How to Create a Roadmap for Change

 

📈 Do you want to create sustainable change? 

🤯 Unsure of where to start? 

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Creating change can be overwhelming. We get it. If you do not have the right tools, you can feel… well… like a deer in the headlights — stuck and unable to do anything. Or you may take some action but in the back of your mind, be unsure if it will have the impact that you want. 

In this blog, we provide you with a tool to add to your kit that will help you better manage change projects. Your life is about to get easier and you are about to adopt a new skill. High-five to that! 

The tool is called a roadmap. 

Firstly, let us define what a roadmap is: 

‘A roadmap is a high-level overview of a product or project’s vision and direction over time. The roadmap shows the overall strategy and work required to get there.’ (Airfocus, 2020). 

Let us put this into context. 

Imagine that a stakeholder comes to you with a problem to solve. They say, ‘We’re upgrading the technology used by our organisation and we need to train our staff on how to use it.’.

Being the epic learning designer that you are, you create a solution to support your stakeholder's goal. 

As you are designing the solution, you pick up on other things that need to happen to help the organisation change and reach success. For example:

• Will leaders encourage their staff to use the new technology?
• Has anyone figured out if people are actually motivated to use the new technology?
• What processes in the organisation does the new technology affect?
• Does the new technology actually work? 

You begin to realise that your solution is only a small part of the bigger change initiative that is required. 

The roadmap reflects the initiative as a whole and all of the individual deliverables that contribute to its success.

To put it simply, a roadmap enables you to:

1. Consider all of the deliverables required to reach success. 
2. Plan for the future. 
3. Think strategically. 
4. Prioritise what needs to happen first.
5. Create a shared understanding between everyone involved. 

Let us get into the process of creating a roadmap. 

1. The roadmap phases 

At Belvista Studios, we use the Prosci ADKAR® Model (Prosci, n.d.) as a foundation for our change roadmaps. 

The model covers five building blocks for successful change, which are:

You can also create your own phases for success, based on your knowledge of the organisation and what is required to reach success. 

2. The current state

To start filling out your roadmap, you firstly need to discover what deliverables are required to reach success. To do this, we recommend understanding the context of the organisation. This involves adopting a human-centred design approach and taking on a mindset of curiosity. 

So, what does this look like in action? Well, speak to the people who will be impacted by the change and build empathy for their world. Your aim will be to understand where they are now and what is required to close the gap and in turn meet your project goal.

For example:

1. Do they know anything about the new technology?
2. How do they feel about the new technology?
3. What is stopping them from successfully using the new technology now? 

3. Closing the gap

Now that you have built a sense of empathy for the audience, you can begin to consider what they would need to close the gap and meet your goal. 

You can ask, ‘What would you need to use the new technology successfully?’.

Your audience will provide you with this insight through saying things like: 

1. ‘I need to understand the benefits of using the new technology.’ 
2. ‘I need to know what I actually need to do differently.’ 
3. ‘I’m a leader and need to know what to tell my team.’
4. ‘I don’t know if all teams will use the new technology. Will they?’

4. Discover the themes 

Look at what your audience needs to close the gap and identify themes. 

For example:

1. People want to know why the new technology is worth learning about. 
2. People do not know how to use the new technology. 
3. Leaders do not feel equipped to support their team with the new technology. 
4. People do not know if they will be using the new technology. 

5. Create objectives 

These themes will become your objectives for the change initiative. We recommend using Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide (Bloom, 1956). It enables you to clearly define the specific change that is required to meet the goal. 

Here is an example of transforming a theme into a clearly defined objective using Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

6. Determine the activities

Now it is time to brainstorm activities that will support you in meeting the objectives. 

We recommend involving your audience in this process. They can provide you with valuable insight about their context. You are also likely to create buy-in for the initiative if you include those who are impacted by it in the design process. They will feel like they own the process rather than being told what to do. 

Here is an example of possible activities to meet an objective. 

7. Map out the activities

Now map the activities against your roadmap. 

In the example below, we have coloured coded each of the activities to the objective that it contributes to. Our roadmap is also in order of the Prosci ADKAR® Model, as mentioned earlier. These phases may be different depending on what you decide on for your project. 

That is all for this blog on ‘How to Create a Roadmap for Change’. We hope that this insight has enabled you to add another useful tool to your kit. 

If you liked this blog, you will love our creator hub. There are heaps of resources for instructional designers and learning and development practitioners that you will find valuable, including many resources that help you achieve the strategies in this blog.

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References

Airfocus. (2020, October 6). What is a Roadmap? A 5 Minute Overview. Definition | Purpose | Types [Video]. YouTube. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/iU3Rsp1KUCk 

Prosci. (n.d.). The Prosci ADKAR Model. Retrieved from https://www.prosci.com/methodology/adkar