# Keeping it fresh and rolling it out in the organization > How often to review a roadmap, how to size and explain a change, how to answer special requests and strategic forks, and how to roll out outcome-based roadmaps, ending with CatChow's full roadmap. - Course: [Outcome-Based Product Roadmaps](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps.md) - Module: A living roadmap - Lesson 15/15, ~49 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/keeping-it-fresh ## The December review **Alex Tutor:** December at CatChow, and you're still the product team's keeper of the roadmap. **Sofia:** Last review of the year. The board went quietly, by the way: two questions, both about churn. **Alex Tutor:** A quiet board is a good sign. Now the roadmap itself. How often should each part of it change? **Sofia:** We promised a monthly review. Is that enough for everything? **Alex Tutor:** Match the rhythm to the horizon and the pace of change. Now gets a monthly check: signals, carryover, anything blocked. Next gets a deeper look every quarter, when the columns roll. ![A gardener waters seedlings in front, trims a hedge in the middle with shears and only glances at a big old tree at the back.](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/inline/keeping-it-fresh-illustration-2.webp) *The near columns change often, the vision rarely.* **Alex Tutor:** The vision and the objectives, about once a year, or when the strategy really shifts. Change those monthly, and nobody can plan anything. **Sofia:** And today is also the end of the quarter, so Now becomes January to March. **Alex Tutor:** Right. That's **planned change**: on a known rhythm, so people know when to bring things. **Unplanned change** is whatever arrives in between. Today you have both. > **Exercise:** Match each part of CatChow's roadmap to how often, and how deeply, it should be reviewed. ## How big is the change? **Lucy:** Bad news, small version: clinic orders move to the new system a week later, in the week of 18 January. February for PurrPoint still holds. **Sofia:** Does that change the roadmap? **Alex Tutor:** Size it first. A **small change**, like a date moving within the quarter or a subtheme added, lives in the release plan. You tell the people it touches; the roadmap stays. **Alex Tutor:** A **broad change** moves a theme between columns, or adds or drops one: a roadmap update, explained to every audience. A **fundamental change** touches an objective or the vision: back to the inputs, with Ian and the board. **Sofia:** So Lucy's week is small. Brandon and her team need to know, and nothing moves on the page. **Alex Tutor:** Exactly. The deeper the change, the further back you go: a small one needs a message, a broad one new conversations, a fundamental one the whole process from the inputs. ![A small change lives in the release plan, a broad one updates the roadmap and is explained to everyone, and a fundamental one goes back to the inputs with Ian and the board.](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/diagrams/m5-l3-change-sizes.png) *Size every change before you act on it.* **Alex Tutor:** Start with Lucy's news. What size is it, and what do you do with it? > **Exercise:** Lucy: clinic orders move to the new system a week later, in the week of 18 January; February for PurrPoint still holds. What should Sofia do? **Alex Tutor:** Now a harder one: which of these is broad? > **Exercise:** Which of these is a **broad change** to CatChow's roadmap? ## Four questions for any request **Brandon:** Big one. A chain of nine clinics wants to join, but only if we deliver within 24 hours instead of two or three days. That's nine of the 26 clinics we still need! **Sofia:** Nine clinics in one go. Hard to say no to that. **Alex Tutor:** Don't answer yet. Every request, big or small, gets the same four questions in the same order, so the answer doesn't depend on who asked or how loudly. **Alex Tutor:** First: who has the problem, and what happens to them if we do nothing? Second: which key result would solving it move? If either answer is weak, you can stop there. **Sofia:** Their clinics run out and lose clients. And it moves two key results: 80 partner clinics and stock-outs. **Alex Tutor:** Third: what would it push out, and who needs to hear that? Fourth: what's the smallest step that would show it's worth it? **Sofia:** Next-day delivery is warehouse and courier work, and Lucy's team is on the move until March. The smallest step: see whether the form plus earlier warnings make 24 hours unnecessary. **Alex Tutor:** Good. If clinics reorder before the shelf is empty, two or three days is enough. The order of the questions matters, so let's check it. > **Exercise:** Put the four questions for any special request in the order Sofia should ask them. **Alex Tutor:** Brandon needs one line for the chain before the holidays. Two drafts; which one? > **Exercise:** Brandon needs one line for the nine-clinic chain before the holidays. Which one should he send? ## News is not evidence **Ian:** Have you seen this? A supermarket chain has launched its own cat food subscription, 20% cheaper than ours. We need loyalty points now, not in June. **Sofia:** The founders' idea, back with a headline behind it. **Alex Tutor:** It's news, not yet evidence. Is anyone actually leaving us for it? You added a price question to the cancellation survey. What does December say? **Alex Tutor:** Work it out before you answer Ian: 27 of about 450 people who cancelled in December named price. > **Exercise:** In December, 27 of about 450 people who cancelled their CatChow subscription named price in the cancellation survey. What percentage of cancellations is that? **Sofia:** 27 of about 450 people who cancelled named price: six percent. And cancellations citing running out fell from 30% to 26% in the reminders' first month. **Alex Tutor:** So the November decision stands. You don't reopen a decision on a headline. But this is a real fork: answer the supermarket on price, or keep betting on never running out. **Sofia:** And we decide which one now? **Alex Tutor:** You decide now what would make you switch. Set **decision thresholds**: a measure, a level, a date to look, and what happens on each side. You make the call while nobody's panicking. ![A calm person checks a gauge with an orange line marked on the dial while a megaphone blares loudly beside her.](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/inline/keeping-it-fresh-illustration-3.webp) > **Exercise:** Which of these are good **decision thresholds** for CatChow? Select all that apply. ## Why, what, when **Sofia:** Then there's the note to everyone after today's review. Usually I just list what changed. **Alex Tutor:** People can read a list. What they can't guess is the reason. Start with **why**, then **what** changed, then **when** it takes effect and when you'll look again. **Sofia:** Why first? It's the longest part. **Alex Tutor:** Without it, people fill the gap themselves, usually with the least charitable version: “they dropped my item” instead of “the evidence moved”. ![A presenter points in turn at a glowing lightbulb, a card being moved between columns and a calendar page.](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/inline/keeping-it-fresh-illustration-4.webp) *Without the why, people fill the gap with the least charitable version.* **Sofia:** Should I also say what didn't change? **Alex Tutor:** Yes, especially the vision and the objectives. When those hold, a change reads as learning, not as chaos. > **Exercise:** When the roadmap changes, the update should list what changed; the reasons can be given to anyone who asks. ## When other teams want in **Ian:** Marketing and support want to plan like this next year. Can we roll it out across the whole company in January? **Sofia:** Every team at once, in January. What could possibly go wrong? **Alex Tutor:** Start small: one team, one objective, one quarter. Support is a good first candidate; it already brings evidence to every review. **Alex Tutor:** Begin with a quick health check of how they plan today: the trace, change and reader tests from our first week. Plus two more: did everyone hear why the plan last changed? Does anyone outside the team know how to bring a request? **Sofia:** And then leave them to it? **Alex Tutor:** Then give it a steering rhythm. The monthly review becomes a short meeting with a person from each team and the same agenda every time: key results, changes, new requests, decisions, and who tells whom. **Sofia:** So the whole company learns it at the review, not in a training session. > **Exercise:** Support wants to try outcome-based planning next year. What's the best first step? **Alex Tutor:** Before support starts, try the health check on CatChow's own roadmap. Which question tests which part? > **Exercise:** Match each health-check question to the part of the roadmap it tests. ## Deciding before the data **Sofia:** Ian wants the loyalty-points decision in writing, before the January numbers arrive. **Alex Tutor:** Good. Write the thresholds: the measure, the level, the dates you'll look, and what happens on each side of the line. **Sofia:** And if the number lands close to the line? **Alex Tutor:** Then the plan stays, and you look again next month. A threshold you argue about after the fact isn't a threshold. > **Exercise:** Write the decision thresholds for loyalty points that Ian asked for (3–5 sentences): the measure, the level, the dates you'll look, and what happens on each side of the line. ## The note to everyone **Brandon:** What do I tell the nine clinics? They want an answer before the holidays. **Sofia:** Everyone else will want to know what changed today, too. One note, then? **Alex Tutor:** One note covers it: why, what, when, and what stays the same. Brandon can pass on the part about the chain in his own words. **Sofia:** The chain gets the form in spring, after PurrPoint, and a way back for faster delivery if they still run out. **Alex Tutor:** Put the condition in the note. People trust a “not now” when they can see how it would become a yes. **Alex Tutor:** Now the note to everyone. > **Exercise:** Write the note Sofia sends to everyone after the December review (4–6 sentences): why, what changed and what didn't, and when. Include the answer to the nine-clinic chain. ## Roadmap, version 5 **Alex Tutor:** The last version for this course. Version 5 is the whole roadmap plus how it lives: who sees what, how often it's reviewed and how changes are made. **Sofia:** Everything from the vision down to the disclaimer, and the rules around it. **Alex Tutor:** And roll the columns. From today, Now is January to March. **Sofia:** Twelve person-months, the move a week later, February for PurrPoint and the quiz test in March. **Alex Tutor:** Date it today. From here on it's a document that keeps changing, on purpose. > **Exercise:** Write version 5 of CatChow's roadmap: the full roadmap and how it lives. ## What to remember **Sofia:** Three months ago I wanted to sort 40 requests by who asked loudest and turn them into a Gantt chart. **Alex Tutor:** Now you have a roadmap people trust: it says why, it shows what's changing, and it changes by rules everyone knows. > **Key ideas** > > - Match the review rhythm to the horizon and pace of change: Now monthly, Next quarterly as the columns roll, the vision and objectives about yearly. **Planned change** follows that rhythm; **unplanned change** arrives in between. > - Size every change. **Small**: the release plan, and tell those affected. **Broad** (a theme moves, appears or goes): update the roadmap and explain it to everyone. **Fundamental** (an objective or the vision): back to the inputs. > - Ask every request the same four questions, in order: who has the problem, which key result it moves, what it pushes out, and the smallest step that shows it's worth it. > - News isn't evidence. For a real fork, set **decision thresholds** in advance, and explain every change: why, what, when, and what stays. > - Roll out small: one team, one quarter, a quick health check first, and a monthly review with someone from each team. **Alex Tutor:** That wraps up the course. Next month you'll review the roadmap again, and it will look a little different. That's how you'll know it's alive. - Previous lesson: [Product roadmap presentation: one roadmap, four audiences](https://productovi.com/courses/outcome-based-roadmaps/presenting-the-roadmap.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.