Product Roadmaps
 First developed in the 60s and 70s primarily as weapons in technology companies' FUD arsenals, product roadmaps are ostensibly sneak peeks into the future that also function as obstacles to competition. The typical product roadmap covers:
Projected release dates for future versions of a product or product line. (We note that it's rather rare for a company to ever actually meet these dates.)
- A very high-level overview of new functionality. This discussion should avoid describing new features but deal in functional generalities ("increased support for web standards" as opposed to "version 4.X of the product will use XML as its native document format.
- A discussion of what new hardware and software platforms your software will be running on.
Software companies, particularly large ones, have often found roadmaps to be useful as "honeypots," sirens that entice the competition into aiming their product and marketing strategies at an ever-changing target, one that is forever being moved out of range by the roadmap owner. Microsoft, with its ongoing program of discussing future versions of Windows in ever changing detail and constant development of new integration strategies and technologies, is a master of this tactic. However, in all fairness, roadmaps can also be driven by your customer's desires to coordinate and plan their business requirements around your product development efforts. Companies also sometimes feel the need to develop roadmaps for internal distribution; needless to say, these documents and plans should always be treated as highly confidential.
Developing product roadmaps are always dangerous exercises and must be created with care. If a roadmap is too feature specific, you've just given your competition valuable information about future versions of your product well in advance of your product's release (always anticipate that any roadmap document you leave or show to a customer will eventually be seen by your competition). Also, expect your sales group to immediately begin to sell these new features to customers regardless of their actual deliverability. Then anticipate your customers will be reluctant to buy today's products when they could buy tomorrow's greener pasture tomorrow. If the roadmap is too general, customers will dismiss them as so much marketing fluff and demand more specific information.
One advantage of showing your customer a broad roadmap is that it can increase their confidence that the product they purchase will be supported and available in the future. In addition, showing customers a carefully crafted roadmap can support your sales of maintenance and service agreements. This in turn helps generate incremental revenue and pay for ongoing development.
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