# Q2 Roadmap Prioritization Plan ## Product Context - **Product**: Team collaboration SaaS - **ICP**: 10–200 person tech companies, team leads - **North Star Metric**: Weekly active teams completing >= 1 project - **Decision**: Select Q2 roadmap themes and top 8 initiatives within 2 weeks - **Team Capacity**: 6 engineers, 1 designer - **Hard Constraints**: Must complete SSO launch; platform migration dependency in May - **Candidate Pool**: 15 initiatives to evaluate --- ## Step 1: Establish Prioritization Criteria To rank the 15 candidate initiatives, use a weighted scoring framework aligned with the North Star metric (weekly active teams completing >= 1 project). The following criteria should be used: | Criterion | Weight | Description | |-----------|--------|-------------| | North Star Impact | 30% | How directly does this initiative drive more teams to complete projects weekly? | | Strategic Alignment | 20% | Does it serve the ICP (tech team leads at 10–200 person companies)? Does it support retention, expansion, or acquisition? | | Effort & Feasibility | 20% | Can the team (6 eng, 1 designer) realistically deliver this in Q2 given constraints? | | Risk & Dependencies | 15% | Does it have external dependencies (e.g., platform migration)? Technical or adoption risk? | | Revenue / Retention Signal | 15% | Is this blocking deals, causing churn, or requested by high-value accounts? | ### Scoring Scale - **5** — Transformative / trivial effort / no risk - **4** — Strong positive impact - **3** — Moderate impact - **2** — Minor impact - **1** — Negligible or negative --- ## Step 2: Map Hard Constraints Before scoring, lock in non-negotiable commitments: ### Locked Initiatives 1. **SSO Launch** — Must ship. This is a hard constraint. Allocate engineering time first. 2. **Platform Migration Prep** — Dependency lands in May. Any initiative that requires the new platform cannot start before migration is complete. Plan accordingly. ### Capacity Budget (Rough Allocation) Assuming Q2 = 13 weeks, 6 engineers, 1 designer: - **Total engineering weeks**: ~78 eng-weeks - **SSO Launch (estimated)**: ~12–16 eng-weeks (2–3 engineers for 4–6 weeks) - **Platform migration buffer**: ~8–10 eng-weeks (stabilization, integration work post-May) - **Remaining for new initiatives**: ~52–58 eng-weeks - **Design capacity**: ~13 designer-weeks (minus ~3 weeks for SSO = ~10 weeks available) This means the top 8 initiatives must fit within roughly 52–58 eng-weeks and 10 designer-weeks after accounting for SSO and migration work. --- ## Step 3: Score All 15 Candidates Create a scoring spreadsheet with each initiative as a row and the five criteria as columns. For each initiative: 1. Have the PM (or a small group of PM + eng lead + designer) independently score each criterion 1–5. 2. Calculate weighted score: `(North Star Impact x 0.30) + (Strategic Alignment x 0.20) + (Effort & Feasibility x 0.20) + (Risk & Dependencies x 0.15) + (Revenue/Retention Signal x 0.15)` 3. Rank by weighted score. ### Example Scoring Template | # | Initiative | North Star (30%) | Strategic (20%) | Feasibility (20%) | Risk (15%) | Revenue (15%) | Weighted Score | Eng-Weeks Est. | |---|-----------|-----------------|----------------|-------------------|------------|---------------|---------------|-----------------| | 1 | SSO Launch | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | **LOCKED** | 14 | | 2 | [Initiative B] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | ... | | 15 | [Initiative O] | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | --- ## Step 4: Apply the North Star Lens After initial scoring, stress-test the top candidates with these questions: 1. **Activation**: Does this help new teams complete their first project faster? 2. **Frequency**: Does this bring existing teams back to complete projects more often? 3. **Team Size**: Does this help teams grow (more members = stickier)? 4. **Completion Rate**: Does this remove friction in the project completion flow? Any initiative that scores high overall but has weak North Star linkage should be deprioritized unless it is a strategic necessity (like SSO). --- ## Step 5: Identify Q2 Themes Group the top-scoring initiatives into 2–3 coherent themes. Themes help communicate the roadmap internally and externally. Examples based on typical collaboration SaaS priorities: ### Suggested Theme Framework - **Theme 1: Enterprise Readiness** — SSO launch, admin controls, audit logs, permissions. Rationale: Unlocks 50–200 person companies in the ICP. - **Theme 2: Project Completion Velocity** — Initiatives that directly improve the rate at which teams finish projects (workflow improvements, templates, notifications, integrations). Rationale: Directly drives the North Star metric. - **Theme 3: Team Activation & Growth** — Onboarding improvements, invite flows, team setup experience. Rationale: More active teams = more teams completing projects. Assign each of the top 8 initiatives to a theme. If an initiative does not fit any theme, reconsider its inclusion. --- ## Step 6: Stack Rank and Sequence the Top 8 After scoring and theming, select the top 8 by: 1. **Sort by weighted score** (descending). 2. **Check cumulative capacity**: Add eng-week and designer-week estimates top-down. Stop when you hit the budget ceiling (~52–58 eng-weeks, ~10 designer-weeks, excluding SSO and migration). 3. **Check dependencies**: Anything that depends on May platform migration must be sequenced for late Q2 (June). Anything that depends on SSO must wait for SSO to ship. 4. **Resolve ties**: If two initiatives have similar scores, prefer the one with lower risk, shorter cycle time, or stronger revenue signal. ### Sequencing Framework | Month | Focus | Rationale | |-------|-------|-----------| | **April** | SSO launch (finish), 2–3 low-dependency initiatives | Ship SSO early. Start quick wins that don't require platform migration. | | **May** | Platform migration lands. Continue in-progress work. Start migration-dependent items. | Absorb migration risk. Begin integration work. | | **June** | Ship remaining initiatives. Polish and iterate on April launches based on data. | Close out Q2 commitments. Measure North Star impact. | --- ## Step 7: Validate with Stakeholders Before finalizing, run the proposed roadmap through three validation checks: ### 7a. Engineering Feasibility Review - Present the top 8 + SSO + migration to the engineering team. - Ask: "Can we commit to delivering these 10 items in Q2 with 6 engineers?" - Adjust scope or sequence based on technical feedback. ### 7b. Customer & Sales Signal Check - Cross-reference the top 8 against: top customer requests, churn reasons, deal-blocking features. - If a high-revenue-signal initiative was scored out of the top 8, reconsider. ### 7c. Leadership Alignment - Present themes + top 8 to leadership/founders. - Frame as: "Here are the Q2 themes, the top 8 initiatives, and how they drive weekly active teams completing projects." --- ## Step 8: Define Success Metrics for Each Initiative For each of the top 8 initiatives, define: | Initiative | Leading Metric | Lagging Metric | Target | |-----------|---------------|----------------|--------| | SSO Launch | SSO setup completion rate | Enterprise plan conversions | 80% setup completion in first month | | [Initiative 2] | [e.g., time to first project completion] | [North Star movement] | [specific number] | | ... | ... | ... | ... | --- ## Step 9: Communicate the Roadmap ### Internal Communication - Share a one-page roadmap summary: themes, top 8 initiatives, timeline, and what was explicitly deprioritized (and why). - The "not doing" list is as important as the "doing" list — it prevents scope creep. ### External Communication - For customers/prospects: share themes, not specific features, to maintain flexibility. - For enterprise prospects waiting on SSO: provide a specific ship date commitment. --- ## Two-Week Decision Timeline | Day | Activity | Participants | Output | |-----|----------|-------------|--------| | Day 1–2 | Gather data: customer requests, churn analysis, sales feedback, usage analytics | PM | Data packet for scoring | | Day 3–4 | Independent scoring of 15 initiatives against 5 criteria | PM, Eng Lead, Designer | Individual scorecards | | Day 5 | Calibration session: align scores, debate disagreements, finalize ranking | PM, Eng Lead, Designer | Consensus ranked list | | Day 6–7 | Eng feasibility review: estimate eng-weeks, flag risks, check dependencies | Eng Lead + Engineers | Validated estimates | | Day 8 | Stack rank top 8, assign to themes, draft sequence | PM | Draft roadmap | | Day 9 | Stakeholder review: sales, CS, leadership | PM + Stakeholders | Feedback | | Day 10 | Final adjustments, lock roadmap | PM, Eng Lead | Final Q2 roadmap | --- ## Risk Mitigation Plan | Risk | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation | |------|-----------|--------|------------| | SSO launch delays, consuming more capacity | Medium | High | Timebox SSO. Define MVP scope. No feature creep. | | Platform migration in May causes instability | Medium | High | Reserve 8–10 eng-weeks buffer. Avoid shipping major features same week as migration. | | Designer bottleneck (1 designer for 8+ initiatives) | High | Medium | Prioritize design-heavy work early. Use existing patterns/components for lower-design items. Stagger design reviews. | | Scope creep on individual initiatives | Medium | Medium | Define MVP for each initiative upfront. Use a "must have / nice to have / out of scope" framework. | | Key engineer unavailability (PTO, illness) | Low | Medium | Avoid single-point-of-failure assignments. Pair on critical-path work. | --- ## What This Plan Does NOT Cover - **Specific initiative names or descriptions**: You will need to apply this framework to your actual 15 candidates. - **Detailed sprint planning**: This is a quarterly roadmap prioritization, not a sprint plan. Break initiatives into sprints after the roadmap is locked. - **Technical architecture decisions**: Engineering will need to determine implementation approaches for each selected initiative. - **Pricing or packaging changes**: If any initiative has pricing implications, that requires a separate workstream. --- ## Summary 1. Score all 15 initiatives against 5 weighted criteria anchored to the North Star metric. 2. Lock SSO and platform migration buffer as non-negotiable capacity commitments. 3. Select the top 8 initiatives that fit within remaining capacity (~52–58 eng-weeks, ~10 designer-weeks). 4. Group into 2–3 themes for coherence and communication. 5. Sequence by dependency (migration in May) and risk (SSO first). 6. Validate with engineering, customers/sales, and leadership. 7. Define success metrics per initiative. 8. Communicate clearly — including what you are NOT doing. 9. Complete the entire decision process in 10 working days.