Ever wonder where the word "roadmap" actually came from? In the 1890s, bicycles were a key form of transportation within cities, and some of the first roadmaps were created to show how to bike from one part of New York City to another.
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With the rise of the automobile, travel between cities becomes more common, and organizations like the American Automobile Association provided printed roadmap directions for travelers. In the 1980s, Motorola began using the term roadmap to align technology and product development. Ta-da!
I go into more product history in Chapter 1 of Product Roadmaps Relaunched. Of course, few people use paper roadmaps anymore. We do need a destination, though, an initial direction, and a notion of the obstacles in our way. Perhaps we need a product GPS. What’s your favorite framework for planning? Discuss.