Sprints work great for knocking out features and improvements in the short term, but they don’t replace the need for long-term product planning. A product roadmap brings strategy to your pipeline so you can make smart decisions about how to grow your product and hit release dates right on time.
We created 3 free product roadmap templates to help you save time and get a jumpstart on planning, without the need to create a framework from scratch. Invite team members or stakeholders to collaborate on your plan and update your roadmap easily with TeamGantt’s simple drag-and-drop interface. Looking for more software development project resources? Explore all of our software development templates.
What is a product roadmap?
A product roadmap is a big-picture plan that lays out a clear path for the evolution of your product over time. In a roadmap, tasks show how your product will get from point A to point B so you can establish a timeline for feature releases without losing sight of long-range product goals. This makes it easy to get your team and stakeholders aligned on what will be delivered when and enables your product team to assess how new requests fit into the existing plan.
Product vs project roadmap
The main difference between a product roadmap and project roadmap is right there in the name. Products are goods or services delivered to an end user, while a project involves tasks completed over a set period of time.
A product roadmap is a list of features you plan to provide to the end-user, along with a timeline of these releases. It’s the source of truth of when things will go live.
A project roadmap, on the other hand, outlines the major tasks—such as event launch, social marketing, web project, and even product development—that need to happen to achieve the strategic goals. See project roadmap templates and examples.
Product roadmap elements
There’s no single right way to build a product roadmap. The format you use may change based on your product strategy, target audience, or even where you are in the product life cycle. Just be sure to structure your product roadmap around your team and stakeholder needs so everyone has clear visibility into the plan.
So how do you create a product roadmap that works for you? Here are some common elements to consider as you outline a roadmap for your product:
Product vision: Before you begin work, be sure to clearly define the end result you want to achieve. What features, functions, and benefits should your product deliver to the end user?
User stories: A user story is a simplified requirement description put in the voice of the end user. It typically follows this format: As a [type of user], I want [goal] so that [reason]. Initial product ideas get framed as user stories before they’re added to the product backlog.
Features: A feature represents new or improved functionality that creates value for users of your product and ties back to an established user story.
Releases: Releases are key launch dates for a set of features and/or functionality.
Epics: An epic is a large user story that can’t be completed within a single release. Epics typically consist of several smaller, related user stories or features that can be delivered incrementally.
Dates: Dates indicate key points when work should begin or conclude. Assigning deadlines to releases and other major milestones is critical to ensuring work stays on track.
Initiatives: Initiatives are strategic, high-level bodies of work that must be completed to meet organizational or project goals. On a roadmap, you may tie the release of certain features to an initiative to show how development work impacts the overall product strategy.
Free product development roadmap templates
Ready to create a roadmap for your software product? We’ve created a few product roadmap template options to help you get started! Choose the template that works best for you, and adapt it to fit your project needs.
Using a gantt chart to manage Agile projects enables you to stay on top of major milestones without slowing down product progress. These free gantt chart templates make it easy to map out a product development plan and view your roadmap as a continuous timeline. Plus, you’ll get access to the following features to enhance your Agile product roadmap planning:
Drag and drop interface
Task scheduling
Dependencies
User and resource workload view
File sharing
Team collaboration
Reporting
Agile product roadmap template
Get a 30,000-foot view of your project with an Agile product roadmap.
Major themes of work and the epics that roll up into each theme
When each epic is scheduled to begin and end and key release dates along the way
How daily work relates to the bigger picture plan
Best for:
High-level planning that spans months, quarters, or even years
Helpful features to use in this template:
Indicate an epic’s duration with tasks: Click and drag the edges of a task to shorten or extend its duration, or drag and drop a task to reschedule it on your timeline.
Call out key release dates during each epic with milestones: Simply drag and drop a milestone to move it to a new date if your release schedule changes.
See the full picture better by zooming out your timeline: Use TeamGantt’s zoom feature to view more of your timeline in a single screen. Zooming out also allows you to schedule longer tasks more easily.
Product release roadmap template
Map out your release schedule with our product release roadmap template.
Key tasks that must be completed—or features that will be delivered—during each release.
Best for:
Setting expectations with stakeholders and internal teams for when different versions of the product will go live
Creating alignment between cross-functional departments
Helpful features to use in this template:
Quickly update your release plan by rescheduling entire task groups: Plans inevitably change. Thankfully, it’s super-easy to update your roadmap. Click the gray task group bar to move an entire release to a new set of dates with a simple drag and drop.
Share more info about each release with comments and notes:Communicate important details, notify teammates of updates, and attach relevant documents directly to a task or release group.
Product features roadmap template
Share a high-level schedule for upcoming feature releases with our product features roadmap template.
When you’re planning to add new features to your product
The initiative each feature rolls up into and how it contributes to overarching product goals
Best for:
Informing internal teams—such as customer support and marketing—about exciting new features that are coming soon
Helpful features to use in this template:
Categorize features with task colors: Use task colors to indicate a feature’s status (e.g., red, yellow, green), feature type, team or teammate responsible, or initiative the feature applies to, as shown in the example below.
Show which features must be done in a certain order with dependencies: If one feature needs to be developed before another, use dependencies to clearly indicate a relationship between feature tasks.
Create a collaborative product roadmap with TeamGantt
Customizing the template is quick and easy, thanks to TeamGantt’s drag and drop simplicity. And since everything’s online, your whole team can collaborate on activities in real time.
