We design your strategic technology evolution plan for 2-3 years with clear priorities, planned budget, and measurable milestones. A flexible roadmap that adapts to market changes and keeps your company on the right track.
Features
Benefits
From a list of ideas to an innovation roadmap
Almost every company already has a list of pending initiatives: an ordering portal for distributors, entering marketplaces, a PIM to bring order to the catalogue, a tool for sales reps to check stock and price lists during visits, carrier integration or opening a new country. The problem is rarely a lack of ideas; it's that they compete with each other for the same budget and the same people.
The first step in the roadmap is to inventory all of them in the same format: what goal each one pursues, which department is asking for it, which systems it touches and what it needs to get started. Only with that common template can such different initiatives be compared.
At this stage we also include initiatives already under way, even partially, because they consume resources and shape what can be started later. And we don't filter for feasibility yet: it's better for an idea to leave the roadmap after being assessed than to leave it out unexamined and have it resurface every few months.
How we prioritise the initiatives in the innovation roadmap
We assess each initiative against criteria agreed with management before any scoring: impact on sales or operating costs, implementation effort, technical and business risk, and the load it places on the in-house team, which is usually the scarcest resource.
The result separates quick wins that can be started almost immediately from structural initiatives that require preparation. Both have a place in the roadmap, but not in the same quarter or at the same level of detail.
For each initiative we also define which metric should move if it succeeds: orders through the online channel, picking time, cost per order or catalogue coverage on marketplaces. That metric is what gets reviewed later to see whether the initiative delivered what it promised.
The dependencies that set the order of the innovation roadmap
Priority alone doesn't set the order; dependencies do. A B2B portal needs customer-specific price lists and the customer master to be clean in the ERP. Selling on marketplaces requires a catalogue with complete attributes, which often means putting a PIM in place first. Offering in-store pickup requires reliable stock per store. An app for the sales team depends on the CRM having up-to-date data.
That's why we map dependencies explicitly. Skipping them is the most common reason for projects that run late, or that go live and nobody uses, because they were built on data that wasn't ready yet.
Dependencies also involve people and calendars: it's unwise to launch two projects at once that need the same IT lead, or to start a platform migration in the middle of the year's busiest sales season.
Phased budget and review of the innovation roadmap
Each phase of the roadmap includes a budget range, the in-house resources it will need (hours from the product, IT and sales teams) and the providers involved. That way management can approve the investment in tranches and know in advance what it will be asking of each department.
At each quarterly review we check progress, factor in changes in the market or the business, and decide which initiatives come in, which are postponed and which are dropped. A roadmap that isn't reviewed stops being used within a few months.
To keep reviews efficient, each initiative has an internal owner who reports its status in the same format every time: progress, cost deviations, risks and decisions needed from management.
The roadmap is also delivered as a spreadsheet or board your team can update, not just as a static document, so each quarterly review always starts from the current version rather than an old presentation.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between an innovation roadmap and a project plan?
A project plan details the tasks, deadlines and owners of a specific initiative. The innovation roadmap decides which initiatives are carried out, in what order and with what budget. Each initiative in the roadmap ends up with its own project plan when its turn comes.
Does the innovation roadmap include choosing platforms or providers?
It indicates which tool decisions need to be made and when, but doesn't make them in advance. When an initiative reaches its phase, the choice is made through its own selection process, with requirements updated at that point.
What happens if priorities change midway through the innovation roadmap?
That's to be expected, and it's what the quarterly reviews are for. Because the dependencies are mapped, you can see straight away what bringing forward or postponing an initiative implies and which others are affected.
Who should take part in building the innovation roadmap?
General management and the heads of sales, operations, finance and IT. If any of those areas is left out, the roadmap usually runs into a budget or capacity constraint later that nobody had accounted for.
Need this service?
Contact us and we will advise you on the best solution for your project.
Request information