If you’re going on a journey, you need to know where you’re going. For the product development journey, it is absolutely essential.
Just as a street atlas roadmap tells a driver which immediate turns to make to arrive at their desired destination, a product roadmap communicates what short-term efforts need to be made to achieve long-term business goals. It keeps everyone on your team headed in the same direction.
A classic product roadmap is a plan of action for how a product or solution will evolve over time. It outlines product functionality, and proposed additions, and provides a timeline for new features to be released.
While traditional product roadmaps have been a staple in product management for years, they come with significant drawbacks:
Dennis Chow, founder of LodeStone and experienced product management professional, emphasizes this: “The thing I don’t like to do is commit timelines to our initiatives. And I will push back furiously on stakeholders who ask for roadmaps with timelines.”
Thankfully, there is an alternative. Sunburst visualization is a revolutionary technique that simplifies complex data and enhances strategic planning. Sunburst charts are particularly effective in representing hierarchical data, illustrating proportions, relationships, attributes, and structures within organizations, file systems, and other categorical data.
A properly built sunburst diagram or chart will streamline your product management processes and boost your ability to communicate intricate plans with clarity and precision. Let’s delve into how sunburst visualization can transform your approach to product planning and elevate your management skills to the next level.
Sunburst visualization offers a fresh, intuitive way to represent your product strategy. Using the Plotly package (an open-source graphing library) in R (a programming language), you can create interactive sunburst chart visualizations to display and enhance user engagement.
But what exactly is a sunburst chart?
A sunburst roadmap consists of three main components:
The beauty of this structure lies in its ability to clearly show relationships and priorities. As opposed to the bidirectional layout of traditional roadmap charts, a sunburst chart communicates interrelationships intuitively at a glance.
Chow describes this inter-relational flow: “These are the features that we’re working on. These are some of the themes that those features are connected to, which then in turn roll up to, hey, these are the organizational goals that we have.”
Each segment within a ring is divided under its parent node, making it easy to visualize the hierarchy and connections between different levels and categories of data.
Sunburst map visualization offers several benefits over traditional roadmaps:
Chow highlights this advantage: “If you want to know where we’re going, what we’re doing, then you’re asking for a roadmap. Don’t ask me to blend the two concepts of roadmaps and timelines.”
Now that you understand the benefits let’s explore how you can create your own Sunburst roadmap. The first step is organizing your product information into hierarchical data structures.
Before you start visualizing, you need to structure your product information as hierarchical data:
Remember, the goal is to create a clear hierarchy chart that reflects your product strategy.
With your information organized, it’s time to bring your roadmap to life:
Chow emphasizes the importance of this step: “It’s that storytelling aspect. And this is where Lodestone [a productivity suite for project managers] sort of takes it beyond just the production of a sunburst pie chart for its users.”
As Lodestone’s website says, “Lodestone’s Roadmap Storyteller is the only roadmap visualization tool that effortlessly enables product managers to tell great stories with their roadmap presentations.”
To ensure your sunburst roadmap is easily understood:
As Chow explains, “You’ve automatically got a collection of slides that allow you the presenter to progressively go through to say, ‘Hey, listen, for Q4 we’re about these three goals. Let me talk to you about goal one.’”
Creating the sunburst roadmap visualization is just the first step. The next crucial phase is ensuring its implementation within your organization for maximum effectiveness.
Integrating sunburst or multi-level pie charts into your existing product management processes can dramatically enhance strategic alignment and communication. But to ensure effective implementation, you should take the time to explain them on roll-out – do not assume they will be equally intuitive to all users.
Different stakeholders within your organization will have varying needs, priorities, and interests. It's vital to tailor your presentations accordingly to ensure each group derives the maximum benefit from your sunburst roadmap:
To fully leverage the benefits of sunburst roadmaps, it's essential to integrate them into your current product management processes seamlessly:
Chow emphasizes this last point: "It's that bridging document that connects your strategy and analysis to your tactics."
As you implement sunburst roadmaps, you might face certain challenges, especially when dealing with deeper hierarchy levels. Here are some strategies to address and overcome these obstacles:
"I'm not shy of timelines”, says Chow. “I believe there's a distinction here that needs to be made. There is a document that your product team needs to produce called a roadmap... There is a corresponding document called the release plan that sets a schedule to all of those initiatives."
Implementing sunburst roadmaps effectively requires clear communication, strategic alignment, and ongoing adjustments. By tailoring presentations to different stakeholders, integrating the roadmaps into agile processes, and addressing potential challenges head-on, organizations can harness the full potential of this innovative visualization tool to drive success.
One of the most significant advantages of sunburst roadmaps is their ability to tell a compelling story about your product strategy. Traditional roadmaps, often centered around rigid timelines, can fall short of illustrating the broader narrative of how various initiatives connect to a business's overarching goals. In contrast, a sunburst roadmap visually and intuitively showcases the hierarchy and interrelationships within your product plan.
By leveraging this visual format, product managers can effectively communicate the context behind prioritization decisions and the progression of strategic initiatives. It allows stakeholders to better understand what is being developed and why certain features are prioritized. This transparent ‘story’ fosters greater alignment across different departments – everyone can see where their efforts fit into the larger picture.
Moreover, storytelling through sunburst roadmaps helps to engage and inspire teams. It transforms dry, technical data into a visually compelling narrative highlighting the company's vision and the path to achieving it.
Your sunburst roadmap should:
As Chow eloquently puts it, "Where others are looking up in the sky, and they're seeing a random smattering of stars, you're the one that needs to really connect them together to say, 'Hey, look, there's a constellation here.'"
Use your sunburst roadmap as a tool to:
Remember, your roadmap is not just a planning tool - it's a powerful communication device.
Use your sunburst roadmap as a tool to facilitate your discussions around product strategy:
Ultimately, a sunburst roadmap guides your team with clarity and weaves together the strategic narrative of your product's journey. By leveraging this tool, you can ensure that every initiative is aligned with your overarching goals, driving your organization toward its vision with confidence and coherence.
Sunburst visualization offers a flexible, clear, and strategic approach to product roadmaps. Implementing this innovative technique will transform product strategy planning and communication.
Don't be afraid to experiment with this approach. As Chow suggests, it might revolutionize your organization's approach to product roadmaps: "If you want to know where we're going, what we're doing, then you're asking for a roadmap. Just don't ask me to blend it with timelines."
It's time to embrace the power of sunburst visualization. Transform your product strategy communication today, and watch as your team becomes more aligned, your stakeholders become more engaged, and your product vision becomes clearer than ever before.
By adopting sunburst visualization for your product roadmaps, you're not just changing a document - you're revolutionizing your approach to product management. To get where you want to go, just follow the sun.
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