Roadmaps serve as a link between a company’s UX vision and project-tracking documentation. Thus, roadmaps are strategic, visionary documents, whereas project management plans focus on execution and output tracking.

What is a UX Roadmap?

A UX roadmap is a strategic, dynamic artefact that organises, prioritises, and conveys the future tasks and issues the UX
team will face.

How does a UX Roadmap fit in with other roadmap scopes?

1. Teams can produce one of three types of roadmaps, each with Product roadmaps describe all future problems that must be resolved, including user experience, marketing, content, design, research, development, support, or operations.
2. Field Roadmaps contain all future problems that must be resolved by UX (such as those about design, research, or content), but they do not include problems from fields other than UX (such as marketing, development, and support, which would undoubtedly have their own, distinct field roadmaps).
3. Speciality roadmaps are a subset of field roadmaps that only address problems in one UX area.
   

What are the advantages of UX Roadmap?

Set priorities for and align diverse work

UX practitioners are frequently bombarded with requests such as “add this feature,” “extend this capacity,” “perform this study,” and “satisfy this client request.” They should identify and prioritise similar issues throughout these requests to solve them in the most efficient way possible. The road mapping approach [SG9] assists practitioners in identifying themes and patterns across a wide range of potential work activities and then prioritising them based on a mix of business- and user-oriented criteria.

Establish a common base

A well-functioning team has a shared vocabulary and knowledge of the task. This is easier said than done, though. Collaboration throughout the road mapping process, particularly when themes are developed and prioritised, assists in uncovering any misunderstandings before work begins and minimises conflicts later in the process.

Establish teamwide buy-in

Ownership and participation improve the possibility of subsequent buy-in and support. Team members are more likely to buy into the high-level plan and sequencing of work by jointly prioritising activities before the actual work begins.

Connect UX disciplines and teams

A field roadmap integrates goals from all UX areas. Each UX department has access to the work that the others are doing. The design team, for instance, can view the latest research projects. A roadmap serves as a single source of truth, promoting cross-pollination and promoting widespread awareness.

Demonstrate the UX design process

Many teams still need to explain what it means to be user-centred to their stakeholders, especially those with low UX maturity. A field roadmap clearly articulates future UX work and conveys the UX-design process, from early discovery research through content production and wireframing. It provides a high-level picture of the difficulties that the UX team must address and frames needs from the viewpoint of the beneficiary.

When should a User Experience Roadmap be created?

Roadmaps should not be prepared every week. They are a strategic tool that should be employed when it is important for communication and alignment.

There are four main situations in which roadmaps are produced:

1. New initiative

Roadmaps provide a shared vision and prioritise the first problems to solve. They visually represent your new project’s strategy and where you plan to commence.

2. Something is incorrect

Sometimes teams reach a breaking point due to too many conflicting priorities and no one knowing what’s going on. When this happens, roadmaps can assist in recalibrating goals and focusing on a single set of well-evaluated priorities.

3. Changes in leadership initiatives

There must be some education, whether the consequence of a reorganisation or a new leader entering the team. Roadmaps can explain current and directions to new leaders.

4. Annual planning

This is the most prevalent reason for creating roadmaps. As teams enter a new year, roadmaps assist in focusing their efforts (or quarter). Creating roadmaps for the following year or quarter develops enthusiasm and aids in advocating for future resources.