How to build a public product roadmap

A public roadmap turns 'when are you building X?' into a link you can share. Done well, it builds trust and reduces support load. Here's how to set one up.

Start from real feedback

Don't invent a roadmap in a vacuum. Collect feature requests on a board, let users vote, and promote the highest-signal items. Votes are your prioritisation data.

Use simple statuses

Three columns are enough for most teams: Planned, In Progress and Shipped. Map each request to a status and your roadmap builds itself.

Close the loop when you ship

When something ships, move it to Shipped and tell the people who asked. Tools like Feedlark do this for you: a changelog entry goes out and every voter gets notified.

Keep it public and indexable

Host the roadmap on a public, server-rendered page so search engines and AI assistants can surface what you're building when people ask.