Session as delivered at - Regional Scrum Gathering in Toronto from March 26, 2018 to March 27, 2018 - GattineauOttawaAgileTour in Ottawa on November 30, 2018

1. Building Powerful Roadmaps
Empowering product roadmaps through risk management
xodiacmaking every team thrive
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Who am I?
• Gino Marckx
• Business Improvement Consultant, Coach,
Team Builder, Developer
• Co-founder of the Toronto Agile Software
Development Community
• Passionate about making every team thrive
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

3. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
What is a roadmap?

4. What’s in a name?
road·map [rōd-map] - noun
1. a map designed for motorists, showing the principal cities and towns of a state or area, the
chief roads, usually tourist attractions and places of historical interest, and the mileage
from one place to another.
2. any plan or guide to show how something is arranged or can be accomplished: your
roadmap to financial independence.
© 2017, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.www.dictionary.com

5. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
This is a roadmap

6. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
In technology

7. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cabn Christopher Harrison - Corner Store
corner store
@yourconvenience.com

8. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cb Intel in Deutschland - Dell XPS 10 Tablet Computer with Dock | cb Wildon Hui - 20130808-161-of-365 | cdb geee darryl - Samsung SPH- M300 Red
Accessible

9. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cbn Fotero - Abanico de posibilidades
Convenient

10. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cb SvartaBaskern - 3-8
Easy to use

11. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cb Carol Pyles - Coupon Pile Stock Photo
Feature rich

12. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cab knehcsg
Recognizable

13. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.cb www.twin-loc.fr - https://www.twin-loc.fr Jerusalem Israel - Delivery time - Photo Image Photography
But much more…

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The roadmap
Product catalogue
Online purchase
Inventory management
Point of sale system
Delivery of ‘frozen’ products
Personalized offers Loyalty

15. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
The roadmap
Product catalogue
Online purchase
Late feedback
Late return on investment
Little flexibility
Personalized offers Loyalty
CMS
eCommerce
Custom

16. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Too often looks like this…
1
2
3
4 5

17. So really…
• (Techno)logical building blocks
• Schedule driven by technical dependencies
• Limited incremental value delivery with little opportunity for feedback
• Lack of pivoting options makes it hard to embrace business change
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

18. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
An alternative approach

19. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

20. © 2017, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Validating assumptions
© Alistair Cockburn - What engineering has in common with manufacturing and why it matters

21. A powerful roadmap
• A milestone delivers real progress towards the objective, either
through value delivery for the end user or through the mitigation of a
risk
• The description of a milestone informs the team about the goal of this
milestone in context of the larger solution
• Feedback from every milestone delivery informs the team about which
steps to take next
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

22. Process
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Identify the problem
Build high level solution architecture
List risks
Sort according to risk exposure
Mitigate risks
Create new functionality
Assess risk reduction
Prioritize functionality
Map existing functionality (split if possible)

23. Identify the problem
• Elevator pitch
• Strip context from the problem description
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
@yourconvenience.com
providing an online yet personal corner store experience

24. Build high level solution
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
User Administrator
Catalogue
Shopping
cart
Orders
Accounting
Content
management
Payment
engine
Order
management
Delivery
service

25. List risks
• What if we cannot guarantee speedy delivery of ‘frozen goods’?
• What if someone from the other side of the country tries to buy stuff?
• What if we are out of the product people want?
• What if customers are not interested in the service?
• What if our POS system is too old to integrate?
• What if credit card transactions are too expensive for small purchases?
• …
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

26. Sort according to risk exposure
• Risk exposure = opportunity cost * probability
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Risk Cost Probability
What if we cannot guarantee speedy delivery of ‘frozen goods’? + ++
What if someone from the other side of the country tries to buy
stuff?
++ -
What if we are out of the product people want? ++ +
What if customers are not interested in the service? ++ ++
What if our POS system is too old to integrate? - ++
What if credit card transactions are too expensive for small
purchases?
++ +

27. Mitigate risks
• Either reduce the probability of the risk occurring or reduce the cost
to deal with it
• Use planned functionality for risk mitigation
• Useful strategies to deal with unmitigated risks
• Lure - draw the risk out to force dealing with it
• Inform - find out more information about the cost or probability
• Spy - record information that reduces the cost of dealing with it
• Avoid - find an alternative solution
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

28. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Mitigate risk
Planned
functionality
mitigates
risk?
All
functionality
is required to
mitigate?
Extract
mitigating
functionality
Add mitigating
functionality
List risks
Assess risk
reduction
Mitigation algorithm

29. Our mitigating functionality
• Build product catalogue and…
• Provide ‘shopping list’
• Offer ‘virtual wallet’ as payment
• Offer pay-at-delivery
• Show product availability in product catalogue
• Arrange pick-up in store
• Organize delivery to companies
• …
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

30. Assess risk reduction
• Build product catalogue and…
• Provide ‘shopping list’
• Offer ‘virtual wallet’ as payment
• Offer pay-at-delivery
• Show product availability in product catalogue
• Arrange pick-up in store
• Organize delivery to companies
• …
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
• What if customers are not
interested in the service?
• What if credit card transactions are
too expensive for small purchases?
• What if we are out of the product
people want?
• What if we cannot guarantee
speedy delivery of ‘frozen goods’?
• What if someone from the other
side of the country tries to buy
stuff?
• What if our POS system is too old to
integrate?

31. • Build product catalogue and…
• Provide ‘shopping list’
• Show product availability in product catalogue
• Arrange pick-up in store
• Organize delivery to companies
• Offer pay-at-delivery
• Offer ‘virtual wallet’ as payment
• …
Prioritize functionality
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

32. Process
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Identify the problem
Build high level solution architecture
List risks
Sort according to risk exposure
Mitigate risks
Create new functionality
Assess risk reduction
Prioritize functionality
Map existing functionality (split if possible)

33. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
In a powerful roadmap, at every
milestone we deliver on an objective
instead of just a new batch of
functionality

34. © 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.
Wrapping up

35. Benefits
• Real roadmap allows for prioritization instead of scheduling
• Customer can help with prioritization
• Delivery remains flexible
• Real value at every milestone
• Biggest risks are addressed early in the project
• Get additional value from risk management process
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

36. Things to remember
• Roadmap ≠ schedule
• Business risks over (techno)logical risks
• Risk mitigation will generate your roadmap
• Seek fast feedback
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.

37. Thank you!
https://leanpub.com/powerfulroadmaps/c/rsg
Download draft for free until March 31st, 2018
xodiacmaking every team thrive
© 2018, Xodiac Inc. All rights reserved.