HOW TO BUILD YOUR APP FEATURE ROADMAP FREE TEMPLATE 1
ROADMAPS AKA HOW TO KNOW WHERE I M GOING Here s the truth: nobody cares how many features you have, only that you provide the best and most valuable ones to meet their needs. And when it comes to your app, this is particularly true. Apps can t be overrun with useless features, bad paths or unimportant screens, which is why creating a smart and streamlined feature roadmap will help you cut through the weeds and hone in on which features you should really be developing. Depending on your need, stage and priorities, your app product roadmap can be mostly high-level or hugely granular. So within this workbook bundle, we provide the templates for: The onset of creating an app (your starting point) Mapping multiple app user scenarios Creating your first roadmap Outlining feature sprints Populating & prioritizing a feature backlog Your ongoing roadmap: based in four key buckets ( scenario-dependent, catch-up, user-driven, and industry-leading ) to cover your product needs from launch, through growth. Read on to discover ideas and best practices, and to access your interactive templates! 2
STARTING WITH THE BUYER JOURNEY Congratulations: you ve got a truly great idea for an app. You could be a marketer or one-person development team, a big name brand or a startup, but a good idea is a good idea. However, it s just a starting point. Because what you need now is to consider how and why a user might want to use that app. And for that, you need to consider your user s - or in many cases, buyer s - journey. No matter the idea, you want to ensure that it functions to aid in the buyer journey your brand is founded on - or the one you re creating for yourself. Mapping this gives you a starting point for considering the user scenarios your app will function on, and ultimately, the features you need to build. But most importantly, it puts you in your buyer s shoes, and forces you as a marketer, developer, or product manager to act as the end user. Incorporating this perspective into your planning is hands-down the best way to build a worthwhile roadmap. 3
MAPPING THE END-TO-END BUYER STORY DREAM/ NEED Your user is either starting out with a dream to purchase something, a task to compete, or a need to fulfill. Is it buying a car? Finding the perfect winter coat? Looking to make a restaurant reservation? No matter the need, they re seeking out a solution. How does your app fulfill the user need? EXPLORE There s a reason traditional advertising is working less and less; researching before purchasing has become more than just common - it s a necessity. But before your prospect even decides on a purchase, they consult different channels. What role does your app play in their exploration process? CHOOSE Your buyer uses their accumulated research, recommendations and intuition to make a decision and choose a product, solution or provider. Their choice is a reflection of information, understanding and emotion. How does your app function and what does it provide to become the clear choice? BUY/ CONVERT The purchase or conversion event is your ultimate goal as a company - or, one of them. But it s not a standalone event; as we ve seen, consumers are typically engaged in the purchase process far earlier. And while this may be the primary goal, it doesn t mark the end of the buyer journey. What does the conversion event in your app look like? REFLECT Was this a positive experience, a negative one, or entirely neutral? What about it makes you want to interact with this brand in the future? Was it an emotional decision? Reflection is a crucial stage in determining the value of the journey. How does your app facilitate engagement? 4
MAPPING THE END-TO-END BUYER STORY DREAM/ NEED EXPLORE CHOOSE BUY/ CONVERT REFLECT 5
ALIGNING YOUR APP DEVELOPMENT STEPS TO THE BUYER JOURNEY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Pinpoint the goal Brainstorm Define your UI/UX Create great features Refine and engage Purchase/ Conversion CORRESPONDING STEP IN BUYER JOURNEY: Choose Explore Dream/ Need Reflect 1 2 3 4 5 NOTES: This is the crux of your app: what is the user s end goal? Once you ve pinpointed that, you can build a feature roadmap that works to accomplish this goal. For most apps, there s one primary conversion event to focus on per user scenario. Here, you want to identify feature ideas that serve the conversion goal. Beyond that: think of ways your app can make this journey easier. As your user is exploring, they ll need a clean, easy, and errorfree (plus efficient and intuitive) UI/ UX. Too many errors or a poor experience can and will turn them away - plus, your features will mean very little if they aren t served up in the best setting. Their beginning is your last concrete creation step: actually developing an app that meets the need they have. While launch date is a factor, you want to make sure to take the time to develop an app that s valuable, and truly addresses the user need. Your goal as an app owner is to keep users engaged with your app longterm. This means refining your features and roadmap over time, listening to their feedback, and running targeted marketing campaigns to bring them back in-app. 6
ALIGNING YOUR APP DEVELOPMENT STEPS TO THE BUYER JOURNEY WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: Pinpoint the goal Brainstorm Define your UI/UX Create great features Refine and engage Purchase/ Conversion CORRESPONDING STEP IN BUYER JOURNEY: Choose Explore Dream/ Need Reflect 1 2 3 4 5 NOTES: 7
THE KEY TO A GREAT ROADMAP? USER SCENARIOS Your buyer s journey typically spans across all brand channels, and outlining yours enables you to accurately assess how a prospect might go about deciding on you. Understanding this is essential to creating your app feature roadmap, because you have solid footing for actually meeting your buyer s expectations and providing them with the best possible experience. When it comes to determining what to build in your app, why, and when, you should use the buyer journey as the foundation to map out 3-4 key app user scenarios. What are user scenarios, exactly? They re the main ways you can see a user interacting with your app in order to accomplish something. (Remember: this is a more specific step down from the high-level buyer journey, as it s specific to app use cases). Take travel apps, for example. User scenarios for this vertical might center around: researching a location, booking a flight, checking in to a hotel, or leaving a review. These are four distinct user scenarios that each require their own set of features to facilitate the process. 8
HOW USER SCENARIOS AFFECT YOUR PLANNING When creating your feature roadmap, you want to determine the features absolutely necessary in aiding in each of these user scenarios: Which features are critical to get the user from point A to point B in each scenario? If you cut a feature, how does it impact the scenario? Does that ruin one or three scenarios? For example, if the answer to this last question is none, chances are you don t need that feature, or it s not a feature you need to divert a lot of time and resources to getting right. This also helps you create the use cases you need to support feature development. 9
MAPPING MULTIPLE USER SCENARIOS IN YOUR ROADMAP When approaching your roadmap, your next step is to spend a significant amount of time defining your user scenarios and the needs and events around them. Each scenario should center on a specific goal, and possible even a segment of users, depending on your level of granularity. In the following template, we ve started each scenario with App Open as the first step, but your scenario could start before or after this event - it s your template to customize. 10
APP ROADMAP SCENARIO 1 SCENARIO NAME: Goal: How does this relate to the buyer journey? STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 11
APP ROADMAP SCENARIO 2 SCENARIO NAME: Goal: How does this relate to the buyer journey? STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 12
APP ROADMAP SCENARIO 3 SCENARIO NAME: Goal: How does this relate to the buyer journey? STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 13
APP ROADMAP SCENARIO 4 SCENARIO NAME: Goal: How does this relate to the buyer journey? STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 14
CREATING YOUR FIRST ROADMAP Your first roadmap is going to be: 1. A compilation of the features you ve determined to be necessary for each of your user scenarios; or 2. A representation of the one scenario you want to start with In this sense, it will be different from all subsequent roadmaps, because once you create the features that are critical to these scenarios, you ll want to start to build on them in smart and strategic ways. 15
INITIAL APP FEATURE ROADMAP FOR MULTIPLE SCENARIOS Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 16
INITIAL APP FEATURE ROADMAP ONE SCENARIO Scenario 1 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 17
BREAKING DOWN YOUR ROADMAP SPRINTS INTO To better organize for short-term execution, consider using sprints. By breaking down feature development based on timeline, you have a better idea of how many sprints, or work cycles, are required to finish each. This leads to better planning and clearer expectation setting. 18
FEATURE SPRINT Pro tip: Change your sprint template according to how big or small the feature project is and how many sprints it will take to complete SPRINT CREW 1 CREW 2 CREW 3 1 Feature 1 Feature 4 Feature 8 2 Feature 5 3 Feature 2 Feature 6 4 Feature 3 Feature 7 19
YOUR ROADMAP OVER TIME Once you ve conquered your user scenarios, it s time to build on them. Remember: it s not a chance to add more features simply for the sake of adding them. Instead, it s a chance to approach your feature development pipeline from new ways, including how to improve and build on current features, create competitive differentiators, and incorporate compelling feedback. Integrating user feedback User feedback, via NPS campaigns, App Store ratings and reviews, and email responses, should play a significant role in determining your roadmap. As app developers, owners and marketers, you already have a sense of what to prioritize in terms of available resources, development challenges, and other elements. But user feedback should never be overlooked when it comes to identifying what features to build, and when. It could include new ideas your team hasn t yet thought up, or help you to prioritize your development schedule (according to higher demand for certain features - more on this, later). Using your analytics You have app analytics in place for a reason: to better determine hows users are interacting with your screens and to identify popular (and unpopular) features. If you don t have access to user surveys or have few reviews on your App Store listing, analytics will give you insight into what your users like just based on their activity. What are the typical screen flows? The most common conversion events? Drop offs in your app funnels? Digging in to your metrics will help to highlight areas of concentration and concern. 20
Sourcing feature ideas from different departments Your app is an extension of your brand - so why should it belong to only one department? While it s smart to have a lead team, consider making that team cross-departmental, and include insights from various members of your organization. Each department typically has a different view on your brand s strengths and weaknesses, and address all of those - and sourcing feature ideas from those conversations - is an invaluable way to address user needs and create a better app. Never losing sight of the buyer journey The buyer journey you outlined earlier isn t just for kick-starting your app: it s just as important to continually reference, reflect on, and update in order to ensure that your app development process is still relevant. You could even reach a point where you actually have multiple buyer journeys depending on the end goal - and use that to inform a multi-app strategy. Regardless, when revisiting your roadmap, you should always keep the buyer journey in mind, and continue to use that to inform your product. Sticking to your mission statement Apps don t need to be unusual and creative to be successful. Sometimes, they work because they serve a bigger purpose. Your app should be closely tied to your mission statement, and you can use that as guidance as you evolve your mobile presence. Walgreens brand mission is to Champion everyone s right to be happy & healthy. So, instead of encouraging customers to make in-store visits to refill prescriptions (which they recognized as a bottleneck to the process), they simplified and created the ability to refill a prescription in their app. Here, the customer want comes first - not the store. This app feature speaks greatly to their mission to create ways for everyone to have access to healthcare. 21
HOW TO POPULATE A BACKLOG So, you ve already put together a list of features you, your team and your company would like to see built - but what about your users and other outside feedback? Don t overlook how critical their feedback is in populating a comprehensive backlog. User suggestions from within your app One critical tool in your arsenal is the NPS survey - a survey you can customize and run using an in-app messaging campaign, targeted to all or certain users and aimed at gathering their feedback on the app experience. One advantage to running this campaign is that all feedback is gathered privately, and is not visible to or shared with your other app users. The most effective way to utilize an NPS survey is to create important user segments and send them different questions - what features do your power users find most useful? What improvements do your social sharers think there could be to the sharing process? Email users to ask for ideas Simple, but effective: take your backlog cross-channel by emailing users and asking them for ideas on how your app could be better. Email gives them the chance to respond in longer form than an in-app campaign, and because you re not structuring the questions, you could get unexpected feedback. Sure, your response rate might be low, but it only takes one or two dedicated users to inspire the best ideas. 22
Research via support forums Some of the most meaningful new or improved features are actually born from complaints, bugs or user-identified shortcomings. These don t have to be specific to your app, but to general comments and complaints about apps in your industry, or from other developers. Looking at both your own support forums and conducting research within others will give you a broad sense of the issues that plague app users most. You can also see how users communicate with each other about app problems. Use App Store reviews Your App Store listing is a highly-visible landing page for your app. Because it effectively sums up your app s growth, in terms of versions, ratings and bugs, it s also the perfect place to showcase how your app has evolved. Yes, we all like to think that the first version of our app is fantastic and without error (because I tested it so many times!), but the truth is that just as your website has evolved over the years, so should your app. And evolving your app is a fairly useless task unless you re doing it with the goal of making users happy. Plus, addressing and prioritizing user issues sends the clear sign that you re creating an app that works for them. 23
HOW TO PRIORITIZE YOUR BACKLOG Segment your user input and determine the most common requests As you accumulate input, organization is key. Within your backlog, keep a running list of user feedback and an ongoing tally of what users are asking for most. Together, this will help you identify the most problematic bugs and discover the most common feature requests. This also means that when it comes time to launch a new update, you ve got data (or, at least a comprehensive list) to back up what you chose to roll out. Adjust near-term work around known app issues Back to the app roadmap: you ve put a lot of work into it. It s based on real needs and big desires. But it can t be all feature-based bells and whistles - most times, you re going to have to prioritize around the issues that have surfaced, and restructure your current work to allot time to address these issues. Take the time to truly integrate these into your roadmap so that you don t lose sight of the actual amount of work you ve got on your plate. Consider the time and resources needed to build certain features When it comes to prioritizing features, a key consideration is how big of a project it is to tackle - will it require additional resources? Is there a long research phase required? Do you already have someone on your team who can build it? At any given time, you ll want your roadmap to be a combination of wow features and need-it-now updates. For example, if you re planning the next year in app features, your roadmap might include three or four features that require a substantial number of developers, design time, or new (and costly) tools to 24
build - these are your wow ones. But your app won t survive on only a few new features each year. Your need-it-now updates might make less of an impact on your brand long-term, but will be easier to ship, and will keep current users happy. Determine if creating new features is more important than improving current features When it comes to your current features, it s more than just bugs you want to consider. Your first launch of a particular feature might be functional, but not outstanding (because who actually has the time to build outstanding in V1?). So, what s more important: building new features to expand your app offering or hunkering down to truly improve your current features? This is a balancing act for all brands, and when it comes to your app, the harmony is just as crucial. This is another place to consider user feedback. If there s a feature critical to your app that s not performing well (and users are noticing), take that into consideration when prioritizing for your roadmap. Assign importance based on impact - expected or past What is the relative impact this feature will have on your app success as a whole? If it s one users have been consistently asking for, chances are the impact will be high. Similarly, if it s a game-changing addition to your industry, you don t want to make the mistake of waiting too long to launch it. Use data from the impact of past feature launches and research on the expected impact to help assign each feature importance based on its predicted impact of high, medium or low. Be sure to ask yourself: What factors either inflate or deflate the impact of the new feature? Has there been a change in the market or in user expectations that will have an effect on the impact of a new feature? This will help you keep your prioritization up-to-date according to key trends. 25
BACKLOG MANAGEMENT TOOLS Need a place to store and organize? Here are a few backlog management tools we suggest checking out: MORE MORE MORE MORE 26
GROUPING BUG UPDATES & FIXES If you ve already launched your app, you know; Apple s App Store review process can be long and tedious. On the web, we have the luxury of continuous deployment, which allows developers to update multiple times per day (if necessary) and ship the code immediately. But because Apple manually reviews every app store submission, all of your submitted updates are subject to a long wait period. Your goal is to only re-submit big launches or new versions - not to fix bugs on a day-to-day schedule. So when prioritizing your backlog, group bug fixes and other feature updates in version updates. These can be paired alongside net new features to both address app errors and introduce new elements. This will give you the ability to make big changes and imperative updates at the same time. Pro tip: To avoid the re-submission process, build any change capabilities you can into your API. 27
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION USER FEEDBACK User Feedback # of User Requests Proposed Feature How does this benefit the brand? Time and resources needed Requested Changes Predicted impact 28
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION PRODUCT WANTS Proposed feature New or current? How does this benefit the brand? Time and resources needed # of Corresponding User Requests (if applicable) Predicted impact 29
FEATURE PRIORITIZATION DEPARTMENT REQUESTS Department Requested Features How does this benefit the brand? Time and resources needed # of Corresponding User Requests (if applicable) Predicted impact Executive Marketing Support Digital 30
THE APP FEATURE ROADMAP Date Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Scenario- Dependent Mostly applicable in first versions - less so in later stages Catch-up Necessary in order to stay competitive. CATCH UP FEATURE 1 Industryleading Hole in the market, room for differentiation Userdriven Must-haves driven by user feedback and app scenarios INDUSTRY-LEADING FEATURE 1 31
CONCLUSION: MAKING IT ALL ABOUT YOUR USER Your app isn t just another channel - it s a highly-personalized tool meant to make your users lives better. So no matter what your feature aspirations, everything you do has to be rooted in what is best for the user. As long as you re able to keep their wants, needs, concerns and ideas as the foundation of your planning, you ll end up with the best possible app. 32
LEARN MORE Download our free ebook, App Marketing for Web Marketers and get inspired by what leading brands have done with this space. DOWNLOAD ADDITIONAL RESOURCES 9 Things to Consider Before, During and After Launching Your App How to Think App-First For Your Brand 5 Analytics Reports All Great App Marketers Use The 2015 App Marketing Guide The Definitive Guide to Monetizing Your App Workbook: How to Create the App Analytics Reports You Need 33