Rooster

Create A Goal Oriented Roadmap

29 Sep 2024 - Michael Voorhaen

If you’ve ever struggled to create a roadmap that actually drives meaningful progress, you’re not alone. At Strobbo, I faced the same challenge. I spent a long time searching for the right format, experimenting with different approaches. My journey took me from a cumbersome version that looked more like a project Gantt chart to another where we focused on several strategic goals and the work we planned to tackle. But none of these approaches ever felt quite right.

The main issues were consistent: too much emphasis on timings, vague descriptions of what we’d actually deliver, and the constant struggle of having more strategic goals than we had teams to handle them. This led to juggling multiple things at once or constantly balancing between them, and since these long-term goals never seemed to wrap up, it rarely felt like we were winning.

What I really wanted was a roadmap that:

To address these challenges and create a more effective roadmap, I focused on creating an ordered list of smaller goals. By breaking down our roadmap into manageable, prioritized goals, we can ensure each step we take is aligned with our broader strategy and easier to achieve.

Focus on Measurable Goals: Output vs. Outcome

The key to effective goal-setting is to choose goals that are clearly measurable. These goals don’t have to be limited to features—they can also be broader initiatives that support the overall product vision. However, even with broader initiatives, it’s crucial to be specific about what you want to achieve. Whether it’s improving user experience in a specific part of the application, solving a particular customer problem, or reducing lost deals in a certain market segment, each goal should be clearly defined and contribute meaningfully to the product’s success.

It’s also important that these goals are achievable within a reasonable timeframe—think weeks or months, not years. This ensures the team maintains momentum and regularly delivers value.

While it’s important to prioritize outcomes over outputs, starting with output-focused goals is okay if you’re still finding your footing. As you gain experience, you can shift toward more outcome-driven objectives that deliver real value.

Output goals are centered around specific tasks or deliverables. For example:

These goals indicate that specific work has been completed, but they don’t measure the actual impact or success of those efforts.

Outcome goals, on the other hand, focus on the impact or value created by those outputs. For example:

These types of goals emphasize the real-world effects of your work, such as customer behavior, satisfaction, or efficiency improvements, rather than just task completion.

Focusing on a specific goal also gives the development team the freedom to figure out how to tackle it. This flexibility allows the team to choose the best approach, which could include addressing technical debt as part of the solution.

Collaboration in a Scaled Setup

In a scaled setup, multiple teams can tackle these goals, which adds a lot of flexibility. Not every team needs to focus on the same goal at the same time. For instance, one team might start with some prep work, and others can jump in later when it makes sense. Toward the end, maybe just one team handles the rollout and gathers customer feedback. This staggered approach lets teams work smarter without getting bogged down by rigid plans.

Since you’re working on a goal, not just a specific feature, it also gives teams the freedom to figure out how to collaborate without stepping on each other’s toes. They can find ways to work together that keep things moving smoothly and efficiently.

Even though you’ll have a prioritized list of goals, it doesn’t mean everything has to be picked up in that exact order. The priorities help teams figure out the best way to tackle the work, giving them the freedom to create a clear plan that works for everyone.

To keep things manageable, try to limit collaboration on a single goal to about four teams. This way, you get the benefits of teamwork without things getting too chaotic.

Communicating the Roadmap

Once you’ve created a strong roadmap, effectively communicating it is crucial to keep everyone aligned and motivated. Clear goals not only guide the work but also make it easier to convey progress and priorities. There are two key aspects to focus on: visually representing the goals and their progress, and consistently reinforcing the message.

Visual Representation of Goals and Progress

Visuals are essential for quickly communicating the status of each goal and keeping the focus on outcomes. Highlighting both the goals and their intended outcomes ensures that everyone understands the impact of their work, not just the tasks being completed.

Here is how we are currently visualizing our goals. At the top you can see the title, how it helps us achieve our long-term goals or strategy or which business goals it is linked to. We also number our goals at the top left to highlight the priority. We have been doing this since the start of the year and most likely we will just reset the numbering at the start of next year.

Finally at the bottom we do tie into specific features that we think can help us reach our goal, technical debt that can be cleaned up, bugs that we are thinking of fixing. And as time progresses we start adding details like metrics we want to or are measuring, we cross out features which we decided not to pick up within the goal, etc. We also use a colour code to indicate the status of the goal.

Consistent Messaging with Visuals

Having clear goals makes it easier to communicate consistently. Regularly update your team and stakeholders using the visual roadmap in meetings, briefings, or presentations, and especially during sprint reviews. Ensure the roadmap is accessible—whether online or in shared spaces—so it stays top of mind. Repeatedly link progress to the broader strategic objectives, reinforcing the “why” behind each goal. This consistent communication keeps everyone aligned and focused on delivering meaningful results.

By combining clear, outcome-focused visuals with regular updates, including sprint reviews, you ensure that your roadmap actively drives the team toward success, rather than just being a static plan.

Conclusion

As a product owner, your role goes beyond managing tasks—it’s about providing a clear vision and purpose. A goal-oriented roadmap is a powerful tool to bring this vision to life, offering direction while giving your team the freedom to achieve their goals. This approach ensures everyone is aligned, motivated, and focused on making a real impact.

Effective communication is key. A goal-oriented roadmap opens the door to visual progress tracking, helping keep everyone on the same page. When your team understands both the what and the why, they’re more connected to the outcomes.

Start with clear, manageable goals, communicate them effectively, and watch your team drive meaningful progress.

In the next article, I’ll show you how to avoid the common pitfall of teams getting stuck on a goal without delivering. We’ll explore an approach called “Betting on Your Roadmap,” which shifts the focus from estimating task size to determining how much you’re willing to invest in a feature. This method not only helps set clear priorities but also ensures that you’re making smart investment decisions that keep your team moving forward.