Pendo Roadmap in Feedback

Last updated: January 10, 2024 18:18

Pendo Roadmap in Feedback (which is different from Roadmaps in Discover) is a communication tool that helps you visualize and share your product vision with internal teams. You can show how customer requests align with themes of work, and demonstrate how you're using data and insights collected in Pendo Feedback to inform your roadmap.

This article describes the new roadmap experience, which extends the capabilities of our original roadmapping tool, with:

Drag-and-drop functionality.
UI interactions that allow you to quickly reference details without leaving the page.
A backlog where you can add and remove requests, features, and initiatives with flexibility.
Customer value and votes data for the items linked to requests that you place on your roadmap.

Important: If you're looking for information on the Discover Roadmaps experience, see Roadmaps in Discover. Feedback Roadmap customers can ask their CSM to move them over to the new Roadmap experience.

Roadmap functionality

Pendo Roadmap is a flexible tool that can be used in different ways. You can show broad themes of work you plan on delivering in coming quarters to leadership, communicate what’s coming with sales who can then get prospects excited about where you’re heading, and close the loop with customers who are interested in what you’re building next.

Timeframe

Roadmaps are split along a timeframe in quarters. Use the quarterly boundaries to indicate when you plan on building and releasing features. You can choose what quarter the timeline starts from. The default is Q1.

Grouping and hierarchies

Roadmap offers a theme-based view of items that you’re planning and building. You have control over how these items are grouped.

Use Swimlanes (themes) to group your roadmap items by product areas, company divisions, sectors, and so on. A roadmap must include at least one swimlane.

Items within a swimlane can be any of the following:

Initiatives, represented by a purple rocket icon. Initiatives can contain features and requests.
Features, represented by a green star icon. Features can contain requests.
Requests, represented by a pink light bulb icon.

Feedback data

Roadmap allows you to group requests from Pendo Feedback into features and initiatives.

Request data includes quantitative insights from Pendo Feedback, such as value and votes. This helps show why items are on your roadmap. You can also see value and votes associated with features and initiatives, so long as these have requests associated with them.

Note: The value shown in your Initiatives and Features depends on the value that you pass through the Pendo snippet under monthly_value. This is typically your MRR or ARR. For more information on Pendo snippet, see the Developer's guide to installing Pendo.

Backlog

Initiatives, features, and requests are stored in your Backlog. You can open the backlog by selecting the backlog button in the top-right of your roadmap, next to the ellipses.

Your backlog is pre-populated with existing Feedback requests. You can add initiatives and features from the backlog in your roadmap, and add notes to initiatives and features using the Comments tab.

You can also add links to the Description of an item in the Backlog using Markdown with the following format:

[link name](http://urlexample.com)

To view information about an initiative, feature, or request in your backlog, hover over the item and select the info icon that appears in the top-right of the item's card. Review the information in the Overview tab and the Comments tab, and select Back to Backlog to view the list of items again.

Roadmap visibility

You have two visibility options for your roadmap: Team Only or Private (Only Me).

You can change the visibility of a roadmap from Roadmap Settings, or from the Visibility column of the roadmaps table in the Roadmap page.

You can only change the visibility of a roadmap if you're the owner. If you change a roadmap's visibility from Team Only to Private (Only Me), then colleagues who previous had access to your roadmap will get a message telling them that they don't have permission to view the page.

Note: Initially, the new roadmap experience is available to internal teams only.

Multiple roadmaps

You aren’t limited to one roadmap. You can create multiple roadmaps for different products and different audiences.

The Roadmap page lists all existing roadmaps visible to you. This includes roadmaps you’ve created alongside any roadmaps that were created by other people with a visibility set to Team Only. You can filter this list by owner and by app with the dropdown menus at the top of the table. You can also search roadmaps using the search function in the top-right corner of the table.

Prerequisites

You must have a Pendo Feedback subscription to access our roadmapping tool.

To enable Pendo Feedback, you must first install the Pendo snippet. The snippet is the code that enables Pendo products to launch in your application.

For more information about the Pendo snippet, see the Developer's Guide to Installing Pendo.

Create a roadmap

You create your roadmap in the Roadmap page, which you can find in the left-side menu of Pendo Feedback. To create a new roadmap:

Select + Create Roadmap in the top-right corner of the page.
Enter a meaningful name.
Optionally, enter a description for your roadmap.
Choose whether you want the roadmap to be visible to your colleagues (Team Only) or Private (Only Me).
If applicable, select the appropriate app for your roadmap.
Under Timeframe, select which quarter you’d like your roadmap to start at. The default is Q1.
Add your first Swimlane. A roadmap must include at least one swimlane.

Choose a meaningful name.
Add a description (optional).
Choose a color for the Swimlane.

Select + Add New Swimlane and repeat Step 7 until you’re ready to continue with your roadmap.
Select Create Roadmap in the bottom-right corner of the page.

Add swimlanes to your roadmap

Use swimlanes to group items on your roadmap. You can add new swimlanes in three ways:

Selecting the Add Swimlane button at the bottom-left of your roadmap.
Selecting the ellipses (...) on the right-side of an existing swimlane, and then Add New Swimlane.
By editing the roadmap settings, which you access by selecting the ellipses (...) in the top-right of the roadmap page, and then Edit Roadmap Settings.

The first two options for adding swimlanes open an Add Swimlane window. Enter a name, add a description (optional), and choose a color for your new swimlane.

Alternatively, open Roadmap Settings, where you can edit several aspects of the roadmap, including swimlanes. You can also reorder your swimlanes from here by dragging and dropping them up and down the Swimlanes list. When you're done adding and editing your swimlanes, select Save Changes in the bottom-right corner of the page.

Populate your roadmap

You can be as specific or as broad as you want with the items in your roadmap, in line with your company objectives or your team’s processes, and based on the target audience. For example, you might want a roadmap that's based on high-level plans to share with your customers, and another roadmap that gives specific details about what to expect in the near future to share with sales.

You can populate your roadmap with three item types, which you can use to suit your roadmapping needs and company processes:

Initiatives, typically used to organize larger categories of related work that each deliver incremental value towards an overall goal.
Features, typically used to describe functional components of a product. Features can belong to a larger initiative, but they can also be standalone enhancements to your product.
Requests, pulled in from Pendo Feedback and automatically added to your Backlog.

Initiatives, features, and requests are hierarchical. A feature can contain requests, and an initiative can contain individual features, individual requests, and features that include requests within it.

You can view this information by hovering over an initiative, feature, or request in your backlog, and selecting the info icon that appears in the top-right of the item's card.

Add Feedback requests to your roadmap

The Backlog is pre-populated with Feedback request data. You can drag and drop Feedback requests from the Backlog panel:

Open your Backlog by selecting the backlog button in the top-right of your roadmap, next to the ellipses.
Scroll through the list of requests or use the search function to find the relevant request.
To filter your requests, select the filter icon next to the search bar in the backlog. You can filter by App, Product Area, Status, Tag, and Assignee.
Drag and drop the chosen request to a space in one of your swimlanes.

Tip: To create a quick view of items that are in development, separated into theme, team, or strategic initiative, only move requests with a status of “Building” to your roadmap.

Add Initiatives and features to your roadmap

You create and add initiatives and features from the Backlog panel.

Open your Backlog by selecting the backlog button in the top-right of your roadmap, next to the ellipses.
Select Create New at the top of the Backlog panel.
Enter a meaningful name for your initiative or feature.
Choose the item type (Initiative or Feature)
Optionally, add a description to your initiative or feature.
You have two options for saving your initiative or feature to your roadmap:

Select Save to Backlog in the top-right corner.
Select the down arrow (v) next to Save to Backlog and choose Save and add another.

Create item hierarchies

You can add individual requests to a feature by dragging and dropping the request into the feature. You can also drag and drop individual requests, individual features, and features that include requests within them, into an initiative.

Dragging a feature into another feature creates an initiative consisting of these two features. Dragging a request into another request gives you an option to create a new feature or initiative consisting of these two requests. In the Group Items window that appears, choose whether you want to create a feature or an initiative, give it a name, and select Create Initiative or Create Feature, as prompted.

You can view what items exist within an initiative or feature by hovering over it, selecting the info icon that appears in the top-right, and reviewing the items in the Overview tab.

Edit an existing roadmap

You can edit roadmap items, visibility, names, and descriptions from within your roadmap

Navigate to Feedback > Roadmap in the left-side menu.
Select your roadmap from the list.
Select the ellipses (...) in the top-right corner of the roadmap, next to the Backlog button.
Select Edit Roadmap Settings.

This opens the Settings window, where you can:

Rename your roadmap.
Edit the description.
Change the app.
Change the starting quarter.
Change the names, descriptions, and colors of existing swimlanes.
Remove, add, and reorder swimlanes.
Set a different visibility level. You can also do this from the Roadmap page in the Visibility column of the roadmaps table.

After you’ve edited your roadmap, select Save Changes in the bottom-right corner of the page, or select Cancel to revert to the unedited roadmap.

Edit or remove items

To edit an individual item in the roadmap, select the item and modify the name and the description as required.

You can also move an item back to the backlog, either from within the roadmap itself or from the backlog. This only removes the item from your roadmap. It doesn't delete the item.

In the roadmap:

Select the ellipses (...) on the right-side of the item
Select Remove From Roadmap.

In the Backlog:

Hover over the individual item.
Select the info button that appears.
Select Remove From Roadmap from the ellipses dropdown menu.

Delete an Initiative or Feature from the backlog

You can delete individual initiatives and features from the backlog, regardless of whether the item is in your roadmap.

If deleting an item directly from your roadmap:

1. Select the initiative or feature you want to delete.

2. Select the ellipses (...) button in the top-right of the initiative or feature.

3. Select Delete Initiative or Delete Feature, as appropriate.

If deleting an initiative that isn't in your roadmap:

1. Select the Backlog button in the top-right of the roadmap.

2. Find the initiative or feature you want to delete.

3. Hover over the item and select the info button that appears.

4. Select the ellipses (...) button in the top-right of the initiative or feature.

5. Select Delete Initiative or Delete Feature, as appropriate.

Tip: Make sure you don't have any filters selected when using the search bar to find an item in your backlog.

When you delete an item, you're asked to confirm the action because it can't be undone. Any items that are linked to the initiative or feature you're deleting will still exist.

Delete an existing roadmap

To delete a roadmap, navigate to Feedback > Roadmap in the left-side menu, find the roadmap you want to delete, and select the trash icon on the right-side of that roadmap row. This opens a window asking you to confirm or cancel the action. Select Confirm Delete to delete the roadmap.

Caution: You can’t recover a roadmap after it’s been deleted. Your initiatives and features will be deleted along with your roadmap, but any requests that were in the roadmap will still exist in your Feedback account. In the future, initiatives and features will become roadmap agnostic, and continue to exist in the backlog when a roadmap is deleted.