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Create a comprehensive quarterly product roadmap that aligns business goals with engineering capacity, prioritizes features, and communicates strategic direction to stakeholders.
# Quarterly Roadmap Planner ## Problem Context Product Managers need to create quarterly roadmaps that balance strategic vision with engineering capacity, stakeholder expectations, and market needs. A well-structured roadmap communicates priorities, dependencies, and timelines while remaining flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions. ## Solution Pattern: Chain-of-Thought Pattern The Chain-of-Thought Pattern helps break down the complex task of roadmap planning into logical steps, ensuring all factors are considered and dependencies are identified. ## Multi-Step Workflow This is a multi-step process. Follow each step in order: ### Step 1: Strategic Alignment & Goal Setting **Prompt Template:** Act as a Product Manager's assistant. I'm planning a quarterly roadmap for [Product/Team Name] for [Quarter, Year]. First, let's align on strategic goals: 1. **Business Objectives**: What are the top 3-5 business objectives for this quarter? - Revenue goals - User growth targets - Strategic initiatives - Market positioning goals 2. **Product Vision Alignment**: How does this quarter's work support the overall product vision? - What strategic themes are we focusing on? - What key outcomes are we driving toward? 3. **Stakeholder Priorities**: What are the key stakeholder priorities? - Executive priorities - Customer feedback and requests - Engineering priorities (tech debt, scalability) - Sales/marketing needs Please help me synthesize these into clear, prioritized quarterly goals with measurable outcomes. --- ### Step 2: Feature & Initiative Inventory **Prompt Template:** Using the goals from Step 1, let's create a comprehensive inventory of potential features and initiatives for this quarter. For each potential item, help me capture: - **Title**: Clear name for the feature/initiative - **Description**: What it is and why it matters - **Goal Alignment**: Which quarterly goal(s) does this support? - **Estimated Effort**: Rough estimate (S, M, L, XL or story points) - **Dependencies**: What needs to happen first? - **Risks**: What could block or delay this? - **Value**: What's the expected impact? (High/Medium/Low) Consider: - New features from the backlog - Customer requests and feedback - Technical debt and infrastructure improvements - Bug fixes and improvements - Experiments and MVPs Please organize this into a structured list and help me identify any gaps or overlaps. --- ### Step 3: Prioritization & Capacity Planning **Prompt Template:** Now let's prioritize the inventory from Step 2 and align with engineering capacity. **Context:** - Team capacity: [Number] engineers × [Number] weeks = [Total capacity] - Average velocity: [Story points per sprint] (if available) - Known constraints: [Holidays, other commitments, dependencies] **Prioritization Framework:** Help me prioritize using [RICE / Value vs Effort / MoSCoW / Custom framework]: For each framework, walk me through: 1. Scoring criteria 2. How to score each item 3. Recommended prioritization order 4. Identification of "must-haves" vs "nice-to-haves" **Capacity Planning:** - How many items fit in the quarter? - What's the recommended mix of: - Strategic features (60-70%) - Quick wins (10-20%) - Technical debt/infrastructure (10-20%) - Experiments (5-10%) Provide a prioritized list with clear reasoning for the ordering. --- ### Step 4: Timeline & Milestone Planning **Prompt Template:** Using the prioritized list from Step 3, let's create a timeline with clear milestones. Help me: 1. **Break down the quarter**: Into sprints or monthly milestones 2. **Assign features to milestones**: Based on dependencies and capacity 3. **Identify key dates**: - Feature completion dates - Beta/launch dates - Review and adjustment points - Stakeholder check-ins 4. **Plan for flexibility**: - What can be moved if priorities change? - What are the critical path items? - What are the buffers? 5. **Risk mitigation**: - What are the biggest risks to the timeline? - How can we mitigate them? - What's the contingency plan? Create a visual timeline showing: - Month/Sprint breakdown - Key features per period - Dependencies (with arrows/connections) - Milestones and checkpoints --- ### Step 5: Communication & Stakeholder Alignment **Prompt Template:** Now let's create communication materials for different audiences based on the roadmap from Step 4. **Create three versions:** 1. **Executive Summary** (1 page): - High-level themes and goals - Key initiatives and expected outcomes - Risks and dependencies - Resource needs 2. **Engineering Team Roadmap** (detailed): - Feature breakdown by sprint/month - Technical considerations - Dependencies and blockers - Resource allocation 3. **Stakeholder Roadmap** (user-friendly): - Customer-facing features - Expected benefits - Timeline (high-level) - How to track progress **Plus:** - A one-page visual roadmap (Gantt-style or timeline) - FAQ document addressing common questions - Success metrics dashboard template --- ## Example Use Case **Scenario**: A PM at a SaaS company needs to plan Q1 2025 roadmap for a product analytics tool. **Step 1**: Aligns on goals: Increase user engagement (DAU +30%), improve retention (monthly churn <5%), launch enterprise features. **Step 2**: Creates inventory of 25 potential features including: custom dashboards, API improvements, new data connectors, UI/UX improvements, performance optimizations. **Step 3**: Prioritizes using RICE framework, identifies top 12 features that fit capacity. **Step 4**: Breaks down into 3 sprints per month, assigns features, identifies critical path items. **Step 5**: Creates exec summary for leadership, detailed roadmap for engineering, customer-facing roadmap for sales/marketing. **Result**: Clear, aligned roadmap that balances strategic goals with reality, with buy-in from all stakeholders. --- *This prompt is part of the Engify.ai research-based prompt library. Customize it for your specific context and needs.*
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