Production roadmap demystified

To escape the arbitrary process of determining production roadmap we need to instate a scientific and clear system to satisfy business needs and have unambiguous priorities for both products and their functionality. Production roadmap will be defined in few simple steps:
   1) Create empty slots for product releases per each developer team based on business (EPO) needs
   2) Perform Research and Analysis to determine clear priority list for new/existing product and their functionality
   3) Fill out the roadmap slots by following previously defined product/functionality priorities

Step 1 - empty slots creation
Owned by: COO with assistance of CEO/Sales

Business needs that guide creation of production roadmap empty slots:
   1. One possible release slot per core developer team per month (12 per team)
   2. 75% of empty slots are to be allocated for new High ROI products (9 "green slots" per team)
   3. Release one new major version for existing products each year

Step 2 - R&A rank lists
Owned by: DPD with assistance of other technical teams (Support, QA indirectly)

Singular system similar to what we use in HR - evaluate specific properties of each candidate, summarize, sort and create a clear rank list of recommendations to fill the "buckets"

We can distinguish 3 sets of properties* for 3 rank lists we need to fill out the empty Production roadmap slots:
   1. Possible new High ROI products (green slots)
   2. Existing products (purple slots)
   3. New/existing product changes/functionalities; prioritized list of features needed for each of the products we'll use to fill the allocated slots

*Specific properties for R&A product/functionality ranking will be detailed separately

Step 3 - filling the empty slots
Owned by: COO with assistance of DPD

With clearly defined business needs and R&A rank lists, filling the slots is objective process:
   1. Fill the green slots based on new High ROI products R&A list of priorities
   2. Fill the purple slots based on existing products R&A list of priorities
   3. Assign a minimum and maximum feature set to each product release; minimum feature set must be met, maximum only if there is enough time and resources allocated but not for the expense of delaying the release
   4. Proof the estimates with developer teams to establish a commitment of both sides: no changes on requirements side and no delays on developer side


Do's and Don'ts
   A) Do apply lean techniques for new releases: make each new product release as short as possible with minimum possible feature set needed to determine the success of the product; analyze first version results and make a clear decision to pivot or persevere

   B) Do plan and proof estimates conservatively to make Production roadmap predictable and solid for the entire year

   C) Do use priority pairs to determine the weights of business needs if something's got to break; i.e. New High ROI products > one major release for all existing products each year

   D) Don't assume available development resources are fixed but think outside of the box to satisfy all business needs

   E) Don't push back planned releases but instead cut out lower priority features to release on time