Save time with free roadmap templates for Excel and PowerPoint
7 examples of effective product roadmaps. Let's look at some common types of product roadmaps to help you figure out which one will work best for you. At a high-level, you can differentiate between two overall types: column and timeline roadmaps with relevant examples described.
Step 1: Identify Strategic Issues. Strategic issues are critical unknowns that are driving you to embark on a strategic planning process now. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts or anything else that is keeping you awake at night and begging for a solution or decision. The answer lies in a strategy roadmap, which demonstrates robust thinking about the startup business. This type of startup roadmap identifies what capabilities need to be invested in, provides the 'science' behind the initiatives that you plan to undertake, and ultimately helps you avoid the common pitfall of poor prioritization.
Roadmaps are excellent visual tools that help you articulate your business vision to your clients and executives. But as useful as they are, creating them is a long and challenging process. With our pre-built templates, you can spend less time creating your roadmap and more time managing your project.
On this page you'll find five of the most common roadmap templates you can use in your next stakeholder meeting, developed in two versions for easy use with your usual MS Office tools:
- a roadmap template for Excel, where you can use standard Excel features like shapes and colors to build your roadmap manually
- a roadmap template for PowerPoint, where you can use the Office Timeline Pro add-in to create your roadmap automatically or move the shapes by hand if you don't have Office Timeline Pro yet
Top 5 free roadmap templates
Explore our series of roadmap templates for Excel and PowerPoint especially designed to save you time and get you started quickly:
- 1. Product roadmap template
- 2. Project roadmap template
- 3. Technology roadmap template
- 4. IT roadmap template
- 5. Strategy / Business roadmap template
Choose from these most popular roadmap examples, download and customize them with a few clicks to make them suit your project.
1. Product roadmap template
A product roadmap is a high-level overview of your product strategy and how that fits into your business vision. It can show both the strategic side and the practical side of your product offering, the reasoning and the planning behind your implementation decisions.
Your product roadmap template can include important aspects like product features, iterations, and the releases that are planned in the future, and you can represent them on the roadmap as key milestones, tasks or on different swimlanes.
To help you fast track your next product strategy meeting, here are two pre-populated templates that you can easily customize in Excel and PowerPoint (using the Office Timeline Pro add-in).
Product Roadmap Excel Template
Download Excel TemplateProduct Roadmap Powerpoint Template
Download PowerPoint Template2. Project roadmap template
When managing any kind of project, you'll probably need to create a project roadmap, which is a strategic outline of the project goals and the key deliverables. When you build it, it's best if you present project tasks, milestones, and goals or initiatives grouped on various swimlanes.
The project roadmap is an extremely useful tool for stakeholder buy-in and communication, since it helps create a common understanding on the strategic reasons for sponsoring a project. When all stakeholders are on the same page, you can overcome obstacles easier and deliver your project on time and within budget.
Use these templates below to turn your project roadmap presentation into an effective meeting. Choose between Excel and PowerPoint (with theOffice Timeline Proadd-in) to create a project roadmap that would impress your stakeholders.
Project Roadmap Excel Template
Download Excel TemplateProject Roadmap PowerPoint Template
Download PowerPoint Template3. Technology roadmap template
A roadmap can be a useful tool when it comes to a product or project, but it can just as easily help you make strategic decisions regarding your technology investments. And since roadmaps are strategic planning instruments, it's useful to create a technology roadmap to document your infrastructure initiatives too. You can organize the swimlanes to include infrastructure solutions, tools, or processes that are in place today and what's envisioned for the future.
Working with templates can make things a lot easier for you and save you hours or work. Check out these examples of technology roadmap templates we've created for Excel and PowerPoint (and theOffice Timeline Proadd-in) to get started faster.
Technology Roadmap Excel Template
Download Excel TemplateTechnology Roadmap PowerPoint Template
Download PowerPoint Template4. IT roadmap template
Another frequent type of roadmap you may be creating is an IT roadmap, which is basically an overview of the way your organization uses IT systems to achieve its business goals. For example, an IT roadmap can show the strategic plan created to migrate your organization's data or adopt a new tool.
You can include various IT initiatives like apps, internal processes, or new technologies and you can use color-coded swimlanes to represent each initiative or goal. You can use the IT roadmap to show current capabilities or the developments that are planned.
Here's an example of an IT roadmap template that you can download and change the deliverables to make it work for you. There's an Excel version and a PowerPoint one (with the help of the Office Timeline Pro add-in) so you can choose whichever suits you best.
IT Roadmap Excel Template
Download Excel TemplateIT Roadmap PowerPoint Template
Download PowerPoint Template5. Strategy roadmap (or Business roadmap) template
A visual representation of the key moments that mark your strategic business initiatives is extremely useful, especially if you need to include different themes and span across a longer time frame. Communication with stakeholders becomes easier if you show them a strategy roadmap, a more general plan that explains the overall vision for growing your business.
The strategy roadmap (or business roadmap, as it's sometimes called) can present your initiatives or themes on different swimlanes and include current state, long-term goals, and future steps needed to implement the business strategy.
Discover the strategy roadmap templates we have built using Excel and PowerPoint (and the Office Timeline Pro add-in). These will help you create a simple but clear strategy roadmap for your next stakeholder meeting and show off your presentation skills.
Strategic Roadmap Template
Strategy Roadmap Excel Template
Download Excel TemplateStrategy Roadmap PowerPoint Template
Download PowerPoint TemplateIf you need any help with choosing a roadmap software, check out our dedicated section on roadmap tools.
Last Updated on December 6, 2021 by Adam EnfroyRoadmapping is a vital task that every agile project manager and product team must perform. Appropriate roadmapping is essential for planning projects, progress tracking, coordinating team activities, and utilizing customer feedback.
There are more than a few roadmapping software available on the market, and most of them can integrate with the best project management tools and agile project management tools.
To help you decide on the roadmap software that will accomplish your products' creation and business goals, I've reviewed and compared the top roadmap software. I've compared each roadmapping tool based on the essential features and even included a glimpse into their pricing plans.
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links that I may receive a small commission for at no cost to you. However, these are the tools I fully recommend when it comes to roadmap software. You can read my full affiliate disclosure in my privacy policy.
What is the Best Roadmap Software?
Here are my top picks for the best roadmap software.
Table of Contents
1. Wrike.
Best for Kanban-style Roadmaps
Wrike lets you visualize and create roadmaps in Kanban view, doubling as Kanban software, as well as Gantt Chart visualizations. Like project management tools such as Trello and Asana, Wrike can adapt to any industry and development team.
It's also an excellent tool for collaborating teams spread across geographically disparate locations. As a result, required members from different teams can access the task board at various times.
However, roadmaps using Wrike can't be as visually appealing and detailed as with ProductPlan. Also, so many features packed into a single interface can feel a bit overwhelming at first.
Features:
Wrike lets you boost performance and enhance growth with its world-class toolset that you can customize for any team. Personalized dashboards, workflows, and a collaboration tool allowing you and your product team to achieve a better product roadmap.
Here's a quick overview of Wrike's most significant features:
- Enables silo elimination with 360-degree visibility
- Scalable software toolset
- AI-based automation
- Document processing, voice commands, and smart replies
- Roadmap templates
- Pre-built workflow and prioritization templates
- Shared team calendars
- Advanced analytics with real-time insights
- Over 400 app integrations
Pricing:
Wrike has pricing plans for every department and team billed annually on a per-user basis. Plans are distributed across four tiers: Free, Professional, Business and Enterprise. Here's a quick breakup of each plan and its core features.
1. Free Plan at $0/user/month
- Up to five users
- Core feature-set for small teams
- Up to 2GB storage space
2. Professional Plan at $9.80/user/month
- Up to 15 users
- Complete project planning and collaboration tools
- 5GB of storage space and above
3. Business Plan at $24.80/user/month
- Up to 200 users
- Complete work management with customization and reporting
- 50GB of storage space and above
4. Enterprise Plan at Custom Rates
- Complete project management solution with advanced security controls
- Unlimited number of users
- 100GB of storage space and above
Get started with Wrike for free.
2. Roadmap Planner
Best for Cross-domain Planning and Collaboration
Roadmap Planner is a product roadmap software with a focus on planning and collaboration that helps businesses from multiple domains. Using this product roadmap tool, you can create product teams, add members and assign each team member tasks precisely as you need to.
Apart from team control, the app's intuitive interface lets you create instant roadmaps. You can indicate all processes necessary for a particular project using these roadmaps. It has multiple views such as the Gantt view and Outline view that make navigation easier.
Mapping out ideas and creating strategies is simple using its drag-and-drop interface. The collaboration tool helps solve decision-making problems that may arise in different scenarios. Overall, it's one of the better tools for use in any business setting, no matter your role in the organization.
Features:
Roadmap Planner provides users with complete team control and product roadmap tools. Thankfully, that's not all; it also lets you handle unlimited projects, delivers stunning presentations, and much more.
The following is a list of some significant features that Roadmap Planner offers:
- URL based roadmap sharing
- Advanced data export and synchronization features
- Online and offline workability
- Simple WYSIWYG interface
- Backlog management
- Predefined roadmap templates
- Multi-language support
- Task dependency compliance
- Dedicated presentation mode for projectors
- Flexible and parallel timeline maker
- Fully protected storage
Pricing:
Roadmap Planner has recently merged with Goals, a project management tool from its parent company KeepSolid Inc. KeepSolid Goals has a pricing plan that starts from $7.99/user/month for one member. Prices increase with the number of members.
3. Hello Focus
Best for Scientific Project Management
Hello Focus is a project management and task prioritization tool that enables managers and teams to get more projects done. It helps users focus on the most critical tasks and align with team members in a better way.
The app uses scientific techniques to cut down on multitasking and has users focus more on their progress using professional roadmapping charts. You can create visually stunning roadmaps using it to track all team members' progress in real-time.
It also helps keep all project-related stakeholders in the loop on particular tasks. Through this, it reduces time spent on unnecessary emails. You can also use the app as a simple to-do list for your personal tasks.
Features:
Hello Focus is a complete project management and roadmapping software that lets you take care of multiple jobs, such as task tagging and editing. You also get features for Gantt charts, Milestone tracking, and Critical Path analysis.
The following is a list of some essential features that Hello Focus has to offer:
- Automates recurring tasks
- Sophisticated yet straightforward task management tools
- Enables seamless communication between team members
- Helps cut down on team meeting times
- Works on all devices and operating systems
- Fully searchable archives
- 'Do Not Disturb' mode
- Completion tracking functionality
- Focused product roadmaps
Pricing:
Hello Focus pricing plans are not available publicly, and you have to sign up with an account to get access to the latest pricing. However, it does have a free trial available, during which time you can try out the software to get a feel of it.
4. ProductPlan
Best for Visually Attractive Shareable Roadmaps
ProductPlan is best suited for product and project management professionals who prefer a visual layout of their projects. Using this roadmapping tool, managers can create robust and visually attractive roadmaps with ease.
It also lets you create and manage estimates related to various projects. The simple drag-and-drop user interface allows you to add color-coded items, create connections between them, and incorporate suitable milestones to add to your product vision.
Each roadmap you create can have multiple granularization levels, such as high-level roadmaps for upper management and more detailed versions for team members. You can also group roadmaps into master plans.
Features:
ProductPlan is an entirely web-based product roadmap tool and has so many features that you might get a bit overwhelmed at first. It can also integrate with the most popular project management tools such as Jira and Asana.
Following is a list of features that ProductPlan has to offer:
- Simple drag-and-drop interface
- Fully customizable layouts
- Collaborate on and share unlimited roadmaps
- Easy integration with popular project and product management software
- Easy import and export
- Advanced data encryption with SOC-2 certification
- Custom roadmap views
- Communication and collaboration management
Pricing:
ProductPlan pricing starts at $39 (annual billing) and gives you access to the primary product roadmap features that most product managers require. In case you're looking for dedicated support and advanced training capabilities, you'll have to upgrade.
Here's a breakup of ProductPlan's pricing structure:
- Business Plan at $39/editor/month annually
- Enterprise Plan at custom pricing on consultation
- Enterprise Plus Plan at custom pricing on consultation
5. Airfocus
Best for Faster Roadmapping
Airfocus's product roadmap software focuses on fast and easy roadmapping to enable rapid product development. It can integrate with popular apps such as Jira, Github, and Trello, which lets you create professional roadmaps within a matter of minutes.
It uses a drag-and-drop interface and lets you switch between multiple views such as Kanban Board and Gantt Charts. Airfocus also contains provisions for creating multidimensional charts that allow you to prioritize better.
The software lets you create and share roadmaps with unlimited viewers. It allows custom weighting and scoring of ideas and feature options, making the product development process more streamlined.
Features:
The one feature that sets Airfocus apart from other roadmapping tools is the Priority Poker feature. Using this feature, all product strategy stakeholders can prioritize features collaboratively and interactively.
That apart, Airfocus also offers the following advantages and features:
- Prioritization platform that helps you make the right decisions
- Fully customizable frameworks and formulas
- Kanban and timeline templates
- Collaboration with multiple team members
- Flexible sharing with unlimited viewers
- Easy integrations with project management apps
- Completely customizable roadmap templates
- 24/7 customer support
Pricing:
Airfocus pricing plans span four tiers: Starter, Team, Pro, and Enterprise. Here's a brief breakup of each plan, along with the most significant features of each. All prices mentioned are for yearly payments.
1. Starter Plan at $35/month
- Single user plan for solopreneurs
- Advanced prioritization framework and matrix
- Kanban-based roadmapping
2. Team Plan at $59/editor/month
- Up to five contributors with unlimited viewers
- Integration with Trello, Jira, and Asana
- Priority Poker
3. Pro Plan at $119/editor/month
- Up to 20 contributors with unlimited viewers
- Master workplaces
- Azure DevOps
4. Enterprise Plan at Custom Pricing
- Custom number of contributors
- Enterprise level security with SAML SSO
- Dedicated training
6. Roadmunk
Best for Completely Customizable Roadmaps
The Roadmunk product roadmap software lets you create fully customizable roadmaps that suit any requirements you might have. Roadmunk contains three types of roadmaps: Timeline, Swimlane, and Master.
The Timeline view is the conventional product roadmap, while the Swimlane view provides scrum and agile teams with a streamlined, Kanban Board presentation. The Master view lets you combine multiple product roadmap styles to get a complete overview of the product's features.
The three customization levels allow different teams to create roadmaps, which managers can then combine for detailed assessment. This makes the process of product creation and software development more streamlined.
Features:
One of the unique features Roadmunk offers is the ability to create multiple views of roadmaps and share them with stakeholders. You can control the level of detail in the view and even distribute them for customer feedback.
Apart from the above, Roadmunk enables you with the following product features:
- Dedicated focus on roadmapping
- Customer feedback capture
- Built-in product management for systematic prioritization
- Roadmunk API for integration with external apps such as Jira
- Pre-built roadmap templates
- Roadmunk learning center, product management resources, and ebooks
Pricing:
Roadmunk's pricing plans are distributed across four tiers: Starter, Business, Professional, and Enterprise. Each higher-level plan contains all features of the lower-level plans, along with plan-specific features and capabilities.
1. Starter Plan at $19/month
- Unlimited number of roadmaps
- Feedback submission and collection
- Suitable for a single roadmapper
2. Business Plan at $49/user/month
- Master roadmaps included
- Custom weighted prioritization
- Best for small team collaboration
3. Professional Plan at $99/user/month
- Secure login with SSO integration
- Custom training and support
- Suitable for rapidly scaling teams and startups
4. Enterprise Plan at Custom Rates
- Tailored terms and conditions
- Private cloud with advanced customization
- Suitable for large enterprises
7. Aha
Best for Enhanced Roadmapping
If you're looking for product roadmap software that lets you do more than just roadmapping, then Aha is the one for you. It's used by over 400,000 product teams worldwide and is considered one of the top product roadmap tools.
Aha's drag-and-drop feature lets you create roadmaps using up to six templates. It gives you the control to add features, initiatives, and goals to your roadmaps and then share it as a PDF, image, or web link.
Aha also has a user story mapping tool with features for collecting customer feedback and insights. You can incorporate customer feedback into user stories for the roadmap. In short, it's got everything a product team might need for successful roadmapping.
Features:
Aha doesn't skimp when it comes to features; this can often be overwhelming for newcomers who are just starting with roadmapping. It's best to invest some time into understanding the ropes before you can get hands-on with this tool.
The following is a list of Aha's significant features:
- Strategic roadmap creation
- Idea management solution with ideas portal
- Organization and prioritization templates
- Drag-and-drop user interface
- Idea crowdsourcing (some other crowdsourcing platforms you can use)
- Story maps
- Multiple roadmap types
- Detailed, custom reports
- Powerpoint-style presentations
- Dedicated training and certification programs
Pricing:
Aha Roadmaps is a complete product management tool that includes Idea Essentials (a companion product). Pricing is distributed across four tiers based on the level of business maturity. I've mentioned prices for the annual plans, which let you save up to 20%.
1. Startup Plan at Custom Pricing
- Suitable for early-stage businesses
- Heavily discounted plans
- 40-minutes best practices session
2. Premium Plan at $59/user/month
Strategic Roadmap Examples
- Build strategy and roadmaps
- Create plans and prioritize work
- Easy reporting and sharing
3. Enterprise Plan at $99/contributor/month
- All features of the Premium plan
- Unlimited reviewers and viewers
- Pay only for workspace owners and contributors
4. Enterprise+ Plan at $149/contributor/month
- All features of the Enterprise plan
- Advanced automation and scenario analysis
- Anti-virus scanning and IP-address access control
What is Roadmap Software?
Roadmap software refers to computer-based tools that help project and product managers plan, prioritize and create product strategies that align with a firm's goals. Usually, most roadmapping software works as a SaaS product that you can access via any browser.
Individuals and teams can use these tools to create great products that align with customer needs. Using roadmapping software, every team member can see where and how they can contribute to the product life-cycle.
How Do You Create A Product Roadmap?
1. Define The Product Strategy
The first step to create a product roadmap is to define the product strategy. This step aims to define details such as the product vision and goal. You'll also need to answer crucial questions such as who your target customers are and determine the product functionality.
While defining the product strategy, it's essential to ensure that you have carefully considered all differentiators that make your product unique. This will help ensure that your offering has a competitive advantage and also aligns with all organizational goals.
2. Gain a Clear Idea of the Requirements
Here, you'll need to gather the necessary information to give you a clear idea of the product requirements. For this, you can tap into three levels of intelligence: sales and support teams, the user community, and also your product knowledge.
Once you've gathered all required feedback, you should score these ideas based on metrics that align with your strategy. Scoring will allow you to get an objective view of which requirements to consider and which to ignore.
3. Assign Broad Timeframes
Roadmap Planner 1 7 – Strategic Communication Tools
An essential function of your product roadmap is to provide the product development team with guidance. However, if you include specific dates and deadlines within the roadmap, you're compromising flexibility and not leaving room for agile responsiveness.
For this reason, many product managers prefer to omit dates and instead assign broad timeframes. You can also choose to plot initiatives quarterly or monthly. By doing this, you're not making promises that you might not be able to keep due to real-world constraints.
4. Customize the View
For the success of any product, you must get the support of all internal teams. To ensure this, you'll need to ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page with the product development team.
However, different levels of stakeholders will require different views of the product roadmap. Thankfully, this doesn't mean that you need to create separate roadmaps for different stakeholder levels. Product roadmapping tools provide you with the ability to create multiple views.
5. Share the Roadmap
Finally, all that's left to do is share the product roadmap(s) with your team and other associated stakeholders. Such sharing establishes accountability among team members and helps keep everyone on the same page regarding project progress.
Roadmap Planner Free
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is There Any Difference Between Roadmapping and BPM Software?
Any business has several processes such as onboarding, accounts management, and project management. Business Process Management (BPM) software helps automate and manage workflows and create efficiencies in all business processes.
Roadmapping software is simply a tool that helps you create a structure of the plan that you'd need to follow for developing a product. There are dedicated roadmapping software on the market, but some BPM tools also include roadmapping features.
Roadmap Planner 1 7 – Strategic Communication Tool Software
2. What Are the Different Types of Roadmaps?
Roadmapping software lets product managers capture and communicate plans on a product roadmap. Your target audience will determine the kind of roadmap you need to present them with.
Here are the most common types of product roadmaps:
- Strategy roadmaps
- Features roadmaps
- Portfolio roadmaps
- Releases roadmaps
3. Can You Use Spreadsheet Software to Create Roadmaps?
You can create roadmaps with basic spreadsheet tools, but using specialized software makes the roadmapping process easier. It also helps to keep sensitive product information secure and makes sharing simple.
Wrap Up
Creating new products can be complicated, but you can streamline the process with the right roadmap software. Beautiful product roadmaps make your pitch more acceptable to upper management of companies.
If you're looking for a dedicated roadmapping tool, then take your pick from the following list:
- Wrike: Best for Kanban Boards Roadmaps
- ProductPlan: Best for Visually Attractive Shareable Roadmaps
- Roadmap Planner: Best for Cross-domain Planning and Collaboration
- Hello Focus: Best for Scientific Project Management
- Airfocus: Best for Faster Roadmapping
- Roadmunk: Best for Completely Customizable Roadmaps
- Aha: Best for Enhanced Roadmapping
I hope you'll be able to find the best-fit tool for your business from among the above selection.