Customized Goal Roadmaps

“This roadmap is useless.” The words hit like a gut punch. After weeks of alignment, dependencies mapped, and every detail airtight… it fell flat in front of leadership. ❌ Too many details. ❌ No clear business impact. ❌ Buried in feature updates. That’s when I learned the hard way—one roadmap doesn’t work for everyone. One roadmap for all? Like sending the same email to your CEO, engineers, and customers—it won’t land. Each group needs different information, framed for their decisions. Here’s how to tailor your roadmap for success: 1️⃣ The Strategic Roadmap (For Executives) Audience: CEOs, leadership, investors Focus: Business outcomes, long-term vision, and key initiatives ✅ How to get it right: -> Keep it high-level—focus on themes, not feature lists. -> Tie initiatives directly to business goals and revenue impact. -> Use concise visuals (timelines, OKRs, measurable impact). 💡 Pro Tip: Your execs don’t need sprint details—just the “why” and how it moves the business forward. 2️⃣ The Tactical Roadmap (For Engineering) Audience: Product & engineering teams Focus: Priorities, dependencies, technical feasibility ✅ How to get it right: -> Provide clarity on scope, timelines, and trade-offs. -> Show how engineering efforts ladder up to business goals. -> Address dependencies upfront to avoid last-minute surprises. 💡 Pro Tip: Engineers don’t just want deadlines—they need the "why" behind decisions to make smarter trade-offs. 3️⃣ The Narrative Roadmap (For Customers) Audience: Users, customers, prospects Focus: Features, value, what’s coming next ✅ How to get it right: -> Focus on pain points solved, not just new features. -> Use visuals like wireframes, mockups, or sneak peeks. -> Be transparent—set clear expectations on timelines. 💡 Pro Tip: Customers don’t care about your internal priorities—they just want to know how you’re making their lives better. — 👋 I’m Ron Yang, a product leader and advisor. Follow me for insights on product strategy + leadership.

Roadmaps are not one-size-fits-all. They should be tailored to each team. Why? Because roadmaps aren’t just timelines, they’re communication tools. And what you communicate depends on your audience. Consider these examples: - Product Development Teams need detailed, execution-focused roadmaps. Think engineering commitments by quarter, discovery vs. delivery status, and alignment on what’s coming next. - Sales Teams are looking for big-picture stories. They need to know which features will excite customers and when they might expect them. These roadmaps focus on value propositions rather than granular details. - Leadership needs a strategic view. Roadmaps for them focus on initiatives and capacity planning, linking back to the company's broader vision and goals. To create all these roadmap versions effectively, we need collaboration between product operations and product teams. That way, each roadmap serves its specific purpose and audience. Take Rebecca’s example from my Product Operations book with Denise Tilles. By keeping these roadmaps aligned with business rationale, she was able to bridge the gap between sales expectations and product realities, building trust and transparency across the organization. She also introduced a clear framework for sharing feature status across teams. This included stages like Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and GA. Understanding these phases ensures that everyone, from sales to engineering, knows the real status of a product feature and can communicate that clearly to customers. The magic happens when product operations steps up to support these efforts. By providing tools and frameworks, ProductOps help teams to align their roadmaps with strategic intents and prevent the kind of overselling that happens when teams aren’t on the same page. In short, roadmaps aren't just plans, they’re how you build alignment. How are you tailoring roadmaps for different departments in your organization? Let me know in the comments!

ChatGPT isn't just for casual questions. It’s a powerful tool for planning your next career move: I’ve been experimenting with using ChatGPT as a tool for career development. It’s never going to replace human mentors or coaches, but it’s surprisingly helpful for brainstorming, clarifying goals, and even practicing interviews. If you’ve been curious about how AI can fit into your career planning toolkit, here’s a practical framework (with prompts!) you can use: 1️⃣ Clarify Your Career Vision 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁: “I’m currently a [your job title] aiming to achieve [specific goal]. Here’s my situation: [brief description of career stage, challenges, and timeline]. Can you help me clarify my vision and create a list of priorities to focus on?” 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲: A clear, specific, and prioritized vision of your career goals. 2️⃣ Map Out Key Skills and Resources 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁: “Based on my goal to [specific goal], can you: Create a prioritized skills map for me? Recommend actionable ways to develop these skills? Suggest how I can effectively demonstrate these skills?” 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲: A personalized roadmap for development that gets you closer to your goals. 3️⃣ Build a Compelling Personal Narrative 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁: “I want my LinkedIn summary to highlight [specific strengths or accomplishments] and resonate with [specific audience]. Can you help me write a polished version with keywords and an engaging tone?” 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲: A polished, professional brand aligned with your goals. 4️⃣ Practice Real-World Scenarios 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁: “Simulate a mock interview for a [specific role] at [specific company]. Focus on behavioral and technical questions, and ask follow-up questions based on my responses.” 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲: Polished, confident communication for interviews or negotiations. 5️⃣ Design and Track a Career Roadmap 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁: “Help me design a 6-month career roadmap to achieve [specific goal]. Include milestones, metrics, and specific actions for skill-building and networking.” 𝗢𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲: A living plan that evolves with you and keeps you on track. Again, these steps don’t replace the value of human insight and mentorship. But they can help you get a head start, refine your approach, and gain clarity before seeking deeper feedback. --------------------------------------- 📌 Bookmark this post to try the prompts whenever you’re ready! ♻️ Repost to share actionable insights on using AI for personal growth with your network. 🔔 Follow me for new posts (most) mornings at 8:45 AM PT. My goal isn’t to spread wacky hype—just thoughtful ideas on living better and using AI to help, while staying mindful of its risks and benefits.

𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥. 𝐍𝐨𝐰 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭? 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐚 𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐝𝐦𝐚𝐩, 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬. Last week, we talked about goal setting: defining clear targets to work toward in your business. But setting goals is just the beginning. The real challenge? Turning them into action. This week, the small business owner I’m helping started mapping out her roadmap for success. She has four main goals to target, but the key to achieving them isn’t just having the vision; it’s about breaking them down into actionable steps. Since she’s scaling her business, every process needs to be built for growth, from onboarding new performers to ensuring consistent quality and choosing the right tools that will scale with her. Every one of these steps ties back to her revenue goals and timeline targets. And as we worked through this, one major realization hit: Her website wasn’t built for scale. It lacked the right tools to support her growing business. She needed a platform that could not only serve as a marketing and booking tool but also manage her financials, track performances, and handle business operations, all without breaking under pressure. That meant pivoting and finding a system that could support her vision long-term. How to Turn Goals into Actionable Steps ✅ Start with the Big Picture Clearly define each major goal for your business. For her, these included: Expanding her team with new performers Standardizing quality and training Implementing scalable business tools Hitting revenue targets within a specific timeframe ✅ Break It Down Each goal needs smaller, actionable steps. For example, onboarding new performers requires: Creating a structured training program Setting up an evaluation process Establishing performance guidelines Developing an easy-to-follow onboarding system ✅ Identify Gaps & Roadblocks As she worked through her roadmap, she realized her website wasn’t built to support her business as it grew. Addressing that became an immediate priority. Ask yourself: Do your current systems support your goals, or are they holding you back? ✅ Assign Timelines & Owners Set realistic timelines for each milestone. If you have a team, assign owners to key tasks to drive accountability. ✅ Make It Measurable You can’t improve what you don’t track. Define KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) for each step. No matter what it is, measure progress. Now that the roadmap is in place, the next step is execution. That’s where real progress happens. Are You Ready to Scale? Building a roadmap is one of the most important steps in scaling a business, but execution is where it all comes to life. Follow me for more insights, and reach out if you need help making sure your business is built for long-term success. #SmallBusinessSunday #BusinessGrowth #Scalability #GoalSetting #Entrepreneurship #ProcessImprovement

From Good to Great: How Individual Development Plans Transform Players In the fast-paced, team-oriented world of soccer, it’s easy for individual player development to take a back seat. But as coaches, one of our most important responsibilities is to unlock the full potential of each player—and that requires more than generic training plans or one-size-fits-all feedback. Enter Individual Development Plans (IDPs): a proven framework for tailoring development to meet each player's unique needs. Whether you're coaching youth players or elite professionals, IDPs ensure every player knows where they stand, where they’re headed, and how to get there. What Are IDPs? An Individual Development Plan is a personalized roadmap for a player’s growth. It outlines specific objectives, strategies, and timelines for improvement, addressing areas like technical skills, tactical awareness, physical conditioning, and mental resilience. Rather than treating players as interchangeable parts of a system, IDPs focus on the individual within the team—helping each player reach their potential while enhancing the overall team dynamic. How to Structure an Effective IDP Creating an IDP doesn’t need to be overly complex, but it does require intentionality. Here’s a step-by-step guide: Assessment    - Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the player’s current abilities.   - Use tools like game footage, training data, and direct observation.   - Incorporate feedback from the player’s perspective for a holistic view. Goal-Setting   - Define SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals.   - Include both short-term (e.g., increase successful passing percentages in the final third within 4 weeks) and long-term objectives (e.g., enhance tactical awareness by the end of the season). Action Plan   - Design specific drills, exercises, and scenarios tailored to the player’s goals.   - Integrate these into regular training sessions or assign them as individual tasks. Monitoring Progress    - Use regular check-ins to evaluate progress.   - Provide constructive feedback and adjust the plan as needed.   - Celebrate milestones to keep players engaged and motivated. Review and Adjust    - Revisit the IDP periodically to ensure it remains relevant.   - Modify goals and strategies as the player grows and the season evolves. IDPs in Your Coaching Toolkit Implementing IDPs doesn’t require elite resources or technology—just a commitment to understanding and developing each player as an individual. By investing time and effort into personalized development, you’ll not only see players improve but also create a culture of growth and accountability within your team. Are you currently using IDPs with your team? What challenges or successes have you experienced? Let’s share insights and strategies to help each other grow as coaches and leaders!

Professional growth isn’t about doing more. Prioritize, focus, and let your roadmap lead you forward. With endless free resources like YouTube tutorials and online courses, it's easy for learning paths—and our minds—to feel overwhelmed. Whenever my mentees ask for help creating their professional development roadmap, I guide them through these steps: 1) Define your short-term goal (6 months): → Want that promotion?  Write down skills you need right now—terminology you don’t fully grasp, conflict resolution strategies for team changes, or improved stakeholder communication. → Changing jobs?  Find 10 detailed job descriptions for roles you aspire toward. List skills you’re missing. Short-term goals are straightforward. They focus on immediate impact. 2) Set your mid-term goal (2-3 years): → Where do you see yourself professionally?  This timeframe is realistic yet distant enough for growth. → Align your short-term and long-term goals.  Are they connected? If not, identify why. Reconciliation is key. 3) Categorizing skills: I divide skills on your roadmap like this:  → Project management skills: Essential for leading and delivering.  → Expert skills: Standout capabilities like systems design or specific domain expertise (finance, healthcare, etc.).  → Market requirements: Certifications, language proficiency, or other must-haves for your dream role or market. Once categorized, prioritize. Use your goals as your compass. Professional growth isn’t about collecting ALL skills or certificates. It's about focusing on KEY ones that move you forward. Your roadmap is your guide, but remember: growth requires constant reassessment and adjustment. 

Your roadmap can be more than a fancy to-do list. Imagine that. It’s actually can be an expression of your strategy, a set of outcomes instead of outputs. This is hard, especially for leaders, as putting some vague outcome onto a roadmap requires giving up a lot of perceived control. And I think it is important to see that struggle. Empowering teams to focus on strategy-informed outcome roadmaps is a bold step. And one every PM and Product Team can make a lot easier for product leadership. By being very transparent, structured and over-communicating. 1. transparent Outcome based roadmaps are less deterministic. They allow the team more degrees of freedom. This is where the perceived relinquishing of control comes from. Being extra transparent in what you are working on is a great start to get a leader to trust your team. 2. structured Same thing, it's all about mutual trust. Outcome based roadmaps require trust. Showing that you take this vague outcome and move towards structuring the problem & solution space is essential to reassure leadership you deserve their trust. This is where Opportunity Solution Trees, Assumption Mapping, Impact Mapping etc. can really help. They provide easy-to-understand artifacts. 3. over-communicating Your structure and hypothetical transparency is great. But a Miro board without a password won't cut it. You cannot expect leadership to PULL information from somewhere deep down your documentation stack. PUSH it. In a regular, condensed way. Executive summaries, short status report emails can do wonders in avoiding a erosion of trust. A well-crafted roadmap is your proof of strategy in action, where every item links back to your bigger vision. It’s where the ‘why’ meets the ‘what’ and ‘how’. So, before you add another feature to your roadmap, ask yourself: does this align with our strategic goals, or is it just another shiny object? Let’s shift our mindset from creating feature factories to building strategic roadmaps that drive real value. -------- I post 5x a week here in an attempt to get 1000 companies to iterate weekly. I'm at 11/1000. Which is one more than a two weeks ago. Follow along to see if I make it before turning 90 - and shoot me a message if you need a little help to get your Discovery rolling. #productmanagement #productdiscovery #uxresearch

This isn't Lord of the Rings ⚔ There isn't "one roadmap" to rule them all Roadmaps are communication tools. So depending on WHO you are communicating WHAT to, different formats work well. • 𝗘𝘅𝗲𝗰𝘀 - product strategy and whether can teams deliver • 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 & 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 – how you'll help them hit revenue goals • 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 – how processes and FAQs will change • 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 – what are they working on So whilst it feels like you should have one roadmap for everyone... this often isn't the case. Broadly you can show people ONE of TWO things 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗚𝗬 Provides 12+ months of visibility, and illustrates the direction and ambition of the product team. At this level you are showing the main themes that will be tackled, and balance of work between them, but not specific features or timelines. 𝗗𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬 Provides up to 3 months visibility on specific features that will be released, with clear timelines that other teams can rely on. Here you can give more certainty on outputs or outcomes, but not both. If you're talking strategy you can't give certainty on delivery: • You need to decide which problems to solve and which solutions to build • You are innovating and don't know how you'll need to adapt • Timelines are fictional, as you don't know what you're building yet Understand this, and you can take a balanced approach: • Talk about 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 ("appetite" = time and engineers you want to devote to a problem) for strategy over the long term. This is useful for boards, CEOs and the company in general. • Talk about 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀 for short term execution, when you have worked out in detail what you are building. This is useful for dovetailing work with adjacent teams. You can show either of these things on a "roadmap" but it's really hard (and generally ill advised) to mix these up and try to show both at the same time. Five types of roadmap explored in the carousel, incl. what they're good/bad for: 1. Strategic roadmap 2. Now / next / later 3. Dashboard roadmap 4. OKR roadmap 5. Gantt chart Full article including all the templates here: https://lnkd.in/ef7RUPk5 ❤️ Like this post? ❤️ Hustle Badger offers practical, comprehensive support to upskill your product team. DM me for more details about our programs, workshops and on-demand resources.

I've been quiet 🤫 ... and quietly coming to terms with the brutal facts in front of me... I'm never going to build a LinkedIn empire. Sigh. But I do like to write, and it's been a bit. Lemonade Stand finally hit its stride and is humming along, which has meant less capacity for creating out in the open. To get back in the groove I'm doing a few quick hitters on what I've been working on with fractional clients, with some actionable tips. Roadmap "spikes" have been popular lately, especially with early stage startups (I think it's the new year vibes). Here's what it looks like: Pre-work: I provide a set of questions for the founding team to consider independently, with answers sent to me directly. We use these both as inputs for the roadmap, and to do a quick assessment on how aligned the team is on the plan for the business over the next 6-12 months. Workshop: we pick a full day we can dedicate to crafting the roadmap. Note that this is not just a product roadmap - product is the keystone, but it covers other major levers like hiring, partnerships, etc. I moderate the session to make sure we explore all our options, but also stay focused and get what we need out of the day. Tailored Roadmap: after the workshop, I craft the roadmap (based on the team's collective input) using a template that I've applied at a number of companies where I've been CPO. Basic structure is: * # 1 goal (eg "North Star") for the business - could be revenue of $X by Y date; could be profitability; could be ready to raise a Series A (and specifying what that looks like); could be a critical product milestone; etc. * Top three challenges that need to be solved to achieve that goal - we'll call these strategic themes. * Defining "what winning looks like" for each theme - how will we know if we've achieved that goal? * Initiatives - what are the investments (product, people, etc) we can make that are most likely to achieve that? * Sequencing - detailed and committed plan for the current quarter; penciled in plan for the next quarter; loose ideas for the last two quarters It ain't rocket science, but you'd be surprised how many startups resist having a plan, because it feels like it impedes nimbleness and flexibility. Anything but - it creates focus, and a disciplined way to hold one's self to account for changing your mind. Is the new idea really worth disrupting the plan? You never know unless you actually have a plan in the first place. The real magic is the implementation guidance, or how to put the plan into action: I join the team every two weeks for an hour, for the first quarter the plan is in action, to provide coaching on how to make it real, with urgency. Things we might cover there: * Prioritization - new and exciting things will pop up. Should we respond? * How to write good product stories and reqs for engineers * Simple systems for managing product work (I really like Linear) Holler if you need help, or go ahead and run a spike yourself!

🚨 Ever seen a Product roadmap that looks more like a feature wishlist than a strategy? Yeah. Me too. But it sucks right 👇 . . Most Product roadmaps are: . ❌ Overloaded with features that might never ship ❌ Disconnected from real business & user needs ❌ A guessing game instead of a strategic execution plan . Let’s fix that. 🚀 . Here’s how to build a roadmap that actually drives impact. 👇 . . 🔹Align Roadmap to Business & User Outcomes . ✔ Instead of “We need Feature X,” ask: What’s the outcome we want? ✔ Tie roadmap items to measurable goals (e.g., retention, revenue, engagement) ✔ Say no to anything that doesn’t drive impact . 🚨 If your roadmap is just a list of things to build, you don’t have a strategy . . 🔹Prioritize Ruthlessly (Not Everything Can Be #1) . ✔ Use frameworks like RICE, MoSCoW, or JTBD ✔ Balance quick wins vs. long-term bets ✔ Cut anything that doesn’t move the needle . 🚀 A smaller, high-impact roadmap beats a bloated, directionless one . . 🔹Make It a Living, Breathing Plan (Not a Static PDF) . ✔ Re-evaluate every month based on data & learnings ✔ Keep themes, but be flexible on execution ✔ Communicate changes clearly with stakeholders . 💡 Your roadmap should be a compass, not a contract . . 🔹Sell the Roadmap (Internally & Externally) . ✔ Frame it as a story, not just a list of features ✔ Show how it connects to business growth ✔ Keep stakeholders aligned without over-promising . 🚨 The best roadmaps don’t just exist—they inspire action . . 💥 A great roadmap isn’t a feature list—it’s a strategy for impact . ✅ Tie it to outcomes, not just releases ✅ Prioritize like a ruthless editor ✅ Keep it flexible & data-driven ✅ Make it a narrative, not a checklist . 🚀 Great PMs don’t just plan. They execute with purpose . 👉 What’s the worst roadmap mistake you’ve seen? Let’s discuss! 👇 . . #ProductManagement #Roadmap #Strategy #Execution #Leadership #ProductManager #ProductRole #Career #PMCareer #ProductRoadmap