This post first appeared in my newsletter on Oct 6, 2021. Subscribe to my newsletter for a new, weekly post.

I am a big believer in teams having a suitably detailed, one year rolling roadmap at the ready. The trick? Suitably detailed roadmap items.

Think of it as progressively disclosing options/solutions.

For Far-Off Things…

A persona and high level focus will suffice.

Key Persona: Accountants at Tier 3 accounts

High Level Focus: Faster and less error-prone monthly reconciliation

For Near-Future Things…

We layer in some key measures.

Key Persona: Accountants at Tier 3 accounts

High Level Focus: Faster and less error-prone monthly reconciliation

Key Measure(s):

• 90th percentile time to account reconciliation Current 5.3 days Goal, <4 days
• Secondary: error rates (to be researched)

For Next-Up Things…

We add some potential options to try.

Key Persona: Accountants at Tier 3 accounts

High Level Focus: Faster and less error-prone monthly reconciliation

Key Measure(s):

• 90th percentile time to account reconciliation Current 5.3 days Goal, <4 days
• Secondary: error rates (to be researched)

Options to Try:

• Improve model for automatic categorization
• Improve UX to help accountants scan transactions
• Improve UX around “request for clarification”
• Improved Education! “the product kind of works already!”
• Research collaboration models in the larger Tier 3 accounts that may be responsible for a lot of the longer process times

For Things Happening Now…

We add a prioritized option.

Key Persona: Accountants at Tier 3 accounts

High Level Focus: Faster and less error-prone monthly reconciliation

Key Measure(s):

• 90th percentile time to account reconciliation Current 5.3 days Goal, <4 days
• Secondary: error rates (to be researched)

Options to Try:

• Improve model for automatic categorization
• Improve UX to help accountants scan transactions
• Improve UX around “request for clarification”
• Improved Education! “the product kind of works already!”
• Research collaboration models in the larger Tier 3 accounts that may be responsible for a lot of the longer process times

Prioritized Option

• Improve model for automatic categorization

Hope you found this helpful! The nice thing here is that you can easily put together a 12 month roadmap, without prematurely converging.