Enterprise Products - Roadmap Planning and Development Methodology


Roadmap Planning process

Unlike Consumer products, you have two different types of audience to satisfy in Enterprise world, namely Buyer and User Persona. It’s very important to have a very clear definition of these persona constructs to the most precise form. Ex: If you categorize Buyer persona as just an executive, it’s not going to help. You need to be precise, if it’s the CEO, CFO, VP – Sales, CMO, etc… You need to know as what ROI this individual looks out to buy the product and continue to stay vested in the journey.   Similar approach applies to user persona.


Typical process what I evangelize for roadmap planning process is the below.

1.    Market Research: Adopt Primary and Secondary research techniques to gather intelligence on the market.  Do not discount your sales, marketing, Support  and other folks within your Org who engage with the market at different levels. 
2.    Buyer Inputs: Do periodic health check with buyer persona.  If your product has an yearly renewal process then atleast have a meeting with Buyer once in 6 months to evaluate if they are deriving the ROI.  Its highly recommended to document case studies for ROI, so that Buyer can factor this into their decision making process.  Gather inputs from buyer as whats working and what they like to be improved in the product.
3.    User Inputs: Gather NPS feedback comments, conduct user interviews to get candid feedback as what’s working and what they like to be improved.  If the users don’t use the product actively then whom are we managing the product for, is the question we need to constantly ask. 
4.    Competitive Analysis: Diligently carryout Competitive Analysis at regular intervals.  Its sometimes hard to get competitive intel, but also believe the fact that there is a ton of information sitting in different channels (Youtube videos, marketing content, news, etc…). Sometimes when your customers complain about a product issue, they might even say that your competitor is offering a feature and why not you…  So keep your eyes and ears wide open. Position your product in the magic quadrant and determine where your product lags.
5.    Internal Feedback: Sales, Marketing, Support, Engineering and other stake holders.  Give them a seat at the table to provide comments and inputs as what they like to be improved in the product.

Once you capture the Wishlist, customer requests and issues into a backlog. It’s important to prioritize and develop a roadmap aligned with the right set of themes and measurable KPIs.  Determine as where your product is in its lifecycle and adopt the right level of investment.

I typically advise the below format.

Theme
Goals (KPI)
H1
H2
Sales
Revenue
1.    Item 1
2.    Item 2
Customer Satisfaction
NPS
Application Performance
Apdex Score
….
……

I always believe that roadmap is a plan and not an agreement, as the product operates under dynamic conditions and external factors.  It’s very important to meet all the stake holders at regular intervals (atleast a month) to share what each one has learned from the market or internal sources to reaffirm the fact that roadmap is rightly aligned for its goals.  We should be dynamic to readjust roadmap to meet its goals.

Product Development Lifecycle 

Now that you have established the roadmap, it’s important to have the right development life cycle. Follow the below 3 stages of Development, before the product is ready to be shipped live.

1.    Discovery
a.    Market
                                               i.     Define the problem space and test the commercial viability of the solution.  We can build fancy features, but is someone ready to pay is the critical question we need to ask.  Does all features need to be monetized?  Definitely not, some features can boost your user experience (NPS), Renewals, build a competitive edge, etc… Hence it’s very important to define the ROI and business impact. I definitely recommend a Business Model Canvas to have a clear understanding of why, what and how aspects.
                                             ii.     You could gather intel on the market by standard primary and secondary research techniques.  Also remember that you would have ton of knowledge sitting within your Organization too.
b.    Product/Functional
                                               i.     Define the MVP use cases, put together the functional and technical design, carry out POC and evaluate the product viability. Certainly do prototype testing to get early feedback even before commencing development.
2.    Development
a.    Development
                                               i.     Iteratively build out the core feature. Focus more on the functional value.    
b.    Alpha
                                               i.     Rollout the feature/product to your Anchor Clients (2 or 3) and certify the usability of core functionality.  I definitely recommend this step, as your Anchor clients would prove to be honest with you as what works and what doesn’t.  Hence its essential to have early feedback from such customers.
                                             ii.     Iteratively capture feedback and improve the functional value and user experience.
c.     Beta
                                               i.     Expand your rollout to atleast 5 clients.
                           ii.     During this phase, focus on automation and relevant support process to rollout this feature and scale.
3.    Go Live
a.    Rollout to wider customer base.
b.    Support process, including training etc.  
c.     Go-To-Market activities

Enterprise Products - Roadmap Planning and Development Methodology

Roadmap Planning process Unlike Consumer products, you have two different types of audience to satisfy in Enterprise world...