An Introduction to roadmaps

Showcase your future product changes using roadmaps.

Michael Simmons avatar
Written by Michael Simmons
Updated over a week ago

Roadmaps are a great way to showcase the work you're planning to do, what you're currently working on, and projects you've completed.

Your audience can also interact with your Roadmap by subscribing to, and leaving feedback on, key roadmap items.

This introductory article to the Roadmap feature will cover the following:

πŸ’‘ The roadmap settings, such as Publishing on/off toggle, Roadmap name, Roadmap Stages and the Disclaimer (*in beta) are found under the Settings > Roadmap tab.

Controls for Roadmap itself such as creating and managing roadmap items can be found under the Roadmap tab.


General settings

The Settings for your roadmap can be found under the Settings > Roadmap tab in your management portal.

Under the General Settings section on this tab, you'll find a toggle to publish/unpublish your roadmap on your LaunchNotes page, as well as a field to change the Roadmap name, which is reflected on the Roadmap tab name on your published page.

Toggling the Publish roadmap on will publish your Roadmap to your page - the Roadmap tab, will sit alongside your Announcements tab. In the example below, the Roadmap name has been customized to "Under Consideration", which is reflected in the tab name:

πŸ’‘ When you sign up or create a new LaunchNotes page, roadmaps are

unpublished by default.


Roadmap Stages

Roadmap stages represent the status of a specific unit of work or project you're working on. They are fully customizable so you can use them however your team sees fit.

πŸ’‘ When you enable the roadmap feature, there are four default or placeholder stages: In planning, In Development, Shipping, and Complete.

To add a new stage, under Settings > Roadmap, select the + Add Stage button, which will open a form to create a new stage with a Name, Description, and Status (Published or Unpublished).

Published and Unpublished stages

As shown above, every stage also has the ability to be in a published or unpublished status - this refers to whether or not your audience will be able to see a certain stage on your published roadmap. All roadmap items in a published stage will be visible on your published page, whereas all roadmap items in an unpublished stage will be not be visible on your published page, but will be visible in your management portal.

The Stage status can be set when adding a stage, and can also be configured creation by selecting the ellipses on the Stage name, under the Stages section of the Roadmap General Settings tab:

Stage description

Roadmap stages have a "description" field. This field is for internal reference only, intended to give your team more clarity on what each stage represents. The description is not shown on your published LaunchNotes page.

Ordering stages

Stages are reflected on your public page in the order that they are shown in the Stages section of the Settings > Roadmap tab in your management portal. To change the order of these, simply drag and drop them into the order you'd like.

Stages shown on a published page.


Roadmap items

Roadmap items represent a piece of work to be done over a period of time, such as a feature or a project.

Creating Roadmap items

To start adding items to your roadmap, navigate to the Roadmap tab on your navbar. Here you'll see your Stages listed, with their Published status. Under the Stage you wish to create your new roadmap item, select the + Add idem button.

This will bring up a window where you can give your new roadmap item a name, and select any affected categories (this can be done later, too).

Once your roadmap item is created, you can click into it to access further details and functionality, such as the content, projected date, associated categories, Stage, access the historical timeline, and access a list of subscribers and feedback submitted on the roadmap item:

Content

Roadmap Items have a heading and main body section for content in a similar style to an an announcement. The main body gives your access to rich text editor that supports a suite of hosting and embedding, and that updates and saves in real-time.

On the Content tab, you can also edit the stage, set projected dates for the completion of this Item, and the relevant categories to this roadmap item.

Timeline

Changes to the stage on each work item are recorded under the timeline tab, which gives a historical timeline of its progress through the Stage, and any announcements it has been tagged in, over time.

Subscribers

Your subscribers/audience are able to subscribe to and follow individual roadmap Items by subscribing to items on your published Roadmap. This will give you visibility into a dedicated list of people eagerly awaiting the launch of that item, and will automatically update them on any announcements relevant to the particular work item they're subscribed to.

You can also add subscribers to your roadmap work items on this tab. One use case for this could be for users or prospects that have shown an interest in when something is going to be shipped.

Feedback

Your users, subscribers & prospects are able to leave feedback on your roadmap items on your published roadmap. This will funnel through and be collected under the Feedback tab.

You can also add feedback on behalf of your audience on the roadmap item, on the feedback tab in your page's management portal.


Roadmap Disclaimer (*beta)

You're also able to to show a Disclaimer message on your roadmap - this functionality is currently in beta - please reach out to us at [email protected], or via live chat to get this enabled on your page.

Once enabled, you'll see a toggle to enable this on your page, and field to enter the Roadmap Disclaimer Copy under the roadmap settings tab (Settings > Roadmap).

Below is an example of what the Roadmap Disclaimer looks like on a published page:


We're here to help!

If you have any questions or suggestions for our Roadmap feature, please get in touch with us at [email protected], or chat with us via live chat within your management portal.

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