What is a project roadmap and how to create it correctly

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We figure out why a project roadmap is considered an important tool for business development, and share a detailed plan for its compilation from the specialists of the reputation agency Topface Media .
It is important for the marketing team to understand the connection between the corporate strategy and the tactical work that needs to be done. But this relationship is not always obvious. In this situation, it is useful to visualize how exactly the step-by-step actions in the project will correspond to the company's business goals. This is where a roadmap comes in - a tool that came out of the field of product management, where several teams of different specializations are involved in projects.
What is a roadmap
A roadmap is a picture of the expected results with checkpoints on the way to them, deadlines and responsible persons. It helps to set the general direction of work in a large project, keep the global goal and main steps in front of your eyes.

A roadmap for project implementation should social media marketing service be drawn up before the start of work and used as a basis for forming a more detailed plan and schedule.
Roadmap Basics
While every marketing roadmap will be unique, the essential fundamentals will remain the same.
Goals and objectives
Firstly, the roadmap itself has goals. For example, it can be used to quickly provide project updates to all responsible participants in the process, request additional budget or human resources from the company's management or external investors.

Marketing strategic goals specified in the roadmap should correspond to the SMART model: be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. It is important to describe in detail what result of the project can be considered successful.

Important tasks can be distributed by goals and immediately prioritized in order to avoid chaos within the team and rush jobs that happen at the start.
Structure and components
The roadmap structure can look like a simple list of key events or like a complex diagram with cross-dependencies between points. Standard map components, in addition to goals and objectives, include resources, milestones (milestones, boundaries of major stages) and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Unlike a plan, a project roadmap will not have unnecessary detail. Instead, it will focus on major areas of work, important initiatives, their sequence relative to each other and interrelationships, as well as risk factors.



Below, we will discuss how to prepare for drawing up a marketing roadmap.
Roadmap development process
Analysis and prioritization
To create an effective marketing roadmap, you need to analyze market conditions and take into account the company's global goals. Prioritize those marketing activities that will most effectively promote the product in the near future with the least effort and expense.
Stakeholder engagement
Key project participants and stakeholders should be involved in working on the roadmap - then it will be complete, realistic and feasible. Responsibility for solving problems and monitoring stages is assigned to managers and senior specialists, who synchronize the work in their part of the project group with the roadmap and report on the results.
Regular update
The project implementation roadmap is not a static document, it is flexible and adaptive. It is regularly revised, taking into account changes in the market, in the organization's business and intermediate results. Therefore, the chain of processes on the roadmap should be flexible so that adjustments made in any of the parts do not threaten the course of the entire project.
Assessing risks and opportunities
Creating a roadmap involves assessing the complexity of project tasks and searching for potential problems that may arise during work. Knowing about them, you can think about how to reduce or avoid risks and include the necessary activities in the map. You can also take into account the experience of past projects, if roadmaps were created for them, and see what risks were realized there, for example, a missed deadline, an unplanned increase in the required budget, a pause in work due to the interdependence of stages.

On the other hand, a risk can be accepted, taken into account in the roadmap and used as an opportunity for growth and bypassing competitors.