Institute of Product Leadership

From Product Vision to Execution: Road mapping & Metrics in action

By Anand Shrivastava– Product Management Leader, Talkdesk

Most of us have heard the word roadmap tossed around in meetings, slides, and product updates, but what does it really mean? Is it just a fancy Gantt chart? A wishlist? Or that one document that everyone pretends to follow but secretly ignores? A roadmap is way more important (and helpful) than it sounds. It’s like the GPS for your product, showing where you want to go, why you want to go there, and roughly how you’ll get there (with some bumps and detours along the way). In this blog, I’ll try to break down what a roadmap really is, how you can make one that’s actually useful, and how to make sure you’re tracking the right things along the journey.

Key Takeaways:

  • A roadmap is a visual guide that connects product goals with business objectives and user needs.
  • Good roadmaps are built through validation, prioritization, and stakeholder alignment.
  • Strategic roadmaps are flexible and evolve with market shifts and customer feedback.
  • Different roadmapping frameworks exist — choose one based on your team’s needs and communication style.
  • Metrics help track product performance, but only goal-driven metrics lead to meaningful decisions.
In this article
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    What is a Roadmap?

    A roadmap is a visual tool used by product managers to communicate their vision for the product, business, and market. It clearly shows what objectives the product aims to achieve and over what time period.

    In simple terms, a roadmap captures:

    • The vision of the product.
    • The business and market objectives you want to realize.
    • A timeline to achieve these goals.

    The key takeaway is that it is visual, meaning anyone should be able to see and understand where the product is headed and why.

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    Arriving at a Roadmap

    Arriving at a roadmap is about turning strategy into action. The process can be boiled down to three key steps:

    1. Strategic Goals
      Start by anchoring your roadmap to the company’s or founder’s goals. The product should directly contribute to these larger business objectives.
    2. Validation and Prioritization
      Go out, and identify customer pain points, gaps, and needs. Validate them through market research, then prioritize — balancing between immediate needs and long-term opportunities.
    3. Diplomacy
      A roadmap isn’t created in isolation. Align with stakeholders, negotiate trade-offs, and ensure everyone agrees on what gets built and when.

    In short, a good roadmap connects strategy, reflects validated needs, and is built through stakeholder alignment.

    What is a Strategic Product Roadmap?

    A strategic roadmap is not just a static document. It is a living, evolving tool. Unlike a one-time plan, it adapts to market changes and business realities. For example, in 2019, no product manager foresaw a pandemic forcing everyone to work from home. But when the situation changed, roadmaps had to evolve rapidly to meet new user needs like remote collaboration, rapid delivery, and contactless services. This is the essence of a strategic roadmap- it adjusts based on macro or micro shifts affecting your product, company, or customers.

    Key Characteristics of a Strategic Roadmap

    1. It guides product execution
      A roadmap takes your product strategy and converts it into a clear execution plan. It outlines what you will build, for whom, and why, helping you track progress and market adoption regularly.
    2. It is open and shareable
      A roadmap is meant to be discussed across the company. It answers:
      • What problem are you solving?
      • Why are you solving it?
      • Who are you solving it for?
      • What are you building to solve it?
    3. Depending on the audience, you will have different versions of the roadmap — one for engineering, another for marketing/sales, and sometimes a public-facing one.
    4. It balances the “Why” and the “How”
      As you move down to execution teams (engineering, design, marketing), the “how” gets more specific. As you go higher towards leadership or customers, the focus shifts to the “why” behind your product decisions. A roadmap communicates both as needed.
    5. It sets expectations
      Like buying a car with features marked subject to change, a roadmap shows a probabilistic direction, not a fixed promise. It provides a sense of where the product is headed while leaving room for market-driven adjustments.

    The Roadmap Building Process

    1. Identify problems
      Start by studying your market and users. Find the real problems — e.g., fragmented workflows, poor user experience, or missing capabilities.
    2. Define objectives
      Convert those problems into clear objectives, whether it is improving customer productivity, increasing company profitability, or unlocking new markets.
    3. List capabilities
      Identify major capabilities needed to meet those objectives. Break them down into smaller initiatives and features.
    4. Prioritize and sequence
      Organize these initiatives into releases (Q1, Q2, etc.) based on business needs and market feedback.

    A well-crafted roadmap helps you build a product with product-market fit (PMF). It ensures that what you build aligns with both your company’s goals and your customers’ needs.

    Roadmapping Frameworks Overview

    There are multiple roadmapping frameworks available, and companies may choose different ones depending on their needs. However, the core concepts of a roadmap remain the same, no matter which framework is used.

    Below are common types of roadmapping frameworks:

    1. Now-Next-Later Roadmap
      This framework categorizes work into three buckets — what is coming now, what is coming next, and what is coming later. It helps communicate immediate, upcoming, and future priorities. Different versions of this roadmap can be created for different audiences.
    2. Theme-Based Roadmap
      Instead of focusing on dates, this framework is organized around strategic themes or goals such as integrations, user adoption, or geographical expansion. While dates still exist, the focus is on completing themes over time.
    3. OKR-Based Roadmap
      Aligns the roadmap directly with Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and KPIs. This ensures that product work contributes measurably to business goals.
    4. Gantt Chart
      More common in project management, this timeline-based roadmap helps in scheduling tasks, parallelizing, and sequencing. It is often used by engineering teams for visualizing dependencies.
    5. Agile Roadmap
      Focuses on iterative releases and flexibility. It adapts as market conditions or priorities change. Many companies, even if not formally calling it “agile,” follow this iterative approach.
    6. Kanban-Based Roadmap
      Features are visually arranged, often like sticky notes or digital cards. The most important features are prioritized based on collective inputs and can be moved across stages as needed.
    7. Feature-Based Roadmap
      Lists features release by release. This type of roadmap is often used when communicating to teams what specific features will be delivered and when.
    8. Portfolio Roadmap
      Created by portfolio managers, this roadmap handles multiple related products. It helps in funding decisions, prioritization, and coordinating across products.
    9. Three-Horizon Framework
      Categorizes work into short-term (horizon 1), mid-term (horizon 2), and long-term (horizon 3) initiatives. It is similar to Now-Next-Later but often used for balancing innovation and execution.
    Framework Description Pros Cons
    OKR-Based Roadmap Ties product initiatives directly to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) aligned with corporate, customer, or user goals. Strong strategic alignment, Outcome-focused, Ensures measurable progress Can become rigid if OKRs are not updated, Requires regular validation to stay relevant
    Now-Next-Later Roadmap Categorizes initiatives into immediate (Now), upcoming (Next), and future (Later) priorities. Simple and easy to understand, Clear communication of priorities, Widely used for stakeholder alignment Less detail on dependencies, May oversimplify complex initiatives
    Theme-Based Roadmap Organizes initiatives around strategic themes rather than strict timelines (e.g., integrations, user adoption). Flexible and adaptable, Helps focus on high-level goals, Encourages outcome thinking Less predictable on delivery dates, Requires strong execution discipline
    Gantt Chart A timeline-based roadmap showing project tasks, dependencies, and schedules. Good for visualizing dependencies, Helps with detailed planning and sequencing Less agile, Often seen as more suited for project management than product management
    Agile Roadmap Focuses on iterative development and frequent releases using sprints. Highly flexible, Adapts to changing market conditions, Encourages continuous delivery Can lack long-term visibility, Needs disciplined backlog management
    Kanban-Based Roadmap Uses cards (physical or digital) to visualize and prioritize features based on votes, density, or flow. Visual and collaborative, Simple to set up, Encourages incremental delivery May lack clear timelines, Prioritization can become subjective
    Feature-Based Roadmap Lists specific features and organizes them into releases. Clear feature-level communication, Easy for engineering and delivery teams Can be too focused on features, ignoring strategic outcomes, May encourage feature overload
    Portfolio Roadmap Manages multiple related products under one roadmap for portfolio-level planning. Useful for organizations with multiple products, Helps allocate budgets and resources effectively Less suitable for single-product teams, Can be complex to manage
    Three-Horizon Framework Categorizes initiatives into short-term, mid-term, and long-term horizons. Balances immediate needs and future innovation, Helps with long-term planning Can overlap with Now-Next-Later, Needs careful scoping of horizons

    Understanding Metrics and KPIs in Product Management

    Metrics are essential tools for measuring the performance of your product, users, and business. They help you make informed decisions and ensure your product is healthy, valuable, and aligned with business objectives.

    Why Do We Use Metrics?

    Metrics serve four main purposes:

    • Track and measure user behaviour.
    • Monitor product health.
    • Identify and analyze user issues.
    • Evaluate campaign performance.

    Think of metrics like health indicators for your product. Just like body temperature or blood pressure signals human health, metrics indicate product health and guide corrective actions.

    Types of Metrics

    1. Product Metrics

    These measure how users engage with your product and how the product performs:

      • Retention rate — Are users coming back?
      • Daily Active Users (DAU) / Monthly Active Users (MAU) — How many users are active daily or monthly?
      • Activation rate — How many users reach the first value moment after onboarding?
      • Feature adoption rate — How many users are using a newly launched feature?
      • In-app engagement — How much time do users spend within the app?
      • Conversion rate — How many users complete desired actions, like making a purchase?
      • Funnel analysis — Tracks drop-offs across stages of user journeys.
      • Performance metrics — Loading times, latency, and app responsiveness.

    A good product metric should lead to an action — either to improve, fix, or maintain.

    1. Business Metrics

    These metrics track how the product contributes to business performance:

      • Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) / Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
      • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
      • Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
      • Churn rate — Percentage of customers leaving.
      • Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
      • Average Revenue Per User (ARPU)
      • Revenue Growth Rate
      • Burn Rate — How quickly you are spending cash.

    Each business must select the metrics most relevant to its goals — no need to track every possible metric.

    1. Customer Metrics

    These measure how customers perceive and experience your product:

      • Net Promoter Score (NPS) — Will customers recommend you?
      • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
      • Customer Effort Score (CES) — How much effort does it take for a customer to achieve a task?
      • Renewal Rate — Especially relevant for subscription products.

    A lower customer effort score is generally desirable, showing your product is easy to use.

    1. Vanity Metrics

    Vanity metrics look impressive but often don’t translate into meaningful product decisions:

      • App downloads
      • Page views
      • Registered users
      • Email subscribers
      • Impressions
      • Social media likes/followers
      • Video views

    These metrics may look good on reports but offer little insight unless they directly influence customer behaviour or business performance.

    Goal-Driven Metrics

    Metrics should always be goal-driven. Your product’s goals, the stage of the product lifecycle (introduction, growth, maturity), and market conditions will determine which metrics matter most. Mature products, for example, should focus more on profitability and retention, while early-stage products may focus on adoption and engagement.

    A well-crafted roadmap is more than just a project plan — it is a reflection of your product strategy, validated insights, and shared understanding across teams. Combined with the right metrics, it ensures that every step you take is deliberate, measurable, and impactful. Whether you are prioritizing features, aligning with stakeholders, or tracking customer behaviour, roadmaps and metrics together help you build products that truly resonate with your users while meeting business goals. Remember, both are living tools — they evolve as your product and market evolve.

    About the Author:

    Anand Shrivastava, Product Management Leader, Talkdesk

    Frequently Asked Questions

    A product roadmap is a visual plan that shows what a product team wants to achieve, how it aligns with business goals, and when key things will happen. It helps everyone stay on the same page — from leadership to engineering to customers.

    You create a roadmap by first understanding business goals, then identifying user problems, prioritizing what matters most, aligning with all stakeholders, and finally turning it into a visual timeline or framework.

    Common types include Now-Next-Later, Theme-based, OKR-based, Agile, Gantt charts, Kanban, Feature-based, Portfolio roadmaps, and the Three-Horizon framework — each suited for different planning styles.

    Strategy is the “why” — the high-level reason for what you’re doing. A roadmap is the “how” and “when” — the actual action plan to make the strategy real.

    Product managers usually track product metrics (DAU, retention, conversion rates), business metrics (MRR, churn, CLTV), and customer metrics (NPS, CSAT), and focus on goal-driven metrics instead of vanity metrics like likes or views.

    Institute of Product Leadership is Asia’s First Business School providing accredited degree programs and certification courses exclusively in Product Management, Strategy, and Leadership.
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