Ever
faster product cycles mean that product development teams must look
beyond their current development cycle to make sure they know where
they are headed and what features, capabilities, and technologies
they will need to get there. Roadmapping enables a team to plan
and execute a path to achieve their objectives, just as a roadmap
enables a traveler to decide among alternative routes to reach a
destination. It helps a product team link their strategy to future
actions and explicitly incorporate a plan for needed capabilities
and technologies to be in place at the right times. As part of a
new product development process, roadmaps link market and competitive
strategy to product plans to technology strategy – with quantitative
targets and plans for achieving objectives.
This one-day, highly
interactive roadmapping workshop combines lecture with a case-based
learning experience to provide students with the knowledge and skills
to lead or participate in development of a roadmap for a product
line, industry or technology area. Working in small teams, students
create a roadmap for a new product line as learning activity. Students
will learn about key features of several types of roadmaps, how
to develop the processes and information content for a product-technology
roadmap, how to use roadmaps in portfolio and technology management,
and how to communicate plans and strategies to customers, suppliers
and development team members.
Primary course elements
include:
- Reasons and purposes
for roadmaps
- Identifying market
segments and needs as they evolve over time
- Understanding and
capturing competitors’ strategies
- Creating a winning
competitive strategy and objectives
- Prioritizing product
drivers based on key customer/market needs
- Defining a product
evolution that meets customers’ needs and your objectives
- Using experience
curves to set industry based performance targets
- Mapping product feature
evolution over time based on value delivered to customers
- Defining a product
architecture to link product drivers and technology solutions
- Creating a technology
roadmap that uses the best technologies at the right time
- Developing cost targets
and implementation plans that match objectives
- Prioritizing investments
in capabilities and technologies
- Creating a risk roadmap
with guideposts for reevaluating the plan when things change
- Building and sustaining
a cross-functional roadmapping team
- Getting support and
reviews from top management
- Using a roadmap to
communicate with customers and suppliers
- Using roadmaps in
portfolio management decisions
- Cross-roadmapping
and technology reuse
- Deploying roadmaps
in a corporation
