Why not use roadmaps and what to use instead?

2 min readMay 9, 2021

Classic roadmaps traits:

Roadmaps provide a clear execution plan and team alignment when managed correctly.
Roadmaps provide a timeline to be guided by and build a budget upon.
Roadmaps are not agile and become irrelevant pretty fast because of new knowledge learned, but they are perceived as commitment, so they’re still executed even if it’s a worthless waste of resources.(Linus Pauling, @ItamarGilad, @jesterhoax, @sergioschuler). Especially when they are not business problem based but features based (Marty Cagan @cagan)
If it’s a static doc — it’s even worse because no one reads it, and there are too many versions of it. It does not communicate value.
Time constraints of roadmaps, aka dead-lines, are guesstimated and almost always wrong, mainly because the plan did not change when it should have changed because of new learnings (@astralwave, @allenholub, @sergioschuler, Carl Von Clausewitz). The result becomes a graveyard of executed intentions that did not succeed and wasted resources. (Eugen Eşanu , Marty Cagan @cagan)

learning what to build is often more important than building stuff (@jesterhoax, @sergioschuler, @astralwave, @conaw )
Create user’s value to increase revenues and lower the churn:
Discover what’s the user’s value actually is (or a theme? — Jared Spool @jmspool, @sergioschuler); and
Discover how to learn it in the fastest possible way that doesn’t sacrifice the quality of learning; and
Discover how to create it so that it will create the best value and best UX. https://twitter.com/curhx/status/1308138939698630656?s=20
Waste fewer resources:
Learning cycle <- find a way how to make it shorter, as time is still a constraint (@astralwave)
Discover what are your real constraints, except time (@allenholub)

Longer learning cycles, shorter build cycles, while speed is critical <- have to learn how to balance and have to develop great prioritisation model.(@astralwave, @allenholub)
People that understand why learning is fundamental, and more importantly — how to do that. <- the challenge of building coherent culture and hiring process.
The learning goals are hard to explain to investors. They want outcomes in some tangible forms and used to see the outputs on features as outcomes. <- One will have to educate them on other forms and benefits of a learning-based approach (https://twitter.com/sergioschuler/status/1095433194260832257?s=20)
Language paradigm? <- people used to call it roadmaps, and they don’t understand the meaning of other words @jesterhoax

Change the role of the product team from “building features” to “create new knowledge.”
OKRs with a mix of business and learning values?
6 weeks discovery-delivery process? (@jesterhoax)