How to create a product roadmap for SMBs

Creating a product roadmap is essential for product managers, but enterprise-level approaches often miss the mark for SMBs. With tight budgets, lean teams and shifting priorities, you need a roadmap that’s strategic and adaptable.

This article will guide you through building a product roadmap tailored to SMBs. You’ll learn how to define clear goals, set priorities and choose the right roadmap type for your business.

What is a product roadmap?

A product roadmap is a strategic document that outlines your product’s key initiatives and planned developments over a specific timeframe. The timeframe can vary from quarterly plans focused on immediate goals to multi-year roadmaps that chart long-term product strategy.

A product roadmap can take many formats, from a digital slide to a shared document or a project in a project management tool. However you choose to present it, your roadmap is the single source of truth that guides your product’s growth.

Approaches to creating a roadmap also vary. Enterprise companies often rely on complex, resource-intensive roadmaps that demand a high level of coordination between teams – an approach that may not suit smaller businesses.

Take software company Atlassian’s roadmap as an example. Its current roadmap shows hundreds of features across six products.

For most SMBs, attempting to mirror an approach like Atlassian’s would consume months of planning time, leaving no resources for actual product development.

To avoid getting lost in complex planning, the most effective product roadmaps for small businesses should combine these critical elements:

1. Clear product vision. The fundamental problem you’re solving and for whom.

2. Prioritized initiatives. Specific features and improvements that deliver the most value.

3. Realistic timeline. Achievable milestones that align with your team’s capacity and business goals.

Different types of product roadmaps

There are several different types of product roadmaps, each tailored to specific purposes, audiences and goals. Here’s a look at each type, including roadmap examples and benefits of each type for SMBs.

Strategic roadmap

The strategic roadmap focuses on long-term vision and high-level business goals, typically spanning one to three years. This product roadmap outlines the overall direction of the product.

You can use this approach to highlight key strategic milestones and show how they connect to your broader business plan.

Features roadmap

The features product roadmap centers around the release and prioritization of specific features, typically focused on three- to six-month development cycles.

A features roadmap provides a detailed view of new product enhancements and their expected delivery timelines.

Release roadmap

A release roadmap outlines a detailed release plan, with a timeline for rolling out specific product updates or versions. Many teams use a Gantt chart like the one shown below to visualize these timelines.

The chart helps coordinate development efforts, manage dependencies and track progress toward key release dates.

Goal-oriented roadmap

A goal-oriented roadmap focuses on specific business outcomes, directly linking the product development process to strategic objectives.

Unlike a strategic roadmap that provides a broad vision, a goal-oriented roadmap tracks precise, short-term targets.

Agile roadmap

An agile product roadmap is a flexible and iterative approach that focuses on short-term development cycles and continuous adaptation.

This roadmap is typically organized around two to four sprints.

Now-next-later roadmap

The now-next-later roadmap visualizes product priorities into three distinct timeframes: immediate (now), upcoming (next) and future (later) initiatives.

It creates a high-level visual that makes it easy to share your product plans with stakeholders at all levels.

How to choose the right product roadmap for your business

With so many methodologies to choose from, you should take some time to match your roadmap strategy to your unique needs. Here are a few factors to consider when you’re trying to find your ideal product roadmap template.

Your product’s lifecycle stage

For a pre-launch or early-stage product, flexibility is critical. At this stage, you’re still learning from customer feedback, testing assumptions and iterating quickly. An agile or now-next-later roadmap works well here. These roadmaps allow you to adapt to changes without derailing your plans.

As your product matures, your roadmap needs to evolve, too. A features roadmap can help you systematically roll out improvements, ensuring your product stays competitive and meets user needs. Alternatively, a strategic roadmap helps you align product development with broader business goals.

Your business goals

If you’re focused on rapid growth, an agile or goal-oriented roadmap helps you stay responsive to market opportunities.

Need to demonstrate clear progress to investors? A features or release roadmap provides concrete timelines and deliverables.

Strategic roadmaps work well when you’re planning major product transformations or entering new markets.

Your product team’s size and structure

Smaller product management teams often work best with now-next-later or agile roadmaps because they’re easy to maintain and don’t create unnecessary overhead. Mid-sized teams might benefit from features or goal-oriented roadmaps to coordinate multiple workstreams.

If you’re working with external developers or partners, a release roadmap can help manage dependencies and expectations.

Just avoid enterprise-style roadmaps that require dedicated product managers to maintain – they often create more work than value for SMBs.

How flexible you need to be

If you’re in a fast-moving market or embracing agile project management, agile and now-next-later roadmaps give you room to pivot quickly.

For more stable products or regulated industries, release or strategic roadmaps provide the structure needed for longer-term planning.

Features roadmaps offer a middle ground. They provide clear direction while allowing adjustments based on market feedback.

How to create a product roadmap: step-by-step template

Creating a product roadmap doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Whether you’re launching a new product or refining an existing one, this guide will help you break down the process into clear, actionable steps.

Step 1: Define your strategy and specific product goals

To create an effective product roadmap, start by defining a clear strategy and actionable goals. Gather key stakeholders – including leadership, product managers, customer success teams and sales teams – and identify your top one to three objectives.

Examine these key areas to find potential objectives to pursue:

• Customer feedback. Look for recurring pain points, feature requests and areas where users struggle with current solutions.

• Competitor analysis. Identify market gaps, emerging opportunities and potential differentiators.

• Company vision and mission. Seek alignment with long-term strategic goals and core business values.

• Performance metrics. Pinpoint areas of potential growth, such as low conversion rates, high customer churn or untapped market segments.

When you’ve narrowed down your objectives, turn each one into a concrete outcome. Use the SMART framework to ensure each objective is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound.

For example, say product managers for a meal-planning app want to reduce churn among users with dietary restrictions. They look into customer feedback and find recurring complaints about the inability to filter recipes for allergies or preferences like vegan or gluten-free.

Competitor research shows rival apps offer this functionality. The company sees this as a gap it can address while aligning with its mission to make meal planning accessible. With limited resources, the teams decide on one high-impact goal:

Step 2: Use a prioritization framework to decide where to start

Once you’ve identified your top objectives, you need to decide which order to tackle them in.

When you operate with lean teams and smaller budgets, prioritizing is especially important. You may find that your objectives cover customer requests, market demands and team preferences. However, you likely won’t have the resources to take them all on at once.

Prioritization frameworks help you make strategic choices. For example, the MoSCoW prioritization matrix categorizes potential initiatives as:

• Must-have – Critical new features essential for the product

• Should-have – Important but not urgent improvements

• Could-have – Nice-to-have enhancements

• Won’t-have – Features to be excluded or deferred

Work through the framework, referring back to the data and research you used for your objectives in step one. Using concrete data alongside input from your teams helps you make more confident decisions about which initiatives matter most.

Step 3: Create your timeline (but keep an open mind)

With your priorities set, it’s time to map out when you’ll tackle each initiative. For small to medium-sized businesses, stick to a three to six-month timeline. This gives you enough time to make meaningful progress while staying flexible as market needs change.

Break down each objective into clear milestones. For example, rather than saying “improve recipe search”, our meal-planning app might set specific checkpoints like:

• “Add dietary restriction filters by month 2”

• “Launch allergen tagging system by month 4”

Build some flexibility into your timeline to handle unexpected challenges. For example:

• If you know your developer will be on vacation for two weeks, account for that

• If you’re working with integrations from external partners, add buffer time for potential delays

Your timeline isn’t set in stone. Review it regularly with your team and adjust as needed.

For our meal-planning team, say user testing shows that allergen tagging is more complex than they expected. As a result, they extend that particular milestone. Moving deadlines isn’t a failure – it’s smart planning that keeps your roadmap realistic and achievable.

Step 4: Set up project tracking in Pipedrive

Once you’ve set your timeline, you need a way to track how everything’s moving forward. Pipedrive’s customizable deals dashboards make it easy to see your progress at a glance and keep everyone aligned.

Start by setting up your board with clear phases that match your development stages. A simple structure like “Planning”, “In Development”, “Testing”, “Ready to Launch” and “Live” helps everyone understand where work stands.

Next, break down your work into specific tasks and subtasks. Each task should have a clear owner and deadline to keep everyone accountable.

Make your board more effective by using labels to mark project status. Use custom fields to track important details. You can also upload files directly to tasks and use notes to capture important discussions.

When you need input from teammates, mention them directly in your notes to make sure they’re notified.

With everything in one place, your team can spend less time managing tasks and more time driving your product forward.

Step 5: Establish how you’ll communicate roadmap progress and updates

Clear communication keeps your roadmap on track. A simple meeting rhythm works best for most small product teams: a quick weekly check-in and a longer monthly session. These meetings should focus on what’s working, what’s stuck and what needs to change.

Broader stakeholder communication requires a different approach. Hold a monthly meeting that brings together representatives from different teams to:

• Review progress against current product roadmap objectives

• Discuss relevant customer data, feedback and support tickets

• Analyze key performance metrics like user engagement or customer retention rates

• Identify any potential roadblocks or emerging opportunities

• Allow each team to share insights from their specific perspective

For teams not directly involved in the monthly meeting, use tools like Loom to create brief, high-level updates that can be quickly shared via email or Slack. This approach provides transparency without demanding extensive time from team members.

Recognize that priorities will shift. Always explain the reasoning behind changes to avoid potential confusion. The goal is to keep your broader team informed and engaged without creating unnecessary meetings.

Common product roadmap mistakes SMBs make (and how to avoid them)

A product roadmap should provide clarity and direction. However, common mistakes can make it more of a burden than a tool for progress. Avoiding these pitfalls will help keep your roadmap actionable and focused.

• Overcomplicating things. Keep it simple and: focus on three to five key priorities that will truly impact your business. Skip the enterprise-level product roadmap tools and detailed dependency charts. Your roadmap should be clear enough to explain in one conversation and flexible enough to change when needed.

• Poor communication. Different people need different updates. Give executives the strategic view, sales teams the customer benefits, and developers the technical details they need. Set up regular check-ins – monthly for the big picture items, weekly for team updates – and stick to them.

• Getting too rigid. Your roadmap should guide you, not lock you in. Review your strategy quarterly, but be ready to pivot sooner if the market changes or you learn something important about customer needs. Quick, informed decisions beat perfect planning every time.

• Messy tracking. When internal teams use multiple tools or inconsistent methods to track progress, important updates can get lost. Pick one simple system and review progress every two weeks. Use these reviews to spot problems early and keep your team aligned.

If you spot any of these issues emerging, schedule a focused team review. Ask each stakeholder to bring specific examples of what’s working and what isn’t. Sometimes, simply acknowledging a problem is enough to start fixing it.

Final thoughts

A great product roadmap keeps your team focused on the big picture while allowing them to adapt to new insights and changing priorities.

Instead of rigid planning, SMBs benefit from a roadmap that balances strategic goals and customer needs with available resources. Strategic planning, choosing the right roadmap and tracking measurable milestones help ensure meaningful progress toward your product launch and feature improvements.

With Pipedrive’s project tracking tools, you can organize initiatives, manage dependencies and keep stakeholders aligned – without the usual complexity. Sign up for a 14-day free trial today and start building a successful product roadmap.