Using Flow-based Roadmaps & Options

Cat Swetel & Matt Barcomb @catswetel @mattbarcomb

How we’ll spend our time Flow-based roadmapping

Options thinking

Example metrics

How it usually starts

How it usually ends

Planning for mass construction

How much will it cost? When will it be done?

Planning for research & development

Should we start? Should we keep going?

Routine manufacturing

Complex manufacturing

Physical product dev.

Spectrum of knowable stuff

Scientific research

Mass construction

Software product dev.

Enterprise ERP impl.

How knowable is the domain

Known responses to unknowns

Relationship between cause & effect

Shift the focus

Primarily focus on understanding benefit.

Evaluate risk and opportunity costs.

Learn just enough about costs to choose to start.

Team  A

Team  B

A starting structure

Team  A

Team  B

Readiness

Support

Readiness & Support

Team  A

Team  B

Readiness

Infras

On  Horizon

Coming  Soon

Up  Next

Current  Goal

In  Use

Time-based flow

Team  A

Team  B

Readiness

Infras

On  Horizon

Coming  Soon

Up  Next

Current  Goal

In  UseHBD

Here be dragons!

Team  A

Team  B

Readiness

Infras

On  Horizon

Coming  Soon

Up  Next

Current  Goal

In  UseHBD

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

Define explicit policies

Team  A

Team  B

Readiness

Infras

On  Horizon

Coming  Soon

Up  Next

Current  Goal

In  UseHBD

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

things we do now and again for reasons

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Limit work in progress

Cadence and Roadmap structure

Your business

Your industry

Your market

But what goes IN a flow-based roadmap?

ProjectsFeatures

OPTIONS!

MVPs Epics

Framing an option

Option  Name:

Testable  Customer  &  Problem  Hypothesis:

Measurable  Organizational  Benefit:

Results  &  Measures: Starting/Stopping  Triggers:

Assumptions  &  Dependencies:

Your roadmap as options

Like a sales funnel

Farther down in the funnel,

greater investment

Your roadmap as options

IDEATION

PROTOTYPE

PILOT

PRODUCTION

-­‐Not  yet  validated  -­‐Future

-­‐Validated  -­‐Now

Information Value of Options

Tomorrow’s Core Business

Today’s Core Business

Keep the lights on

Focus

Low risk

Big investment

Lots of small, high risk/high reward bets

Pay less to obtain

information early

70 / 20 / 10

Time:

70% core business

20% related projects

10% unrelated to core business

Options

MVPs/Projects are options

triggers: starting/stopping heuristics (context, events, rules of thumb)

information value of options

Options: start/stop heuristics

Starting or Stopping Triggers

- duration - seasonality - stakeholder feedback - govt. policy - major biz activity - competition shift - media/PR event - market shift - technology shift - employee shift - major social incident - better options

Cadence for Reviewing Options

Roadmap metrics: cost of delay

How much would you pay for more time?

How long will the option have value, and at what

rate does the value decay?

Roadmap metrics

Cycle Time

Roadmap metrics

Cycle Time and/or Lead Time

Lead  TimeCycle  Time

Team  ATeam  BReadinessInfras

On  Horizon

Coming  Soon

Up  Next

Current  Goal

In  UseHBD

DISCLAIMER:  This  is  just  an  example.  

Roadmap metrics: churn

VALIDATED

INVALIDATED

NOT  YET  VALIDATED

Roadmap metrics: risk and experimentation

Transitioning to flow-based roadmaps Starting a flow-based roadmap

Framing options Information value of options

Metrics and measures for roadmaps

What we covered

Questions?

Cat Swetel Matt Barcomb @catswetel @mattbarcomb