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Why Every Business Needs a Roadmap Online Tool for Success

In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business landscape, having a roadmap online tool is essential for the success of any organization. This powerful tool helps businesses stay organized, set clear goals, track progress, and make informed decisions. Whether you are a small startup or a large corporation, here are four key reasons why every business needs a roadmap online tool.

Streamline Project Management

Efficient project management is crucial for the success of any business. A roadmap online tool provides a centralized platform where teams can collaborate and manage projects effectively. With this tool, you can create timelines, assign tasks to team members, set deadlines, and track progress in real-time.

By visualizing the entire project timeline in one place, businesses can easily identify bottlenecks and allocate resources accordingly. This ensures that projects stay on track and are completed within the specified time frame. Additionally, team members can communicate seamlessly through the tool’s built-in messaging features, reducing reliance on scattered email threads or multiple communication platforms.

Set Clear Goals and Objectives

A roadmap online tool allows businesses to set clear goals and objectives for their projects or overall company direction. By defining these goals in detail within the tool, everyone involved has a clear understanding of what needs to be achieved.

With goal-setting features such as milestones and key performance indicators (KPIs), businesses can monitor their progress towards these objectives. The visual representation of goals on the roadmap helps stakeholders easily grasp the bigger picture and align their efforts accordingly.

Track Progress and Stay Agile

One of the most significant advantages of using a roadmap online tool is its ability to track progress in real-time. Businesses can update task statuses, mark milestones as completed or delayed, and visualize dependencies between different tasks or projects.

This level of transparency allows teams to identify issues early on and take corrective actions promptly. If there are any delays or roadblocks, the tool can help businesses adjust their plans and allocate resources accordingly. Additionally, by tracking progress on the roadmap, businesses can celebrate achievements and motivate their teams to stay focused and productive.

Make Informed Decisions

In today’s data-driven world, making informed decisions is crucial for business success. A roadmap online tool provides businesses with valuable insights by integrating data from various sources. By analyzing this data, businesses can identify trends, patterns, and potential risks.

For example, if a project is consistently delayed or encountering challenges, the tool can help identify the root causes and suggest corrective actions. By having access to real-time data and analytics within the tool, businesses can make informed decisions that drive growth and mitigate risks.

In conclusion, a roadmap online tool is an invaluable asset for any business striving for success in today’s competitive landscape. By streamlining project management, setting clear goals, tracking progress in real-time, and making informed decisions based on data insights, businesses can ensure they stay on track towards achieving their objectives. Invest in a roadmap online tool today to take your business to new heights of efficiency and success.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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What is a business roadmap? Best practices to achieve your business plan

A business (or company) roadmap is a tool that outlines the direction you will take to achieve your business plan and meet your long-term strategic goals. Company and product leaders use business roadmaps to communicate an organization's vision and plans at every growth stage — from early-stage startup to established enterprise company.

Build your own roadmap in Aha! Roadmaps. Try it free.

Business goals and initiatives custom roadmap in Aha! Roadmaps

This is a custom roadmap created in Aha! Roadmaps — showing business goals and initiatives, success metrics, and progress towards completion.

Business roadmaps can help organizations of all sizes scale and innovate. Regardless of industry or market, these are essential tools that help everyone in the organization understand key objectives, communicate status, and take action. This guide offers definitions and best practices to help you learn about what goes into creating a business roadmap. The details of your own roadmap will differ based on the unique facets of your company, but there are universal elements that can be applied to any business.

Explore sections in this guide:

What is the purpose of a business roadmap?

Business plan vs. business roadmap: what is the difference, what to include on a business roadmap, how to build a business roadmap, who uses a business roadmap, types of business roadmaps, get started with a business roadmap template.

A business roadmap helps you visualize exactly what is needed to transform a company’s vision into reality and when. You can lay out what will happen in a given month, quarter, or year — or whatever timeline you prefer to visualize when you will achieve your goals. A business roadmap is flexible by nature. It can be as detailed or abstract as you need it to be, depending on the phase of business maturity and the size of your team.

  • Roadmapping: Your starter guide
  • How to build a brilliant roadmap

You may be wondering about the differences between business roadmaps and business plans. If you already have a defined business plan, why do you need another planning tool? To make things more confusing, some people even refer to your business plan as a type of roadmap.

While there are some areas of overlap between a business plan and a business roadmap, there are critical distinctions. Let's take a closer look at each tool and what makes them different.

A business plan is a foundational and detailed document that is generally created at the outset of any company. It is essential to running a business and is especially useful for new companies. More established businesses benefit from updating their business plan or creating a new one when expanding into new markets or developing offerings that fundamentally change how the business operates.

Now let's focus on a business roadmap. A business roadmap is a visualization of specific aspects of your business plan in a given time frame. It contains active and upcoming work at a high-level and is a helpful way to gauge how well the company is tracking towards achieving its business plan.

Broadly speaking, your business roadmap should include the most important strategic plans across the company. This includes goals, initiatives, and major themes of work from cross-functional teams. Since you will likely need to adjust your roadmap over time, be sure everything you add to it deserves to be there. The more you add to your roadmap, the more difficult it can be to change course when new opportunities arise.

You may find that you create a few roadmaps concurrently. For example, you might create a long-term roadmap that covers all aspects of business planning over the next three to five or even 10 years. This could include high-level forecasts for revenue, marketing and sales, staffing, and operations — as well as new products or services you plan to develop.

Then you could have a shorter-term business roadmap, either a year or six months at a time. This roadmap might include corporate-level goals and initiatives, as well as those of specific functions. You want to show how the entire company will work against overall business objectives.

To truly benefit from this adaptive style of planning, it is helpful to have all teams working within a shared strategic planning tool like Aha! Roadmaps . Since the planning data is updated in real time, every roadmap that the team sees will automatically show progress as it happens. This aligns the organization around what you will achieve and provides clarity into how you will work together to do it.

Creating a business roadmap should be part of your strategic planning process. Most successful companies follow a goal-first approach to roadmapping.

Set goals — Establish what you want to achieve, from revenue to hiring.

Gather information — Seek input from organizational leaders and research your market.

Organize into themes — Identify patterns in your inputs.

Prioritize initiatives — Use those themes to define initiatives, making sure each supports a specific goal.

Add time frames — Forecast resourcing and evaluate when each initiative would need to be completed.

Review and revise — Evaluate your progress against the roadmap often so you can spot challenges and adjust as needed.

Business roadmaps process flowchart — Aha!

These are the key steps for creating a compelling business roadmap.

Anyone with a vested interest in your company’s success will benefit from having access to some version of your business roadmap. Since a business roadmap visualizes the company’s goals and objectives, think of it as a blueprint that all stakeholders can rally around and follow. Here are some of the types of people and teams who can use a business roadmap:

Angel investors

Business owners

Consultants

Entrepreneurs

Marketing teams

Product managers

Sales teams

Startup founders

Venture capitalists

Each functional group should have their own roadmap — from product management to marketing and IT . There may be times when you need different types of business roadmaps or different views for different audiences. Unlike a startup roadmap, these are geared towards more established companies. Here are a couple examples:

Business development roadmap A business development roadmap outlines strategic expansion efforts. This would include things like new partnerships, sales channels, or market shifts.

Business intelligence roadmap A business intelligence roadmap focuses on tracking and planning all business operations . This would include strategic efforts to affect performance, such as change management, process improvement, or adopting new technologies.

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Objectives and key results (OKR) templates

Templates help you repeat success, standardize work, and save time. Define your strategic planning process and create a format for your business roadmap that works for your company. Then templatize it. Standardizing your business roadmap template will help reduce inefficiencies. When people do not have to guess at how to do their planning, they can spend more time on strategic thinking.

Related: Business model templates

Take a look at this roadmap template that comes in Aha! Notebooks — a digital notebook and whiteboard tool for product teams. You can easily customize this template for use as a business roadmap by adding the relevant goals, initiatives, milestones, and dependencies. This is a simple, lightweight way to get started with business roadmapping. For more robust functionality, Aha! Roadmaps can help you connect your visual plans to actual work.

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Start using this template now

Set brilliant strategy, prioritize features, and share visual plans with Aha! Roadmaps — a purpose-built product development tool. Get started with a free 30-day trial.

Additional resources

Business roadmaps vs. product roadmaps

Vision vs. mission vs. strategy

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What is a Business Roadmap?

Product roadmaps? Old hat. Project roadmaps? Yeah, those make sense. Business roadmaps? Never heard of them.

That’s not an uncommon starting point. Roadmaps aren’t traditionally associated with more general “business” topics. But if you circle back to the concept of what is a roadmaps in general, it makes sense.

You’ve got goals and objectives, and multiple steps to get there. How are we going to make this happen? The question is where a business roadmap can create alignment by visually explaining how everything will come together to make that vision become a reality.

Most businesses start with a business plan. The business plan is often used to secure funding from banks or investors. This plan will identify opportunities and provide a market analysis of the current players and solutions addressing these opportunities.

The plan then points out how the company can attack this opportunity in a novel way. From there, it will delve into the details of the execution. It may also touch on the management team before getting into the financials.

Business plans are dense, text-heavy documents. Aside from some charts and graphs to hammer points home, they’re not particularly visual. They’re also often pretty light on the execution phase of things.

But here is where business roadmaps can shine. They complement the business plan while bringing it to life. The business plan itself doesn’t provide much specific direction. The roadmap blows out what needs to happen when it needs to happen and who needs to do it.

With a business roadmap, it becomes crystal clear how various roles, tasks, and responsibilities come together. Best of all, it’s available at a glance and easily updated, versus having to sift through pages of text or the minutiae of project plans.

Unlike product roadmaps—where dates are discouraged—they’re an essential aspect of a business roadmap. Business roadmaps are all about the logistics. Whereas, prroduct roadmaps tend to disconnect those from the vision and goals of a product .

When well constructed with thoughtful and thorough consideration, a roadmap lays out everything required to turn a business plan into reality. Stakeholders and individual contributors alike can get the full picture.

It shows the siloed activities of different departments in the context of the larger plan. The knock-on effects of any delays or disruptions are visible.

Build your own business roadmap with our free template ➜

Beyond the Business Plan

Not every business roadmap needs to encompass the entirety of a company. They can map out more discrete topics, as well.

Businesses must deal with transformational activities throughout their existence. Business roadmaps can help those processes run more smoothly and build consensus within the organization.

For example, sometimes, businesses must make a significant change. This could be a change in the business model, a shift in underlying technology or suppliers, or a new go-to-market strategy. These types of undertakings involve lots of moving pieces and multiple departments. A roadmap is an excellent tool for indicating who’s on the hook for what and when.

Businesses can also benefit from a roadmap when they’re looking to add new capabilities. It could be creating a new business unit, debuting a new offering, or adding support for new platforms and partners. Once again, many teams involved, lots of dependencies, it’s a great candidate for a business roadmap.

Architectural and IT initiatives are also perfect for roadmaps, as are other strategic endeavors such as research projects, new sales initiatives, and compliance projects.

Key Ingredients in a Business Roadmap

Business roadmaps are only useful if they’re intelligible to the audience. To ease consumption, make sure they include these aspects as a baseline.

Breakdown by organizational department:

Showing what each part of the company is working on is helpful for a few reasons. First and foremost, the visual presentation of what’s on each group’s plate might surface resourcing issues. That could result in reshuffling some priorities or reassigning tasks.

It also helps the other groups in the company understand what their colleagues are working on. No more “we’re slaving away while they’re eating bon-bons” theories when it’s all laid out for everyone to see. Plus, the additional visibility builds in more accountability. Everyone knows what they’re expected to deliver and why.

State the purpose of each activity:

Spelling out what everyone’s working on is great. Still, it’s more useful when there’s an understanding of why that task is being performed at all. By putting each activity into a category identifying its purpose, business roadmap consumers get some extra context.

Tying each activity back to a strategic goal is a great way to do this. And if each activity is color-coded by a strategic goal, it’s a quick indication of the equal weight of effort or resources on one or two during particular periods of time.

Milestones:

We typically think of milestones on a roadmap as software releases or new versions of the product. But on a business roadmap, a milestone can represent any accomplishment or key event.

It could be hitting a revenue target, a trade show or industry event, a strategic partnership, an important meeting, launching in a new region. Anything that’s a noteworthy result of the combined efforts of the teams involved. Milestones add even more context, and potentially a bit of urgency, to the roadmap.

Tips for Creating a Compelling Business Roadmap

While business roadmaps are a different beast than product roadmaps, some basic principles still apply.

business-roadmap

Step 1: Vision, strategy, and goals

Business roadmaps are execution-focused and will likely include more specificity than an ideal product roadmap. But they’re still intended to paint a picture. There’s a vision of where you want to be, a strategy on how to get there, and goals along the way.

While the vision, in this case, is probably not a finished product, employing similar conventions regarding what makes a great roadmap is still valid. All the tasks included in a business roadmap should represent the incremental steps required to turn that vision into reality according to the strategy laid out in the business plan.

Step 2: Tell a story

We’ve mentioned many times how important it is for roadmaps to be narrative and for their creators to be storytellers . This belief holds true for business roadmaps, as well.

There’s a problem to solve and a state of being for the business to achieve. There are chronological steps that various parts of the organization must take to get there. The business roadmap can paint that picture. It can show how each bit of progress builds on the next to complete the story.

Step 3: Employ themes

Another hallmark of a great roadmap is using themes to group things together. While a business roadmap may require more concurrent activity than a typical product roadmap, themes still have a role to play.

For a business roadmap, themes might be more along the lines of “setting the stage for transformation,” “updating critical systems,” “going to market,” or “engaging channel partners.” Themes further solidify the context of each task and bundling them accordingly.

Step 4: Clear outcomes for each item

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Uncharted Territory

Now you know what is a business roadmap. Business roadmaps might be new to your organization (or to you). Still, they’re a powerful tool for consolidating a lot of information into an easy-to-digest, highly visible format. If you’re ready to explore how simple it can be to align your organization with a business roadmap, check out this template and see for yourself!

Build Your Roadmap with our Free Template Guide

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What is a business roadmap?

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As an entrepreneur, you’ve got business goals to hit and a plan in mind to get there. While a business plan seems like the obvious choice for jotting down this plan, it’s not always the most relevant artifact for planning growth.

Business plans can get super granular and balloon to the size of a novel. And truth be told, it’s a ton for stakeholders to digest.

When planning organizational growth, you want a flexible document that captures and succinctly presents key goals, dates and plans of action relevant to all your stakeholders . Not an endless document you have to sift through with a fine tooth comb. Enter a business roadmap.

Find the right roadmapping tool for you and your business. Download our free guide here.

The business roadmap definition.

Much like a business plan, a roadmap is a long view of where your organization is going and how you’re getting there . But what differentiates it from your typical business plan is that it’s a higher-level visualization of your business’ big picture.

This type of roadmap illustrates your company’s major objectives and strategies for achieving growth. For businesses comprising of multiple departments, a roadmap prevents individual teams from being siloed off by clearly outlining the business’ future and each department’s role in upcoming growth.

Now, business growth can be illustrated in various types of roadmaps like a strategic roadmap, a startup roadmap or even something as specific as a marketing or HR roadmap. But the most common use case for mapping business growth is a roadmap that visualizes key business growth projects and deadlines across all of a company’s departments . So let’s take a look at this roadmap example.

How to visualize your business roadmap

Let’s assume we’re dealing with a business beyond the two-people-in-a-garage phase. (Not that this roadmap can’t work for small businesses, but it’ll be much simpler than what we’re presenting.) You’ve got different teams and departments with several balls in the air. Product is planning a rollout to mobile. Marketing needs to ensure the go-to marketing plan for this launch is ready. Plus, they’re planning their next event. Sales is following up on a crapload of leads brought in from the last event. And HR, well, they’re on a hiring roll for all departments.

With so many moving parts, there’s a lot for anyone in a business to wrap their head around. Your C-level execs need clarity on whether your departments are headed in the right direction. Your department heads need to know that their projects are contributing to the overall growth of the business—and not being stalled by other departments. And if you’re a business vying for investors or partners, these external stakeholders sure as heck want to know your future plans for expansion.

All set to build your own Timeline roadmap? Check out our ready-to-use business roadmap template.

A Timeline View of your roadmap provides a straight-to-the-point overview of major projects and deadlines team-by-team. Plotting each department’s growth strategy across months, quarters or a year (the timeframe’s completely up to you!), businesses can accurately assess each team’s time/resource allocation and contribution to growth-related initiatives . As well, this view lets teams see how they’re working in conjunction with the rest of the org to grow the business, squashing (or identifying) any feelings of being siloed off.

A timeline also lets a business pull out important dates via Milestones . By laying out expected deadlines, the entire organization can be on the same page about when to expect certain initiatives or goals to be complete, making it easier for teams to plan their work accordingly.

For businesses that crave details, this view can be pivoted many different ways to tell a more detail-oriented story of your business’ plan. For instance, you can pivot the roadmap by owner (like in the roadmap above), which allows higher-ups to determine if too much strain is being put on certain resources. The end result: better decisions about work distribution .

Maybe the Swimlane roadmap like ☝️ is more your speed. Get a business template here.

For businesses that don’t really dig the idea of allocating specific timeframes to every single item, you can organize your roadmap in a Swimlane View . Still showing each department’s individual projects and strategies, you can have swimlanes dedicated to each team and then organize items by any timeframe. Think of this view as a snapshot of each team’s primary objectives for certain periods of time . Someone should be able to look at this roadmap and quickly understand what each team is trying to achieve in each timeframe.

But maybe you’re a more status-focused entrepreneur. In that case, you can pivot this view to highlight which projects per team are in progress vs. scheduled vs. proposed . This is another way to provide a transparent snapshot to anyone who wants an update on how the business is developing.

As your business evolves though, your business goals will change and your roadmap will have to reflect that. In the above examples, we’re still dealing with a lot of high-level business initiatives like operations determining onboarding practice, or sales cold calling their lead lists, or marketing rolling out conversion tracking. The more you grow, the more precise your goals get.

Maybe you want to map out specific revenue targets or fundraising goals . Or maybe you pivot to only showcase each department’s business development initiatives aimed at very-rapid revenue growth . Or if you’ve reached enterprise status, maybe you only map LARGE, ambitious business capabilities like releasing new product lines or owning certain percentage of market share. Your roadmap has to mature in order to reflect the more developed and thorough goals that come with business growth.

So go ahead, try one of our business roadmap templates. No matter your business size, you’ll always need a plan to achieve growth . Don’t solely depend on a business plan to strategize growth; implement a roadmap to align your entire organization on every team’s efforts to grow the business.

If you want to build more roadmaps, give Roadmunk a try with a free, 14-day trial. Sign up here.

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7 Business Roadmap Examples To Hit Your Goals

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You might have heard of roadmaps before—they’re great for planning, communicating, and aligning organizations on key initiatives and strategies. 

But, without the right tools, creating a comprehensive roadmap from your existing strategy and planning documents can take time and effort (and a lot of head-banging). And the human factor means that you’ll inevitably have to deal with inaccuracies and manual updating.

In this article, we’ll give you seven business roadmap examples and templates to get you started on the right foot with your roadmap planning.

We'll also cover the benefits business roadmaps can offer your organization and show you how to build one in 5 easy steps. 

Here’s what we’re going to cover:

  • What Is A Business Roadmap? 

Business Roadmap Example

More business roadmap examples and roadmap templates.

  • How Do You Create A Business Roadmap?
  • Create And Track Your Roadmap With Cascade 🚀  

#1 Strategy Execution Platform Say goodbye to strategy spreadsheets. It’s time for Cascade. Get started, free  forever

What Is A Business Roadmap?

A business roadmap is a visual strategic planning tool that presents a company’s strategies, strategic and operational objectives, and action plans in a Gantt chart. 

Business roadmaps serve as a guide, illustrating your business plan from the present to your envisioned success. They provide a holistic view of the organization's business goals across different departments and can be crucial for communicating big-picture initiatives to stakeholders.

They can also help you:

  • Keep everyone focused on critical strategic initiatives .
  • Encourage cross-functional collaboration by breaking down silos.
  • Monitor critical milestones, dependencies between projects, and bottlenecks in your business strategy.
  • Identify underperforming areas and risks so you can decide your next move before it’s too late.  

Business Strategy Roadmap in Cascade

This Business Roadmap Template is a solid foundation to build a business roadmap from scratch. 

It comes prefilled with examples including: 

  • Focus areas: The main strategic priorities that you and your teams will be working on. 
  • Strategic objectives: The outcomes you want to achieve. 
  • Projects: A group of actions to be executed to achieve the desired outcome.
  • KPIs: Metrics that will help you measure your progress toward objectives. 

With this template, you can turn your business plan into a comprehensive strategic roadmap that can guide your strategic decisions and efficiently communicate the necessary steps, people involved, and timelines to stakeholders.

💡 Best for: Business owners, entrepreneurs, or leaders who want a solid template to create roadmaps in their business and strategic planning process.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Business Roadmap Template.

💪 Tips to customize your roadmap in Cascade:

1. Get your template and sign up to Cascade for free. The template will be automatically added to your workspace. 

2. Customize your template with your organization’s goals, business objectives, and KPIs.

3. Switch to the Timeline view to visualize your strategic plan as a Gantt-style roadmap.

4. Make adjustments and track progress to keep your business roadmap updated.

5. Bring your team on board to collaborate on your roadmap and ensure everyone is working toward the same outcomes. 

Looking for something more specific? Here are our top picks for other types of business roadmaps you can use to ensure you’re moving forward toward your goals. Each template comes pre-filled with examples and has the key elements of an effective business roadmap. 

Strategy Roadmap

roadmap of business

A strategy roadmap helps streamline the strategic planning process, providing a clear and concise guide that helps organizations accomplish their strategic goals effectively. 

Try our Strategy Roadmap Template if you’d like to create a strategic roadmap for your business. It has all the features you’ll need to plan and visualize your business's long-term goals.

💡 Best for: C-level professionals, business managers, and team leaders who want to take a more strategic approach to planning and goal-setting. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE Strategy Roadmap Template.

Business Development Roadmap

roadmap of business

A business development roadmap helps to guide your business as it expands and evolves. It assists leadership teams or even sales teams in setting clear overall goals and outlines the strategies needed to win in the long term. 

Our Business Development Roadmap Template is ideal for those looking to develop and execute a strategic growth strategy that is comprehensive but easy to communicate. Use it to clarify your organization's growth objectives, pinpoint opportunities, and craft a strategic approach to make the most of them.

Plus, with Cascade’s real-time dashboards , strategy reports , and data integrations , you can execute your business development plan all in one place.

💡 Best for: Executives , and business development managers responsible for taking their business's growth and development to a new level. Applicable to organizations of any size.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Business Development Roadmap Template.

Project Roadmap

roadmap of business

A project roadmap helps teams articulate project plans, achieve goals, and monitor progress. It should guide project teams, ensuring projects remain on track, within budget, and on schedule.

Use our Project Roadmap Template to help focus your planning efforts and ensure smooth and successful execution. It has everything you need to outline scopes, establish goals and objectives, allocate resources, and plot deliverables on realistic timelines.

💡 Best for: Project teams, project managers, and project portfolio managers who want to streamline project planning, management, and execution.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Project Roadmap Template.

Product Roadmap

roadmap of business

A product roadmap is instrumental in product management by simplifying the complex product creation cycles and communicating imperatives in your product development process. 

If you're looking for a comprehensive framework to steer teams through your product strategy, our Product Roadmap Template will start you off on the right foot.

Use it to outline your new product vision, set clear objectives, and pinpoint the necessary actions and resources to reach critical milestones.

💡 Best for: R&D teams, product leaders, and product teams looking to enhance their product development and planning approach.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Product Roadmap Template.

Technology Roadmap

roadmap of business

A technology roadmap provides clear paths for organizations to achieve strategic technological goals and stay competitive through ongoing innovation. It’s also crucial for giving context to long-term technology goals that are often hard to communicate.

Using a visual tool like a roadmap can assist CTOs and CIOs in identifying, executing, and monitoring their technology strategies to support business growth and innovation.

Our Technology Roadmap Template is a great starting point for planning your technology strategy and making sure it runs smoothly. With it, you can establish clear objectives, prioritize projects, allocate resources, and set realistic timelines.

💡 Best for: CTOs, CIOs, and IT leaders planning their technology strategy.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Technology Roadmap Template.

Marketing Roadmap

roadmap of business

Marketing roadmaps help you outline key marketing goals, KPIs, and projects. They can also help maintain a clear project direction and timeline and keep teams focused on results.

If you want to build your marketing roadmap, our Marketing Strategy Roadmap Template offers a comprehensive framework to start with your own. Use it to streamline your marketing planning with a comprehensive framework to guide your team through goal setting, objective identification, and action planning.

With this template, you’ll be able to craft a world-class strategic marketing plan that your organization understands and buys into.

💡 Best for: CMOs, team leads, and marketing professionals who want to build a solid marketing roadmap to drive effective marketing campaigns for their business.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Marketing Roadmap Template.

The Benefits Of A Business Roadmap

A business roadmap or any other type of roadmap tool can make a big difference in your planning and execution. Here are the key benefits business roadmaps offer:

  • Improved prioritization: Business roadmaps can help identify and prioritize the most impactful actions. This approach ensures that high-priority initiatives receive attention, driving growth and progress more efficiently.
  • Increased transparency: For a plan to be successful, you need buy-in at every level. By visually displaying objectives, initiatives, and progress, a business roadmap opens up your strategy to stakeholders. This, in turn, can help build trust, shared ownership, and accountability among team members.
  • Confident decision-making: A business roadmap is an instrumental asset for real-time decision-making by providing valuable metrics and context in one place. With them, you get a 4D perspective on performance and quickly identify what is working and where to optimize.
  • Greater adaptability: A well-designed business roadmap allows organizations to respond effectively to market, industry, or internal changes. With all data in one place, you get better visibility into how your business performs at every level. This helps you make the right decisions at the right time. 
  • Focused execution: Strategic roadmaps bring structure and simplicity to building strategies by breaking them down into high-level objectives, business metrics , and a series of initiatives, milestones, and programs that are executable and trackable. This drives ownership among those responsible for the execution and business outcomes.

How Do You Create A Business Roadmap? 

If you grabbed one of the templates above , then you’re already halfway there. You just need to adjust the pre-filled “dummy data” to make them your own. Click on any element (like focus area, objective, or KPI) and edit away!

If you want to build a custom roadmap from scratch and truly tailor it to your organization's needs , then follow this five-step approach below.

💡Tip: You can use the same step-by-step process if you want to build your roadmap in manual tools like Excel. However, using Cascade offers additional free benefits such as drag-and-drop dashboards and data integrations to automate your performance tracking in one place.  

1. Create your objectives for each focus area

Start by defining your focus areas , which are high-level categories that group your objectives. For example, you might choose Operational Efficiency as one of your focus areas. 

Then, outline short-term and long-term objectives for each focus area, focusing on specific, measurable, and achievable goals. 

💡A key thing to remember: Less is better. Focus on your most critical strategic objectives . This will set the tone for strategic decision-making and ensure everyone is on the same page.

2. Add KPIs to measure performance

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are crucial for tracking progress, evaluating the effectiveness of initiatives, and informing data-driven decision-making. 

In Cascade, you can add KPI to each objective. Define KPIs that are relevant and aligned with your objectives. These will help you monitor progress, identify potential problems, and act before it’s too late. 

3. Assign initiatives and responsibilities 

Successful execution requires action and ownership. In Cascade’s Planner , you can assign key initiatives and projects under each objective. 

This functionality will allow you to co-create project and action plans with your team members and ensure you clearly understand capacities and possible constraints ahead of time. You can also add owners and collaborators to each initiative and KPI to ensure accountability across your organization.

4. Define milestones and a timeline

Milestones and timeframes help set realistic expectations and keep the organization on track. They are also crucial for prioritizing different initiatives in your strategy and ensuring your plan aligns with the company’s broader strategic initiatives .

Establish milestones that mark significant progress and create a timeline to visualize the expected completion of each initiative. 

In Cascade , you can switch to the Timeline View to get a roadmap view of your strategy, planning, and execution. This feature makes it easy to identify which projects are on track and where you need to course-correct.

5. Execute and track progress 

With Cascade, maintaining momentum in your strategy execution couldn't be easier. Use real-time dashboards to track critical metrics and create regular strategy reports to communicate priorities, inform decision-making, and keep everyone moving in the right direction.

dashboard example in cascade strategy execution platform

Create And Track Your Roadmap With Cascade 🚀 

If you want to get the most out of your strategy, roadmaps are a great addition to your toolkit. 

But creating a roadmap with outdated tools and disconnected platforms is an uphill battle. Don't let multiple spreadsheets, siloed information, and static tools hold you back. You risk running your operations blindfolded and too slow to recognize and seize the opportunity. 

“Cascade provides a readily accessible platform for hosting our strategy and enables us to generate live updates at the push of a button. It has increased transparency and accountability for our strategic priorities and has allowed us to remove silo working and improve alignment. The real game changer from my perspective is the reporting function. Cascade has turned a labor-intensive manual process into something which can be completed in minutes.” - Enterprise customer from Construction Industry  (Source: G2 review )

With Cascade, effective strategic planning and strategy execution doesn’t have to be complex or chaotic where everyone works in different directions. We bring clarity to chaos by bringing together all components of successful strategy execution. 

Ready to take Cascade for a spin? 

Sign up today for free , or book a 1:1 product demo with one of Cascade’s in-house strategy experts.

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What Is a Business Roadmap — How To Set It Up

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The 4 main types of business roadmaps 

Business roadmap examples to inspire and guide you, 1. business capability roadmap, 2. business transformation roadmap, 3. strategic roadmap, 4. content calendar roadmap, 5. it architecture roadmap , who can use a business roadmap, business roadmap vs. business plan — what’s the difference, how to define goals for a business roadmap, how to prioritize using a business roadmap template, a quick rundown of business roadmap templates..., how to make a business roadmap with airfocus:, defining kpis for your business roadmap, incorporating customer feedback into your business roadmap, the role of technology in business roadmaps, finally, a business roadmap checklist — are you ready.

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Airbnb is a modern-day success story that has transformed the travel and hospitality industry.

With just a few clicks, anyone can rent out their free space or book a night in a stranger's apartment, treehouse, or even a castle.

In March 2017, Airbnb raised over $3 billion in its last fundraising round, which valued the company at over $31 billion. This staggering achievement is a testament to the effectiveness of their business model.

Airbnb's visionary idea was originally written on a single piece of paper in 2014, and it outlined the company's goals, objectives, features, key dates, and important milestones. This document was half-jokingly referred to as "the infamous paper to take over the world" by Chip Conley, who was the head of global hospitality at the time.

The document condensed months of strategic thinking, business planning, and research into an easily digestible format. This allowed the entire company to stay focused on becoming a billion-dollar unicorn, and it ultimately led to the success of Airbnb as we know it today.

Get started with roadmaps templates

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.css-uphcpb{position:absolute;left:0;top:-87px;} What is a business roadmap?

A business roadmap is a long-term strategic planning document showing your company's goals and the steps required to get there.

Unlike lengthy business plans, it does not show the individual items and activities required in fine detail.

Instead, it focuses on the big picture, clearly showing your company's major, business goals and objectives, and the high-level strategies it will use to achieve these — this helps keep stakeholders and team members aligned and on track to succeed.

But most importantly, business roadmaps are not set in stone. The activities and priorities outlined in a business roadmap are open to debate and can be reshuffled if needed to better reflect the current environment.

The most common use case for a business roadmap is to show how the business plans to grow. Still, they can be used for other strategic projects, such as change management, enterprise architecture projects, or even by individual departments.

Generally speaking, there are four main types of  business roadmaps . They are:

Department roadmaps.  These are roadmaps that define and explain how a particular department can move forward to address its goals. Defining a department roadmap is one of the best ways to ensure that the entire team is on the same page and working towards the same objectives. 

Business development roadmaps.  On the other hand, business development roadmaps encompass the bigger picture of your business. Rather than looking at various departments' goals, this looks at the larger goal that all departments are working together to reach, and how they'll reach that goal. 

Product roadmaps.  Product roadmaps  are useful for identifying the goals of a particular product and outlining the phases of development that will need to happen to get there. A product roadmap should encompass the entire lifecycle of the product, not just pre-deployment. 

Project roadmaps.  Similar to a product roadmap, a  project roadmap  is a roadmap that generally involves a small group of people, such as one team. The project can be a product to be released, internal app development, redesigning a space, and so on. 

Let's look at some business roadmap examples. Below are some important roadmap examples, some of them are more specialized than others, these can hopefully inspire you to start moving your business forward in a structured, organized way. 

Now that you have an idea of the main types of business roadmaps, let's look at and define the qualities of more specialized roadmaps, starting with a  business capability roadmap . This roadmap is used to outline the large-scale capabilities a business would like to have. 

For instance, if your business is looking to target a specific demographic, break into a particular market, or offer a new service, this would fall under a business capability roadmap.

What can your business do to develop the capability to produce a product or supply a service, and how will it accomplish these tasks?

Example of a business capability roadmap 

It's easy to find tools and examples online that will help you create your own business capability roadmap. These roadmaps take on different forms and routes, though most focus on dividing tasks between departments and teams. 

From there, arrows or some other directional icon illustrate which tasks need to be completed first for the next set of tasks to begin. This can look like a  Kanban board  or a traditional brain-mapping tool. 

Business transformation roadmaps analyze the current state of your business, set goals for how you want to change your business in significant ways, and then outline how you will get there. 

The most common reason for using a  business transformation roadmap  in today's world is digital transformation. That's the process of transitioning traditional workflows and strategies into digital workflows and strategies. 

Example of a business transformation roadmap 

In a business transformation roadmap, the focus will be on transforming each department individually rather than looking at how the changes in each department interact with one another. There will be some overlap, but for the most part, each department will have a unique roadmap. 

That roadmap will involve how various tools and processes can be replaced or replicated digitally. Then, it'll assign that process to multiple department heads and teams. It should also include the allocation of resources required for the transition. 

A  strategic roadmap  outlines a  vision  for your business. It's a mission you want to complete, a value you wish to embody, or a product you want to deploy. Whatever it is, the purpose of a strategic roadmap is to help you get there. 

A content calendar roadmap maps out the content your business will be creating and publishing in a given timeframe. Generally, a content calendar roadmap is reused repeatedly as you build up your content strategy. 

The last roadmap example we'll touch on is an  IT architecture roadmap . This type of roadmap helps your business implement the right types of technology and infrastructure. It's usually very detailed and aims to keep your business modernized and secure.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a business owner, or a marketing manager, everyone can use a business roadmap to make  communicating complicated business strategy almost effortless.

You can even use a business roadmap to plan your own career path — what do you want to achieve, by when, and why?

By identifying potential opportunities to grow and develop, as well as the partners and resources you'll need to make that happen, you'll be in the driver's seat, whichever industry you work in.

Entrepreneurs

As an entrepreneur, a business roadmap is critical to organizational growth.

roadmap-for-Entrepreneurs

You've probably got  a million ideas  and just as many responsibilities, so regularly reviewing your twenty-page business plan simply isn't possible (or advisable!).

Instead, you should create a business roadmap.

At a glance, you can see how your current activities relate to your business's long-term strategic goals and objectives and instantly make changes if required.

As a roadmap is so easy to review, you can share this with new team members to quickly bring them up to speed. You could also use it to get buy-in from investors, quickly illustrating your future growth potential and what their investment would enable you to achieve.

Business owners

As a business leader, you likely have a crystal clear idea of where you want to take the organization in the future. You wake up every morning with a serious mission statement in mind — after all, you built this company with purpose, and that purpose acts as your true north in everything you do.

You  know where you're going… but does anyone else?

roadmap-for-business-owners

For small business owners, a business roadmap and financial capital is essential.

It helps you structure your business vision, reign in your ambition, and see the essential steps required to move forward. You'll also be able to predict risks along the way and what resources you'll need to bring your dream to life. For example, you may have ambitious development tasks up ahead — the remit for which lies beyond your personal technical capabilities. Here, finding an appropriate partner will be necessary to avoid any costly mistakes.

For more established companies and smaller businesses, a business roadmap will help you explore new directions for business operations, identify inefficiencies, and fine-tune your focus as the market evolves.

If you are looking to sell your company, you might not be focused on long-term strategy. However, an effective business roadmap helps and will increase the value of your business.

In this instance, creating a strategic business roadmap will help stabilize and motivate your management team. With a clear direction, your key personnel can continue to do their best work, even if you leave the business.

It will also show real potential for growth, demonstrating to buyers the potential future value of your business.

Business managers

Managers and sales teams are uniquely placed to recognize business needs and opportunities.

roadmap-for-business-managers

You see what happens every day, on the ‘front line,' but you've also got access to the C-Suite to ask for further funding.

Perhaps you've got big ideas on how to achieve your goals and need to convince senior management or executives in your organization. Perhaps you need more team members, resources, or just support for your strategy.

So how do you get it?

Don't waste your time writing a lengthy document or a complicated  presentation

Instead, use a business roadmap.

By boiling down your big idea into key steps, you'll keep your audience engaged and focused on the  benefits  of your strategy rather than the difficult implementation details. 

Historically, business plans have been an essential document for any business.

As little as a decade ago, if you approached someone with a business concept  without  a fully bound, multi-page business plan, you'd have been called naive and underprepared.

However, attitudes are changing. And the entire business world has become more fast-moving and agile. 

Stories of businesses raising millions in investment from just a pitch deck (Uber) or a 1-page document (Airbnb) are now commonplace, and lengthy business plans feel like a thing of the past.

So, let's put a business plan and a business development roadmap head-to-head...

What is a business plan?

A business plan is a document that explains the commercial potential of a business. 

There are no rules for what it should include, but it generally takes an essay format with structured sections that explain what your company is going to do, how it will achieve its goals, what the key risks are, and what the opportunity is. It often includes projected  cash flow  and other financial predictions.

Sure, they might be traditional, but a comprehensive business plan does have its advantages :

It demonstrates to investors, lenders, and other interested parties that you've done the research necessary to build the business correctly.

It shows the financial viability of your company in detail.

It helps get everyone involved on the same page and aligned on the direction of the company.

It might be required to get business loans or government grants. Some traditional investors expect to see a lengthy business plan.

There is hard evidence of the effectiveness of good business plans, too — a  study  by Professor Andrew Burke from the Cranfield School of Management proved that companies that write plans and use them grow 30% faster than businesses that fail to plan.

The problem with business plans...

The thing is, a comprehensive business plan takes time to create.

business-plans-take-time

Choosing the right words, creating countless tables, and doing comprehensive research might reveal valuable insights and tell a compelling story, but it also drags you away from building your product, talking to customers, or getting real market feedback.

In 2018, the  Harvard Business Review  wrote:

  “The real key to succeeding in business is being flexible and responsive to opportunities. Entrepreneurs often have to pivot their business once it becomes clear that their original customer is not the right customer or when it turns out that their product or service fits better in an alternate market. Because of these realities, business plans are written at the start end up nothing more than a fable”.

Enter: the business roadmap and all its benefits!

This is where a business roadmap truly excels. By focusing on high-level steps, the benefits are: 

It can be reviewed quickly and constantly, enabling everyone to check if they are on track.

When the product, market, or  opportunity shifts , the roadmap can be modified quickly.

It keeps the business focused on the big picture, spotting potential roadblocks and obstacles earlier.

So, which is best?

A business plan is still a critical document for many businesses today, particularly those who need one to secure funding, financing, or convince traditional investors.

Yet, modern businesses benefit from increased agility, making a business roadmap a leaner, faster, and more responsive document.

In our view, there's one clear winner: the business roadmap . However, most of the time,  a business roadmap and a business plan work hand-in-hand.

By now, you should have an understanding of what a business roadmap is and how it can be applied in your business to map your strategic direction.

Probably you're pretty eager to get started  building your roadmap now

But, it's important to realize that the strategic thought that takes place  before  you create your roadmap is just as valuable as the act of creating the strategic roadmap itself.

Start with foundations by setting effective goals.

Then, build your business roadmap shows how to achieve these goals.

1. Understanding long-term goals

What specific objectives do you want to achieve in the next 3 to 5 years?

These long-term strategic goals that will help shape your business roadmap — if an activity doesn't play a role in helping you reach a long-term goal, then it doesn't deserve a place in the business intelligence roadmap today.

Understanding longterm goals

Long-term goals can be associated with:

Revenue:  The simplest to explain but the hardest to achieve, e.g., increasing profits or revenue by a certain percentage within a defined time.

Growth:  Expand the company through new employees, resources, or other key measures.

Service and reputation:  Improve the quality of your services, leading to increased customer satisfaction or customer retention.

Social:  Increasingly, businesses are setting long-term goals to give back to society or the environment.

2. Setting short-term goals

The context set by long-term goals helps you identify what you need to do in the near future to progress along your business objective strategic journey. Short-term goals are ideal milestones or destinations for your business objectives strategic roadmap now.

Setting short-term goals

Remember, the best short term goals are SMART :

Specific . They should be targeted and highly detailed, so they can be easily understood.

Measurable . Set a metric that can be continually reviewed. This will prove progress is being made.

Action-oriented . Specify what actions need to be taken and when.

Realistic . Goals should be challenging but achievable. Make your goals realistic by reflecting on your past performance.

Time-specific . Look ahead and set a hard deadline to keep things on track. 

3. Speak with stakeholders

Once you've got a solid understanding of both your long and short-term goals, it's essential to get your team or employees motivated to achieve them.

Business roadmaps

Involve them in the process of creating your goals and listen intently to their feedback. After all, if they feel they helped shape where the company's vision is headed, they will be more motivated to get there.

4. Identify key steps on your roadmap

Now for the exciting part — the first steps of building your startup roadmap are:

Look at your goals and consider what major steps will be required to achieve them.

Annotate each of those steps with a brief high-level description.

Place these steps into order and consider whether you will have the resources required (such as people and time) to complete them. Make sure you can defend  why  the steps should be completed in this order. 

Critique your roadmap — is this realistic? If conditions change, can your roadmap adapt?

Identify key steps on your roadmap

No team has unlimited resources. 

So to help you decide which projects or initiatives deserve a place in your business roadmap, you need to prioritize. This will make sure you get the most impact on your goals with the fewest resources possible.

There are many different approaches to prioritizing a roadmap, but the most quantitative and scientific way is to use a " prioritization matrix " or "weighted scoring model". This is a proven and field-tested framework used by companies like Nike, Shell, and The Washington Post. It will identify key risks and help your roadmap be as focused and successful as possible.

We built ready-to-use  prioritization frameworks within all of our templates , so you don't need to invent your own. But, if you prefer to do it manually, here is a step-by-step business roadmap prioritization guide.

1. Determine choices

Write down all the possible things you could add to  your roadmap  right now. For example, this could be a new sales initiative, a new marketing campaign, or a recruitment cycle.

2. Pick and rate criteria

Next, you need to figure out how you'll decide which item is more important than the others. These will be unique to your organization but could be current business goals like revenue increase, cost to implement, or strategic fit.

You can optionally assign these items a weight, showing how important each of the criteria is to your business.

For example, your primary goal for the year might be to increase revenue, so you might double the weight of this criteria. 

Place these criteria into a table as below:

decision matrix rate your criteria

On a simple 1-5 scale, rate each of the rows in the columns. 5 is most desirable, and 1 is least desirable — for example, for 5 could mean high revenue potential and lowest cost.

decision matrix Rate each choice for each criteria

3. Calculate

Multiply your scores by their weight. The highest scoring total rows are your priorities. 

decision matrix non weighted Calculate the total scores

Now you understand how to use this matrix, you can plan and explain your prioritization decisions to stakeholders.

To save time, try using the  airfocus  built-in scoring feature and prioritization tool, which does all the hard calculations work for you.

prioritization

You don't need to start from scratch with your business roadmap.

These templates all allow for unique roadmapping requirements — including a built-in prioritization feature, which can flex to your unique criteria.

For marketing teams, calculate the impact of your work with this  marketing planning and prioritization template . Simply change the value criteria from brand awareness to whatever  KPI  you are tracking.

Business owner, strategist, consultant, or executive? Get everyone on the same page instantly with our  business project roadmap template . Justify your decisions and spend with the built-in prioritization matrix

Startup founder? Build a billion-dollar empire by bringing order to chaos with this  startup roadmap template . It'll tell you in seconds what you should be working on next.

Creating a business roadmap is simple with airfocus.

Start by selecting our business roadmap template . We offer pre-built templates for various situations that are fully adjustable and built on proven decision-making and roadmapping methods. Plus, our templates are fully customizable — giving you the best of both worlds.

Add your projects, features, and initiatives manually or import them from your existing tools.

2. airfocus integrates Jira, Trello , Asana, or CSV as well as 1000+ other tools via Zapier. 

3. Once you've added your items, you can map your priorities on a chart to better understand the most important projects.

4. Next, organize your items into a beautiful roadmap with a simple drag-and-drop on prioritization chart

Business roadmap chart view

b. Timeline view

Business roadmap timeline view

c. Table view

Business roadmap table view

5. In the end, use a share link to communicate your strategy within minutes, ensuring that everyone is on the same page. As your priorities evolve, the shared version will also be updated, ensuring that everyone remains informed.

Share and export

6. Don't forget to regularly revisit your roadmap to ensure you are on track!

KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators , are metrics your business can measure to track its performance in certain areas. Technically, any aspect of your business's performance that you can measure is a "Performance Indicator." 

However, what makes a "PI" a "KPI" is the metric's impact. For example, your monthly revenue might be valuable to a product supplier but absolutely essential for a subscription-based service. 

In other words, a KPI is a crucial measurement of your business's performance, indicating an important trend. 

How to define KPIs for your business roadmap

For businesses in the modern age, picking and accurately measuring the correct KPIs is a crucial step in creating a successful business roadmap. Here are a few important tips for defining the KPIs that make up your business's roadmap. 

Identify your essential metrics

First, you should identify your essential metrics. As mentioned, these are the metrics that represent the biggest impact on your business. You can also think of these as the metrics that indicate trends (positive and negative) for your business. 

For example, a subscription-based business might want to look at monthly users and revenue, while a fast-food restaurant might consider customer retention and order delivery times. 

If you're having a hard time deciding which KPIs are essential for your business, you can easily find recommended KPIs online for your business model. This is usually a good place to start. 

Examine your roadmap

Next, you'll want to examine your business roadmap . How do your outlined steps and goals correlate with your chosen KPIs? Do they directly relate? Are there indirect relationships? 

Connecting these dots can help you determine two important things:

Is your business roadmap truly aligned with your business's strengths and weaknesses? Is it a good outline?

Have you chosen KPIs relevant to your business's goals and strategies? 

Use your KPIs to make decisions 

With those initial steps completed, you can start incorporating your KPIs into your overall strategy . That will primarily mean using your KPIs to make important decisions. 

Thinking about investing in a new service? Launching a new product? Making an acquisition? Consulting your KPIs and your business roadmap can help you quickly say "Yes" or "No" to these types of opportunities. 

They paint a picture of where your business currently is so you can see where you stand without wasting too much time.

kpi-dashboard

Of course, KPIs aren't the only factor you should consider when creating a business roadmap. Another important consideration is customer feedback because it can also help point you in the right direction. 

How to incorporate customer feedback into your business roadmap

Collect your feedback in one place

An important factor in collecting customer feedback is ensuring it's all kept in one place. If you don't have a plan for collecting customer feedback, then you aren't really collecting it — you're just haphazardly hoarding it. 

Using a tool that connects feedback you receive in-app, through customer support channels, and directly on your website will help you stay organized and quickly analyze what your feedback is telling you. It tells the story of your feedback rather than forcing you to dig through it yourself. 

Use feedback to inform current and future projects

Feedback can also be helpful as a tool for informing your current and future projects. For example, you may be working on a feature only a few of your users have seen. If you're mainly getting negative responses, it might be time to rethink this feature. 

On the other hand, if you're getting requests for a new kind of feature, you may want to start moving in that direction. 

Assess your products and processes

Another way to use customer feedback is to assess whether your products and processes meet your users' needs. How are customers receiving your products? Are your processes living up to customer expectations? 

Feedback can be a light in the dark, giving you a solid idea of how to move in a way that will make customers happy. 

Of course, you can also lean on technology when building and refining your business roadmaps. It can help in various ways, some of which we'll cover below. 

How to use technology for your business roadmap

Use roadmapping software 

One of the first and best ways to use technology for your business roadmap is by leaning on roadmapping software . These tools can streamline your process for creating, editing, and sharing your business roadmap. 

airfocus is a great tool for this purpose. Our modular solution has been refined to make your job as simple as possible. 

Use roadmap templates

Business roadmap templates , while fairly "low-tech," can also speed up your process. They do most of the heavy lifting for you, so you just have to focus on filling them. They're a great resource if you're not sure where to start. 

Use feedback management tools

When it comes to collecting, organizing, and implementing feedback, feedback management tools are your best friend. They help structure and bring together all of your customer feedback in a single location, simplifying your job and painting an overarching picture that is easy to understand. 

Use technology to engage with your community

Of course, you don't just want to collect feedback from your community. You want to be interactive and engaging. Technological tools like airfocus Portal , can also help you out here, giving you a tool for directly interacting with customers and effectively closing the loop. 

Use AI to make things simple and quick

AI is already making significant enough strides to help you start refining and creating your business roadmaps. airfocus has AI Assist , a powerful AI tool to help you create high-quality, high-impact business roadmaps.

AI Assist airfocus

Don't worry if your head is spinning a little with all this new information.

Once you're in the swing of things, creating a business roadmap will become second nature. 

business roadmap checklist

For now, though, simply follow the checklist to make sure you've crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is...

Strategy and ownership:

Is your roadmap centered around achieving a clear mission, vision or goal?

Do you have cross-business buy-in from stakeholders to ensure support throughout the project?

Have you secured and funded the resources required?

Have you allocated each work item in the roadmap to encourage accountability?

Scoping and analysis:

Is the roadmap structured around major themes and events?

Is the scope of the roadmap clearly defined, with set timeframes?

Is it obvious what the key milestones are and what success will look like at these stages?

Are your items prioritized, with the reason for their prioritization clearly recorded?

Measurement and communication:

Remember, transparency encourages efficient and honest communication — is your roadmaps easily accessible to stakeholders and implementation teams?

Is it clear who should make changes to the roadmap if and when it's necessary?

Reality check:

Have you allowed for an ongoing review of the roadmap, to check progress and make corrections?

Is the pace of change achievable with the resources available?

Have you accounted for dependencies between items — and conceived of workarounds — to avoid last-minute blockers?

Answered ‘yes' to all of the above?!

That's it!

Now, you are ready to go! 

Don't forget - a compelling business roadmap isn't designed to replace the business plan entirely. Instead, a compelling business roadmap will help you stay on track and quickly reshuffle your priorities — visually communicating changes to all stakeholders whilst supporting strategic decisions with valid data.

If you're totally new to roadmapping, there are tonnes more to learn over on our blog.

airfocus was designed to help managers  get the right stuff done, and to make things easier, you can use one of our business roadmap templates to get started. There are  dozens  to choose from on our website, so  go take a look .

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How to Develop a Strategic Business Roadmap

business roadmap1

Having a business needs constant analyzing and tweaking of the past results to help unite all the strategies and lead the business to success.

The process of doing a business roadmap helps you analyze the performance of the whole business, its potential, threats and opportunities, as well as key performance indicators.

These will give you an idea of the key issues and determine how to optimize them to make your business become more profitable.

What is a Business Roadmap?

A business roadmap is a specific plan of action that helps to achieve the company's objectives and sets specific targets and deadlines.

Similar to a business plan, your business roadmap shows you where you’re headed and how you’re getting there. The difference is that a roadmap is a more specific visualization of the bigger picture of your destination. It illustrates not only your major goals and key strategies but also the team and resources required in each area.

Mapping a business strategic roadmaps will highlight each project and deadline of every department in your company. With this, you are aware of every moving part of the business. And your managers have a clear direction on where their team is headed.

Want to Talk to us About Your Business Roadmap?

Why do you need strategy roadmaps.

Imagine driving on the road with no destination in mind. You are free to go anywhere you like, visit stops every few minutes, or get out to the curb for no reason. It’s a fun and thrilling experience, but that won’t work if you’re trying to run a successful business.

Businesses that don’t create a roadmap have fewer tools to reach their goals.

When you run a business, it means that your financial capital is in the picture, there are people who rely on it, and there are resources you need to look into regularly. That’s why it’s crucial that you know where you’re always headed and what you should and shouldn’t do along the journey.

business roadmap 2

5 Steps to Creating Business Roadmap That Works

Strategic roadmapping is not something that you do on a whim. It should involve deep analysis and planning as well as collaboration with your organization.

It’s important to know the inputs of your executives and managers to be able to craft a roadmap that includes insights from those who are directly involved in various parts of the organization.

Also, your strategic roadmap should include a timeline as to when the business objectives you’ve set are expected to be completed.

In order for you to create an effective business roadmap, here are the steps you can follow:

1. Define your objectives

How do you want your business to run, grow, and succeed?  

Craft your mission and vision to help you develop concrete business objectives. A clear aim that you wish to achieve will be the first step to your path for growth.

Business objectives are the goals you would like to accomplish, and they can be crucial to exceeding your current standing. Consider them your roadmap to success, so to speak.

There is a distinction between business objectives and business goals. Business goals are the big-picture that you want to achieve, while business objectives are more specific, measurable, and actionable. 

If you’re running a business, your job is to make sure that you set a guide and lead the organization. You also have to convince your team to buy into your vision, so it’s important that you create a compelling business roadmap and help your team believe it.

When you do this, they are more likely to be willing to go the distance to make it happen. Make sure that everyone is aligned and moving in the same direction as you expect them to.

2. Identify your challenges

Identify the challenges you currently have or the potential ones you are expecting to experience, and then learn how to tackle them head-on.

This process can be complicated. For instance, you may think that technology is your main problem, but in reality, you’re actually facing a series of small issues that are preventing you from maximizing your technological assets.

It’s best to keep it as simple as possible, that’s why plotting your business objective first is important. Going blindly runs you the risk of being unable to find issues and prevent you from formulating strategies to face them.

3. Assess your business capabilities

What can you do to seize your challenges? There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to assessing your business capabilities.

Start by assessing your business’ strengths. You may discover that you’re already doing well in one area, which can help you identify solutions for other areas that need attention.

Understanding your strengths helps you develop strategies that will guide you in running your business better.

4. Plan your courses of action

How can you make sure that you are on the right path?

Once you’ve laid down your capabilities, it’s high time to get your actions that bridges all the gaps. Consider your organization changes and process reevaluation too.

For example, if your marketing is doing great, the course of action is to appoint more efficient people to enhance the opportunities and results that your marketing brings in. You can also implement new channels such as the integration of digital marketing as a tool to fuel your growth.

If you have various lists of capabilities, start with identifying your priorities and focus first on the ones you mark as high priority.

5. Create your business roadmap

Your business roadmap is meant to map out the company’s growth and lay out the path that will get your company achieve its objectives. It should be accompanied by the elements we’ve listed above. 

Your roadmap is critical to effectively position your business to exceed your objectives in the marketplace.

Remember: business roadmaps are not set in stone, it’s a living document that will update as your business evolves.

It’s also important that the roadmap you create helps your team visualize where they are headed. You can do this by formatting your strategic roadmap document in a way that it’s fully understandable and not cluttered with ideas.

business roadmap 3

8 Common Business Roadmap Mistakes to Avoid

Many companies and organizations have failed because they did not devote enough time and energy to creating a business roadmap that would lead them to success. 

No matter how well you think you know the business you are working in, there are always going to be mistakes to avoid when drawing up your business roadmap.

This is understandable, as the world of business is constantly evolving. New technologies and new ideas are being brought to the forefront of society all the time, but this doesn’t mean that the old ways are wrong. 

To help you avoid common mistakes that can break your roadmap, look out for these things below:

  • 1. Poorly defined goals
  • 2. It’s too abstract
  • 3. The timeline is too short
  • 4. No budget plan
  • 5. No customer insights
  • 6. Unrealistic timeline and expectations
  • 7. Lack of early business validation
  • 8. Unclear and boring visualization

Your business roadmap plan should be realistic, relevant, visionary, and contain a strategy to bring about the goals and objectives. It may sound simple, but you’d be surprised how many entrepreneurs make these common mistakes on their business roadmap.

Business roadmaps are key documents that hold critical information on how to overcome obstacles and seize opportunities when they arise.

You don’t leave your business up to chance. Once you know where you want to be, your strategic roadmap will help you get there.

If you need help creating your business roadmap to success, you can always contact us here.

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Home » How to Create a Business Roadmap?

How to Create a Business Roadmap?

This article includes:

What Is a Business Roadmap?

How to make a business roadmap, what makes a good business roadmap, what are the business roadmap elements, who can use a business roadmap, what are the different types of business roadmaps, what is a business roadmap template, what is a small business roadmap, what are the business roadmap tools.

A business roadmap is an essential tool for any business. 

It helps visualize the different aspects of business activities and measure progress by defining how to reach an organization’s objectives. 

You can use business roadmaps in various ways – from daily management tasks to staying on top of long-term strategic goals.

This article will cover everything you need to know about business roadmaps.

A business roadmap is a plan that shows how the different aspects of business activities will lead to achieving strategic goals. Individuals in charge of specific areas and managers and executives need to overview all business operations.

Creating a business roadmap is vital in analyzing a company’s performance and assessing its future potential. They’re used to plot out the itinerary for accomplishing objectives and tracking progress.

A business plan differs from a business roadmap. Business plans are long-term, while roadmaps focus on short-term goals and objectives. Business plans include information about the company’s finances, but roadmaps don’t need to be as detailed or comprehensive; they just need to give a general idea of what you should do next.

A business roadmap is a document that outlines the steps needed to reach an end goal. 

Creating a practical business roadmap can seem like a daunting task, especially if you’re not sure where to start. But it’s not as complicated as it sounds! 

Many online tools can help with this task, too. So don’t worry if you’ve never done this before – we’ll walk through everything step by step below.

Define Your Business Vision and Strategy

One of the first steps in a business roadmap is to get your vision, mission, and strategy in place. Without this, it would be difficult to create specific objectives and tasks for your roadmap . Planning your business vision and design helps you determine what actions need to take place and ensure that you align all of them with your goals and objectives.

Identify Business Objectives and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

The next step is to identify the business objectives you want to achieve. Business Objectives can be anything from increasing sales by X%, gaining Y new customers each month, or creating a product that will revolutionize an industry. 

These objectives should align with both your company’s mission statement short and long-term strategic plan. When setting up business objectives, keep in mind how they relate to your strategy. 

For example: Suppose you have a goal of achieving 100% customer satisfaction. Think about what it would mean for sales growth to accomplish this objective. 

Business KPIs are the metrics that you could use to achieve these objectives. Business Objectives and Business KPIs should always go hand in hand.

Key Performance indicators refer to those metrics that help measure the performance of any Business strategy or initiative. They can be anything from the number of new customers acquired per month, the growth rate for revenue over time, etc. Business KPIs are also used to track progress towards your Business Objectives.

Business Milestones and Timeline

Once you know your objectives, it’s time to set Business milestones – these are specific goals that need to be met for a business objective to become a reality.

Business milestones could include launching new products or services every quarter, hiring one person per month (if there’s a budget), etc. Business milestones should also have measurable results so you can track progress towards achieving them!

On the other hand, business timelines involve making estimates about when each milestone will happen (i.e., start date/end date), along with its associated cost. Costs could include financial capital and people’s hours spent working on tasks related to achieving your business goals within their role at work—functions such as marketing, sales, product development, etc. 

Business timelines should include any significant events such as product launches , new marketing campaigns, etc., that could affect progress towards objectives set out on the Business roadmap.

Assign Tasks and Responsibilities

The next step is to assign tasks and responsibilities to individuals or teams. Breaking down business objectives into specific, actionable tasks is essential for anyone trying to achieve them. Doing this also allows team members to understand better what they need to work on to contribute to the organization’s success.

When assigning tasks, make sure that they’re SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Setting SMART goals will help ensure everyone in the team understands what they need to do and when they need to do it.

Implement and Track Progress

The last stage is putting your Business Roadmap into action and tracking progress. Make sure to revisit your Business Objectives and KPIs regularly so that you can course-correct where necessary. Doing so will help ensure that you stay on track towards achieving your business goals!

Create a winning roadmap with Chisel Roadmaps .

Let’s look at some of the essential features of a successful business roadmap.

The Business Roadmap Should Be Clear, Simple, and Understandable. 

Business roadmaps are meant for everyone to understand – from the CEO to an intern. 

They should also have a consistent format that makes it easy for people unfamiliar with your company’s business goals or strategy process (e.g., customers). 

Following this process will help determine where things stand about their needs/expectations.

Business Roadmaps Must Be Inclusive of Specific Parameters

A business roadmap should include key milestones, objectives, and deliverables along with tasks assigned so that there is no confusion about what needs doing next or when it might need doing. This process will also help ensure that team members know how to achieve those larger goals.

Granular and In-depth

The business roadmap has the right level of granularity, and it should be easy enough for anyone to understand but detailed enough that they’re helpful as well. If a business roadmap is too high-level, it won’t provide any direction on how to do a particular task and vice versa if the roadmap is too low.

It is crucial to find a middle ground and specify all the information needed but not too high for a layperson to understand.

Revise Regularly

The business roadmap is updated regularly. Business objectives and goals will change over time, so it’s essential to update your business roadmap accordingly. Doing this ensures that everyone has the most recent information and helps track progress and identify any potential issues/obstacles along the way.

Now that we know what makes a good business roadmap let’s look at the different elements.

Business Objectives

The purpose of a business roadmap is to help achieve business objectives, so these should be clearly defined and listed prominently on the business roadmap.

A milestone is an important event or achievement that needs to happen for business objectives to continue. They could include launching a new product, reaching a certain number of sales, etc.

Assigning specific tasks and responsibilities to individuals or teams is essential for achieving business objectives. Doing this also allows team members to understand better what they need to work on to contribute towards the organization’s overall success.

Business Roadmap Format

The overall layout of your business roadmap should be easy to follow so that anyone can understand where things stand at a glance. Using a style or template specific to your company is also essential to avoid confusion about which business objectives/milestones you referred to. 

You can present business roadmaps in formats such as Gantt charts, Kanban boards , or mind maps .

An essential tool like a business roadmap helps anyone achieve business goals – from the CEO and Board of directors to team members and individual contributors.

You can use business roadmaps in various ways – from daily management tasks to staying on top of long-term strategic goals. Different leaders in the ghostwriting company who need an overview of all business operations use the business roadmap.

Let’s take a closer look at who might benefit from creating a business roadmap:

  • CEOs/Managers : They use business roadmaps to visualize the big picture and track progress towards defined goals.
  • Business Owners : Business owners can use business roadmaps to see all the different business areas in one place, which can help identify opportunities and problems that need addressing. 
  • Employees : They can use business roadmaps to see how their tasks contribute to their overall success.
  • Freelancers/Consultants : They can use business roadmaps to understand the client’s business better and offer tailored solutions.
  • Project Managers : Project managers can use business roadmaps to show the progress of their projects and forecast future tasks. Business roadmaps are an excellent tool for project managers to guide their teams on how each task contributes toward achieving strategic objectives.
  • Product Managers : Product managers can use business maps to visualize different aspects of product development and management processes, focusing on what needs to be done next year or five years down the line. Doing this will help make sure those goals get done on time.
  • Venture Capitalists : Business roadmaps can be a valuable tool for Venture Capitalists because they provide an overview of their investments over time.
  • Sales Teams : Business roadmaps help sales teams identify potential customers and track progress towards business objectives. 
  • Marketing : Marketing teams use business roadmaps to visualize different aspects of marketing campaigns, focusing on what needs to be done next month or five months down the line.

Ready to start creating your winning business roadmap?

There are many business roadmaps to choose from, but it’s crucial for you and your team members to understand what kind of business roadmap would be most suitable for them. Here are some examples:

Strategic Business Roadmap

This business roadmap assists businesses that are looking for long-term success. It covers the company’s vision, mission, and goals and how they plan on achieving them.

Project Business Roadmap 

Project business roadmap is for projects, and, as a result, its focus will be more on task management than strategic planning.

Marketing Business Roadmap

A Marketing business roadmap focuses specifically on strategies and campaigns that will help promote and sell a product or service.

Product Business Roadmap

Companies use this type of business roadmap with multiple products/services that need managing. It helps track the progress of each product line and determines when you should release new products into the market.

Technology Business Roadmap

A technology business roadmap is designed for companies that rely heavily on technology to run their business. It covers the development and implementation of new systems/technologies and how you will use them.

Business roadmaps are also easy to customize, so they’re perfect if you want something quick and straightforward. 

A business roadmap template is a pre-made business roadmap that is an example or starting point for future business roadmaps. 

They’re great because they save time by providing you with all the necessary elements already included.

Business roadmap templates also ensure consistency between business roadmaps so that it’s easy to identify essential information at a glance. These templates come in many different styles and formats, so you can choose one that suits your needs best.

The best way to start making your business roadmap is with free powerpoint templates that experts have already designed.

Let Us Take a Look at a Business Roadmap Template Below:

The first step in the business template will be to input the company’s name, logo, and website. This step will help personalize your business roadmap and give it a more professional look.

The next step is to input the title of your business roadmap. This title can be from “Strategic Business Roadmap” to “Product Business Roadmap.”

After that, you’ll need to list your objectives and goals. These can be anything from increasing sales to developing a new product.

Next, you’ll need to list the strategies and tactics you’ll use to achieve your objectives. This process could be anything from launching a new marketing campaign to expanding into new markets.

The final step is to add in any other information that you think is important such as timelines, budgets, or other business roadmap elements.

A small business roadmap is a template specifically designed for businesses with fewer resources and less complex operations.

The main difference between a small business roadmap and other business roadmaps is that smaller businesses typically have one or two key goals they’re trying to achieve. 

In contrast, larger companies may have several plans spread out over different company areas.

Small business roadmaps usually aren’t as detailed as others because there’s not enough time or resources to include everything. But using some important  small business tools  can help you grow quicker.

That said, it’s important to remember that even the most straightforward business roadmap can be beneficial when it comes to keeping your business on track.

Business roadmap tools are a great way to stay on top of daily management tasks by showing how they contribute to achieving strategic goals . 

Executives can use business roadmap tools to overview all business operations and individuals in charge of specific areas within an organization. 

Business roadmap tools significantly help for planning purposes. You can make them with pen and paper, Excel spreadsheets, or other software programs such as PowerPoint slideshows. 

Business roadmap tools are a great way to visually see and track the different aspects of your business, which is extremely important when it comes to measuring progress.

Additionally, individuals in charge of specific areas can use business roadmap tools. Tools such as marketing or product development allow them to understand how their work contributes to its overall success.

When tracking performance over time, business roadmap tools are essential. By comparing data from previous years, you can see whether your company is moving in the right direction or if any areas need improvement. Business roadmap tools can also help predict future growth or decline for an organization.

With a business roadmap in hand, literally and figuratively, you are on your way to success. Business roadmaps are essential for any strategy process, and you should create them with precision and care.

We hope this article helped provide you with a better understanding of business roadmaps and their uses.

You may also interested in:

  • Quality Product Roadmaps: What Makes Them Great
  • Digital Roadmap: Definition and How to Create One
  • How Company Roadmaps work together to Support Growth
  • Product Roadmap vs The Marketing Roadmap
  • How to Create a Customer Facing Roadmap ?

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Create actionable business plans with Kanban boards, and advanced formatting options

Create actionable business plans with Kanban boards, and advanced formatting options

Start creating your business roadmap with your team to get a clear overview of your tasks and milestones. Use Kanban boards, tables, and shapes to start from scratch, or select a pre-made template for a quick start. Customize text, color, and style to visualize better.

Brainstorm and plan with teams by collaborating and syncing up

Brainstorm and plan with teams by collaborating and syncing up

Get together with your team to discuss and analyze long-term strategies and approaches. Use whiteboarding capabilities and intergrations to have dynamic discussions. Share the workspace for editing and reviewing with real-time cursors for any number of participants.

Stay on top of business plans by going from planning to execution with task tracking

Stay on top of business plans by going from planning to execution with task tracking

Go beyond planning to execute business plans with task tracking and smart notifications, all in the same workspace. Assign tasks to team members, set due dates, track progress, and link information.

roadmap of business

What is a Business Roadmap?

The business roadmap is a visual representation of your organization’s primary goals, objectives, and strategies. It provides a high-level overview of the big picture without going into finer details while highlighting the tasks, roles and responsibilities, and deadlines. A roadmap is essentially a timeline; you can outline what activities will take place each week, month, quarter, or year.

Another way to look at a business roadmap is as a long-term strategic document that summarizes where the company is heading and the steps needed to get there. One important thing to remember is that business roadmaps provide a certain degree of flexibility. It can be detailed or brief. Activities outlined in the business roadmap can also be changed to reflect current circumstances and the environment better.

Why Do You Need a Business Roadmap?

You may ask why you need a business roadmap when you already have a business plan. The answer is simple. While the business plan is a long and detailed document requiring in-depth reading, the business roadmap summarizes the most critical information needed to understand at a glance. The roadmap gives a general idea about what you should be doing next without any frills attached. Some advantages of using a business roadmap are,

Shows how the company or business will grow

Provides a visual timeline and an illustrative guide on tasks to make progress tracking easy

Acts as a guiding document, helping teams to understand the reasoning behind their work

Helps to keep team members and stakeholders aligned with the company’s vision and objectives

Allows to visualize tasks and deadlines that are relevant to different departments

Helps to analyze the performance of a company for future potential

How Can Teams Benefit from Using Business Roadmaps?

Roadmaps can provide a shared understanding of the project’s or organization’s direction, timeline and priorities. Below are a few ways that a team can use business roadmaps to collaborate.

  • Aligns the team around a set of common goals and objectives

A roadmap helps a team to visualize the high-level direction of the project or organization. It can help team members to better understand their roles and responsibilities in achieving the objectives.

  • Encourages collaboration

Roadmaps provide a shared understanding regarding the direction of the project/organization and the timeline. To make sure that everyone is on the same page, involve the team members in the roadmap planning process. Working together, the team can develop a shared vision and a sense of ownership.

  • Helps to identify dependencies and risks

As the team lays out each and every step, roadmaps can help to identify potential dependencies and risks that can affect the project’s or organization’s success. The roadmap can highlight potential roadblocks and the team can work together to find solutions and mitigate risks.

  • Helps to plan, prioritize and track progress of tasks

When strategizing, use a roadmap to plan, breaking down the overall vision into smaller and more manageable tasks and to prioritize what needs to be done. This will also ensure that everyone understands their role in the bigger picture, are on the same page, and will work towards the same objectives.

  • Communicates progress effectively

A roadmap is a useful tool to communicate progress to stakeholders and team members. Communication is key to keeping everyone on the same loop about the project’s status and to give a head’s up if any work needs adjustments to meet the upcoming deadlines and goals. Make sure to update the roadmap regularly to include completed tasks and upcoming milestones.

Business Roadmap Examples to Get You Started

Most times, business roadmaps take on a timeline or swimlane view.

1. Timeline view : In a timeline view, the roadmap provides an overview of significant milestones/projects and deadlines by the team. Through a timeline view, you can accurately see each team’s resource and time allocations and how they contribute to the business’s overall growth. Each team will clearly understand how they must structure their work to meet the milestones and deadlines.

2. Swimlane view : The swimlane view is ideal for businesses that don’t want to allocate specific timelines to every task. You can arrange the swimlane view to show projects that are in progress, scheduled, or proposed to see how the business is developing. You can have swimlanes assigned to each department or team while organizing items by timeframes, giving a quick view of the main projects a team is working on at a given period.

There are several different types of roadmaps that you can use depending on your requirement and business function. It is important that you understand which business roadmap is suitable for your business. Some business roadmap examples include,

Business roadmap: The most frequently used roadmap that layout the business’s overall goals, projects, strategies, and deadlines. Most useful for company heads and managers who want to understand how the various departments and allocated resources work together.

Business development roadmap: This roadmap helps to visualize tasks so that you can look at the bigger picture; which tasks contribute to and enhance the business’s growth, productivity and revenue?

Business intelligence (BI) roadmap: Mostly used by business intelligence leaders or managers to visualize BI-related business areas. It maps out the connections between staff, operations, and other internal processes to see what needs to be optimized to grow the business.

Marketing strategy roadmap: Used by marketing teams, the roadmap helps to visualize the connection between marketing initiatives and the organization’s goals/projects.

Project roadmap: Dedicated to projects, this roadmap will focus on one team or a small group of people relevant only to one project. It visualizes the tasks and deliverables with clear timeframes. Useful for project managers.

Department roadmap: This roadmap focuses on a particular department and its goals. Using a department roadmap can help ensure everyone on the team is on the same page and working towards the departmental goals.

IT infrastructure roadmap: Helps to visualize the technology architecture of a business. This is useful for IT teams and professionals to better handle issues and future releases.

How to Create a Business Roadmap Template?

  • Start by defining the overall vision and strategy for the business

Define where the business should go. Understand how you plan to build value for your target customer.

Use Creately’s whiteboarding capabilities and intergrations to brainstorm with your team and have dynamic discussions.

  • Identify the goals, objectives, and KPIs

Keep your customers in mind when identifying goals, objectives, and KPIs. Use sticky notes and cards to note down important information.

  • Prioritize and set strategies and milestones

Devise strategies outlining how you will attain the defined goals. Prioritize according to the importance and include activities and milestones to track progress and success. Strategies can be broken down into different sections as carried out by separate teams.

The team involved in the planning process can come together to dot vote to prioritize on the same canvas. Put together the roadmap template from scratch using tables or Kanban boards or use a premade template. Customize with color themes and styles for better visualization.

  • Develop activities and assign tasks, responsibilities, and time frames

Develop your tactics to carry out the strategies by clearly outlining the actions of each department/team. At the same time, generate methods to measure success. Include these activities in the roadmap.

Use the task panel to assign tasks to each department and team member. Set deadlines and include additional information for each activity or milestone using the notes panel. Import documents and images if required.

  • Share with others for feedback

Now you can share the workspace with others to review and finalize. Invite your team to contribute. Use in-line commenting to have discussions and follow-ups on the same canvas.

Once completed, share your business roadmap with the rest of your organization. Download it in PNG, SVG, or PDF image formats for publishing.

  • Now you can streamline your tasks and track progress

Start tracking the progress and the growth of your business. Use smart notifications to inform about upcoming deadlines and when tasks are completed.

FAQs About the Business Roadmap Template

Yes, there are several differences. Though a product roadmap is sometimes defined as a type of business roadmap, there are some crucial differences between the two. They are,

Business roadmaps are usually developed annually, while product roadmaps are built to accommodate product releases, which could be weekly or monthly

A business roadmap has broader goals, while a product roadmap has goals that are specific and measurable and related to a product and users

Business roadmaps look at work at a higher level with broader milestones and deliverables, while product roadmaps layout day to day work that needs to be completed for each release

To learn more about creating a product roadmap, check out ‘The Quick Guide to Creating a Proper Product Roadmap.’

Make sure that your business roadmap is simple and easy to understand

Include the end goal, short- and long-term goals, milestones, risk factors, timelines, and all steps required to achieve the goal

The roadmap should not be too detailed but should include enough details to understand the direction

Update regularly to reflect the changing goals and environments

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Why is Creately Better for Business Roadmap Templates?

Creately is the intelligent visual platform enabling visual collaboration, knowledge management and project execution..

100+ proprietary features deliver a flexible, no-code visual platform, expertly-tuned for ease of use.

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Infinite Visual Canvas

Visuall create and organize any structure you imagine. Drag drop shapes or datasets, embed external content.

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Real-time Collaboration

Work remote or hybrid with realtime cursor tracking, in-built video chat and proper in-context comments and tasks.

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Custom Databases

Create custom databases for any kind of information from tasks, HR personnel records to matters for law firms.

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Data driven Docs

Create docs and notes to go deeper from the high-level visual views. 2 way link to other docs, shapes or data with @mentions

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Professional Diagramming

50+ types of standard diagrams with 1000+ specially designed shapes and connectors enable blazing fast diagramming.

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Project & Task Management

Use built-in agile project management tooling or integrate with your favourite project management tool to keep work flowing.

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Enterprise Grade Security

ISO 27001, SOC 2 - Type 2, Data Residency & Up-time SLAs to collaborate securely with your entire organization.

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Powerful Visual Modelling

Visuals that are backed by databases, update once, reflect in multiple views type of workflows.

Over 10 Million people and 1000s of teams already use Creately

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