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Manufacturing a product from scratch takes strategic planning, purposeful timing, and effective communication across all departments, from product development and engineering to sales, marketing, and even finance.
This level of collaboration requires robust product planning tools like our Product Roadmap Management (PRM) software to keep everyone on track and in the know along the way.
Why a Product Roadmap Is Necessary for Your Business
It is essential for any business to have a product portfolio roadmap that brings together cross-functional teams to work together to create the best product possible for their customers.
To create a product portfolio roadmap, you need all your products and product lines in one place. You also need to be able to organize them in a way that is easy for each product manager to show their individual roadmap while also being able to step back to see the bigger picture. Having a high-level view of the roadmaps makes it easier to identify opportunities across products or spot issues with dependencies.
Your company will utilize different roadmaps for different purposes. It is essential for any business to have a product portfolio roadmap that brings together cross-functional teams to work together to create the best product possible for their customers. These teams can work together to ensure the complete roadmap is on track to deliver the desired results. Gone are the days of disorganized email threads, misplaced meeting notes, and inaccurate forecasting.
A Good Product Roadmap Enforces Company-Wide Accountability
A sure way to keep your team members accountable for their role in a new product development plan is to create a product roadmap that visually highlights the strategic vision, tracks important product milestones, and establishes long-term business goals from a well-rounded perspective.
By engaging with every department to build your product roadmap, everyone will be able to keep track of what stage the product development is at and who is responsible for completing each objective within the proposed time frame.
Product Roadmaps Help Manufacturers Create Better Products
By communicating every aspect of a new product line in the roadmap, sales team members get familiar with the product sooner
When you organize your product development plan into a high-level, purpose-driven product strategy, your team will be able to create better products because every department can follow along with the process with a greater understanding of the bigger picture.
The types of product management roadmaps that are most effective are those that enforce “big picture” thinking, allowing team members to see how each stage in the development process will help each product benefit the company’s bottom line in the long run.
By communicating every aspect of a new product line in the roadmap, sales team members get familiar with the product sooner, giving them more context and education on the product so they can create a thoughtful, well-informed marketing campaign to launch the new product line.
Well-Executed Product Roadmaps Encourage Full Transparency
A significant benefit of utilizing PRM software is that you have the ability to track and share data that pertains to a new product line. Because every department has a stake in the strategy and can see everyone else’s objectives mapped out on the plan, there is a level of transparency that allows the team to be honest in their progress and contributions.
Everyone can and should see the product portfolio roadmap to understand what goes into the development process and to get a good sense of everyone’s time frame for their work on the new product. This also means that, if there are unforeseen delays, stakeholders can refer to the strategic product roadmap and see exactly where in the development stage there is a delay, the reason behind it, and how it will impact goals.
All external stakeholders should be able to see your product roadmap so they can stay informed on projected timelines, understand the process at a high level, and gain strategic insight.
An Excellent Product Roadmap Is an Effective Communication Piece
All external stakeholders should be able to see your product roadmap so they can stay informed on projected timelines, understand the process at a high level, and gain strategic insight. Think of your product roadmap as an educational tool to help stakeholders get a better grasp of exactly how a product impacts the goals of the company.
There is also merit in having internal executives review your product roadmap, as it can help them adjust long-term business goals more accurately based on how your roadmap lays out the new product development. As long as they can see where the product line is in the manufacturing stage, executives will be able to update external partners promptly and accurately.
A Well-Crafted Product Roadmap Makes for Better Budgets
Everyone knows that markets are always in flux with plenty of highs and lows, which is why building a product roadmap that has strategic plans in place can prepare your agile team to respond to market challenges with appropriate, data-supported solutions for your business.
Having your all-encompassing product roadmap laid out in a way that people can follow makes it easier for finance executives to oversee the accounting side of your product goals to make clearer financial decisions. With software that allows you to tailor your roadmap for your audiences, you can quickly show your financial teams the data they need while ignoring the nuts and bolts your engineers need.
The roadmap will highlight all potential risks, delays, updates, and information your finance department will need to make more accurate revenue projections. If a product line needs to be launched in multiple stages, or if there are going to be various versions of the product, your accounting team will see that in the product roadmap and will be able to budget resources accordingly.
Bring Your Product Vision to Life With a Modern Product Management Roadmap
There are many reasons to incorporate a product roadmap into your manufacturing process, from more effective communication and collaborative efforts to improved time management and accountability across departments.
At Gocious, our intuitive PMR software goes above and beyond the traditional project management models on the market, offering a highly sophisticated toolkit that allows manufacturers to create detailed product portfolio roadmaps and manage cross-industry product lines for multiple markets.
With Gocious product management roadmap software, you can:
- create strategic roadmaps for your entire portfolio,
- manage multiple product lines and models,
- set and track customized KPIs,
- streamline communication,
- develop a forward-focused framework for accurate financial projections, and;
- provide sales and marketing teams with a detailed timeline to inform strategic launch campaigns.
Are You Ready to Streamline Your Manufacturing Process With a Product Management Roadmap?
By now, it should be clear that creating and following a strategic product roadmap is necessary if you want your product development plan to run as smoothly as possible from when your product is an idea on paper to when you sell your first unit. The right product management roadmap software can bring your team together, encourage transparency, and boost efficiencies at every stage of your product development process.
If you’re ready to take your product development strategy to the next level, schedule a demo with us today and find out how our product management roadmap software will revolutionize product management for your unique business objectives.