1. Introduction to Strategic Roadmapping
It all begins with an idea.
Executive Level strategic discussions are the catalyst for how a business achieves its goals and objectives. Distilling those ambitions into objectives and goals is a key driver for any business to be successful. However, it is not always that easy to define clear direction when there are many facets to each business. Each Executive will have identified improvements and goals centric to their own role and department. This can generate a significant list of objectives but not necessarily aligned or co-ordinated. With limited resources, choices must be made to ensure that the business only takes on the most essential objectives. The executive discussions should lead to a short-list of agreed objectives over a defined period (normally annual).
Over 40+ years of observing a variety of different businesses, there doesn’t seem to be one favoured method for being able to prioritise objectives to derive that all important short-list. At one end of the spectrum, the executive team debate the options over a period of several months and slowly derive the short-list. This often results in several pet-projects making the short-list from directors who are focussed on their own departments. Naturally, some of the objectives will be valuable to the company, but some objectives that won’t contribute significantly end up making the final cut. At the other end of the spectrum, a systematic process is used to analyse the potential objectives focussing on the Core Values of the business. These are likely to include, all of which add significant value to a business.
· Customer Service,
· Market Development,
· Technology Advances,
· Compliance and Operational Improvements.
Using a weighted scoring system, the long list of potential objectives can be quickly analysed, and the final short-list agreed. Not all objectives can be conveniently run over a 12-month horizon, due to the amount of work that is required. For these longer-term objectives, the Strategic Roadmapping process will identify appropriate milestones that can be used for the annual objectives and used in employee performance assessments.
The short-list of objectives is the required input to the Strategic Roadmapping process. For each objective, hopefully written in SMART format (Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic and Time-Bound), the outcome is well defined - what is going to be delivered and by when. The Strategic Roadmapping process consists of several steps that expand out those objectives into a more detailed program of events, decisions, milestones and analyses the resources that will be required to deliver the objectives. The output of the process is a visual roadmap of all the activities / projects that are required to be completed. There is a choice whether to include all the objectives on the short-list in a single roadmap or to have a roadmap for each objective. A simple diagram of the Strategic Roadmapping process is shown above, and a more detailed description of the process will be provided in the next article in this series.
The approach is similar to Programme Management, where projects are prioritised and aligned with available resources. Programme Managers are very familiar with a prioritised list of projects showing what is active or “above the cut-off” and what projects are waiting in the wings until resources can be allocated. In an extensive review of PPM software a few years ago, the norm was to show projects in tabular format sorted by priority, cost, etc. Strategic Roadmapping is different, as it shows the inter-relationships between the projects, business decisions and milestones that are required to achieve the longer-term business goals. This is why a visual roadmap is a useful tool as it can show these inter-relationships so much easier than a linear table.
The visual roadmap should be simple to understand, can be used for communication, indicate progress, and tracked to ensure that all the activities are running smoothly. The format can be flexible to reflect the activities within the business and is ideally a “live document” that is kept updated and available via an intranet or document management site. The aim is to provide a graphical representation of the activities to achieve the objective that can be understood in seconds.
For a relatively small amount of time invested, a business can visualise from one map, what it is aiming to achieve over the next 12 months. The biggest benefit to a business is all employees can see what is happening across the business and how their contribution fits into the big picture.
480Processes specialise in the creation of Strategic Roadmaps, contact trevor@480Processes.co.uk.
Blog Post Title Two
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Three
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.
Blog Post Title Four
It all begins with an idea.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.