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What is a Portfolio Roadmap and Do You Need One?
What do Microsoft 365 and Netflix have in common? Neither is a singular atomic product. Microsoft 365 is a product portfolio, a suite that contains productivity tools like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. The Netflix app appears to be a product bundle, a collection of smaller, specialised products, including movies, series, games and live events.
In both instances, I’d recommend using an overall portfolio or bundle strategy in addition to the individual product strategies. Take Microsoft 365 again as an example. If I were in charge of the suite, I’d use a portfolio strategy that guides and aligns the strategies of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.[1]
But wouldn’t it make sense to harmonise not only the product strategies but also align the product roadmaps? And if that’s the case, wouldn’t it be helpful to use a dedicated roadmap that states the overall outcomes the portfolio or bundle should create? This is where product portfolio roadmaps come in. [2]
A portfolio roadmap states how you intend to implement the portfolio strategy and the outcomes the portfolio should create. You’ll benefit from such a plan when you manage a cohesive portfolio like Microsoft 365 or a product bundle like Netflix. Let’s make this more concrete and look at an example.
How Can You Capture a Portfolio Roadmap?
Imagine it’s the year 2019, and you’re in charge of Microsoft 365. To ensure everybody is clear on how the tool suite will develop over the coming years and the outcomes it should achieve, you create the portfolio roadmap shown in Figure 1.[3]
If you are familiar with my work on outcome-based roadmaps, you’ll recognise the structure in Figure 1: It is based on my GO Product Roadmap template. The reason for this is simple. I’ve found that a portfolio roadmap benefits from having the same elements as a product roadmap. Consequently, you can apply my roadmapping approach not only to individual products but also to your portfolio.[4] Having said this, there are two points I’d like to draw your attention to.
First, the GO Portfolio Roadmap is built on outcomes—it’s an outcome-based, goal-oriented plan. Its goals describe the user and customer benefits the entire portfolio should create and the positive business impact it should achieve. They are its most essential element. Any feature shown on the roadmap must help meet the corresponding outcome. Consequently, you should determine the goals before you consider any features.[5]
Second, a portfolio roadmap is more coarse-grained than a product roadmap. The goals are larger, and the time frames are usually bigger. This is due to the nature of the entities we’re dealing with: A product portfolio is more sizeable than a single product.[6]
To create your own GO Portfolio Roadmap, download and adapt the GO Product Roadmap template or recreate it in your favourite tool. Please make sure, though, that you state the author and source of the template as well as the CreativeCommons license on your portfolio roadmap, as I did in Figure 1.
If you haven’t worked with the GO Product Roadmap, then you’ll benefit from reading the article The GO Product Roadmap and watching the video below.
| If you use OKRs—objectives and key results—you can view the goals in Figure 1 as objectives and the time frames, features, and metrics as key results—similar to the relationship I describe in the article OKRs and Product Roadmaps. |
How Does the Portfolio Roadmap Direct the Product Roadmaps?
A product portfolio roadmap, like the one in Figure 1, guides the product roadmaps by establishing higher-level outcomes and time frames, which the individual products have to adhere to. Figure 2 illustrates this relationship.
Take Microsoft 365 again as an example. The portfolio roadmap in Figure 1 states “Allow users to easily access standalone apps and increase the attractiveness of the suite” as the portfolio goal for 2020. This means that all products, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, will have to contribute to this goal in the time frame stated.
The product teams hence have to figure out what their specific contributions will have to be. The Word team, for example, would identify the impact on their roadmap and adjust the plan accordingly. To put it differently, meeting the product goals must help achieve the portfolio objectives. As a consequence, a product roadmap is no longer exclusively directed by the corresponding product strategy. It is also guided by the portfolio roadmap.
A question I often get asked in my workshops is, “How detailed should a portfolio roadmap be?” While I mentioned earlier that a portfolio roadmap is generally more high-level than a product roadmap, its actual level of detail will depend on how much alignment you require. The more coarse-grained the portfolio roadmap is, the more freedom the product teams have. Conversely, the more specific it is, the more constraints you put in place and the tighter you align the individual products. To get the balance right, I recommend a collaborative roadmapping approach that involves the people who are in charge of the portfolio products—like the one I recommend in the last section of this article.
How Can You Ensure the Portfolio Roadmap Is Right?
So far, we’ve discussed what a portfolio roadmap is, what information it should contain, and how it directs the product roadmaps. But how can you ensure that the plan is right in the first place, that the information you’ve captured on it is correct?
The first and most crucial step to an effective portfolio roadmap is to identify the right outcomes. A great way to achieve this is by breaking the needs and business goals stated in the corresponding portfolio strategy into subgoals, which you then put on the portfolio roadmap.[7] Figure 3 illustrates this approach.
In Figure 3, the customer and user needs, as well as the business goals, captured in the portfolio strategy guide the choice of the goals on the portfolio roadmap. You must therefore make sure that the portfolio goals on your roadmap help meet the overarching needs and business goals captured in the portfolio strategy. This method systematically connects the portfolio strategy and roadmap, and it ensures that the latter implements the former.
Once you’ve identified the right portfolio goals, carry out the following steps to complete your portfolio roadmap:
- Prioritise the portfolio goals you’ve identified.
- Capture the high-level work (features) necessary to meet the goals.
- Add metrics.
- Determine realistic time frames.
- Iterate over the plan and adjust it until it is actionable and realistic.
If you know my product roadmapping work, you’ll notice that the process above is similar to the one I recommend in my book Strategize, 2nd ed. That’s no coincidence: As mentioned earlier, you can apply my roadmapping tools and techniques to your portfolio as long as you make the adjustments pointed out in this article.
Who Creates and Updates the Portfolio Roadmap?
Say that you’ve decided that you would benefit from having a portfolio roadmap. Who is then responsible for developing and updating the roadmap? Generally speaking, that’s the job of a product portfolio manager. The role may be filled by the head of product—also known as Chief Product Officer, Director of Product Management, and VP of Product Management—or another senior product professional.
No matter which option you choose, I recommend embracing a collaborative roadmapping approach. A great way to do this is to form a product portfolio team like the one shown in Figure 4 and involve the members in carrying out the roadmapping work.
The portfolio team in Figure 4 consists of the product portfolio manager and the product people in charge of the portfolio member products. These might be the product managers of Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, to stay with the Microsoft 365 example. Additional team members include key stakeholders, for instance, a sales rep, marketeer, support team member, and finance expert, as well as representatives from the development teams like a UX designer (for end-user-facing products), an architect/programmer, and a tester/QA engineer.
Together, the portfolio team members create the portfolio roadmap, preferably in the form of a collaborative workshop. Bringing the right people together allows you to leverage their collective expertise, create clarity and alignment, and generate strong support for the plan.[8] As a portfolio roadmap is a plan that’s likely to change, the portfolio team should review and adjust it on a regular basis—once every three months, as a rule of thumb.[9]
Notes
[1] I explain how this can be done in the article Everything You Need to Know About Portfolio Strategy.
[2] I’ll use the term product portfolio roadmap to refer to a portfolio like Microsoft 365 and a bundle like Netflix and Uber in the remainder of the article.
[3] The sample portfolio roadmap in Figure 1 is based on the article “Looking back at 10 years of Microsoft 365 making history.” I’ve chosen Microsoft 365 as a well-known product portfolio, which I hope you can relate to. I do not claim, though, that the information in Figure 1 is accurate or that Microsoft uses a roadmapping like the one discussed in this article.
[4] Note that the goals on the roadmap in Figure 1 have a user/customer and business-facing part. The former describes the value the portfolio should create for the target groups; the latter does the same for the company providing the group of products.
[5] If an outcome-based roadmapping approach is new to you, then read my article How to Get Started with Outcome-Based Product Roadmaps.
[6] You therefore can’t apply the checklist I have developed for the GO Product Roadmap to the GO Portfolio Roadmap.
[7] I assume that a portfolio strategy like the one I describe in the article Everything You Need to Know About Product Portfolio Strategy is available. Such a strategy contains the target group and needs, the portfolio’s standout features, and the business goals it should achieve.
[8] A good decision rule to use is consent. This means that a portfolio roadmap is agreed upon if nobody has any meaningful objections. For more advice on choosing the right decision rule and collaborative decision-making in general, refer to my book How to Lead in Product Management.
[9] To save time, you may want to combine the portfolio roadmap and strategy review. The former depends on the latter, and the portfolio team in Figure 4 should work on both artefacts.