There are many strategies and roadmaps that lead to a successful product launch. Some of these include product strategy, product roadmap, and product development roadmap.

Out of all these, the most granular roadmap is a product development roadmap. It looks at the small steps of development rather than the bigger picture. In this article, we will explore what exactly it is, and how you can create one.

What is a Product Development Roadmap?

A product development roadmap, or a product development plan, outlines a detailed overview of the product development. It includes milestones, timelines, resources, and processes needed to make your app concept real.

The plan focuses specifically on the development process, ensuring that every step aligns with your product vision. It is centered on the product itself.

Product development roadmaps vs. product roadmaps

It’s easy to think of product development roadmaps and product roadmaps as the same. But actually, they are quite different.

A product roadmap provides a higher-level visualization of your product strategy, focused on your product’s long-term vision. It maps out steps from the very beginning to the final launch.

A product development roadmap zooms into smaller steps such as processes, strategy, and goals for actual development. It’s a granular roadmap and thus, it also defines the app features, designs, and tasks that need to be done.

Why is a Product Development Roadmap Crucial?

There’s a common question: “Do you need to create a product development roadmap when you already have a product roadmap?”

The answer is, yes. It’s mainly because a product roadmap focuses on the larger vision, from ideation to launch. By contrast, product development details on how the product will be built.

Product development roadmaps have advantages of their own, such as:

Structuring complex processes: Product development is a long process with many complex steps and changes to do. In this case, a roadmap structures these processes and tasks effectively for everyone.
Facilitating cross-team collaboration: When you’re developing a product, smooth cross-team collaboration is essential. A product development roadmap allows you to clearly see how your team’s work fits with your vision.
Clear communication: A good product development roadmap communicates the plan and vision clearly to internal and external stakeholders. In addition, a visual roadmap makes it easy for the team to align on your vision.

Key Components of a Product Development Roadmap

A product development roadmap works as a collaborative tool for the development process. There are many core components in play, such as:

Product vision and objectives: Consider the long-term goal for your product after launch and how you’ll measure its success.
Feature map: Outline the specific features that will be built.
Technical specifications: Specify the technical requirements and solutions for your product.
Design: Create wireframes, design frameworks, or other design plans that seem relevant to your product.
Launch plan: Outline the tasks, testing, and development to be done before launch.
Timeline: Add release dates for key features that will be released.
Potential risks: Include known risks and challenges that may happen, and the strategies that you’ll use to manage them throughout product development.

You can include other components as well to your roadmap, depending your needs and goals. As you create your development roadmap, ensure that it supports your overall strategy and product roadmap.

How to Create a Product Development Roadmap?

A product development roadmap ensures that all of your teams stay aligned with the broader strategy and goals. Here are five key steps to create a product development plan that keeps everyone informed:

1. Set your goals and strategy

2. Pick a roadmap framework

3. Outline a product development process

4. Determine project owners and stakeholders

5. Adjust your roadmap

1. Set your goals and strategy

One of your key goals with the product development roadmap is to clearly outline the development tasks that need to be done. That’s where you need to align your strategy and goals.

While keeping your company vision in mind, create strategic goals for the development phase. Ask yourself questions like:

What exactly do we want to accomplish?
What are the success metrics for launching these features?
How will these goals align with the larger business objectives?

You can use your product roadmap as the foundation for this stage. Building your development roadmap on the basis of your product roadmap’s broad vision would be much easier.

2. Pick a roadmap framework

Most product development roadmaps are built on two major frameworks: a waterfall roadmap or an agile roadmap.

Waterfall roadmaps are based on a traditional, linear framework to outline each product development phase. These roadmaps use sequential logic to create a development plan suitable for traditional companies.

Agile roadmaps are based on the agile development framework and thus, they focus on epics, sprints, and themes. Unlike waterfall roadmaps, agile roadmaps are flexible and iterative. These are best for agile framework-based startups.

3. Outline a product development process

The development process is the most complex steps of all. It is more than determining and building new features. In general, a product development process follows six steps:

1. Research

2. Ideate

3. Validate

4. Plan

5. Develop and launch

6. Analyze

Keep these steps in mind as you create your product development process. Create milestones for each of these steps: Market research, ideation and validation, development and launch, and analysis of its success.

4. Determine project owners and stakeholders

With the product development roadmap, you can align stakeholders on who owns what specific tasks and phases. For this step, you need to get input from the teams — and not just product managers and engineers.

Here’s an example of a few important teams and their roles:

UI/UX design teams can run user testing and feedback.
Sales and marketing teams are important to validate positioning statements, pricing, and messaging.
Project managers can manage progress, timelines, and dependencies.

Since you’re already working on the development process, assign roles and tasks to your team. Make sure that all the teams are coordinated so that there are no cracks in your product development process.

5. Adjust your roadmap

Even if your roadmap seems perfect, it’s always better to create room for iterations and adjustments. In simple words, your development roadmap should be flexible for any change of plans.

An ideal way to do this can be through a built-in review process. It can allow you to keep the roadmap aligned and updated with your current objectives while having space for adjustments.

Develop your product effectively with Natively

Once your product development plan is in place, you can start building your app quickly and easily — with Natively.

Natively’s AI app builder that lets you build your app in minutes. It takes a fraction of the development costs, delivers an app in minutes, and iteration is just a prompt away. The best part is: you don’t need multiple tools to run your app.
From validation to launch, Natively makes every step easier for you. Execute your ideas faster with the no-code AI agent — build and scale with Natively.

A product development roadmap guides teams through the development process, keeping them aligned. Read this guide to build your roadmap.