Data can be qualitative or quantitative, and comes from multiple sources: customer interviews, product usage & funnel analytics, company financial performance, and internal stakeholders. How do you use that data to create a product roadmap that is aligned with your organization’s business needs?

1. Creating the "Right" Product
Road-Map
Sunil Parekh Dave Martin
With: Moderated by:
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2. About the Series
6 Education-packed sessions

3. 3
Click on the Questions panel to
interact with the presenters

4. About Sunil Parekh
Head of Product Management at SimplyInsured
Sunil Parekh is the Head of Product Management at SimplyInsured, an InsurTech startup that emerged from the Silicon
Valley incubator, Y Combinator, in 2013. Sunil is a data-driven, customer-centric product management leader and has
devised and executed strategic roadmaps for several high-growth venture-backed startups, including ZocDoc and
Truveris. Experienced across the entire product lifecycle, Sunil has launched and optimized award-winning B2C and B2B
products with millions of users across multiple platforms. He began his career in management consulting. Sunil holds a BS
in Biomechancial Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA with Honors from Columbia Business School.
About Dave Martin
Chief Product Officer, Tes
Dave is Chief Product Officer at Tes where he can fulfil his obsession with lean product management, growth innovation
and process improvement. He has learned loads from working or consulting with a few interesting folks such as PepsiCo,
Google, Monster.com, Essence Digital, Skybet, Comparethemarket.com, Bauer, ThoughtWorks and various startups.
Dave gets excited about digital product strategy and lean operational process transformation to deliver sustainable profits
and growth. When away from a laptop he is a keen mountain biker who enjoys camping with his family all over the UK
wilderness.

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What is a Product Roadmap?
• Long-term* (but flexible) plan that matches business goals with
projects and timelines for technology teams
• Outlines upcoming initiatives for a Product & Engineering
organization, their impact, and effort required
• Typically formatted in Excel, PowerPoint, or using project
management software (JIRA, Asana, Pivotal, Aha, etc.)
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
*Typically 3-12 months

6. 6
Why do you need a Product Roadmap?
• Communicate with and align key stakeholders (Marketing, Sales, Exec,
Operations, Engineering, etc.)
• Ensure your organization stays focused on the most important business
goals
• Provide a way to understand resources required to achieve and maintain
company success
• Hold teams accountable for progress and results
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map

7. 7
Each function uses the roadmap to inform their
day-to-day efforts
• Engineering: What features will I build and when?
• Marketing: What benefits will customers receive and when will they be
available? How should they be positioned in the market?
• Sales: What features can I sell at what price and when? How do I talk to
customers about them?
• Executives: How and when will key company metrics be impacted? How
do the technology team’s efforts align with the overall company vision?
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map

8. 8
Step-by-Step Approach for Roadmap Creation
1. Define product/company strategy, goals, and key metrics
2. Collect and analyze available data (qualitative and quantitative)
3. Identify projects and measure their potential impact
4. Understand high-level resource requirements
5. Sequence projects logically, assigning rough release timelines
6. Tailor the roadmap to each stakeholder as appropriate
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map

9. 9
Step 1: Define Strategy and Metrics
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
Typical Metrics
• Acquisition: Customer Acquisition Cost,
Payback Period, Website Traffic by Channel
• Activation: Conversion Rate, Engagement
Rates, Net Promoter Score
• Retention: Repeat Visits, Monthly/Daily Active
Users, Churn Rate
• Monetization: Average Revenue/Profit Per
User, Customer Lifetime Value (Net Operational
Costs)

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Step 2: Collect and Analyze Data
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
PRODUCT
MANAGEMENT
FUNNEL
STATS
FEATURE
USAGE
TRAFFIC
SOURCES
USER
FLOWS
AnalyticsTools
USER
INSIGHT
SUPPORT
TEAM
SALES
TEAM
MARKET
INSIGHT
Internal&ExternalResearch
EXEC
GOALS
OPS
COSTS

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Step 3a: Project Identification
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
• Funnel optimization: at what step(s) are people dropping off and why?
• Feature usage: what is seeing engagement and what is being ignored?
• User needs: what are users’ pain points – current and future? Does the
existing product fail to address these?
• Support requests: what are the most common user issues?
• Competitor offerings: where are we falling short? How can we stay ahead?
• Cost reduction: what manual efforts can be automated?

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Step 3b: Measuring Impact
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
• Increased conversion rate  increased # of customers  increased
revenue
• Hours of manual effort saved  decreased cost
• New product introduced  # new customers  increased revenue
• Increased organic traffic  increased # of customers  increased revenue
• Major customer dashboard bug fixed  increased satisfaction  lowered
churn  revenue “saved”
Rule of Thumb: Quantify impact in $ terms where appropriate & possible

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Step 4: Understand Resource Requirements
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
Project Product UI/Design Front-end Eng Back-end Eng QA Total
Create new
client reports
1 1 3 2 1 8
New customer
sign-up flow
2 3 5 1 2 13
Rearchitect APIs 0.5 0 0 4 2 6.5
Person Weeks Per Project
• Product: Write specs and acceptance criteria, manage project
• UI/Design: Create interface, user testing
• Front-end: Build user interface (web, mobile)
• Back-end: Build systems and APIs, tracking
• QA: Ensure acceptance criteria are met

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Step 5: Sequence Projects Logically
Rule of Thumb: Projects with highest impact per effort should be done
first
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
Other considerations include…
• Available resources & hiring timeline
• Seasonality
• Competitive launches
• Enterprise customer internal deadlines
• Contract renewal dates
• Macro events
• Fundraising/investor expectations

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Step 6: Tailor to Stakeholders
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
Stakeholder Expected Deliverables
Engineering
Detailed tasks with ownership and clear
deadlines
Sales
List of features, pricing and launch dates;
training materials
Marketing Detailed feature descriptions and launch dates
Operations Workflow documents; training materials
Executives
High-level view of business goals impacted by
quarter
Tips for getting buy-in
• Involve stakeholders early
• Explain how the plan was
derived from facts (“show your
work”)
• Show how resources are being
allocated across each initiative
• Communicate clearly, concisely,
and often
• Be sympathetic – not everyone
will be happy

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Executing the Roadmap
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map
Scenario Tips
Impact of initiative less
than predicted
• Launch MVPs
• Run experiments
• Abandon projects quickly
Client requirements and deadlines
change
• Assess revenue impact and client importance
• Beware of customizing too much
Company priorities
change
• Revisit roadmap quarterly
• Ensure backlog for multiple goals
Engineering timelines
slip
• Cut scope (MVP)
• Launch iteratively
• Add buffer to initial estimates

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Always Remember: Flexibility is Key!
Creating the “Right” Product
Road-Map

18. 18
Don't Miss the Next Session!
www.projectmanagementupdate.com/webinar-series/building-better-products
www.productmanagementtoday.com/webinar-series/building-better-products
www.businessinnovationbrief.com/webinar-series/building-better-products

19. 19
Q&A
Sunil Parekh Dave Martin
With: Moderated by:
Head of Product Management at
SimplyInsured
Linkedin page: linkedin.com/in/sunildparekh
Twitter ID: @suparekh
Email: suparekh@gmail.com
Chief Product Officer, Tes.
Linkedin page: linkedin.com/in/mrdavemartin/
Twitter ID: @mobile_dave
Email: dave@tes.com
Website: www.productwarrior.com

20. 20
Don't Miss the Next Session!
www.projectmanagementupdate.com/webinar-series/building-better-products
www.productmanagementtoday.com/webinar-series/building-better-products
www.businessinnovationbrief.com/webinar-series/building-better-products