From The Soccer Pitch To The Product Roadmap: The Power Of Teamwork In Creating Outcomes
“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” — Steve Jobs
Soccer is more than just a game for me. It’s become a lens through which I’ve come to view much of my life, including my work in product management. I went from a naive, casual observer to an all-out soccer dad, all thanks to my three kids. As they grew in the sport, playing competitive, travel soccer, I evolved as a fan and, more importantly, as an observer of team dynamics.
Much like product teams, soccer teams require teamwork, an adaptable strategy, and a shared goal — to win. And just as different groups contribute to the success of a product, every player on a soccer team plays a critical role.
Of course, there is drama too! Competitive soccer, in some way, is just like dance moms if you’ve ever seen the show: player drama, parent drama, club drama. Mostly, I stay out of it and focus on the game. But at times, it gets the best of us.
Years ago, the drama got bad. The team seemed to be falling apart. And it started with the parents. There were cliques. Circles of parents that excluded others. Players on the team emulated this behavior. Younger kids, regardless of their environment, mirror their parents.
Sure, the parents said the right things to their kids, but it was lip service. They broke the team.
On the field, they were out of sync, playing as if their exclusive circles existed on and off. They all did their own thing. They even ignored the coach. It was clear to me and other parents that something needed to change.
So the coach staged an intervention, and the most divisive parents were singled out and asked to leave. Slowly things changed, and they became a great team, turning around their losing record.
That drama on the soccer pitch reminds me of product teams that are not aligned. Teams that don’t communicate, developers who aren’t in sync with market demands, or designers working independently without feedback. Like that soccer team, products can fall apart when the team doesn’t work together toward a common goal following a roadmap.
Why share my love of soccer?
Soccer is a perfect parallel for product management and roadmap development. While they might seem worlds apart, they share common core principles for success — especially when it comes to roadmap development.
- Both are a team sport
- Both require teamwork to succeed
- Both require adaptable strategies and tactics tailored to the situation
- Both are goal-oriented
- Both need everyone to play their position
And both go horribly wrong when the team is not working as a cohesive unit with a strategy. Unfortunately, I’ve experienced more team friction working in product than in soccer. Product teams have drama too.
The Essential Players in Roadmap Creation: Who should be involved?
It starts with the right team.
Crafting a product roadmap isn’t a solo endeavor. Much like a player on the pitch, each team member brings unique skills and perspectives. What’s more, just like in soccer, every team member’s contribution and active participation isn’t just welcomed — it’s critical.
Let’s meet our team, the stars of the product pitch:
- Product Managers: Our skilled coaches, product managers strategize after understanding the playing conditions and the competition. They set the game plan, but a coach alone doesn’t score goals — they need the team.
- Designers: The creative midfielders who know how to control the game and make pivotal connections. They ensure a seamless and intuitive user experience. Their artistry transforms a functional product into an engaging one that resonates with users.
- Engineers: The defenders and goalie — engineers execute from the goal forward. They reset the field, build plays, defend against bugs, and ensure the feasibility of the win.
- Sales and Marketing Teams: The crafty forwards understand the game (market trends) and find openings (potential customers). Their insights help align the product roadmap with market demand.
- Customers: The crowd whose feedback informs us if our game plan is exciting and is working. Ignoring their cheers or boos would be like playing a match in an empty stadium.
- Stakeholders: The team owners and board members, stakeholders provide the resources and influence tactics from behind the scenes. They help steer the product toward a win.
Active participation is critical to success
Why is active, upfront participation important? That’s how the magic happens! When engineers question the feasibility of a product feature, it pushes designers to think more creatively. When sales and marketing bring in fresh market insight, it forces product managers to tweak their strategies. This interplay and collaboration are the heart of the creative process in product roadmap development.
Just as every pass, tackle, and shot in a soccer match contributes to the team’s success, so does every discussion, meeting, and brainstorming session in the roadmap process.
But here’s the kicker: every team member also needs to see the value in their contribution early in the process.
Being on the team is not enough; they need to actively participate, take ownership, and add to the creative process. Like soccer players who take pride in their positions and contribution to the win, product teams must see the fruit of their labor in every successful pass, every goal, and every win.
Why Outcomes Matter in Roadmaps
Once the team is assembled, has each other’s back, and works as a cohesive unit, you are ready to begin the match, err, roadmap development.
The best place to start? Outcome definition. Why?
Starting with outcomes when creating a roadmap is essential for several reasons.
- Outcomes enable the strategy to be broken down into discrete units
- Outcomes provide direction for items on the roadmap
- Outcomes indicate what to accomplish vs. a feature to be finished
- Outcomes identify the prioritization of the items on the roadmap
- Outcomes reflect that the product strategy facilitates communication and consistency
- Outcomes ensure the roadmap aligns product development with business strategy
- Outcomes guide teams to work on the most important and impactful areas of the product
Outcomes help you focus on the problems you are solving and the value you create rather than the details of how you will implement the solution. They will help you prioritize and communicate your roadmap more effectively, as you can explain the rationale behind your decisions and how they contribute to your desired outcomes.
Outcomes allow the team to flex and adapt to changing customer needs, market conditions, and feedback. If you focus on outcomes rather than commit to features, you create space and flexibility to determine how to achieve the end game iteratively.
The Rolls-Royce Transformation: From Product to Outcome
Rolls-Royce is a prime example of a company that has shifted to an outcome-based business model (OBM) and roadmap. Rather than selling jet engines, the company now offers commercial airlines a service known as power by the hour. This engine as a service model means they provide, rather than sell, the engines they manufacture, monitor, and maintain. The goal is to ensure the engines function optimally and deliver the desired outcome — in this case, thrust by the hour.
This concept, power by the hour, establishes the top-level outcomes for the roadmap, which is then broken down into sub-outcomes to guide product development.
Companies like Rolls-Royce adopt outcomes-based business models and roadmaps for a few primary reasons. They concentrate on customers’ goals and success and deliver quantifiable outcomes that create and capture more value.
For example, if a customer desires more inventory turns, the vendor must be able to show that its application is the key driver of that outcome. The preference is for results — people want solutions to problems, not just products or services. This approach is often more customer-centric and can lead to better satisfaction and higher customer retention.
The transition to outcomes starts with understanding the customer’s needs and figuring out how to use physical assets, digital technologies, and customer data to deliver the desired outcome. The desired outcome is a product in itself.
Companies like Roles Royce might structure their roadmap in several different ways. One approach is a theme-based roadmap, where each quarter or release focuses on a particular theme, such as ease of use or onboarding. This brings order to the product backlog and helps communicate the focus of work to the team and stakeholders. It’s important in this context to ensure that the theme is aligned with a particular desired outcome.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Starting an Outcome-Oriented Roadmap
Now that you have the context behind a team-developed roadmap and the importance of outcomes, creating an outcomes-oriented roadmap is a matter of a few steps.
- Define Product Strategy and Purpose: Start by articulating your product strategy and purpose clearly. The product strategy outlines how you plan to achieve your company’s goals, and your purpose describes why your product exists. Both of these should be well understood and communicated to all product stakeholders. [click here for a framework]
- Align Outcomes with Business Strategy and Purpose: When identifying the outcomes you desire from your product, ensure they align with your company’s strategy and customer needs.
- Break Outcomes into Strategic Themes: Dissect each outcome into strategic themes. These themes should be broad areas that you need to focus on to achieve each outcome, and they should also resonate with your business strategy and purpose.
- Prioritize Strategic Themes: Prioritize your strategic themes based on their potential to drive your desired outcomes and alignment with your business strategy and purpose. This helps you concentrate your efforts where they will have the most impact.
- Translate Strategic Themes into Features: Convert your high-priority strategic themes into product features tied to outcomes. Ensure each feature contributes to a strategic theme, has an outcome, and aligns with your product strategy and purpose.
- Acknowledge Uncertainty: Recognize that not all features will work. Uncertainty is a normal part of product development. Be prepared to analyze the performance of each feature, whether it’s a success or a failure.
- Iterate and Learn: After you roll out a feature, measure its contribution. Did it add to your target outcome? If not, take this as a learning experience and apply those insights to future features.
- Revisit and Refine: Regularly revisit and refine your product roadmap to align it with your business strategy and purpose. This includes reevaluating your outcomes, strategic themes, and features.
Golden Rules for Crafting the Outcome-Oriented Roadmap
When creating an outcome-oriented roadmap, start by building your roadmap in the right direction — outside in. In this case, start with your objectives, key results, and strategic themes, mapping them down to outcomes and then to features.
We often start at the features level and work to create outcomes and then OKRs to justify the feature being on the roadmap. That’s backward.
Beyond the outside in mentality, I suggest a few additional guidelines as you work toward your outcome-oriented roadmap.
- Each item on the roadmap represents a validated user problem to solve that will make their use of the product better, cheaper, faster, etc.
- And the item (often in the form of an epic or feature) must have a clear metric representing the user’s success.
- Ensure the outcome(s) for the features provide enough detail to allow the team building the feature to work autonomously.
- If a feature does not have an outcome in the form of a benefit for the user, it should not be on the roadmap. Remember, users aren’t always customers. They could be users internal to your company, outside partners, etc.
- If you need clarification about the outcome, put it on the backlog and continue to work on it.
Wrapping it up
Drawing parallels between soccer and product management might seem unconventional, but they’re two sides of the same coin. Both emphasize the significance of teamwork, strategy, and shared objectives.
As a devoted soccer dad and professional, I’ve seen first-hand how environments can make or break a team, whether on the soccer pitch or in product reviews.
At the heart of both lies the principle of focusing on and collaborating toward outcomes over individual tasks or features. Like in soccer, in product roadmap development, the win is a product of strategy, team effort, passion, hard work, and a clear vision.
So as we lace up our boots and sit down to draft our roadmap, let’s carry forward the lessons from the soccer field — for in teamwork, true success is forged.
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