The tools you select to implement can determine the success or failure of your planning session. For many people who oversee business initiatives — like product managers or marketing managers, as well as executives in technology — an outline is their primary tool to organize, communicate the information, and track and improve the initiatives.
Because of how crucial an outline can be for a company’s most significant initiatives, from the launch of the latest product or service to implementing an entire network for the enterprise therefore, choosing the right tools for a roadmap can be a significant factor in the overall success of a business.
Common Applications that professionals use as Roadmap Tools
Since there are only a few tools for creating roadmaps for product managers, the majority of others who have to create as well as maintain their own roadmaps relied on tools specifically designed for other functions.
Spreadsheets
The most important benefit for spreadsheet applications is the fact that they permits an author of a roadmap track lists. For the product manager creating a plan for the product for instance it is helpful in assembling a products’ features, themes stories, initiatives and deadlines. They can also be modified quite quickly.
However, spreadsheet software has many issues as a tool for navigating.
Firstof all, spreadsheets are not visually appealing. If a product manager has to present the plan of action of the company — which is a crucial aspect of the product manager’s job — the spreadsheet isn’t able to provide an appealing visual structure. This makes it challenging to provide constituents with an overall strategic perspective or even a simple where to start discussions.
They are also static documents , usually saved on a laptop of a user. Transferring spreadsheet files between different components can cause issues with version control and create confusion. There are better tools to create product roadmaps that are available.
Presentations
Many managers who must utilize roadmap tools favor presentation software over spreadsheets since it creates an image-rich document. In keeping with the example of a product manager the presentation provides greater freedom to visually communicate the strategic direction of a product to different stakeholders.
However, just like spreadsheets, a presentation document is also a static file that requires the same type of manual updates that spreadsheets do as well as causing confusion regarding version control. In the end, the best road map tool should not be a static document, but it must be accessible via the internet and constantly up-to-date.
Management Applications for Project Management Applications
Managers who oversee company initiatives choose to use tools for managing projects as roadmap tools. This is typically due to the fact that unlike static spreadsheets or presentation files, a lot of project management applications are cloud-based and provide simple, cloud-based updates as well as sharing among teams.
However, project management tools come with the disadvantage of being created to monitor the details at the base of an initiative – specific dates and tasks “tickets,” email messages across teams, etc.
These programs, similar to spreadsheet and presentation software do not have the ability to change between presenting strategies and tactics -since they were not made to be tools for navigating.
The Purpose-Built Roadmap’s Value Tools
The roadmap application (like Saasfe) is created to allow users to convey strategy through an image-based map. These are applications on the web that are designed for marketing managers, product directors, development managers IT managers as well as. Anyone who must establish priorities, plan, communicate, and monitor the progress of a company’s strategic initiative.
Since they were created exclusively for use in roadmaps, these tools offer all the important components the product manager or any other manager requires in the form of a roadmap.
The purpose-built tools for a roadmap are:
- Quickly produce an appealing and visually appealing map.
- Web-based and specifically designed for corporate-wide collaboration and sharing.
- No need to worry about the issues of version control that static documents can cause like spreadsheets.
- It is easy to update and change.
- Ability to provide an overall strategic perspective whenever necessary (e.g. or presenting to senior executives) and to go into the details of the ground whenever needed (e.g. for example, during an event for development).
This means that managers who are responsible for driving initiatives for their organizations and must track these initiatives by using roadmaps do not require applications developed for different purposes in business -instead, they should utilize apps specifically designed to serve as roadmap tools.