shipm.app

Roadmapping software is too complicated.

In my work as a product manager, I need to produce roadmaps which I can use to communicate the features that my team will deliver over the next 3 to 6 months. The rest of the organisation uses these documents to coordinate their own features and work so we can deliver value to our users in a cohesive manner.

Currently, producing these roadmaps is a time consuming manual process which I do in a Confluence page.

There are other road-mapping tools in existence which I have tried to use but they are all deficient for a number of reasons. In general, they try to capture too much information before they will provide user value. This workflow interruption attempts to take me out of the tools I already use and force me into their product.

Problem Parameters

1. I want my roadmap to be embedded in a place where colleagues are daily.
2. I want my colleagues can see it without creating an account in a tool they won't use.
3. I want my data stored in a place which is not third-party. Submitting my roadmap to a third-party tool is a violation of various privacy rules where I work.
4. I want my backlog and tasks to stay in JIRA or Notion or Trello or whatever other software I'm using because that's where the people I collaborate with are working.
5. I want my roadmap to be rough rather than overly prescriptive. Exacting roadmaps are begging to be wrong. Complex roadmaps with multi-layered interdependencies are designed for waterfall planning.

Experiences behind the problem parameters

1. A colleague recently put the roadmap for a product we are collaborating on in SmartSheet and then invited me to edit it. I get an email inviting me to edit it. I click the link and the first thing I need to do is create a password. I don't want a SmartSheet account.
2. I want to sign up for some of the product management tools that exist but I don't feel comfortable storing Workday data in them when they're not approved tools.
3. The tools I use daily are Slack, Google Drive, Outlook, Confluence, JIRA. I want my roadmap to exist in these tools so it's easy to share with the people I work with.

The first MVP will be orientated around testing whether or not people actually believe in the vision enough to use the product. I feel like I'm solving a pain point that I experience myself but I don't know if other people feel the same way.

So I need to talk to some potential users.

The perfect potential users are people who are already trying to expose roadmaps already. They're doing some manual form of the job shim.app does.

Good candidates include companies like Notion and Trello who already have a page somewhere in their product which explains their roadmap.

Plan:

1. Make a list of 10 companies who are already exposing a manually created roadmap.
2. Make a demo roadmap in shipm.app for each company.
3. Email each company with an explaination, ask for feedback and ask if they would pay for it.

1. Roadmaps can be tools for growth as well as internally facing planning tools.
2. Your users should consume your roadmap in the workflows and tools they already use.
3. Roadmap timelines should be imprecise. A roadmap is not a promise.
4. Roadmaps should be myopic. You cannot plan too far ahead.
5. Completed work has a place on the roadmap.
6. Your roadmap should be versioned. It will change and the changes should be tracked.
7. Your roadmap should be easy to understand. It's no use if your users can't understand it.