time.  

As a product manager, it is up to you to pull together the right views and content to convey your message. These executive-level presentations will look a whole lot different than what you share with your product or sales teams, when you are likely digging into the details of the upcoming work.

Executives need a high-level view — roadmaps that show product vision, key initiatives, strategies, and timelines for major bodies of work. And they want to see how your product aligns with the overall business goals .

I know this can be intimidating at first. Most executives are short on time yet deeply passionate and invested in the success of the product and business. It leaves you with a tough challenge — present your executive-facing roadmap in a way that is both thorough and concise.

Oxymoron? Impossible task? Not quite. You just need to know how to approach the process. Do your best to figure out how to present the big picture vision and supporting plans with confidence. Practice. And then get right to it.

Here is how to present your product roadmap and get executive buy-in:

If possible, meet with key stakeholders before the presentation — or even before you create your slides. Share your big ideas and product plans , and then ask for feedback on what can be improved. Equally as important, they can share if your product management plans are aligned (or not) with their own priorities for the organization. If you are unable to get this feedback, you should still think through how your plans will level up to the company’s larger goals. Highlight this in your presentation.

One of the most important aspects of any executive-facing roadmap presentation is predicting what people really care about — what will be supported and what will be controversial. Prepare for this by thinking through many different approaches to solving challenges and presenting your ideas. Think about who might try to dismantle your ideas and why. (Ideally, you already did this when you put together your plans in the first place.) Knowing each angle makes it much easier to say, “Yes, I thought about that — but here are the tradeoffs and this is why I think this is the best approach.”

Once you go into the presentation, you need to be prepared to talk about anything related to your product. You should anticipate questions. “How did you get these numbers?” “How does this new functionality work?” Arm yourself with this knowledge beforehand by going through your slides and writing down every possible question you think stakeholders could ask. Then think through how you can best answer the questions — whether it is pulling product usage analytics in advance or preparing an additional visual report and putting it in an appendix.

You will need to expect and adapt to interruptions. And you can bet that a room of executives will jump in often. “Can you go to that first slide?” “Tell me more about that functionality.” “Let’s focus on what is planned for mobile.” If this kind of agility does not come naturally to you, practice it. Give a trial-run to a trusted co-worker or your boss and have them play the role of the executive team — interrupting with questions and comments. (That list of questions you created should be helpful here.)

Keep the presentation simple and visual. Reduce the amount of text on the slides so you are using the fewest words possible to convey the message. This is the best way to quickly and clearly communicate your plans. Obviously, beautiful roadmaps should be the cornerstone of your presentation. But you should also consider other graphic elements that will help corporate executives truly see your plans — like a product mockup of a new feature.

Repeat after me: I will not read from the slides . No one wants to sit and stare at the back of your head as you read the slides from the screen on the wall behind you. I know it can be nerve-wracking to go “off script,” but do your best to treat the presentation as talking points for a back-and-forth conversation. Keep your tone conversational and pause often to ask for thoughts and feedback . If the room is silent, try to call out any reactions you saw when you showed off the plan. Did someone raise their eyebrows or smile? You can, respectfully, ask them to share what prompted their reaction.

Stay calm, no matter what happens. Executive presentations are no place to create excited drama , and yet you might feel some of this starting to brew. Some people like to be the loudest person in the room, others like to argue for the sake of arguing, and others simply have bad ideas. You cannot control people — but you can control your own actions. So listen intently and add your perspective when it makes sense. If you need more time for a thoughtful response, say you will look into the issue further after the meeting.

Executives expect you to know your product better than anyone. And they expect you to be prepared and advocate for your customers and the business.

So present your product management plans in a way that shows your product, market, and customer mastery. Remember that everyone in the room ultimately shares the same goal — to deliver value to the customers and the company. Be confident that your work is part of this process.

And even better, show that value every chance you get.

What additional tips should we add for presenting to executives?

The road to building better product starts here .

Brian de Haaff

Brian seeks business and wilderness adventure. He is the co-founder and CEO of Aha! — the world’s #1 product development software — and the author of the bestseller Lovability and The Startup Adventure newsletter. Brian writes and speaks about product and company growth and the journey of pursuing a meaningful life.

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Product Roadmap Guide: What is it & How to Create One

A product roadmap is a shared source of truth that outlines the vision, direction, and progress of a product over time. 

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Summary: A product roadmap is a plan of action for how a product or solution will evolve over time. Product owners use roadmaps to outline future product functionality and when new features will be released. When used in agile development, a product planning roadmap provides crucial context for the team's everyday work and should be responsive to shifts in the competitive landscape.

A product roadmap is essential to communicating how short-term efforts match long-term business goals. Understanding the role of a roadmap—and how to create a great one—is key for keeping everyone on your team headed in the same direction.

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap is a shared source of truth that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. It’s a plan of action that aligns the organization around short and long-term goals for the product or project, and how they will be achieved.

While it's common for the roadmap to show what you’re building, it’s just as important to show why. Items on the roadmap should be clearly linked to your product strategy and goals, and your roadmap should be responsive to changes in customer feedback and the competitive landscape.

Product owners use roadmaps to collaborate with their teams and build consensus on how a product will grow and shift over time. Agile teams refer back to the product roadmap to keep everyone on the same page about which product ideas have been prioritized and when, and to gain context for their everyday work and future direction.

Which teams use product roadmaps?

Roadmaps come in several different forms and serve a variety of audiences. Let's look at some product roadmap examples:

Internal roadmap for the development team:  These roadmaps can be created in several ways, depending on how your team likes to work. Some common versions include the detail about the prioritized customer value to be delivered, target release dates and milestones. As a general rule, development teams should use a product roadmap to understand the product strategy, how it connects to goals, and why initiatives have been prioritized. For the actual development work, dev teams should create a separate delivery plan that maps back to the product roadmap. Since many development teams use agile methodologies, these plans are often organized by sprints and show specific pieces of work and problem areas plotted on a timeline. 

Internal roadmap for executives:  These roadmaps emphasize how teams' work supports high-level company goals and metrics. They are often organized by month or by quarter to show progress over time towards these goals, and generally include less detail about detailed development stories and tasks.

Internal roadmap for sales:  These roadmaps focus on new features and customer benefits, and may even include key customers who are interested in these features in order to support sales conversations. An important note: avoid including hard dates in sales roadmaps to avoid tying internal teams to potentially unrealistic dates.

External roadmap:  These roadmaps should excite customers about what’s coming next. Make sure they are visually appealing and easy to read. They should provide a high-level, generalized view of new features and prioritized problem areas to get customers interested in the future direction of the product.

Why are product roadmaps important?

The biggest benefit of the product roadmap is the strategic vision it illustrates to all stakeholders. The roadmap ladders up to broader product and company goals with development efforts, which connects work across teams and aligns those teams around common goals to create great products.

• For organizational leadership, the roadmap provides updates on the status of planned features and improvements in a format that connects back to company goals and is easily understood.
• For product owners and managers, roadmaps unify teams working on high impact product enhancements and allow them to communicate priorities and why they were prioritized effectively with adjacent teams.
• For the developers themselves, roadmaps provide a better understanding of the “big picture,” which allows team members to focus on the most important tasks, avoid scope creep, and make fast, autonomous decisions.

How to create a product roadmap

To build a roadmap, product owners should evaluate ideas based on key criteria, such as market trajectories, customer insights and feedback, company goals, and effort constraints. Once these factors are understood, product teams can work together to start prioritizing initiatives on the roadmap.

The content of a roadmap will depend on its audience - a roadmap for the development team may cover only one product, while a roadmap for executives can cover multiple products. Depending on the size and structure of an organization, a single roadmap may span multiple teams working on the same product. An external roadmap will often cover multiple products aligned with one point of emphasis or customer need.

The most important takeaway: create a roadmap that your audience can easily understand. Providing too much or too little detail on the roadmap can make it easy to gloss over, or worse, to too intimidating to read. A roadmap with just the right amount of detail and some visual appeal can earn the buy-in you need from key stakeholders.

Presenting the product roadmap

The product roadmap needs buy-in from two key groups: leadership and the agile development team. Presenting the roadmap is a great opportunity to demonstrate to key stakeholders that you understand the company’s strategic objectives, the needs of your customer, and have a plan to meet them both.

As you move through the project, make sure to link your delivery team’s work back to the product roadmap for context and visibility into progress for your team and stakeholders. A tried-and-true method: map out the ideas you're committing to on your product roadmap, then break down those ideas into epics, requirements, and user stories on your delivery roadmap. Often times, each initiative will have a corresponding epic that needs to be broken down into smaller tasks to complete. Establishing this hierarchy makes it easier for product and development teams to make decisions together, and understand how their work fits into the bigger picture.

Using and updating the roadmap

Roadmapping doesn’t end once you’ve reached your final state. As the competitive landscape shifts, customers' preferences adjust, or planned features are modified, it’s important to take any learnings or insights, feed them back into your team’s discovery process and ensure the product roadmap continues to reflect the status of current work as well as long-term goals.

The roadmap should be updated as often as necessary - this could be every week or fortnightly - so that it can remain an accurate source of truth. As we’ve all experienced at one time or another, a roadmap is counter-productive if it isn’t up to date. You’ll know if your roadmap needs to be updated more frequently because your stakeholders will start calling you for updates instead of consulting your roadmap. These one-off requests reflect a distrust in your roadmap, and a huge potential time suck.

However, on the flip side, you don’t want to spend more time updating the roadmap than is necessary to achieve alignment between stakeholders and within your team. Remember, the roadmap is a product planning tool to think through how to build great products that will make an impact on your customers and on your business. If you’re spending time updating your roadmap that you could (and should) be spending on execution, re-think the cadence and how you take in inputs, feedback, and data from across the business to prioritize your initiatives.

Best practices for the best roadmaps

Building and maintaining product roadmaps is as much an ongoing process as it is a cultural practice to embark upon with your product team. There are a few simple ways to set yourself up for success:

• Only include as much detail as necessary for your audience
• Keep the roadmap evenly focused on short-term tactics and how these relate to long-term goals
• Review roadmaps on a regular basis and make adjustments when plans change
• Make sure everyone has access to the roadmap (and checks it on a regular basis)
• Stay connected with stakeholders at all levels to ensure alignment

Ready to make your very own roadmap? Get started for free with Jira Product Discovery .

Bree's a Product Manager on the Jira team and she gets a huge kick out of building products that bring a bit of delight to daily working life. Outside of the office, you'll find her trawling Sydney's bookshops, running along the harbour and generally over-caffeinated.

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Roadmap Presentation Templates

Roadmap presentations are like the GPS of the business world - help guide your team, stakeholders, and even customers on the journey your company plans to take with Venngage’s selection of roadmap presentation templates.

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Home PowerPoint Templates Roadmap

55+ Editable Roadmap PowerPoint Templates & Slides for Presentations

Roadmaps templates are indispensable for project management and project planning presentations. They are a crucial part of the business tools; PowerPoint roadmap templates are used to display product development roadmaps , business roadmaps, sales, marketing, and imperative plans for several businesses.

Mainly in all marketing roadmap PowerPoint slides , there is an evergreen demand for a slide where you have to create a timeline and present it of any sort.

When you make a roadmap PowerPoint template, it will satisfy your project tasks, milestones, and aims or activities grouped on several swimlanes. A compelling product roadmap will do amazing things and it will also perform a simplistic and realistic, obvious representation of your company’s goals. 

Featured Templates

Table Timeline Template for PowerPoint

Curved Roadmap with Poles Milestones PowerPoint Timeline

4-Column Overlapped Sections Roadmap PowerPoint Timeline

Corporate Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Latest templates.

Growth Roadmap Metaphor Slide Template

Top View Roadmap PowerPoint Timeline

IT Service Delivery Management PowerPoint Template

Vertical Product Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Animated Product Roadmap PowerPoint Template

4-Stage Roadmap to Future PowerPoint Template

3-Lane Roadmap Timeline Concept PowerPoint Template

3-Item Futuristic Concept PowerPoint Template

Visual Roadmap PowerPoint Template

Animated 6-Year Vertical Timeline Template for PowerPoint

Spaceship Agenda Roadmap PowerPoint Template

5-Year Planning Roadmap Matrix Template

When handling any project, you’ll probably require to build a project roadmap, which is a vital phase of the project goals. In PowerPoint, these roadmap templates play a vital role. Its goal is to visualize a clear plan for your business.

For assuring your roadmap’s efficiency, you’ll need to align every team in a roadmap presentation . Good project managers can use roadmap templates in their presentations to showcase their efforts. Roadmap presentation slides and templates cooperate with professionals to sketch any project plan, improve transition plan, training plan, and so on. Marketing professionals can use these roadmaps to list their marketing ambitions.

We have formed a list of product roadmap templates and free roadmap templates that will surely help you run your PowerPoint presentation and will save you time. Consider using these ready-made templates to save time and plan your product roadmap .

What Is a Roadmap?

The goal of your roadmap is to visualize a plain but elegant design across your business. Through a well-executed and pre-planned roadmap presentation , you have the opportunity to explain to collaborators that you get their level of confidence and motivation. 

What is a Roadmap PowerPoint Template?

These Roadmap Templates are a high-level overview of your product plan and how that goes into your business idea. It can display both the strategic and practical sides of your product presentation—the thought and planning behind your implementation choices.

How Can Roadmap Templates be Used in Presentations?

Well, you can create an eye-catching roadmap in your ppt slides by :

• Using an accurate road picture as a background
• Replacing roadmap bullets with semi-transparent shapes
• Adding an ultimate touch, e.g., milestones icons

All of these pre-designed templates come with a description and details about the templates. 

How Do You Structure A Roadmap?

To create a successful roadmap, several key components must be included, such as defining clear goals, establishing timelines and milestones, outlining strategies, and determining actionable steps. By incorporating these elements, you can define what needs to be accomplished and when and the steps required to achieve those objectives. A comprehensive roadmap ensures a clear path to success and keeps your team on track.

Does PowerPoint Have A Roadmap Template?

PowerPoint includes a variety of roadmap templates that you can customize to meet your specific needs and preferences. With a few changes, you can create a roadmap that accurately represents your company’s goals and objectives.

How Do You Create A Roadmap in PowerPoint?

With a few simple steps, you can create a roadmap in PowerPoint . Begin by choosing a roadmap template or designing your own. Though the latter may be difficult, you can download our professionally designed Roadmap Template and edit it to suit your needs.

Then, include sections for key elements like goals, timelines, milestones, strategies, and action items. Incorporate visual elements such as charts and graphs to convey information to make your roadmap more engaging. With these suggestions, you can create a professional and effective roadmap presentation to assist you in reaching your objectives.

Does Google Slides Have A Roadmap Template?

Yes, Google Slides has several roadmap templates you can customize to meet your specific requirements. Plus, you can use the SlideModel roadmap templates as they are compatible with Google Slides.

What Should A Roadmap Contain?

When developing a roadmap, it is critical to include key elements such as specific goals and objectives, clearly defined timelines and milestones, actionable strategies, and the resources required to achieve desired outcomes.

It would help if you also used clear language and engaging graphics to effectively communicate information to stakeholders and team members. A well-structured roadmap can guide your team to successful project outcomes by including these critical components.

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What is Memorial Day? The true meaning of why we celebrate the federal holiday

For many Americans, Memorial Day is more than a long weekend and an unofficial start to the summer season. The real meaning of the holiday is meant to honor all U.S. soldiers who have died serving their country.

Originally called Decoration Day, Memorial Day's history goes back to the Civil War. It was was declared a national holiday by Congress in 1971, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Although Veterans Day in November also honors military service members, Memorial Day differs by honoring all military members who have died while serving in U.S. forces in any current or previous wars.

The late-May holiday has also evolved into an opportunity for Americans to head to the beach or lake , travel to see friends and family , or even catch a Memorial Day parade .

Here's what to know about the history and the reason behind why we observe Memorial Day.

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When is Memorial Day?

One of 11 federal holidays recognized in the U.S., Memorial Day is always observed on the last Monday of May. This year, the holiday falls on Monday, May 27.

Why do we celebrate Memorial Day?  

The origins of the holiday can be traced back to local observances for soldiers with neglected gravesites during the Civil War.

The first observance of what would become Memorial Day, some historians think, took place in Charleston, South Carolina at the site of a horse racing track that Confederates had turned into a prison holding Union prisoners. Blacks in the city organized a burial of deceased Union prisoners and built a fence around the site, Yale historian David Blight wrote in  The New York Times  in 2011.

Then on May 1, 1865, they held an event there including a parade – Blacks who fought in the Civil War participated – spiritual readings and songs, and picnicking. A commemorative marker was erected there in 2010.

One of the first Decoration Days was held in Columbus, Mississippi, on April 25, 1866 by women who decorated graves of Confederate soldiers who perished in the battle at Shiloh with flowers. On May 5, 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, the tradition of placing flowers on veterans’ graves was continued by the establishment of Decoration Day by an organization of Union veterans, the Grand Army of the Republic. 

General Ulysses S. Grant presided over the first large observance, a crowd of about 5,000 people, at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on May 30, 1873.

This tradition continues to thrive in cemeteries of all sizes across the country. 

Until World War I, Civil War soldiers were solely honored on this holiday. Now, all Americans who’ve served are observed. 

At least 25 places in the North and the South claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Some states that claim ownership of the origins include Illinois, Georgia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, according to Veterans Affairs.

Despite conflicting claims, the U.S. Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, New York, as the “birthplace” of Memorial Day on May 30, 1966, after Governor Nelson Rockefeller's declaration that same year. The New York community formally honored local veterans May 5, 1866 by closing businesses and lowering flags at half-staff. 

Why is Memorial Day in May? 

The day that we celebrate Memorial Day is believed to be influenced by Illinois U.S. Representative John A. Logan, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat in November 1858, and served as an officer during the Mexican War.

It is said that Logan, a staunch defender of the Union, believed Memorial Day should occur when flowers are in full bloom across the country, according to the  National Museum of the U.S. Army.

Congress passed an act making May 30 a holiday in the District of Columbia in 1888,  according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.

In 2000, the National Moment of Remembrance Act – which created the White House Commission on the National Moment of Remembrance and encourages all to pause at 3 p.m. local time on Memorial Day for a minute of silence – was signed into law by Congress and the President.

What is the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day?

Memorial Day and Veterans Day both honor the sacrifices made by U.S. veterans, but the holidays serve different purposes.

Veterans Day, originally called “Armistice Day,” is a younger holiday established in 1926 as a way to commemorate all those who had served in the U.S. armed forces during World War I.

Memorial Day honors all those who have died.

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More From Forbes

Sensing success: openai, anthropic and 40+ others leverage multimodal ai.

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LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 04: Ai-Da Robot, an ultra-realistic humanoid robot artist, paints during a ... [+] press call at The British Library on April 4, 2022 in London, England. Ai-Da will open her solo exhibition LEAPING INTO THE METAVERSE at the Venice Biennale this year curated by Aidan Meller. (Photo by Hollie Adams/Getty Images)

What does Artificial Intelligence mean to you? Ask the average man or woman to define AI and might describe a digital interface where you type in a question or request, and a few seconds receive a ‘humanlike’ answer. Something a lot like ChatGPT, for example. But while these applications seem like science fiction, they only scratch the surface of what AI can - and should - be capable of doing.

If we want AI to move from a novelty (although a useful one) to a truly transformative technology, it needs to learn in the same way humans do. Not just from text commands typed into an online form, but by integrating data from a full range of ‘stimuli’ – including images, video, and sound – into a single cohesive learning model. The AI industry terms this ‘multimodal learning’. I prefer to call it the internet of senses.

In chatting with one of Silicon Valley’s lead influencers on AI, Robert Scoble, the founder of Unaligned, commented to me that “Multimodal models are hugely important for the future of robotics, spatial computing devices, autonomous vehicles, and personal AI assistants.”

One of the biggest challenges in AI is how to make computers think like people, even though our ‘cortexes’ are wired completely differently. As Spock noted in Star Trek, humans can appear a deeply ‘illogical’ species, since the meaning of our speech often depends on a complex web of factors: from conversational context, to barely-perceptible nuances in our facial expressions and tone of voice.

This is not a problem for human-to-human communications, because we’ve all had lifelong training in the various cultural codes that give language meaning. This is much harder for human-to-AI interactions. Taking an holistic approach is crucial not only for enhancing AI’s ability to understand and to learn from humans, but also significantly broadens its practical applications.

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KBV Research on Multimodal Prospect over a 7 year period.

The growth in this space per KBV Research, estimates in a 2023 report that the market will reach $8.4 billion by 2030, marking an average annual growth of 32% in a seven-year period.

The Value is Context

One of the key advantages of multimodal AI models is their ability to understand context. By recognizing patterns and connections across various data inputs—such as text, images, audio, and video—these systems generate outputs that are more accurate, natural, intuitive, and informative. This capability enhances the human-like quality of the AI's responses, making interactions feel more seamless and insightful.

From SXSW 2024, Sandy Carter Keynote on Mind Machine Meld.

Multimodal learning is crucial because it brings AI closer to human-like perception and cognition. By combining different data types, these models can generate richer, more nuanced insights by understanding not just our words, but our meaning .

Similarly, recognizing an object might involve both its visual appearance and the sound it makes. This comprehensive data integration allows AI to make more informed decisions and provides a deeper understanding of complex scenarios.

The Impact of Multimodal Learning

At this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW SPDR S&P Software & Services ETF ), I spoke about Multimodal as one of the top new trends. I listed about 40 modals in my Trend discussion, and I predict that by next year, we’ll see thousands more. This is backed up with research from Deci who states that the number of multimodal AI models is expected to surge, with predictions suggesting there could be thousands by 2025​.

BEIJING, CHINA - AUGUST 18: A boy points to the AI robot Poster during the 2022 World Robot ... [+] Conference at Beijing Etrong International Exhibition on August 18, 2022 in Beijing, China. The 2022 World Robot Conference kicked off on Thursday in Beijing. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)

This rapid proliferation is driven by the immense benefits it brings: enhanced data analytics, deeper insights, and increased accessibility . One compelling example is Google's Google recent Super Bowl ad, which showcased how AI could assist individuals with poor eyesight. The reason the ad worked so well is that it was less about how ‘smart’ multimodal AI is, and much more about how it caniimprove quality of life.

Real-World Applications of Multimodal Learning

One way that almost everybody has interacted with AI is through customer service chatbots, and the experience is often more frustrating than it is useful. The next generation of multimodal AI will not only bring a step-change in customer interactions, but will transform the way that businesses and marketers engage with the public.

The multimodal approach significantly enhances the way products are identified and described by integrating visual and textual data. For instance, OpenAI’s ChatGPT can recognize a product from an image and provide detailed descriptions, nutritional information, and branding details. Chat GPT supports multimodal in their intuitive interface that allows you to have a voice conversation or show ChatGPT what you’re talking about.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks during a keynote address announcing ChatGPT integration for Bing at ... [+] Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, on February 7, 2023. - Microsoft's long-struggling Bing search engine will integrate the powerful capabilities of language-based artificial intelligence, CEO Satya Nadella said, declaring what he called a new era for online search. (Photo by Jason Redmond / AFP) (Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)

This capability is particularly beneficial for marketers who need to ensure that their products are accurately represented in various digital formats. Hugging Face is expanding into multimodal AI to enhance conversational agents by incorporating visual and textual data. Their models aim to provide more accurate and contextually relevant responses, with co-founder Clément Delangue noting, "Multimodal learning is key to creating more engaging and effective conversational AI."

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 13: Clément Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, arrives for the Inaugural AI ... [+] Insight Forum in Russell Building on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Personalized voice assistants are another area where multimodal AI excels. Devices equipped with this technology can listen to voice commands, interpret visual inputs, and understand contextual information such as location and user preferences. This makes everyday tasks like ordering transportation or managing schedules much more efficient and user-friendly.

Suki AI is at the forefront of this innovation, developing voice-enabled AI assistants for healthcare professionals. By integrating voice, text, and context, Suki streamlines administrative tasks and improves patient care. CEO Punit Soni explains: "Our multimodal AI approach ensures that healthcare providers can interact with our system as they would with a colleague."

Autonomous navigation and object avoidance are also significantly improved by multimodal AI. Devices like robotic lawnmowers like Electric Sheep, can navigate complex environments using integrated visual, auditory, and tactile data. They can detect and avoid obstacles like pets or furniture, ensuring safe and effective operation without the need for manual boundary setups.

Electric Sheep uses multi-modal learning to manage lawn mowing service.

Viz.ai exemplifies this application in the medical field, using AI to analyze medical images and alert healthcare professionals to urgent conditions. Their multimodal approach combines imaging data with patient records and clinical context to improve diagnostic accuracy and response times. The company’s CEO Chris Mansi states, "Integrating diverse data sources allows us to deliver critical insights more quickly and accurately."

Another advanced use case of multimodal AI is in immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences. By integrating visual, auditory, and haptic feedback, these systems can create highly realistic simulations for training, entertainment, and therapeutic applications.

For example, VRHealth uses multimodal AI to provide therapeutic VR experiences for patients undergoing physical and mental health rehabilitation. These systems analyze the patient's movements, responses, and biofeedback to adapt the therapy in real-time, making the treatment more effective and personalized. CEO Eran Orr states, "Our multimodal approach allows us to create deeply immersive and responsive therapeutic environments that significantly enhance patient outcomes."

Startups Leading the Charge in Multimodal AI

Several startups are making significant strides in the realm of multimodal AI, each contributing to the advancement and application of this technology in unique ways.

Vicarious is developing AI systems that integrate vision, language, and motor control. Their approach aims to create AI that can learn and generalize from limited data, much like humans. According to co-founder Scott Phoenix, "Multimodal AI allows us to build systems that perceive and interact with the world more naturally and intuitively."

Another startup showing immense promise is SoundHound, which specializes in voice AI and leverages multimodal learning to improve voice recognition and understanding. Their technology integrates audio, text, and context to provide more accurate and responsive voice interactions. CEO Keyvan Mohajer states, "By combining multiple data types, we can offer a more seamless and intuitive voice experience."

The Flywheel Effect of Multimodal Learning

The excitement around multimodal learning is palpable. As a former vice president at Amazon Web Services, I can attest to the power of data in driving innovation. Multimodal learning models generate a flywheel effect: more data types lead to better models, which in turn provide better analytics and increased usage, perpetuating and reinforcing the cycle. This trend will undoubtedly gain momentum and its impact will be even more profound.

The Flywheel showing the value of increased data coming into from multi-modal sources.

While Multimodal AI benefits all the users of AI, it is also significantly benefiting NVIDIA by driving demand for its advanced GPUs and AI hardware, which are essential for processing complex multimodal data. NVIDIA's GPUs are crucial for training and deploying large multimodal models that handle text, images, video, and audio simultaneously. This has positioned NVIDIA as a key player in the AI hardware market, enhancing its revenue streams and solidifying its leadership in the AI ecosystem. NVIDIA's collaboration with leading AI companies on multimodal projects underscores its integral role in advancing AI technologies.

Embracing Multimodal Learning

So, what’s your action plan for harnessing the power of multimodal? My advice: Keep thinking, but start sensing . During a recent strategic brainstorming session, I noticed a focus on text data alone. To stay ahead, you must incorporate video, images, and sound into your decision-making processes. This approach will not only enhance innovation but also create a competitive edge. Embrace multimodal learning to drive the next wave of technological advancements in your business.

The integration of multimodal learning models signifies a major leap forward in AI and Web3, promising to reshape industries and improve user experiences. Stay tuned as we continue to explore these groundbreaking trends and their implications for the future of AI and Web3.

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Microsoft Power BI Blog

Power bi may 2024 feature summary.

Welcome to the May 2024 update! Here are a few, select highlights of the many we have for Power BI. There are new On-object Interaction updates, DAX query view is now generally available, find out how to view reports in OneDrive and SharePoint with live connected semantic models.

There is much more to explore, please continue to read on!

Microsoft Build Announcements

At Microsoft Build 2024, we are thrilled to announce a huge array of innovations coming to the Microsoft Fabric platform that will make Microsoft Fabric’s capabilities even more robust and even customizable to meet the unique needs of each organization. To learn more about these changes, read the “ Unlock real-time insights with AI-powered analytics in Microsoft Fabric ” announcement blog by Arun Ulag.

Earn a discount on your Microsoft Fabric certification exam!  

We’d like to thank the thousands of you who completed the Fabric AI Skills Challenge and earned a free voucher for Exam DP-600 which leads to the Fabric Analytics Engineer Associate certification.   

If you earned a free voucher, you can find redemption instructions in your email. We recommend that you schedule your exam now, before your discount voucher expires on June 24 th . All exams must be scheduled and completed by this date.    

If you need a little more help with exam prep, visit the Fabric Career Hub which has expert-led training, exam crams, practice tests and more.  

Missed the Fabric AI Skills Challenge? We have you covered. For a limited time , you could earn a 50% exam discount by taking the Fabric 30 Days to Learn It Challenge .  

• Version number: v: 2.129.905.0
• Date published: 5/21/24

Modern Tooltip now on by Default

Matrix layouts, line updates, on-object interaction updates.

• Announcing general availability of DAX query view 

New Manage relationships dialog

Refreshing calculated columns and calculated tables referencing directquery sources with single sign-on, announcing general availability of model explorer and authoring calculation groups in power bi desktop, microsoft entra id sso support for oracle database, certified connector updates, view reports in onedrive and sharepoint with live connected semantic models, storytelling in powerpoint – image mode in the power bi add-in for powerpoint, storytelling in powerpoint – data updated notification, git integration support for direct lake semantic models, editor’s pick of the quarter, new visuals in appsource, financial reporting matrix by profitbase, horizon chart by powerviz, sunburst chart by powerviz, stacked bar chart with line by jta.

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Power BI tooltips are embarking on an evolution to enhance their functionality. To lay the groundwork, we are introducing the modern tooltip as the new default , a feature that many users may already recognize from its previous preview status. This change is more than just an upgrade; it’s the first step in a series of remarkable improvements. These future developments promise to revolutionize tooltip management and customization, offering possibilities that were previously only imaginable. As we prepare for the general availability of the modern tooltip, this is an excellent opportunity for users to become familiar with its features and capabilities.

Discover the full potential of the new tooltip feature by visiting our dedicated blog . Dive into the details and explore the comprehensive vision we’ve crafted for tooltips, designed to enhance your Power BI experience.

We’ve listened to our community’s feedback on improving our tabular visuals (Table and Matrix), and we’re excited to initiate their transformation. Drawing inspiration from the familiar PivotTable in Excel , we aim to build new features and capabilities upon a stronger foundation. In our May update, we’re introducing ‘ Layouts for Matrix .’ Now, you can select from compact , outline , or tabular layouts to alter the arrangement of components in a manner akin to Excel.

As an extension of the new layout options, report creators can now craft custom layout patterns by repeating row headers. This powerful control, inspired by Excel’s PivotTable layout, enables the creation of a matrix that closely resembles the look and feel of a table. This enhancement not only provides greater flexibility but also brings a touch of Excel’s intuitive design to Power BI’s matrix visuals. Only available for Outline and Tabular layouts.

To further align with Excel’s functionality, report creators now have the option to insert blank rows within the matrix. This feature allows for the separation of higher-level row header categories, significantly enhancing the readability of the report. It’s a thoughtful addition that brings a new level of clarity and organization to Power BI’s matrix visuals and opens a path for future enhancements for totals/subtotals and rows/column headers.

We understand your eagerness to delve deeper into the matrix layouts and grasp how these enhancements fulfill the highly requested features by our community. Find out more and join the conversation in our dedicated blog , where we unravel the details and share the community-driven vision behind these improvements.

Following last month’s introduction of the initial line enhancements, May brings a groundbreaking set of line capabilities that are set to transform your Power BI experience:

• Hide/Show lines : Gain control over the visibility of your lines for a cleaner, more focused report.
• Customized line pattern : Tailor the pattern of your lines to match the style and context of your data.
• Auto-scaled line pattern : Ensure your line patterns scale perfectly with your data, maintaining consistency and clarity.
• Line dash cap : Customize the end caps of your customized dashed lines for a polished, professional look.
• Line upgrades across other line types : Experience improvements in reference lines, forecast lines, leader lines, small multiple gridlines, and the new card’s divider line.

These enhancements are not to be missed. We recommend visiting our dedicated blog for an in-depth exploration of all the new capabilities added to lines, keeping you informed and up to date.

This May release, we’re excited to introduce on-object formatting support for Small multiples , Waterfall , and Matrix visuals. This new feature allows users to interact directly with these visuals for a more intuitive and efficient formatting experience. By double-clicking on any of these visuals, users can now right-click on the specific visual component they wish to format, bringing up a convenient mini-toolbar. This streamlined approach not only saves time but also enhances the user’s ability to customize and refine their reports with ease.

We’re also thrilled to announce a significant enhancement to the mobile reporting experience with the introduction of the pane manager for the mobile layout view. This innovative feature empowers users to effortlessly open and close panels via a dedicated menu, streamlining the design process of mobile reports.

Publish to folders 

We recently announced a public preview for folders in workspaces, allowing you to create a hierarchical structure for organizing and managing your items. In the latest Desktop release, you can now publish your reports to specific folders in your workspace.

When you publish a report, you can choose the specific workspace and folder for your report. The interface is simplistic and easy to understand, making organizing your Power BI content from Desktop better than ever.

To publish reports to specific folders in the service, make sure the “Publish dialogs support folder selection” setting is enabled in the Preview features tab in the Options menu.

Learn more about folders in workspaces.

You can now ask Copilot questions about data in your model

We’re excited to preview a new capability for Power BI Copilot allowing you to ask questions about the data in your model! You could already ask questions about the data present in the visuals on your report pages – and now you can go deeper by getting answers directly from the underlying model. Just ask questions about your data, and if the answer isn’t already on your report, Copilot will then query your model for the data instead and return the answer to your question in the form of a visual!

We’re starting this capability off in both Edit and View modes in Power BI Service. Because this is a preview feature, you’ll need to enable it via the preview toggle in the Copilot pane. You can learn more about all the details of the feature in our announcement post here! (will link to announcement post)

Announcing general availability of DAX query view

We are excited to announce the general availability of DAX query view. DAX query view is the fourth view in Power BI Desktop to run DAX queries on your semantic model.

DAX query view comes with several ways to help you be as productive as possible with DAX queries.

• Quick queries. Have the DAX query written for you from the context menu of tables, columns, or measures in the Data pane of DAX query view. Get the top 100 rows of a table, statistics of a column, or DAX formula of a measure to edit and validate in just a couple clicks!
• DirectQuery model authors can also use DAX query view. View the data in your tables whenever you want!
• Create and edit measures. Edit one or multiple measures at once. Make changes and see the change in action in a DA query. Then update the model when you are ready. All in DAX query view!
• See the DAX query of visuals. Investigate the visuals DAX query in DAX query view. Go to the Performance Analyzer pane and choose “Run in DAX query view”.
• Write DAX queries. You can create DAX queries with Intellisense, formatting, commenting/uncommenting, and syntax highlighting. And additional professional code editing experiences such as “Change all occurrences” and block folding to expand and collapse sections. Even expanded find and replace options with regex.

Learn more about DAX query view with these resources:

• Deep dive blog: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/blog/deep-dive-into-dax-query-view-and-writing-dax-queries/
• Learn more: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/transform-model/dax-query-view
• Video: https://youtu.be/oPGGYLKhTOA?si=YKUp1j8GoHHsqdZo

Copilot to write and explain DAX queries in DAX query view  updates 

DAX query view includes an inline Fabric Copilot to write and explain DAX queries, which remains in public preview. This month we have made the following updates.

• Run the DAX query before you keep it . Previously the Run button was disabled until the generated DAX query was accepted or Copilot was closed. Now you can Run the DAX query then decide to Keep or Discard the DAX query.

3. Syntax checks on the generated DAX query. Previously there was no syntax check before the generated DAX query was returned. Now the syntax is checked, and the prompt automatically retried once. If the retry is also invalid, the generated DAX query is returned with a note that there is an issue, giving you the option to rephrase your request or fix the generated DAX query.

Learn more about DAX queries with Copilot with these resources:

• Deep dive blog: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/deep-dive-into-dax-query-view-with-copilot/
• Learn more: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dax/dax-copilot
• Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kE3TE34oLM

We are excited to introduce you to the redesigned ‘Manage relationships’ dialog in Power BI Desktop! To open this dialog simply select the ‘Manage relationships’ button in the modeling ribbon.

Once opened, you’ll find a comprehensive view of all your relationships, along with their key properties, all in one convenient location. From here you can create new relationships or edit an existing one.

Additionally, you have the option to filter and focus on specific relationships in your model based on cardinality and cross filter direction.

Learn more about creating and managing relationships in Power BI Desktop in our documentation .

Ever since we released composite models on Power BI semantic models and Analysis Services , you have been asking us to support the refresh of calculated columns and tables in the Service. This month, we have enabled the refresh of calculated columns and tables in Service for any DirectQuery source that uses single sign-on authentication. This includes the sources you use when working with composite models on Power BI semantic models and Analysis Services.

Previously, the refresh of a semantic model that uses a DirectQuery source with single-sign-on authentication failed with one of the following error messages: “Refresh is not supported for datasets with a calculated table or calculated column that depends on a table which references Analysis Services using DirectQuery.” or “Refresh over a dataset with a calculated table or a calculated column which references a Direct Query data source is not supported.”

Starting today, you can successfully refresh the calculated table and calculated columns in a semantic model in the Service using specific credentials as long as:

• You used a shareable cloud connection and assigned it and/or
• Enabled granular access control for all data connection types

Here’s how to do this:

• Create and publish your semantic model that uses a single sign-on DirectQuery source. This can be a composite model but doesn’t have to be.
• In the semantic model settings, under Gateway and cloud connections , map each single sign-on DirectQuery connection to a specific connection. If you don’t have a specific connection yet, select ‘Create a connection’ to create it:

• If you are creating a new connection, fill out the connection details and click Create , making sure to select ‘Use SSO via Azure AD for DirectQuery queries:

2. Finally, select the connection for each single sign-on DirectQuery source and select Apply :

We are excited to announce the general availability of Model Explorer in the Model view of Power BI, including the authoring of calculation groups. Semantic modeling is even easier with an at-a-glance tree view with item counts, search, and in context paths to edit the semantic model items with Model Explorer. Top level semantic model properties are also available as well as the option to quickly create relationships in the properties pane. Additionally, the styling for the Data pane is updated to Fluent UI also used in Office and Teams.

A popular community request from the Ideas forum, authoring calculation groups is also included in Model Explorer. Calculation groups significantly reduce the number of redundant measures by allowing you to define DAX formulas as calculation items that can be applied to existing measures. For example, define a year over year, prior month, conversion, or whatever your report needs in DAX formula once as a calculation item and reuse it with existing measures. This can reduce the number of measures you need to create and make the maintenance of the business logic simpler.

Available in both Power BI Desktop and when editing a semantic model in the workspace, take your semantic model authoring to the next level today!

Learn more about Model Explorer and authoring calculation groups with these resources:

• Use Model explorer in Power BI (preview) – Power BI | Microsoft Learn
• Create calculation groups in Power BI (preview) – Power BI | Microsoft Learn

Data connectivity

We’re happy to announce that the Oracle database connector has been enhanced this month with the addition of Single Sign-On support in the Power BI service with Microsoft Entra ID authentication.

Microsoft Entra ID SSO enables single sign-on to access data sources that rely on Microsoft Entra ID based authentication. When you configure Microsoft Entra SSO for an applicable data source, queries run under the Microsoft Entra identity of the user that interacts with the Power BI report.

We’re pleased to announce the new and updated connectors in this release:

• [New] OneStream : The OneStream Power BI Connector enables you to seamlessly connect Power BI to your OneStream applications by simply logging in with your OneStream credentials. The connector uses your OneStream security, allowing you to access only the data you have based on your permissions within the OneStream application. Use the connector to pull cube and relational data along with metadata members, including all their properties. Visit OneStream Power BI Connector to learn more. Find this connector in the other category.
• [New] Zendesk Data : A new connector developed by the Zendesk team that aims to go beyond the functionality of the existing Zendesk legacy connector created by Microsoft. Learn more about what this new connector brings.
• [New] CCH Tagetik
• [Update] Azure Databricks

Are you interested in creating your own connector and publishing it for your customers? Learn more about the Power Query SDK and the Connector Certification program .

Last May, we announced the integration between Power BI and OneDrive and SharePoint. Previously, this capability was limited to only reports with data in import mode. We’re excited to announce that you can now seamlessly view Power BI reports with live connected data directly in OneDrive and SharePoint!

When working on Power BI Desktop with a report live connected to a semantic model in the service, you can easily share a link to collaborate with others on your team and allow them to quickly view the report in their browser. We’ve made it easier than ever to access the latest data updates without ever leaving your familiar OneDrive and SharePoint environments. This integration streamlines your workflows and allows you to access reports within the platforms you already use. With collaboration at the heart of this improvement, teams can work together more effectively to make informed decisions by leveraging live connected semantic models without being limited to data only in import mode.

Utilizing OneDrive and SharePoint allows you to take advantage of built-in version control, always have your files available in the cloud, and utilize familiar and simplistic sharing.

While you told us that you appreciate the ability to limit the image view to only those who have permission to view the report, you asked for changes for the “Public snapshot” mode.

To address some of the feedback we got from you, we have made a few more changes in this area.

• Add-ins that were saved as “Public snapshot” can be printed and will not require that you go over all the slides and load the add-ins for permission check before the public image is made visible.
• You can use the “Show as saved image” on add-ins that were saved as “Public snapshot”. This will replace the entire add-in with an image representation of it, so the load time might be faster when you are presenting your presentation.

Many of us keep presentations open for a long time, which might cause the data in the presentation to become outdated.

To make sure you have in your slides the data you need, we added a new notification that tells you if more up to date data exists in Power BI and offers you the option to refresh and get the latest data from Power BI.

Direct Lake semantic models are now supported in Fabric Git Integration , enabling streamlined version control, enhanced collaboration among developers, and the establishment of CI/CD pipelines for your semantic models using Direct Lake.

Learn more about version control, testing, and deployment of Power BI content in our Power BI implementation planning documentation: https://learn.microsoft.com/power-bi/guidance/powerbi-implementation-planning-content-lifecycle-management-overview

Visualizations

– Animator for Power BI   Innofalls Charts   SuperTables   Sankey Diagram for Power BI by ChartExpo   Dynamic KPI Card by Sereviso   Shielded HTML Viewer   Text search slicer

Mapa Polski – Województwa, Powiaty, Gminy Workstream Income Statement Table

Gas Detection Chart

Seasonality Chart PlanIn BI – Data Refresh Service

Chart Flare

PictoBar ProgBar

Counter Calendar Donut Chart image

Making financial statements with a proper layout has just become easier with the latest version of the Financial Reporting Matrix.

Users are now able to specify which rows should be classified as cost-rows, which will make it easier to get the conditional formatting of variances correctly:

Selecting a row, and ticking “is cost” will tag the row as cost. This can be used in conditional formatting to make sure that positive variances on expenses are a bad for the result, while a positive variance on an income row is good for the result.

The new version also includes more flexibility in measuring placement and column subtotals.

Measures can be placed either:

• Default (below column headers)
• Above column headers

• Conditionally hide columns
• + much more

Highlighted new features:

• Measure placement – In rows
• Select Column Subtotals
• New Format Pane design
• Row Options

Get the visual from AppSource and find more videos here !

A Horizon Chart is an advanced visual, for time-series data, revealing trends and anomalies. It displays stacked data layers, allowing users to compare multiple categories while maintaining data clarity. Horizon Charts are particularly useful to monitor and analyze complex data over time, making this a valuable visual for data analysis and decision-making.

Key Features:

• Horizon Styles: Choose Natural, Linear, or Step with adjustable scaling.
• Layer: Layer data by range or custom criteria. Display positive and negative values together or separately on top.
• Reference Line : Highlight patterns with X-axis lines and labels.
• Colors: Apply 30+ color palettes and use FX rules for dynamic coloring.
• Ranking: Filter Top/Bottom N values, with “Others”.
• Gridline: Add gridlines to the X and Y axis.
• Custom Tooltip: Add highest, lowest, mean, and median points without additional DAX.
• Themes: Save designs and share seamlessly with JSON files.

Other features included are ranking, annotation, grid view, show condition, and accessibility support.

Business Use Cases: Time-Series Data Comparison, Environmental Monitoring, Anomaly Detection

🔗 Try Horizon Chart for FREE from AppSource

📊 Check out all features of the visual: Demo file

📃 Step-by-step instructions: Documentation

💡 YouTube Video: Video Link

📍 Learn more about visuals: https://powerviz.ai/

✅ Follow Powerviz : https://lnkd.in/gN_9Sa6U

Milestone Trend Analysis Chart by Nova Silva

Exciting news! Thanks to your valuable feedback, we’ve enhanced our Milestone Trend Analysis Chart even further. We’re thrilled to announce that you can now switch between horizontal and vertical orientations, catering to your preferred visualization style.

The Milestone Trend Analysis (MTA) Chart remains your go-to tool for swiftly identifying deadline trends, empowering you to take timely corrective actions. With this update, we aim to enhance deadline awareness among project participants and stakeholders alike.

In our latest version, we seamlessly navigate between horizontal and vertical views within the familiar Power BI interface. No need to adapt to a new user interface – enjoy the same ease of use with added flexibility. Plus, it benefits from supported features like themes, interactive selection, and tooltips.

What’s more, ours is the only Microsoft Certified Milestone Trend Analysis Chart for Power BI, ensuring reliability and compatibility with the platform.

Ready to experience the enhanced Milestone Trend Analysis Chart? Download it from AppSource today and explore its capabilities with your own data – try for free!

We welcome any questions or feedback at our website: https://visuals.novasilva.com/ . Try it out and elevate your project management insights now!

Powerviz’s Sunburst Chart is an interactive tool for hierarchical data visualization. With this chart, you can easily visualize multiple columns in a hierarchy and uncover valuable insights. The concentric circle design helps in displaying part-to-whole relationships.

• Arc Customization: Customize shapes and patterns.
• Color Scheme: Accessible palettes with 30+ options.
• Centre Circle: Design an inner circle with layers. Add text, measure, icons, and images.
• Conditional Formatting: Easily identify outliers based on measure or category rules.
• Labels: Smart data labels for readability.
• Image Labels: Add an image as an outer label.
• Interactivity: Zoom, drill down, cross-filtering, and tooltip features.

Other features included are annotation, grid view, show condition, and accessibility support.

Business Use Cases: 

• Sales and Marketing: Market share analysis and customer segmentation.
• Finance : Department budgets and expenditures distribution.
• Operations : Supply chain management.
• Education : Course structure, curriculum creation.
• Human Resources : Organization structure, employee demographics.

🔗 Try Sunburst Chart for FREE from AppSource

Clustered bar chart with the possibility to stack one of the bars

Stacked Bar Chart with Line by JTA seamlessly merges the simplicity of a traditional bar chart with the versatility of a stacked bar, revolutionizing the way you showcase multiple datasets in a single, cohesive display.

Unlocking a new dimension of insight, our visual features a dynamic line that provides a snapshot of data trends at a glance. Navigate through your data effortlessly with multiple configurations, gaining a swift and comprehensive understanding of your information.

Tailor your visual experience with an array of functionalities and customization options, enabling you to effortlessly compare a primary metric with the performance of an entire set. The flexibility to customize the visual according to your unique preferences empowers you to harness the full potential of your data.

Features of Stacked Bar Chart with Line:

• Stack the second bar
• Format the Axis and Gridlines
• Add a legend
• Format the colors and text
• Add a line chart
• Format the line
• Add marks to the line
• Format the labels for bars and line

If you liked what you saw, you can try it for yourself and find more information here . Also, if you want to download it, you can find the visual package on the AppSource .

Drill Down Combo PRO – now with Legend field  

We have added an exciting new feature to our Combo PRO, Combo Bar PRO, and Timeline PRO visuals – Legend field support . The Legend field makes it easy to visually split series values into smaller segments, without the need to use measures or create separate series. Simply add a column with category names that are adjacent to the series values, and the visual will do the following:

• Display separate segments as a stack or cluster, showing how each segment contributed to the total Series value.
• Create legend items for each segment to quickly show/hide them without filtering.
• Apply custom fill colors to each segment.
• Show each segment value in the tooltip

Read more about the Legend field on our blog article

Drill Down Combo PRO is made for creators who want to build visually stunning and user-friendly reports. Cross-chart filtering and intuitive drill down interactions make data exploration easy and fun for any user. Furthermore, you can choose between three chart types – columns, lines, or areas; and feature up to 25 different series in the same visual and configure each series independently.

📊 Get Drill Down Combo PRO on AppSource

🌐 Visit Drill Down Combo PRO product page

Documentation | ZoomCharts Website | Follow ZoomCharts on LinkedIn

That is all for this month! Please continue sending us your feedback and do not forget to vote for other features that you would like to see in Power BI! We hope that you enjoy the update! If you installed Power BI Desktop from the Microsoft Store,  please leave us a review .

Also, don’t forget to vote on your favorite feature this month on our community website. 

As always, keep voting on  Ideas  to help us determine what to build next. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

• Microsoft Fabric

• Integrations
• Learning Center

How to Nail Your Product Roadmap Presentation

The product roadmap presentation might be one of the most important meetings that a product manager has with internal stakeholders. This is, after all, often the go/no-go meeting in which the product manager either comes away with the green light from her executive management team, or is told she’ll have to improve the strategy before receiving approval to move forward.

But because they miss a fundamental yet counterintuitive truth about what these presentations are really about, many product managers prepare for and deliver their product roadmap presentations the wrong way. Worse, it is often this poor presentation — and not an inherent flaw in the product strategy itself — that leads to a thumbs down from the team.

Here’s that fundamental truth. At its essence, a product roadmap presentation is not primarily about sharing information. It’s about evangelizing your product strategy and persuading the stakeholders in the room that the plan and objectives you’ve laid out are the right ones to pursue.

Tweet This: “Although a roadmap presentation covers a lot, it’s less about sharing info than about evangelizing your strategy.”

This might sound counter to much of what you’ve seen, heard and learned about from other product managers. A product roadmap presentation will obviously cover a lot of information. And on the surface, it can certainly look like a meeting that is meant to share information. If you’ve developed your product roadmap in the right way, your presentation will likely cover the major epics of your planned development, strategic objectives for the product, the timelines involved, probably some detail about your targeted customer personas, and the metrics you will be looking for to determine success — such as revenue targets and market share.

And yet, even if you’ve done all of the work in strategically thinking through these details, and even if you’ve put them together in such a way that gives your product the best chances of success, that is no guarantee your product roadmap presentation will earn you the buy-in you need from your stakeholders.

You can still come away from your presentation with a big fat no from your executive team — or a big fat “Huh?” from your developers, if the presentation is to them — if you don’t follow that fundamental truth and craft your product roadmap presentation just as strategically as you’ve crafted the plan for the product itself.

Common Product Roadmap Presentation Pitfalls

1. presenting your plan without showing confidence and enthusiasm..

If this were simply an information session, it might not matter so much how you presented your product’s strategic plan. (Of course, any information session will be bolstered if it is presented enthusiastically and in a persuasive way, but this is particularly important when it comes to your product roadmap presentation.)

But remember, your primary goal with a product roadmap presentation is to evangelize for your product’s plan.

With that in mind, the worst thing you can do is dryly recite the facts, no matter how compelling those facts are, and simply rattle off a list of features you’ll be developing and what timelines and resources the project will require.

What to do Instead

Don’t hold back your enthusiasm! You obviously arrived at this plan, this set of strategic objectives, after diligent research and some serious thinking and brainstorming. This is the plan that you believe gives your product and your company the best shot at success. That’s exciting news, isn’t it? Share that excitement with the room. As long as you can back it up with logic and data, that enthusiasm will spread to your audience as well.

2. Simply standing in front of the screen and talking to your product roadmap.

Remember the last PowerPoint presentation you sat through where the speaker simply read the text on the slide? You don’t? That’s probably because you slept right through it. And because you weren’t awake, here’s a little tidbit you missed: Everyone else in the room slept through it, too.

That’s how your product roadmap presentation comes across to your audience when you simply project your roadmap onto a wall and then talk through the document, detail by detail. Nobody in the room gets a sense of your larger strategic vision, so you lose any ability to persuade them of your plan’s merit. And the people in the room probably won’t remember most of the details anyway.

So when you present this way, you take a strategically vital meeting — the product roadmap presentation — and turn it into a snooze-fest that accomplishes almost nothing.

Talk about your strategic vision! When sharing your product roadmap , explain the ‘why’ behind your decisions. Better yet: Persuade your audience of the merit behind that ‘why.’ Refer to your product roadmap document — the epics, the timelines, etc. — only after you’ve oriented everyone in the room to your big-picture thinking. Only then will those details start to make sense anyway. (And only then will the audience still be awake.)

3. Burying the lede in the details.

Because they come so well prepared for these meetings, many diligent product managers can’t wait to share all of the information they’ve gathered with their audience. They have a long list of interesting features they’re planning to build. They’ve developed a complex but workable plan for deploying the right resources on the right parts of the product’s development, and they want to walk the audience through that as well. And they probably also have many useful pieces of data relating to total addressable market or average sale sizes for comparable products.

But in rattling off all of these details, these product managers forget the lede — the headline, the overarching strategic objective or best-case scenario for their product if it has a successful market launch. And remember, that lede is precisely the reason you’re calling this product roadmap presentation in the first place. So it needs to come first in your presentation.

Don’t just jump in and overwhelm your audience with ground-level details about the day-to-day operational plan for your product, or all of the individual data points and metrics that led to your decision to prioritize one feature over another. These details, almost by definition, cannot inspire anyone in your meeting to enthusiastically sign on to your project, let alone to want to dive right in and help you make it happen.

Tell a story! Explain to your audience that you’ve identified an important strategic problem to solve for your market — a way to help your target user personas avoid or minimize a real challenge they face, or a way to wow them and make their lives better. Then show them how your product — not every feature, but a high-level elevator pitch of the product — can solve that problem. And then show the room what solving that problem, and building the product the way you’re envisioning it, will mean for your company — more revenue, more market share, a competitive advantage, whatever.

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Product Updates

Company news and updates, templates and workbooks, remote product management, product metrics and analytics, product strategy example, product managers, prioritization and backlog, tools and resources, customer-centricity, product leadership, product management, roadmap and roadmap management, product strategy, agile & product development, career and interviews, try productplan free for 14 days, share on mastodon.

Releasing Windows 11, version 24H2 to the Release Preview Channel

• Windows Insider Program Team

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today, we are making this year’s annual feature update Windows 11, version 24H2 (Build 26100.712) available in the Release Preview Channel for customers to preview ahead of general availability later this calendar year.

Windows 11, version 24H2* includes a range of new features such as the HDR background support, energy saver, Sudo for Windows , Rust in the Windows kernel, support for Wi-Fi 7, voice clarity and more. It also includes many improvements across Windows. For example, we are introducing a scrollable view of the quick settings flyout from the taskbar, the ability to create 7-zip and TAR archives in File Explorer (in addition to ZIP), and improvements for connecting Bluetooth® Low Energy Audio devices. We will be sharing more details in the coming months on many of the new features and improvements included as part of Windows 11, version 24H2 leading up to general availability. Please note that the new AI features such as Recall announced earlier this week will not be available on your PC after installing this update today as they require a Copilot+ PC. For more information on those new AI features and Copilot+ PCs, see this blog post here .

As part of this update, we’re also evolving the Copilot** experience on Windows as an app that will be pinned to the taskbar. This enables users to get the benefits of a traditional app experience, including the ability to resize, move, and snap the window – feedback we’ve heard from users throughout the preview of Copilot in Windows. This model also allows Microsoft to more agilely develop and optimize the experience based on user feedback. This change will be making is way to Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels shortly.

Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel can install Windows 11, version 24H2 via our “seeker” experience in Windows Update. This means if you are an Insider currently in the Release Preview Channel on a PC that meets the Windows 11  hardware requirements , you can go to Settings and Windows Update and choose to download and install Windows 11, version 24H2 if you want. Once you update your PC to Windows 11, version 24H2, you will continue to automatically receive new servicing updates through Windows Update (the typical monthly update process). For instructions on how to join the Windows Insider Program and join your PC to the Release Preview Channel,  click here .

PLEASE NOTE: Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels will not be able to switch to the Release Preview Channel as they are on builds already based on Windows 11, version 24H2 but are on higher build numbers. These Insiders don’t need to switch. 

Commercial*** customers enrolled in the  Windows Insider Program for Business  can begin validating Windows 11, version 24H2 on PCs in their organizations. For these customers, the Windows 11, version 24H2 feature update is available through Windows Update for Business (WUfB) and Windows Server Update Service (WSUS). Azure Marketplace will be coming soon. You can learn more about deploying pre-release feature updates using  these deployment methods here . Should any issues arise, IT admins in organizations deploying Release Preview updates can request Microsoft Support .

And finally – ISOs are now available for download for Windows 11, version 24H2 via the Windows Insider ISO download page .

Thanks, Windows Insider Program Team

*Please note that Cortana, Tips, and WordPad are removed after upgrading to Windows 11, version 24H2. These apps are deprecated .

**Copilot in Windows is being rolled out gradually to Windows Insiders across our global markets. Customers in the European Economic Area will be able to download the Copilot in Windows experience as an app from the Microsoft Store (coming soon).

***We consider a device a commercial device if it is not running the Windows 11 Home edition AND is being managed by an IT administrator (whether via Microsoft Endpoint Manager or other management solution) or has a volume license key or commercial ID or is joined to a domain.