How To Create a Product Roadmap for Digital Banking Features
Creating a roadmap is a great way to align your team, manage complexity, and track progress. It’s especially useful for digital transformation initiatives that focus on creating new digital products or services rather than simple system updates. To develop the right features and come up with a solid plan, you need to start with the right foundation. A good product roadmap for your digital banking transformation needs to be based on a solid understanding of your company and its long-term goals as well as fast, frequent delivery principles. In this article, we explore how to create an effective product roadmap for your digital banking features.
What is a product roadmap?
A roadmap is a visual representation of your strategy and goals that helps you keep your team focused and aligned, manage complexity, and track progress. A roadmap can take many forms and can be static (on paper) or digital (e.g. a PowerPoint deck or a Trello board). A roadmap should include key information about the initiative such as the initiative name, the problem being solved, who will be using the solution and for what purpose, the key stakeholders, the funding source, and the expected ROI and delivery date. It can also include information about the product strategy and the product roadmap itself. A typical product roadmap item would include the problem it solves, the date by which it needs to be delivered, the required resources and the estimated cost.
Why is a good roadmap so important?
During your digital transformation journey, you might be tempted to start building things as soon as you have the ability to do so. But that’s a big mistake, and one that can put your whole transformation at risk. Rather than jump-starting your development process, you should take the time to develop a solid product roadmap that outlines the most important features to build. That way, you can ensure that you are building the right features and meeting your customers’ needs. A roadmap helps you avoid building features that aren’t important or aren’t aligned with your company’s long-term goals. A roadmap also helps you avoid building the wrong features by setting the right prioritization criteria for selecting the most important digital banking features to build.
Define your prioritization criteria
Once you’ve identified the most important features to build, you need to select the order in which you will build them. In other words, you need to decide on the prioritization criteria. How will you decide which feature to build first, second, third and so on? Common prioritization criteria include the expected return on investment (ROI), value to the customer, ease of implementation, and impact on the organization. You can also consider combining two or more of these criteria, as appropriate. For example, when selecting a feature to build first, you may want to consider its impact on the organization as well as how easy or difficult it is to implement. Here are five other key factors that can help you select the appropriate prioritization criteria: - Is the feature critical to your digital transformation? - Is this feature part of your company’s long-term strategic objectives? - Will the feature be used by a large number of customers? - Is the feature quantifiable? - What is the timeline of other features in the roadmap?
Identify the most important features to build
Once you’ve selected the appropriate prioritization criteria, you can start identifying the most important features to build. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to identify the most important features to build: - What are the key benefits or outcomes that customers will get from your digital banking features? - What are customers’ pain points that your digital banking features will solve? - Which features will help your company achieve its long-term strategic objectives? - What features will get more customers to sign up for your digital banking offerings? - What features will help you meet your SLAs? - What features will help you keep your customers happy? - What features will help you retain your customers? - What features will help you create more value for your shareholders? - What features do your competitors lack?
Estimate the cost of each feature and create a release plan
Once you’ve selected the most important features to build, you can estimate the cost of each feature and create a release plan. The release plan is a visual representation of your product roadmap. It allows you to see at a high level the expected delivery dates for each feature. The release plan is useful for tracking the progress of your transformation initiative and keeping your team and stakeholders informed. It’s also helpful for managing expectations and making sure that you deliver all the features you’ve promised on time. You can create a release plan using a visual tool like PowerPoint or Trello. Alternatively, you can create a simple table, like the one shown below, in a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel.
Conclusion
The journey of transformation from traditional to digital is complex and often fraught with challenges. To overcome these, you need a strong product roadmap that outlines the most important features to build and helps you avoid building the wrong features. A robust product roadmap will also help you manage stakeholders’ expectations and keep your team focused on delivering the most critical digital banking features first. With the right product roadmap, you can expect your digital transformation journey to be smooth and successful.
Disclaimer:
This article is purely my personal thoughts on the subject area and my interest based on the references that I came across with. It is my personal view and my blogging journey that I wish to share if the information makes sense and a reference. This article has no relation with my previous and current employer. Thank you for reading.
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