Startup roadmap template — editable, free
Before product-market fit a roadmap is a list of questions, not a list of features. This template groups ten items by the question each one answers — is the problem real, does this solve it, will they pay, can we repeat it — with confidence on every item and one dropped bet kept visible.
| View | Groups by | Visible fields |
|---|---|---|
By question (board) | Question | Name, Confidence, Owner, End |
Leadership (timeline) | Question | Name, Confidence, Start, End |
Unproven (timeline) | Question | Name, Confidence, Start, End, only Low |
All items (table) | Nothing — one flat list | Name, Question, Confidence, Status, Owner, End |
What replaces features on an early roadmap?
Questions. Before anyone has confirmed who has the problem, a list of things to build is a list of guesses with a project plan’s formatting, and the first two quarters of it will be wrong in ways nobody can predict from here.
So the grouping in this template is the question each item answers: is the problem real, does this solve it, will they pay, can we repeat it. They’re in order, they aren’t parallel, and a team working on the fourth while the first is unanswered is the failure the shape is designed to make visible.
What is in this template?
Ten items, with confidence on each and most of it low past the first group — which is accurate rather than pessimistic, and it’s what makes the high-confidence items worth anything.
Two items carry kill criteria in their notes. Fewer than ten of thirty interviews describing the problem unprompted means changing segment instead of building. Written down in advance that’s a decision; recalled afterwards it’s a rationalisation, and everybody can tell the difference.
One item is a bet that was already dropped, kept on the board with a note saying why. That’s the item most teams delete, and deleting it’s how the same enterprise pilot gets proposed again two quarters later by somebody who wasn’t in the room.
What do you tell people outside?
Less than this, and with no dates. Roadmap without dates sets out what answers when in their place — sequence, horizon and confidence — which is most of what an early-stage roadmap can offer anyone.
Publishing it’s a separate decision and usually the wrong one this early. Should you have a public roadmap makes the case: a public roadmap is a standing commitment to keep a forward-looking document current, and a company still deciding what it sells is the worst possible candidate for that commitment.
For the fixed window this work usually sits inside, a 90-day roadmap template is phased rather than grouped by question. Once the questions are answered, a product roadmap template names problems instead of bets, and a sales roadmap template is what the first reps get.
Common mistakes
Writing features before the problem is confirmed. A roadmap of things to build, at a stage where nobody has validated who has the problem, is a list of guesses formatted as a plan.
Leaving the kill criterion in somebody’s head. A bet with no stated condition for stopping never stops; it gets quietly extended until the runway makes the decision.
Deleting the bets that were dropped. The same idea comes back in four months from somebody who wasn’t in the room, and there’s no record of why it was already tried.
Marking anything past the first question as high confidence. Almost nothing at this stage is high confidence, and claiming otherwise costs you the items that genuinely were.
Questions
Is a roadmap useful before product-market fit?
Yes, as a record of what you’re testing and what would change your mind. What isn’t useful is a twelve-month feature plan, which commits you to solutions before the problem is settled.
What is a kill criterion?
The condition that stops the bet, written before you start. Fewer than ten of thirty interviews describing the problem unprompted, for instance. Written in advance it’s a decision; written afterwards it’s a rationalisation.
Who sees this?
The team, and usually investors. Both benefit from the confidence column being accurate — a board that watches low-confidence bets resolve correctly trusts the high-confidence ones, which is the only credibility available this early.
Related
- 90-day roadmap templateThirty, sixty and ninety day phases with a confidence field, for a window that starts whenever you start.
- Roadmap without datesSequence and horizon instead of dates, which commitments keep theirs, and why the first bucket fails.
- Should you have a public roadmapThe upkeep is the real cost, the three conditions that justify it, and when to take it down.
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