Roadmapping is a crucial part of everyoneproduct manager, but it's safe to say that many PMs don't particularly enjoy it. Luckily, there are some great product roadmap tools to help make it bearable.
Let's start with...
What the product roadmap tools should do:
There are several things to consider when creating a product roadmap:
- Who will keep your roadmap?
- What does the roadmap show?
- Who will access the roadmap?
Let's look at them in turn.
Who Maintains Your Product Roadmap?
Roadmaps are generally owned by the product team. More specifically, the product owner oversees the creation of the roadmap.
In smaller teams, the product manager can essentially be a one-man team. In this case, they are responsible for creating and updating the roadmap.
In larger teams, however, several people can be tasked with maintaining the roadmap. These can be other product managers and also people from other teams, e.g. B. Customer Success Manager.
It's important to keep this in mind when choosing a product roadmap tool.
When one person takes care of the roadmap, you don't have to worry as much about collaboration tools.
However, if multiple people need editing access, you should choose more collaborative scheduling software that allows this.
What does the product roadmap show?
Roadmaps can serve different purposes for different SaaS companies and even for different teams within a company.
Some roadmaps are very detailed and provide a detailed overview of what is planned for the product. Others are simple, high-level glimpses of what the future may hold.
Deciding what type of roadmap is right for your business is an important step. We could (and probably should) write an entire blog post about this decision.
Ultimately, it boils down to this: What is your goal for your roadmap? How does it serve your organization? Is it simply a way for your product team to store their ideas in one place, or is it a way to show stakeholders exactly what to expect? Maybe it's both.
Once you know why you are creating this roadmap and what form it will take, you need to choose an appropriate tool.It's no good using a high-level route planning tool if you want extra detail.
Who has access to the product roadmap software?
While the roadmap often provides more value to the product team, other teams may find a use for it.
For example, your sales team can use your roadmap to inform prospects asking about future launches. Your customer success team may want to check the status of a customer's feature request. Each team may need a completely different view of the roadmap.
It's important that your product roadmap tool facilitates this if you feel you need it.
There's also another group of people you might want to give access to the roadmap: your customers. Sometimes it's best to be transparent and provide a roadmap for your current and potential customers to see. So they know what you have planned for your product.
Not all roadmap tools allow customers to view the roadmap. If you want your customers to have access, make sure you choose a tool that allows you to do so.
Best Product Roadmap Tools for SaaS
So now you know what to consider when choosing between the different product roadmap tools.
With that in mind, let's take a look at what we think are the best product roadmap tools for SaaS companies in 2023...
Dragon Boat: for a results-oriented roadmap
Dragonboat helps align product roadmaps with corporate, business, and customer goals by connecting OKRs and product initiatives.
Dragonboat recognizes that trust and the ability to deliver are just as important as creating a beautiful roadmap. That's why it's not just a roadmap tool, it's aEnd-to-end portfolio platform that combines OKRs, roadmap, customer insights, portfolio planning, follow-up and delivery in one.
Its advanced two-way integrations with engineering tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and Shortcut mean engineering teams don't have to change the way they work, while progress is accumulated in Dragonboat, providing visibility into status, health, and delays on product initiatives.
Dragonboat users emphasize that it gives them more context and confidence in their prioritization, planning, and delivery by having a holistic view of the roadmap, allocation, dependencies, and resources across the portfolio. Product managers can choose from 5 roadmap formats including Kanban, Board, List, Gantt, Swimlane and 3D Dynamic with multiple prioritization methods including RICE, MoSCoW and any custom fields.
Dragonboat licenses start at $49/month per publisher with unlimited free read-only users.
“We're growing fast and need the right portfolio management solution to connect roadmaps to OKRs and do our quarterly planning and tracking. After evaluating 25 tools, I finally found Dragonboat, the only tool that fits all of our use cases and flexibly adapts to the way we work without forcing us to follow the predefined framework. Finally we can get rid of tons of tools and formats to keep all data of our product portfolio transparent and up-to-date.”Anton Zhvakin, Senior Manager of Product Development Operations bei Miro (Fuente)
Startmit Dragonboat gratis oderBook a demo.
Airfocus - for a quick and easy product roadmap tool
Air Focusis a planning tool focused on getting you up and running with your roadmap as quickly as possible.
Thanks to integrations with JIRA, Trello, Github and more, you can start building your roadmap in minutes. Airfocus uses a drag-and-drop interface so you can easily create your roadmap.
You can choose from different views including standard kanban boards, charts, timeline, inbox, priority chart and also a multi-dimensional chart showing your priorities.
While airfocus is primarily about creating and sharing roadmaps (it's worth noting that you have unlimited viewers), you can also create custom ratings and weights for ideas and feature requests.Helps you determine which items make it onto your bill of lading.
However, despite trying to make scheduling as easy as possible, many Airfocus users point out that it may still be a while before it's ready to go. They also suggest many minor improvements that could be made, suggesting the product could use some polishing.
Airfocus is on the lower end of the price spectrum, costing $15 per user per month. Seems a fair price considering airfocus is similar in functionality to the leading products on the market and has very good reviews on G2. This is something to keep in mind for start-ups in the early stages.
Its unique feature is calledpriority pokerresulting in everyone involved playing feature prioritization independently. Priority Poker is an interactive, collaborative and fun way to get grouped, prioritize and make decisions in the most time efficient way.Learn more about this feature here.
"Airfocus has been really helpful in helping us prioritize what we build and has encouraged better product management practices across our organization."–Evan D.
Wrike: Product roadmap tool for managing tasks and projects
The first of our product roadmap tools is Wrike. Wrike is a tool that caters to all types of industries, including SaaS. As a result, it's a product that can seem a bit overwhelming at first.
However, once you customize Wrike to fit your workflow, you'll find it's a powerful way to align your product team and keep track of who's doing what.
In Wrike, your roadmap is displayed as a Gantt chart. Although you can also see it in a list or kanban view. In that sense, Wrike is similarother project management toolslike Monday or Asana.
Perhaps Wrike's biggest selling point over the competition is that projects and tasks can appear in different places at the same time.This means that the relevant members of each team can have access. This is a really useful feature. For example, you could have your product team work on a new feature while your marketing team starts designing the landing page.
For cross-team collaboration and to align everyone internally,Wrike is a great tool.
However, there is a problem with customer access. You are also limited in how much detail you add to your actual roadmap.
Wrike has a free plan for up to 5 users (with limited functionality). The cheapest plan is $9.80 per user per month. This makes it slightly cheaper than its two direct competitors, Monday and Asana. That makes it a good option for early-stage startups.
“Workflow, management and collaboration have been positively improved with Wrike as it is much easier to spread out tasks, keep track of important deadlines and have a much fairer workflow as you can assign a task to multiple people so the work and Projects can be streamlined ahead of schedule.”– Rebecca R.
AHA! — For more than just product roadmap software
Dog!Claims to be the #1 routing tool in the world, with over 250,000 product teams using it.
As for planning, aha! allows you to create your roadmap using six different templates. You can choose the one that suits your needs. You can then drag and drop your goals, initiatives, and capabilities onto your roadmaps.
You can share your roadmaps with whoever you want. You can send it as a PDF, an image, or host it on a secure webpage. This makes it extremely easy to share with customers and stakeholders.
But aha! it goes a little further than creating a roadmap. It also encourages you to set goals and initiatives, which will then be incorporated into your final roadmap.
You can also Aha! to bring to light the opinions and comments of customers. You can then use the comments to create user stories before adding them to projects and features in your roadmap.
AHA! it essentially allows you to tie everything together. It's great for product teams that want everything in one place.
However, the sheer size of the product means it can be difficult to get up and running. There is just so much to do that it will take you time to learn how it works before creating your roadmap. If time is not on your side, you may need other, simpler tools.
It starts at $59 per user per month (paid annually). This gives you access to basically all the features you need. When you think of it, Aha! for everything then it seems a fair price compared to other product roadmap tools.
“I especially like how Aha! allows the PM to tie the features/tasks the team is working on to the reasons why those features were defined and prioritized over others. It gives the whole team a clear direction.” —Geraldina C.
Product Dashboard - To prioritize your SaaS roadmap
Product tableis similar to Aha! as it provides a complete view of the product management cycle.
You can collect feedback from all your different sources (social media, CRM,Email, etc.). Once you have everything in one place, you can start prioritizing your backlog and deciding what to work on next.
Once you have specific features or ideas in mind, you can start creating your roadmap. Your roadmap in Productboard will end up looking a bit like a Kanban board, with a top-level main view.
However, you can click on any item on your roadmap for more details. If you've used other Productboard features, you'll see the strategy behind the roadmap and even the feedback that sparked the ideas in the first place.This gives your team full transparency and visibility.
You can share the roadmap with customers and stakeholders, but currently only as a PDF file. This could be cumbersome as you would have to update the PDF every time the roadmap is updated.
Routing is also limited to one view type (Kanban). For teams that prefer a Gantt or list view, this is a major limitation.
Like other tools that are an all-in-one solution, Productboard can be difficult to use at first and therefore takes time to see the value in it.
Productboard pricing starts at $49 per user per month. However, if you want access to advanced features like prioritization controllers, custom fields, and JIRA integration, you'll have to pay $99 per user per month.
“We had an alignment and communication problem that we needed to solve. Plain and simple, Productboard gives us a clear way to communicate and collaborate on our product roadmap. And it gives our team insight into how we think about and prioritize initiatives.” —Eric P
Try ProductBoard for free today.
Roadmunk - for a fully customizable product roadmap tool
street punkis a tool designed to help you create versatile roadmaps that meet all your needs.
It is based on three main types of roadmaps. The first is the "Timeline", which looks like a traditional road map. You can see initiatives, goals and projects.
The second view is the "Trace". This is essentially a Kanban board that gives your teams a streamlined view. It's perfect for agile teams.
The third view is the "master". This is a very high level view that allows you to combine multiple routings into one master routing. This gives you a bird's-eye view of the future of your product.
The ability for multiple teams to create their own roadmap and then bring them all together in the master view is unique to Roadmunk and has great potential.
To share your roadmap, you can create different views of the same roadmap and then share them with different stakeholders. You can publish it as png slides or host it online.
It also means you can easily share your roadmaps with your customers. In fact, you can create a custom roadmap showing only the level of detail you are comfortable with.
However, since Roadmunk focuses solely on making maps, it means you need to use other tools to gather feedback and strategize. For larger companies this may not be a problem. However, early-stage companies may not be able to justify multiple tools.
Reviewers also point out that the interface can be a bit confusing at first, so some training may be required.
The most popular pricing plan is $49 per user per month. This gives you access to almost all functions. If you want JIRA's two-way integration, you have to pay $99 per user per month.
“We have different roles that want to know where the different projects/initiatives are. Roadmunk allows the product team to create one view of the roadmap for everyone. From lanes to Gantt chart style street maps, it's awesome!”—BrentJ.
ProductPlan: to share beautiful roadmaps
ProductoPlanUnderstand that if you want to share your roadmaps, they need to look good. A rudimentary spreadsheet or a simple Trello board isn't always enough when presenting it to stakeholders or customers. You need one of the product roadmap tools.
ProductPlan makes it easy to create your roadmap using a drag-and-drop interface.From there you have full control over your roadmap. You can choose how granular your timeline is, or even remove it entirely. You can color code items, connect related items, and add milestones.
Once your roadmap is ready to be shared, you can create different versions, each with different levels of detail. This means you can share a high-level roadmap with your stakeholders and a more detailed roadmap with your development team. However, you don't have to worry about creating multiple routings.
It has unlimited roadmap viewers so you don't have to pay for the privilege of sharing it with stakeholders.You also have the ability to create master plans that group different roadmaps together for a broader view.
ProductPlan users state that all the functionality can be a bit overwhelming at first. It also serves to distract users who only need access to certain parts of the product. ProductPlan is also completely web-based. While that's not the biggest problem, it means you can't update your roadmap offline.
ProductPlan pricing starts at $39 per user per month (billed annually). This gives you access to most of the main features. However, if you want better access to Customer Success and Support, you'll need to upgrade. Overall, however, the low cost makes it an attractive option for smaller teams.
"With this software it was possible to manage the workflow much more quickly and easily, besides guiding the planning, collaboration and presentation of each of the business projects, achieving deliveries without delays as well as great savings of time and money."— Carolyn S.
Try ProductPlan for free today.
Trello – for easy product planning and roadmap
TrelloIt's a popular tool for managing projects, but customizing Trello boards means you can create a rudimentary roadmap. As such, it deserves a spot on our list of product roadmap tools.
You can create a dashboard with different columns for Now, Next, and Future (or any timeline). You can then add cards to the board. Each card represents a different quality or idea. You end up with a simple Kanban roadmap.
Trello's strength lies in its collaborative functionality. It's easy to share your Trello roadmap with other team members or stakeholders.They can then move items around or add additional detail by annotating the cards.
You can also connect Trello to a variety of different product management tools, including Airfocus and Github. Or you collect all data on project progress and deadlines in one placeThe Trello Google SheetConnection.This way you can easily integrate Trello into your existing workflow.
However, Trello is not specifically designed for roadmapping. As a result, many functions are missing. It's difficult to prioritize and you can't choose between different views. Also, the only way to share your roadmap is to add people to the board. If you want a top-level view for stakeholders, you would need to create a new dashboard.
Trello offers a free version that might have everything you need to create simple internal roadmaps. If you want access to the integrations and different views, you have to pay. The lowest pricing plan starts at $9.99 per user per month, so it still won't break the bank for smaller teams.
“This product is very useful for users who want to organize their work team. Schedule and team meetings. The user who is planning to organize a sprint should use this software as it is very useful for sprint planning. I used him as a scrum master to design the product backlog.”- Of a man.
Portfolio: to create roadmaps with quick resource planning
Portfolio: to create roadmaps with quick resource planning
briefcaseis a tool for product managers who need to interact with team leads and resource managers to get their jobs done. You can design your roadmap using different types of boards, including timelines, spreadsheets, kanban boards, and pivot tables.
Once you've created your roadmap, sharing it with your stakeholders is easy thanks tounlimited viewer accounts included with every plan.
The unique feature of Portfoleon is that it not only allows you to create and share roadmaps, but also to link themlean resource management. A high-level resource assignment helps communicate cost and feasibility and improves team buy-in. You can summarize resource information and create charts to show, for example, SAFe's stringent security measures.
Portfoleon reviewers point out that the product can be difficult to use at first and that the user interface can be simplified for users who don't need all of the product's features.
“Portfoleon helps us to have a lot of control and insight into the many projects going on at the same time in our medical department. The tool is visually very strong and helps to create clarity and transparency in meetings. “, – Ken B.
Portfolioon has a free plan for 10 users with limited functionality. Business pricing plans start at $19 per user per month.
Register your free portfolio account today
Which product roadmap tool is right for you?
There are many product roadmap tools to choose from. We always recommend trying them out for yourself and deciding which ones you prefer. Most offer a free trial or demo.
We've also created a table so you can quickly compare the different tools on the product roadmap:
Hopefully you now have a better idea of which product roadmap tools work best for you. Visit theUserpilot blog for more product managementand resource planning.