In product management, a roadmap is the source of truth, the shared prioritization tool of a product team. This artifact guides a team’s workflow so product managers, developers, and designers can follow the best flow to design, build, test, and release features. 

Prior to a product going live, product managers determine the rhythm of backlog tasks and features to ensure all work is complete to meet the launch deadline. But once a product goes live and user assumptions are tested, previously planned work can be thrown on its head. 

Here are 3 tips that will help you build a roadmap that's set up to conquer the unknown.

After launch, a product team faces the added unknowns of bugs and user feedback. These unknowns can vary the work of each sprint. You can plan with this in mind by mapping out potential workflows and defining priorities:

• Break backlog features down into tangible sprint goals that can be completed every two weeks. By working in two week sprints, guided by the roadmap, you ensure your team is incrementally working towards a shared goal.

• Sort your tasks into different types with different implications. For example, a P1 bug will take precedence over a small enhancement or two small tasks can be fit into an early sprint for more impact over one medium sized one. Label your backlog tasks based on effort so you can move them around and prioritise their importance post launch.

Now that you’ve broken down your backlog tasks into a manageable workflow, you can layout tasks in a flexible visual tool. In preparation for the upcoming unknowns, use a template in FigJam or Notion to map out how much work your team can realistically complete each sprint. 

We launched Caroline Hirons' Skin Rocks app to over 50,000 users on the first day. Which meant access to lots of feedback. To guide our next steps, we created a visual labelling system to traffic control the user needs and re-prioritise appropriately.

Follow this FigJam template to plan your post launch projects with your product team.

Externally share your plan with users. Using a public roadmap ensures the most engaged users stay engaged and are excited about where your product is going. Our goal as product managers is to make enjoyable and useful tools for consumers. Keeping users involved allows you to better optimise for their evolving wants and needs.

A quick way to encourage feedback from users and bring them into the process is to let them vote on the features they want to see. Great examples of this are from our friends Charlie HR and the legends over at Monzo. Users can clearly follow along, upvote features, and share feedback on the backlog.

Building a flexible roadmap at product launch will help your business work towards your vision with users in mind and keep you on track to meet goals.

Ultimately, the more flexible your roadmap is the better equipped you will be to ensure long-term success.