Creating your Product Roadmap

Use Product & Service Roadmap to choose which products, services, or improvements to work on now, next, and later. A useful roadmap connects the work to a customer problem, a result you want to achieve, and the limits your team must work within.

This guide uses an illustrative bicycle-repair business planning a more reliable booking and collection experience. Adapt the examples to your own evidence, capacity, and decisions.

Open the roadmap and choose a starting point

Open Assistant → Strategy → Plans → Product & Service Roadmap. Choose Fill it in myself for an empty plan, or Add details, Edit, or Review suggestions on a section. Select Save after editing each section; you can save partial progress.

Start with the priorities in your Business Strategy plan. That plan must be ready before the roadmap can show Ready to use. Use your customer research and service experience to make the direction concrete.

The five essential decisions are Main outcome for this period, Roadmap constraints, Roadmap outcomes, Roadmap initiatives, and Now, Next & Later. Begin there, then add the evidence, responsibilities, and launch details needed for the work you choose.

For help with the shared editor and answer statuses, see Setting up your business strategy in Cedros.

Set the direction and limits

In Direction & Constraints, define the work the roadmap will guide:

• Roadmap focus: describe the type of improvement you are planning, such as a new service, a better first experience, or more reliable delivery.
• Main outcome for this period: state what should be different by the end of the planning period. Focus on the customer or business result.
• Products, services & experiences in scope: name what is included and excluded, such as workshop repairs and booking arrangements, but not bicycle sales.
• Customer moment to improve: identify the point where a customer needs a better experience, such as arranging a repair without knowing when collection will be possible.
• Roadmap constraints: record the people, time, budget, equipment, suppliers, skills, and existing commitments that limit the work.

For the repair business, the outcome might be: “Customers can arrange a repair with a realistic collection expectation, and the workshop can meet the arrangements it makes.” Choose a time frame and measurable target after checking the current situation and capacity.

A constraint could be that the same team must keep the workshop running while testing the new process. Record the actual available time rather than assuming the work can fit around normal operations.

Choose customer outcomes and explain their priority

In Customer Outcomes & Priorities, make the case for the changes you want:

• Roadmap in one paragraph: summarize the direction, intended customer benefit, and main limit. Write this after the supporting decisions so it agrees with them.
• Roadmap outcomes: name a few results customers should experience. For each, record the problem, desired improvement, and how you will measure it. Add a baseline, target, timing, and evidence where known.
• How we prioritize outcomes: explain how you compare customer impact, strategic fit, confidence, effort, risk, and dependencies. Use criteria the team can apply consistently.
• Evidence behind the priorities: record the interviews, inquiries, support conversations, observations, or results that support your choices. Label assumptions and untested ideas.
• Non-goals / not now: state what you will deliberately leave out during this period and why.

“Customers understand the agreed collection arrangement” is an outcome. “Rewrite the booking confirmation” is one possible piece of work to support it. Keeping those separate makes it easier to try a different approach if the first one does not help.

For example, clearer booking information may be a better first step than adding a new collection service. Check which problem customers actually experience before committing to the larger change. Do not invent an improvement percentage or a measured baseline to make the plan look complete.

Write the initiatives, sequence, and milestones

In Now, Next & Later, describe the work and its level of certainty:

• Roadmap initiatives: for each substantial change, give its name, linked outcome, customer problem, proposed approach, scope, owner, effort, confidence, and current status. Record estimates as estimates.
• Now, Next & Later: write the intended sequence. Add target windows where useful, and label items as committed, planned, target, exploratory, or blocked according to the decision you have actually made.
• Milestones with definition of done: describe the checkpoints for each initiative, who owns them, what evidence will show they are complete, and any agreed target window.
• What we can communicate publicly: record what may be shared for each initiative, from internal planning only to an approved announcement or date commitment.

These are written planning fields. Keep a consistent format so someone can follow the same initiative across the sections. For example:

• Now — clarify booking expectations: review common questions and agree what the team can reliably tell a customer before accepting a booking.
• Next — test a booking process: trial the agreed process at a scale the workshop can support, then review whether customers understand it and the team can deliver it.
• Later — explore collection services: investigate demand, cost, and capacity before deciding whether to offer collection.

A useful milestone for the first item could be: “The workshop owner has reviewed the booking wording, staff can explain it consistently, and a sample of recent bookings shows whether customers understood the arrangement.” Add a date or sample size only when you have agreed it.

Now, Next, and Later express priority and confidence. They do not automatically establish release dates. In What we can communicate publicly, make clear whether an item is internal only, suitable to discuss as a general direction, limited to a private trial, or approved for a wider announcement. Record explicit approval before treating a date as a public commitment.

Record dependencies, risks, and decision points

In Dependencies & Decisions, explain what must be true for the work to proceed:

• Dependencies & owners: identify what each initiative needs first, who is responsible, when it is needed, its status, and what to do if it is delayed.
• Risks and assumptions: state what might go wrong or remains unproven, why it matters, and how you will test or reduce the uncertainty.
• When to proceed, pause, or change direction: define the evidence or condition that triggers a decision, who makes it, and when it will be reviewed.

For the booking example, a dependency could be agreement on how much workshop capacity can be reserved. An assumption could be that customers will accept a collection window instead of an exact time.

A decision point might be: “After the trial, expand only if the team can meet the arrangements and customers understand them. If either fails, revise the process before making it the standard service.” Choose concrete measures and thresholds with the people doing the work; do not make up results or approval to move an item forward.

Prepare for launch and adoption

In Launch & Adoption, record what will make the change usable:

• Launch readiness checklist: list the checks that apply to each initiative, such as delivery capacity, staff preparation, customer instructions, support, payment arrangements, and measurement. Give each check a status and owner.
• Adoption plan: explain how customers and staff will discover, understand, and use the change. Choose communication and guidance that fit the audience and the work.
• What other plans need to reflect: identify related plans that are aligned, need an update, are missing guidance, or contain a conflicting decision.

For the repair business, readiness might include staff understanding the new booking wording and knowing how to handle a delay. Adoption might involve clearer service information and an explanation at the booking desk. Record planned work separately from completed checks.

Review the effects on customer expectations and support. Keep promotional offers and campaign details consistent with Marketing Strategy, and make sure any public message reflects what the business is actually ready to deliver.

Set measures and keep later ideas manageable

In Measurement & Review, decide how you will learn from the work:

• Success measures: track the customer result as well as delivery. For the example, measures might include collection arrangements met, questions caused by unclear information, and the team's ability to sustain the process. Label a measure as needing a baseline when it has not been measured.
• Review cadence: choose when to check blockers, milestones, and outcomes, and who takes part. Revisit the plan sooner when a key assumption or constraint changes.
• Backlog / not now: keep future candidates and blocked ideas with a reason they are not active. Note what evidence or change would justify reconsidering them.
• Guidance for Cedros: give instructions for work based on the roadmap, such as keeping exploratory ideas separate from approved work and flagging unsupported dates or performance claims.

Some fields offer Review suggested starting point. Use it to examine the suggested text, adapt it to your business, and choose Accept reviewed answer when you have checked it. Then Save the section. A suggested starting point is not an agreed business decision.

Summary fields may offer Draft from my decisions. This opens a prepared Strategy prompt for you to review before sending. AI replies can add to your usage and costs; review any proposed wording before accepting and saving it.

Review the saved roadmap before acting on it

1. Reopen the roadmap and check that each initiative supports a named outcome and fits the constraints.
2. Follow one initiative through its sequence, milestones, dependencies, decision points, and launch checks. Resolve conflicting names, owners, or expectations.
3. Separate evidence, estimates, assumptions, and approved commitments. Check public communication permissions before using roadmap details in an announcement.
4. If the roadmap shows Needs decisions, check the five essential decisions and the Business Strategy prerequisite. Unknowns and unreviewed suggestions remain unresolved; every Optional detail field does not need to be filled in.
5. Agree the next action and carry it into the relevant delivery workflow. Return to the roadmap when evidence changes or a milestone is reached.

Use Not known yet for an open decision and explain the next step. Use Not applicable with a reason when a question does not apply. Ready to use means the plan's readiness checks are satisfied; it does not mean the work has shipped or passed your launch checklist.

If a save reports a conflict, preserve your intended edits, use Reload latest plan when offered, and compare the newer version before saving again. For an unresolved editor problem, ask for help with the section name and visible error.