Themes are a way of communicating what’s important to your customers — their needs, problem, or jobs to be done. I use them as the main organizing principle of a roadmap. The features might change but important customer problems will likely remain the same.
Themes keep your organization focused. It’s easy to see the benefit in “Quicker Checkout,” and to measure results in seconds saved and in improved conversion rate, while a feature like “1-page checkout" may or may not achieve those outcomes.
I go into themes in Chapter 5 of my book, Product Roadmaps Relaunched. What is a good example of a dream theme? Discuss.
Events
Just released early bird tickets for the Test-Driven Roadmap Masterclass, Boston, March 12-13. David J. Bland and I are teaming up to help you articulate a product roadmap and then systematically de-risk it though testing and validation.