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A Roadmap is Not a Plan

Hello Product Folks!

Should we roadmap now or wait?

I get this question all the time.

Recently, M., a product strategy consultant friend, reached out for advice about one of his clients. This company was shifting to a new direction and needed a new roadmap quickly. M. was concerned about how to create a roadmap when they didn’t know enough about their new path.

Adding to the confusion, a roadmap is a plan for the future, and the future is always uncertain. Many product leaders I know ask why they should bother making a roadmap that will likely change. Isn’t it just wasting everyone’s time?

The key issue is that people often mix up a roadmap with a work plan. While both are needed, they serve different purposes. A work plan details what the team will work on at specific times, while a roadmap brings your strategy to life.

Roadmaps naturally deal with uncertainty. If you abandon them because things are unclear, you’ll never find the perfect moment, as you can never be 100% certain about anything.

Instead, view the roadmap as a process, not just an outcome.

So, is building a roadmap a waste of time?

My answer is no, and here’s why:

Let’s dive in…

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1- "Not perfect" Doesn’t Mean "I Don’t Know"

There are many things you don’t know about your product's future. Maybe you’re unclear about the market, customer needs, or specific product details. Big events like a global pandemic or an AI boom, and changes in your market like new competitors, also add to the uncertainty.

But just because you don’t have all the answers doesn’t mean you’re completely in the dark.

We often hear about doubting assumptions so much that we forget to value what we do know. In an ideal world, you’d have all the data before making decisions, but in reality, complete certainty is rare. You still need to make progress and choose a path.

You can’t wait for perfect information, so use what you have. You’ve likely been talking to customers, studying the market, and looking at competitors. This gives you enough insight to create a rough plan, which is very useful.

Think about asking your development team for an estimate.

They might say, “I don’t know, it’s a big task.” But if you ask for a rough timeframe—like a month, a year, or five years—you’ll get a more useful answer.

Even if it’s not exact, it helps you understand the scale and set some boundaries.

In the same way, use what you know to create a roadmap. Even though it will change, a rough roadmap is better than none. It gives you a general direction and helps you focus on what’s important, even if it’s not perfectly precise.

2- Planning Is a Great Tool for Your Own Learning

One big benefit of planning, even if your plan changes, is how much you learn about your product, strategy, and priorities. As you plan, you discover gaps and gain insights into what matters most and how different parts of your plan impact each other and your path to success.

It might sound strange, but the main goal of planning isn’t just to create a plan.

It’s a valuable exercise, even if you discard the plan afterward (though that’s an extreme I don’t recommend).

Effective planning makes you examine every detail until everything makes sense. You see how each step connects to the next and leads to your goals.

This understanding is incredibly valuable, possibly even more so than the plan itself.