Top 5 Tips to Master Presenting Your Product Roadmap

Rolling out your product roadmap, let alone presenting it to an audience, is no easy feat. All while you might be aspiring for a Broadway-worthy performance, the fear of metaphorical (or even real) tomatoes being thrown at you is palpably real. 

A kickass product roadmap presentation is more than just exposing dates and shiny new product features – it’s about keeping even the toughest crowds on their toes.

Here’s a sneak peek of what we’ll be looking at:

• The DNA of a product roadmap and what it really serves to do.
• How to handle a presentation with finesse, using raw, real data.
• Techniques to transform your roadmap presentation from a dry report into a compelling spectacle.

What is a Product Roadmap?

Strip away the bells and whistles, and you’ll find the core of your product strategy – your product roadmap. This roadmap is essentially a blueprint of your product, outlining the vision for your product and how you’ll deliver on it, considering the time, resources, and efforts required. 

Ambitions can be overwhelming, especially in the pursuit of perfection. They can create a foggy mess, distorting our perspective and making us lose sight of the true goals that lie ahead. A product roadmap can lead your team through the fog and give you a prioritized strategy forward.

Acing Product Roadmap Presentations in 5 Simple Steps

Maybe you already have a product roadmap in progress or are convinced that you need one. Either way, here’s your backstage pass to a range of roadmap presentation tips that are worth following.

Tip 1: Embrace the Big Picture

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole when you’re doing a roadmap presentation. You’ll naturally want to boast about all the fancy details and technical magic that you’ve been slaving away over – but remember that this isn’t a show-and-tell session.

Instead of pointing out the landmarks of your product journey, you want to paint its entire landscape. There are way too many timelines, features, and milestones to touch upon without putting the audience to sleep. So, elevate your focus. Avoid talking just about the overly granular and showcase how these parts weave into the broader fabric of the market demand and industry.

Tip 2: Marry the Story and the Data

In a roadmap presentation, narratives and hard-hitting data go together like s’mores and campfires or hot summers and ice cream. It’s a glorious combination that will hook your audience and orchestrate an unforgettable and worthwhile presentation. Cold, hard data will give your story complete credibility, while the tale itself will offer that emotive connection – the “why should we care.”

Let’s face it. Most of us are happy viewing Van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ as it is, not as a never-ending alternate thesis about gratitude. So, the best way to present your neat little product roadmap package is through stimulating visuals. This way, your audience can look through an interpretive lens full of instantly memorable tidbits.

Tip 3: Ditch the Buzzwords

Terms like “growth hacking” might sound witty, but to the untrained ear, these buzzwords can merely muddy up your points. They might even make things more confusing or complicated, leaving you with an ineffective presentation that does little to convey your product strategy. 

Be sure to speak plainly and make every word count. Each line should serve a purpose and curate connection to and comprehension of your product. Buzzwords might slip out, or you might want to use one for extra effect, but even if this is the case, do your audience a favor and provide a simple explanation – they’ll appreciate it.

Tip 4: Make It All About the “Why”

A roadmap presentation doesn’t just involve revealing functions and features galore. Behind each update or decision is a “why” that powers them.

No doubt, your audience will be intrigued by all the “whats”, like what new thing is coming out when, but they also want to know the significance of it all. What moves that development? What is its purpose? The why solidifies your strategy, helps you align with the customer and helps unite all stakeholders and teams.

Tip 5: Honesty is the Best Policy

It takes guts to be transparent in a corporate world full of sugar-coating and half-truths, but it’ll certainly pay off. Forget about the vague timelines and embellishments where you’re falling short. Lay all your setbacks, priorities, and truths out on the table, and you’ll score major points with your audience. When you’re straight up with your triumphs and challenges, you command respect for your product and business, whether from users or stakeholders.

Say you’re standing on the cusp of a major rollout that was supposed to hit in a few days but are experiencing serious roadblocks in development. Yes, you could gloss over this and try your best to meet the release date. Or, you could take the honesty route, acknowledge the delay, and go deeper into the strategies that your team is using to rectify the issue.

The Best Tools for Helping you Present Better

Mastering the product roadmap presentation is also about having the right toolset. Check out this quick breakdown of useful tools that will help you make an impactful presentation:

• Presentation Software: Any presentation can benefit from designated presentation software like Google Slides, Powerpoint, or even Visme for pre-made templates and graphics for improved audience engagement.
• Design and Visualization Tools: Tools like Fibery can convert complex data into easy-to-digest visual content, giving users and stakeholders a deeper look into what the data is trying to say.
• Audience Interaction Tools: Audience interaction platforms and tools can seriously enhance the dynamism of your presentation, whether it’s through live polls or gamification.

The PM’s Hot Take 

You could have the most innovative product in the world and a roadmap jam-packed with state-of-the-art features, but if you can’t communicate its value, you might as well hit the brakes. A well-presented roadmap that might not look as pretty or as dynamic will do better than a perfectly executed yet poorly communicated one any day. While you’ll benefit from having the right information, it’s knowing how to share it with a human touch that makes the experience. Treat your roadmap as a story in progress, and you’ll leave that lasting impact you’re striving for. 

Conclusion

Presenting your product roadmap should be so much more than just reciting facts, figures, and features – it’s your one chance to connect and leave your audience wanting more.

Speaking of wanting more, why not amplify your product management process with Fibery? Start your 14-day free trial and experience our ultimate collaborative productivity tool to make all aspects of product management better. And while you’re exploring Fibery, why not learn more about product management through our blog?