What is an okr roadmap?
Definition of an OKR roadmap
Product managers and their teams have a myriad of alternatives for developing new digital products. With so many project management and decision-making frameworks, it’s no surprise that lines might blur at times. In reality, OKRs and roadmaps are two separate concepts that are commonly misunderstood; therefore, there is no such thing as an “OKR roadmap” in the traditional sense.
The majority of OKRs are time-bound. Top-level OKRs are usually reviewed once a year, whereas department and team-level OKRs are reviewed every three months. This is a good cadence since it allows for appropriate testing and iteration keeping in mind that the team does not prioritize diminishing returns. If an Objective has to be extended, the company can always decide to work on it for a more extended period as the quarter comes to a close.
What is an OKR in the context of product management?
We can obtain some insight into the issue by breaking it down into its essential elements, starting with the definition of each.
OKR is an abbreviation for Objectives and Key Results, and it’s a goal-tracking framework that Google first presented in the company’s early days. It’s excellent for tracking goals over more extended periods, ideally quarters. It allows project managers to identify Objectives (long-term goals) and key results (measurable outcomes of attempts to attain those goals). It can also be employed to track goals over shorter periods, such as weeks or days.
Roadmaps are diagrams that show the timeline and progress of a project. On the other hand, the product roadmap is one of several options you may use in this situation. They are employed to visualize and prioritize tasks and milestones as the product development process progresses.
Can Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) replace roadmaps?
Given that both concepts are concerned with the actual outcomes of product development, there will undoubtedly be some overlap — but could one idea fully replace the other?
In truth, OKRs aren’t an adequate replacement for the product roadmap, mainly because they monitor different things — but that doesn’t mean you can’t use them in tandem.
Including OKRs as part of the product roadmap is a frequent practice among product teams. Because a roadmap is nothing more than a list of deliverables, such as product enhancements and upgrades, an OKR, on the other hand, can be more strategic, like “raise the number of users who download the app.”
OKRs should be used in conjunction with product roadmaps; however, before selecting what tasks you should include on the roadmap, teams should first isolate the set of OKRs to one phase of development — one month at a time. Using the OKR framework to achieve the goal In the case of a new mobile version of an application, a project manager might emphasize the Key Results on the exact number of tests that resulted in a successful outcome, such as “successfully launch the beta test of our mobile app.”
Even though the two systems are technically separate, this logic may be applied to particular application areas, leveraging the OKR framework to meet the essential milestones in the roadmap. A word of caution: while defining product OKRs, it’s critical to get buy-in from relevant business stakeholders, such as the Chief Revenue Officer, to ensure that the bar isn’t set too low or too high. This way, you’ll get real value from scoring at the end of each quarter.
Finally, by focusing on outcomes rather than outputs, OKRs encourage the proper behaviors. This is essential for a company’s success. It’s the difference between an e-commerce site that prioritizes revenue above traffic and one that prioritizes traffic. Similarly, a product manager should prioritize goals over features. In the end, this should be the end goal to develop successful products.
