This type of roadmap is simple in its format, easy to understand and quick to get started with. The focus is on priority and status.
In its simplest form, it contains what is going on now, what is next in line and what comes later. The content of each column is in priority order, which means that what is at the top of NOW is what has the highest priority.
| Focus on | Priority och status |
| Used e.g. for | Teams |
| Owned by | Product owner/Product manager |
| Time perspective | ≈ Rolling 3 months |
| Content size | E.g. hypothesis, assignment, initiative, subproject, epic |
Extended version
Although the simple form above is useful, I think it is possible to make this type of roadmap even more useful by expanding it with a few more attributes and visualizations.
Status
In the simple version, we only see the status in terms of whether something is going on or not, which is sometimes quite blunt. Therefore, I usually add a visualization to signal if everything is going well, if there are obstacles or if there is a total stop. If something is obstructed, it’s a strong signal for everyone to focus on trying to clear that obstacle.
Follow-up
Another tip is to also visualize the need to follow-up. When something is ready / delivered / put into production, in many cases we want to follow up what result it gave. It often takes some time for us to be able to see the effect of what we have done and to visualize that we add a column to the right of Now called Follow-up.
Connection to our goals
För att kunna visuellt följa vad som går mot vilka mål färgkodar vi en del av varje hypotes/uppdrag/initiativ/delprojekt/epic.
Koppling till större bet, uppdrag, initiativ eller projekt
In order to be able to visually follow what goes towards which goals, we color-code a part of each hypothesis / assignment / initiative / subproject / epic.
Extended visualization, an example
