Building Out a Solid Product Plan is Easier Than You Think

A 2019 survey by Roadmap.com revealed that over half of product managers feel their company's strategy lacks clarity, highlighting the importance of creating a comprehensive product plan. Such plans provide clear guidance, align team priorities, and prevent wasted efforts on non-value-adding tasks, thus setting the stage for successful product development. A product plan should offer an overview of the new product, including timelines, costs, resources, and potential bottlenecks, which facilitates efficient workflow management. Building an effective product plan involves defining clear objectives and key results (OKRs), refining these with project requirements, assigning team responsibilities using frameworks like the RACI model, creating a timeline, and ensuring visibility by sharing the plan with the team. Common issues in product planning include a lack of company vision, undefined processes, unclear target users, and limited visibility into team progress, which can lead to confusion, burnout, and missed deadlines. By proactively addressing these challenges, product plans simplify collaboration and help teams build valuable products.