There isn't just one type of product roadmap. Product teams have a lot on the go—from managing a product or two (or three or four), coordinating feature launches, and managing development / design resources—so, their roadmaps need to be able to adapt to different needs.
With this in mind, we created over 12 different product roadmap templates to help product teams stay on track. They’re free to use and download, and you’ll definitely find one or two (or three or four!) of these roadmaps that will work for you and your product teams.
Ready to start building better roadmaps? Our complete 2021 guide to product roadmaps has everything you need to get started.
1. Product roadmap template
For product managers and product teams that need to visualize strategy and get an entire organization aligned using crystal-clear, collaborative roadmaps.
What’s a product roadmap?
Let's start with the basics. A product roadmap is a visual communication tool that aligns a company around a high-level product strategy. Depending on the type of organization, product roadmaps can include upcoming features and technical considerations, and often demonstrate how a product will evolve over time. Roadmaps communicate the customer and business outcomes the team will achieve within a period of time.
Product teams can use our bread-and-butter product roadmap template to align executives and other departments on their long-term product vision, illustrate the high-level strategy in a easy-to-digest way, and show everyone at the organization what the product team aims to achieve in the quarter (or month, or year, depending on the organization).
What are the types of product roadmaps?
Timeline: Use the Timeline view of the product roadmap template to chart how your product will grow over time. You can organize your tasks within key buckets — including new features, infrastructure and stickiness.
Swimlane: If you require more flexibility, use Swimlane to sort tasks based on progress, not time.
Try the product roadmap template and make it your own.
2. Software roadmap template
For software product teams and project owners that need a communication and alignment bridge between the product vision/strategy and the specific deliverables different teams are working on.
What’s a software roadmap?
The software roadmap template is used by product and engineering teams to keep track of software development processes at a high level. This template visualizes both short- and long-term initiatives that an organization needs to develop over a specific period of time, complete with details like milestones, key dates, and progress status.
A software roadmap often includes tasks that cross different technical teams — like development, product, and design — to plan out how they'll work together to hit their collective goals.
What are the types of software roadmap?
Timeline: This view can be used to see how each team’s projects will be delivered over time.
Swimlane: For teams that don't adhere to strict deadlines, use Swimlane to track progress.
Try the software roadmap to align your technical teams on upcoming projects.
3. Product development roadmap template
For product teams that need a way to communicate development initiatives taking place over a specific time window.
What’s a product development roadmap?
The product development roadmap gives product teams a tool that clearly communicates where a product is going — and it helps PMs align all stakeholders on the chosen direction. Product development roadmaps can also be referred to as product development cycle roadmaps. These roadmaps are more focused on defining the initiatives and activities enacted by a product development team in relation to the overall product goals.
The main goal of a product development roadmap is to demonstrate visually how a new product will enter the market and compete in it — while also demonstrating how cohesion and support across all stages of the product development process will happen across departments.
What are the types of product development roadmaps?
Timeline: The Timeline view turns your release plans, technical stories, design projects and marketing initiatives into a crystal-clear plan with set deadlines and deliverables.
Swimlane: Swimlane provides a quick snapshot of how each part of your product line is progressing.
Try the product development roadmap template to build out a solid strategy.
4. Product launch roadmap template
For product teams launching a new product and need to visualize timelines, organize cross-department collaboration, and answer all stakeholder questions around messaging/positioning, functionality and customers.
What’s a product launch roadmap?
The product launch roadmap template illustrates your entire go-to-market strategy — all the way from pre- to post-launch.
This is a roadmap that crosses departmental lines to include all of the stakeholders involved in a product launch — including product, development, marketing, and sales. It clearly outlines all of the tasks required to make sure that pre-launch, launch, and post-launch tactics are successfully executed.
What are the types of product launch roadmaps?
Timeline: Timeline view can be used to document how your go-to-market strategy will progress over a set time frame. You can organize tasks by department and other buckets important to your planning.
Swimlane: With Swimlane, you can sort your go-to-market tasks into categories like pre-launch, launch and post-launch.
Try the product launch roadmap template to plan your next go-to-market strategy.
5. Feature roadmap template
For product teams that need to communicate the when, who, how, and what around launching a new feature offering.
What’s a feature roadmap?
The feature roadmap template is a great tool for PMs to track the development and releases of their product’s key features. This roadmap also communicates the direction of a product's feature development to internal and external stakeholders. Optionally, this roadmap can also be used to keep customers in the loop regarding the progress of a feature they requested.
This roadmap hones in on the development of a specific feature without going into detail on other areas within the organization — keeping the focus on initiatives that add value to users.
What are the types of feature roadmaps?
Timeline: Use Timeline to visualize the future of your product and illustrate when new features will be coming through your pipeline.
Swimlane: Alternately, Swimlane buckets your features into buckets that are not tied to deadlines.
Try the feature roadmap to align your team on what features are coming and when.
6. Agile roadmap template
For agile product teams that need a roadmap to visualize short-term agile cycles, and communicate quick changes learned from the user feedback and flexibility of intent.
What’s an agile roadmap?
For the most flexible of product teams, the agile roadmap template illustrates how your product strategy will evolve without a heavy focus on dates. The agile roadmap is more concerned with themes or progress.
What’s an agile roadmap?
For the most flexible of product teams, the agile roadmap template illustrates how your product strategy will evolve without a heavy focus on dates. The agile roadmap is more concerned with themes or progress.
Get your copy of our complete guide to agile roadmapping, with examples and insights from PMs working at Google, EA, Wealthsimple, and Shopify.
What are the types of agile roadmaps?
The agile roadmap template includes four different iterations.
Theme: This version of the agile roadmap groups initiatives into high-level themes.
Fuzzy time: Build a Swimlane that organizes tasks into loose buckets of time.
Sprint: Plan out your releases for both the short- and long-term.
Agile-ish: For when you need to know when tasks will happen but can't quite assign deadlines.
Try the agile roadmap template — no matter your agile style.
7. Release roadmap template
Not to be confused with a release plan, which is an execution plan that defines specific requirements. Release roadmaps are not a replacement for the product roadmap, but rather a way to zoom in on how the specific stages of a release, update, or performance improvement will unfold over time.
What’s a release roadmap?
A release roadmap is different from a feature roadmap and startup roadmap in that the release roadmap focuses on non-feature-related releases. So, instead of shiny and new features, a release roadmap can help product teams highlight:
- New improvements
- Bug fixes
- Feature updates
...And anything else coming up in each of your release cycles.
Release roadmaps typically span between 3 to 6 months, but can also be organized into shorter sprints (again, depending on the type of cycle your team is working within). You can also pivot a release roadmap across teams like development, QA, and product marketing to ensure inter-departmental alignment around these important updates and releases.
What are the types of release roadmaps?
Use the timeline release roadmap to see what’s on each department’s plate for your future release cycles.
And for teams using a less defined, fuzzier release method, the swimlane release roadmap can give you a quick overview of how your teams are aligned for your release schedules.
Use our release roadmap template to plan your next set of updates and share it with your stakeholders.
8. Scrum roadmap template
For agile product teams that need a way to communicate customer-centric goals, how a product will grow over time, how much it will cost, and who will be involved.
What’s a scrum roadmap?
It might seem like a contradiction to have a roadmap if you’re an agile team. After all, agile teams work with rapidly changing requirements and an intention to learn iteratively (instead of following a predefined plan).
A scrum product roadmap helps you easily visualize all upcoming sprints in your product development workflow. When juggling multiple initiatives, it can be difficult to keep track of which projects will be tackled during each sprint cycle. A scrum roadmap gets everyone on the same page—making it much easier to communicate which projects are in process at any given time.
Use a scrum roadmap to plan and track sprints, and bring transparency to your product management processes.
What are the types of scrum roadmaps?
You can use the timeline scrum roadmap to give stakeholders a clear picture of what’s coming up using dates or quarters.
With a swimlane scrum roadmap, you don’t have to be tied to timelines. A swimlane roadmap puts the focus on value and production—which can be easily visualized over a number of sprints.
Visualize your next sprint using our scrum roadmap template.
9. Lean roadmap template
For lean product teams that are customer-obsessed and prioritize delivering value to their end-users.
What’s a lean roadmap?
A lean roadmap communicates how you will build your product and business using the principles of lean methodology. Lean businesses focus on providing value to the end-user, with less overhead and time spent on planning and administration.
Both startups and enterprises can use lean roadmaps to ensure their efforts concentrate on customer impact. A lean roadmap will often be product-focused and uncluttered, highlighting the features and initiatives that will make the biggest impact on the things that matter the most to customers.
What are the types of lean roadmaps?
The timeline lean roadmap is good for planning initiatives that will take place across different areas of the product development process.
The swimlane lean roadmap is great for communicating the progress of initiatives and efforts that answer your customers’ most pressing needs, instead of focusing on timelines and output.
Use our lean roadmap template to start planning the value you'll deliver to your end users.
10. Portfolio roadmap template
For product organizations that have multiple offerings on the market and need a way to keep their individual product strategies aligned with an overall product line strategy.
What’s a portfolio roadmap?
A portfolio roadmap provides a high-level overview of what's going on with the entire product line. Product managers can use this to show stakeholders how each individual product will evolve and how they all relate to each other. Portfolio roadmaps can help keep positioning front-and-center and top-of-mind for everyone involved in making strategic decisions about products in a portfolio.
What are the types of portfolio roadmaps?
Timeline: Use the Timeline view of the portfolio roadmap template to illustrate how your family of products will hit the market and grow.
Swimlane: Swimlane provides a quick snapshot of how each part of your product line is progressing.
Try the portfolio roadmap template to illustrate how your product family will grow.
For more product roadmap templates, check out our 35+ template library. Access them all for free by signing up for a Roadmunk trial.