Design Roadmapping in an Uncertain World: Implementing a Customer-Experience-Focused Strategy

What is it about?

Technology is rapidly changing, and customers are seeking not just products and services but experiences. Traditional approaches to strategic planning using product and technology roadmaps are no longer sufficient. This article describes the emergence of what the authors call “design roadmapping” approaches that are grounded in the creation of customer experiences, and which drive the choices of features, functionality, and technology. Design roadmapping provides stability for the future, even as technologies are changing, and keeps organizations more focused on the customers they are serving.

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Why is it important?

------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Academic Scholarship ------------------------------------------------------- This paper contributes a new perspective on the development of roadmaps that is more customer-focused than what has been covered in prior literature. Prior literature focuses on product and technology roadmaps that lack integration with understanding of customer needs and the trajectory that those needs are expected to follow in the future. The paper was developed and offered in the tradition of prior work such as Innovation as a Learning Process, published by Sara Beckman and Michael Barry in 2007 and recipient of the Accenture Award. ------------------------------------------------------- Contribution to Management Practice ------------------------------------------------------- While companies today talk about being customer-focused, few actually are. This article describes an approach to embedding customer and user needs directly into the strategic planning process. We anticipate that this article will make the contribution to a variety of audiences in not only management, leadership, organization, but also in the design, and engineering communities. ---------------------------- Author Perspective ---------------------------- Technology is advancing at an exponential rate, and consequently, the market environment for product innovators is becoming increasingly uncertain and complex. With the accelerated pace of change in market conditions, firms can no longer rely on traditional roadmapping processes that focus solely on technologies and product features. Rather, strategies that center around the holistic customer experience are more conducive to developing products and services that can succeed in today’s market environment. Design roadmapping enables product design and development teams to reframe and refine future concepts in response to new data sets and market changes. The design roadmapping framework was developed to provide a systematic approach to design-driven research that integrates customer research into the roadmapping process and evaluates technology choices with an emphasis on the identified user needs and experiences.