Pam Soin & Brian Sharp
Senior Consultant at Kalypso

Webinar Summary: Ryma's March 11th Webinar was presented by Pamela Soin and Brian Sharp from Kalypso. The objective of this webinar was to show how roadmapping is used to link boardroom strategy to your development pipeline. Pamela and Brian reviewed three questions:

1. What value does roadmapping bring to your organization?
2. How do Best Performers utilize roadmapping to transform strategy into return?
3. The path forward - best practices to charge ahead & successfully implement roadmapping

About the Presenters: Pamela's main focus at Kalypso is in Strategic Planning and Product Lifecycle Management. Pamela has served clients in the Medical-Device, Discrete, Hi-Tech and Consumer Package Goods industries. Her main expertise is in Project Portfolio Management Design & Implementation for tele-com, specialty chemical, bio-tech, and healthcare. Her other areas of expertise are in: Strategic Roadmapping, IP Commercialization, Product Lifecycle & Product Data Management, and Lean Manufacturing. Prior to joining Kalypso, Pamela worked for Ingersoll-Rand Company as a Lean Manufacturing Leader for manufacturing plants. Pamela has a BS in Industrial Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Brian's client work is focused on the integration of business strategy with value science. Brian is currently leading several large scale strategy engagements at leading global technology companies. Brian was with Lord Corporation, a high tech industrial manufacturer serving the Aerospace & Defense and Auto industries where he led their global automotive business. Prior to that, he held a variety of commercial leadership roles in Europe, Latin America and Asia with BP and Castrol. He received a BS in Chemical Engineering with a concentration in Bio-medical Engineering, from the University of Texas at Austin.

Roadmapping Slide Deck
The #pmv Twitter conversation and the #GAPDMA is included below for your reference.

ValWorkman: Strategic roadmapping webinar begins
ByronWorkman: GOSPEL Goals Objectives Strategy Plan Execution and Learning. Roadmaps can help tie strategy to plans
Jim_Holland: Listening in to Roadmapping session. I'm a vendor, but when will we all learn to save the "sales pitch" for later.
ByronWorkman: Could you quantify what value roadmapping brings to your organization? What metrics are you using?
michaelrhopkin: Join the Roadmapping discussion at #pmv
jbrett: Roadmapping brings clear articulation of how what I do today matters for where I'm going tomorrow.#GAPDMA
ValWorkman: Why road mapping. Align strategic planning with product portfolio decisions to aligned projects
ByronWorkman: One of the criteria for determining the maturity of your PM organization is your ability to access strategies and goals from board room
cindyalvarez: @TomGrantForr Inventors + innovators = why I push for lighter specs (even in non-agile) - MUST encourage active collab & prob-solving.
Jim_Holland: How often do you see Exec. Mgmt driving Roadmaps? Isn't that the product team guiding upward?
ValWorkman: Roadmapping facilitates resource balancing.
jbrett: Today, can't really derive stategy by looking at R&d projects. Roadmapping bridges thy gap #GAPDMA
DerickWorkman: Roadmaps communicate and express the longterm vision and strategy of the company.
jbrett: Why roadmapping? challenges in technology evolution, market uncertainty, product portfolio selection, supply chain, risk assessment #GAPDMA
jbrett: Anybody who tells you roadmapping is a silver bullet is overselling (dr. Patrick) #GAPDMA
Jim_Holland: Is there a definitive difference between corporate strategy and product or company roadmaps.
ByronWorkman: Can you have a roadmap without knowing corporate strategy? Sure, but it may not be a roadmap to actualize strategy, but to failure.
ValWorkman: @Jim_Holland There are multiple roadmaps. The exec wants her strategic roadmap to guide product roadmaps
jbrett: We are differentiating between strategic and technical roadmaps fir this discussion #GAPDMA
Jim_Holland: Are there tools that you would recommend to manage and maintain roadmaps beyond PPT?
Bradley_Kravitz: You mention roadmapping for "3 years, 5 years, etc." Doesn't it make sense to have shorter roadmaps, e.g. 6 months - 2 years?
jbrett: Only about 30% of attendees are doing any roadmapping today. #GAPDMA
jbrett: Dr. Irene Patrick (Penn state) strategic roadmapping I achieve sustainable competitive advantage is the topic at #GAPDMA
DerickWorkman: @Jim_Holland Executive management will use a roadmap to express high level strategy and types of products that should be developed.
ByronWorkman: @Jim_Holland corporate strategies may not always and sometimes shouldn't be product specific. Your roadmap is one solution to strategy.
jbrett: Tech map let's me see whether to solve need with or without tech, reuse existing tech or make/buy/adapt tech. #GAPDMA
ValWorkman: Set a time horizon for strategic planning. Base dimensions or roadmaps; markets, product, technology, regulatory, competitor
jbrett: Roadmaps come in sets: Market, product and technology. #GAPDMA
jbrett: Roadmapping should represent your strengths, weaknesses and opportuniies. #GAPDMA
jbrett: Use these gap discoveries to rethink you solution and technology and resources #GAPDMA
jbrett: Roadmaps can show where gaps exist between your product and competitors and how impacts cascade. #GAPDMA
michaelrhopkin: As a product manager, how do you determine the length of time for which you establish a roadmap?
jbrett: Use roadmap to align tech and product with market requirements over time #GAPDMA
ValWorkman: @Bradley_Kravitz We mix up roadmaps with release plans
Jim_Holland: @DerickWorkman In many large companies, CxO could care less whats on the product feature roadmap as long as it drives $$$, etc.
DerickWorkman: @Bradley_Kravitz A product feature roadmap will typically have smaller time periods for the next year and then half yrs for y2 etc.
CathyLiggett: Link Roadmapping to your Portfolio: Without linking them, they are just static reports
ByronWorkman: Whats the difference between roadmap components and project plan? Answer isn't as important as having the discussion in your team.
ValWorkman: @kevnd Roadmaps in Excel helps tie performance metrics to roadmap milestones
Jim_Holland: @kevnd Thanks. Excel is good, but hard to manage when a real poirtfolio is there. I wonder if God used Excel in the creation
jbrett: Only monitor critical issues. Must provide a mechanism to report tipping points. #GAPDMA
ValWorkman: Business leaders set organic growth targets, how does PM play into these targets?
CathyLiggett: Roadmaps that are static -use info that is out of date (or relevant for a short time), not responsive to changing market conditions.
jbrett: Roadmaps should always be viewed as a work in process. #GAPDMA
jbrett: Boeing is roadmapping 30 years out. Yes. That's 30. #GAPDMA
DerickWorkman: Senior management plays the role of Product Line Architect. They use high level roadmap to communicate dev strategy http://bit.ly/inXyX
ByronWorkman: When discussing the granularity of your roadmap, ask yourself how actionable your team wants your roadmaps to be.
jbrett: Boeing starts with the market roadmap #GAPDMA
ValWorkman: Roadmapping integrates the milestones required for business development
CathyLiggett: The Roadmapping process is very serial in nature - little visibility amongst the strategic planning contributors
Jim_Holland: Slide 8 is busy, but tells the story in detail.
CathyLiggett: No standardized view of the environment in which they operate
ByronWorkman: Key point just made on the call. How are roadmaps intended to be used, what value is expected to get out of them?
jbrett: Roadmaps have huge value when you start "planning" for fast failure. See how market and product are impacted by tech. #GAPDMA
Jim_Holland: Great comment by most companies, "I don't get the roadmap" Without the process the journeys confusing.
CathyLiggett: Don't focus on a singular event at an arbitrary time during the course of the year just because it's tied to a budgetary cycle.
jbrett: When you have a point of uncertainty, launch 2 or 3 "probe" projects to fail fast and determine best path forward #GAPDMA
jbrett: RM allows us to reduce uncertainty and narrow that probability distribution, or increase potential payoff while decrease risk. #GAPDMA
Jim_Holland: "Roadmaps do not provide the big Ah Hah, it facilitates it"
jbrett: The payoff of any proposed project is a probability distribution, not a single value. #GAPDMA
ValWorkman: Clients fail when they think they will be given answers from Roadmaps. Not true, the roadmap is a tool, not the answer.
DerickWorkman: "Roadmaps link product and technologies" I believe you can take it further and create competency roadmaps as well. Alignment is key
ByronWorkman: How often can you say that your roadmap communicates product strategy as apposed to product features?
trevorrotzien : I like the point about choosing the right dimensions for the roadmap to reflect how your business works and what it wants to achieve.
ValWorkman: Roadmaps help communicate product platform strategies.
Jim_Holland: Creating roadmaps without valid market input/insight is a waste of time and effort.
CathyLiggett: Market Roadmap- VOC research, market studies, demographic profiles, regulatory forecasts, competitive intelligence, user feedback
ValWorkman: Roadmaps can be shared with proxy customers to help get buyin and collect VOC.
Jim_Holland: Roadmapping is about mapping to strategies.
jbrett: @StewartRogers Asunptuins is a new PM concept. It'll be on your next certification test. #GAPDMA
DerickWorkman: Using roadmaps to communicate product lifecycles to form a product line strategy. Had great discussion about this at Product Camp
ByronWorkman: Hit on cross-functional input in roadmaps... huge issue around change adoption. roadmaps at core are a plan of change
Jim_Holland: "Pushing or pulling" products to market can be solved my understanding markets, sensing the market and delivering based on problems.
CathyLiggett: Product Roadmap: Integrates demand "pull" and technology "push" to determine market launch plans
ValWorkman: I never thought about competitive information gathering activity milestones being integrated with roadmapping milestones
DerickWorkman: Roadmaps require cross-functional input. Not put into a product management silo
CathyLiggett: Product Roadmap: , technology/platform development, component development, & R&D investments - **should drive product portfolio plan
DerickWorkman: RT @ByronWorkman: hit on cross-functional input in roadmaps... huge issue around change adoption. roadmaps at core are a plan of change
CathyLiggett: Technology Roadmap: Strategic view of technology evolution developed by integrating information about the internal technology portfolio
Jim_Holland: Great point on "strategic champion" for process, communications and execution.
kevnd: @ValWorkman agreed, and excel also helps ensure that features are pramatically aligned against strategic objectives of the company
CathyLiggett: Technology Roadmaps: industry roadmaps, suppliers, technology transfer, and intellectual property trends.
jbrett: Roadmapping is an Organizing framework. Organizes external and internal factors #GAPDMA
trevorrotzien: Mass communication of roadmap: don't leave it as a file on a hard drive somewhere [We print posters!]
Jim_Holland: Hang it on the wall (roadmap) for everyone to see --- thump that chest and then go deliver what customers need.
ValWorkman: Roadmaps help determine when and where to invest
jbrett: To evaluate roadmaps, determine what triggers would cause underlying asunptuins to be wrong. #GAPDMA
CathyLiggett: Collaborative Roadmapping enables cross-functional teams to dynamically build, maintain and integrate any number of roadmaps
ValWorkman: RT @trevorrotzien: Mass communication of roadmap: don't leave it as a file on a hard drive somewhere [We print posters!]
Jim_Holland: "there are orgs that have departments creating roadmaps in silos" Stop it! Stop it now...
ValWorkman: @trevorrotzien I think the norm is to keep the roadmap in a closet, what if you don't deliver on the roadmap?
ByronWorkman: I like that they address incremental deployment of the purpose and use of a roadmap... they have actually addressed change before.
trevorrotzien: Like the idea of a roadmap as not just an output of the process, but as a dynamic tool facilitating the planning process.
jbrett: The real value of roadmapping isn't the resulting roadmap, it is the process. #GAPDMA