How to build a business roadmap.
Building a roadmap
We know that building a business roadmap can seem like a task that is easy to put off when you have seemingly more urgent things on your to-do list. That’s why you need to allocate a good chunk of time (block out distractions such as emails and calls) and sit with the leaders (if you are the only leader then that’s ok too!) of your business to create the plan.
Before you start creating your roadmap you will need to:
- Block out time in your diary or calendar (Set aside a morning or afternoon, 3-4 hours… sometimes more is required – this is a deep planning session.)
- Find a quiet space.
- Minimize your distractions (get calls and emails covered and let people know you are in ‘do not disturb’ mode)
- Find a roadmap template you’ll use, make your own or use planning software.
- Set aside some time to think about your future vision, and what some of your future targets might be. This is a perfect element to use your Mindset Time or Renaissance Time for, that we explained in the Mindset Pillar.
- Get the information and inspiration. If there are targets that you are thinking about adding to your roadmap, make sure that you have the information and inspiration to commit to doing them. There is nothing worse than writing out a target and then realizing that you didn’t realize that with knowing the full information, that it’s suddenly much more challenging. An example of this could be deciding a target that you are going to expand your business to the next city but then you realize that your supplier will not serve you in that area and that the competition in that area’s market is much higher than you thought. When you are creating your roadmap, you may naturally come across challenges that you hadn’t considered before. Make a note of what they are and find the answers to the questions that you have. The good news is the most challenges are resolvable or can be worked around in a different way!
- Remember that your roadmap is an evolving document. You shouldn’t create it and forget about it. Instead, keep adding to it and reviewing it regularly. You should expect that you may have to move your priorities and the components of it around in order to achieve what you need to.
- Set Targets
Establish what you want to achieve. We recommend that you read the next lesson where we explain in detail how to set business targets.
- Gather your information.
Bring the relevant input from your team, as well as your market research into the planning space. Use it to help create appropriate targets for your roadmap.
- Organize themes.
What themes are emerging? Where would you like to prioritize your efforts, energy, and resources?
- Prioritize
Once you have a number of targets it’s time to prioritize them. If you haven’t learnt how to prioritize you can think about useful tools like the 80-20 rule, using self-coaching techniques, or speaking with a business mentor.
- Add time frames.
A key feature of creating a roadmap is that it is a time-based metric that we are monitoring. All the targets that you add to your roadmap need to have timeframes and deadlines.
- Build in milestones and dependencies.
Remember to add milestones to break your targets into mini targets along the way. You should celebrate when you reach a milestone. It can be easy to ignore our minor successes but without them we wouldn’t get to our end achievements. They are also crucial for building motivation and keeping the long-term target present in everyone’s mind. Dependencies need to be considered and added to the roadmap. You may need to make some adjustments to the order of these, and that is fine so long as you are communicating any changes that impact on your employees.
- Review and revise.
A roadmap really becomes a remarkable asset when it is used regularly and kept up to date. Information that is out-of-date, missed targets and incorrect timelines are not useful for anyone. You need to make sure that it becomes part of your working routine to regularly review your roadmap and revise changes that need to be made in order to keep it relevant and right for your company. If you are trying to fit too much on to one roadmap, consider that as you get more comfortable with this kind of planning that you can split your targets and initiatives into short and long term focuses and build a few roadmaps to represent the information in a clearer way.
Final thoughts
There is no doubt that if you are new to road-mapping, this can be quite a bit to wrap your head around. However, with some time and commitment that results of effective planning on your business can be impressive and dramatically improve the way things get done. Read on to see the best practices in setting targets for your business.