what is a product roadmap

A product roadmap is a high-level visual summary that maps out the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. It is a plan of action that aligns the organization around short and long-term goals for the product or project, and how they will be achieved. Product owners use roadmaps to outline future product functionality and when new features will be released. When used in agile development, a roadmap provides crucial context for the teams everyday work and should be responsive to shifts in the competitive landscape. A product roadmap is essential to communicating how short-term efforts match long-term business goals. The biggest benefit of the product roadmap is the strategic vision it illustrates to all stakeholders. The roadmap ladders up to broader product and company goals with development efforts, which connects work across teams and aligns those teams around common goals to create great products. The product roadmap needs buy-in from two key groups: leadership and the agile development team.