How we built an Interactive Product Roadmap (and how to build your own)
Have you ever looked at your product roadmap and thought, “There has to be a better way?” We certainly did. After years of relying on static boards and one-way communication channels, we set out to completely transform the way we share our vision with our customers. Today, we’re excited to share the journey of how we turned our roadmap into a dynamic, interactive conversation.
What is a Product Roadmap?
A product roadmap is a strategic guide that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. It serves as a centralized plan that aligns teams on both short- and long-term goals, while ensuring that everyone moves in the same direction. More than just a timeline, a roadmap visualizes how objectives will be achieved, providing a clear and structured way to communicate product development plans.
Escaping the traditional at Flipsnack
At Flipsnack, our product roadmap has evolved over the years, we depended on tools like Trello boards, Jira tickets, and static documents. While these solutions served their purpose, they ultimately left us wanting more. Our earlier flipbook format was a step in the right direction, but it still lacked one crucial element: authentic customer engagement. We realized that to truly evolve, we needed a roadmap that went beyond mere presentation, that invites active participation from our community, in order to improve our product.
The “Aha” Moment
The turning point came when we asked ourselves: What if our customers could do more than just passively read about future features? What if they could actively interact with the roadmap: voting, providing feedback, and even influencing our strategic direction in real-time? This simple yet powerful idea sparked our journey towards reimagining what a product roadmap could be. And here is how we did it.
How we built our Interactive Roadmap
1. Engaging experience with wishlists
To turn our vision into reality, we repurposed our shoppable catalog solution into a wishlist system. This helps customers to flag their favorite features with a single click and send their feedback directly to our product team. By transforming our roadmap into an interactive voting platform, we’ve created an intuitive tool that provides invaluable insights into customer preferences—resulting in a roadmap that both informs and engages.
2. Collecting direct feedback with integrated forms
Interactivity is at the heart of our new roadmap. Instead of relying on external surveys or emails, we embedded feedback forms directly into the roadmap, making it easy for users to submit comments and suggestions in real time. All responses are automatically collected and organized within our analytics dashboard. This means that our team can continuously monitor and adjust our strategy based on actual user input, making the process both agile and responsive.
3. Automating updates for saving time
One of the biggest challenges with traditional roadmaps is the constant need for manual updates which can be tedious and time-consuming. To solve this, we built a smart automation system that pulls data from a master spreadsheet, updating the roadmap with just one click. This ensures that our roadmap is always accurate, up-to-date, and reflective of our latest plans.
4. Integrating with Zapier for smarter Data Management
We didn’t stop there. By integrating Zapier, we connected every piece of feedback and every feature vote to a central dashboard. This integration allows us to generate real-time statistics and insights about what features matter most to our users.
Why go public?
While it might seem safer to keep strategic plans behind closed doors, we believe in the power of transparency. By making our roadmap public and interactive, we invite our customers to join the conversation. This not only builds trust but also empowers our community to have a direct impact on our product’s future, that we truly value.
That said, we also understand that some businesses may prefer to keep their plans private. That’s why Flipsnack offers flexible private sharing options, making sure that companies can choose the level of transparency that works best for them.
The game-changing results
Our interactive product roadmap has transformed the way we collaborate with our customers. It’s not just a visual upgrade over our old static format, it’s a platform that drives smarter decision-making and fosters genuine collaboration. Every interaction contributes to our understanding of what to build next, and our customers feel truly heard.
Ready to build an interactive roadmap for your own business?
We’ve seen the impact of an interactive roadmap in driving engagement and strategic alignment. Now, your business can create a roadmap that not only informs but actively involves your customers, driving meaningful insights and smarter strategic moves.
