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Product management · checked 11 November 2026

Write the roadmap as Now, Next and Later, each item a customer problem, and re-decide it every cycle; keep a PRD to a few pages.

Choose what goes in from customer feedback, company goals and effort, and update it every week or two; a spreadsheet or one slide is enough for two or three people, and Jira is free for up to 10 users. A PRD says what problem you solve, for whom, how you will know it worked and what is out of this version. Pair it with a prototype, and as a non-technical founder describe what the user does on each screen.

The steps 19 answers

  1. How do I build a roadmap without over-planning? Starting Up
  2. How do I write a product requirements document (PRD)? Starting Up
  3. How do I write a spec for a developer when I'm not technical? Starting Up
  4. How do I decide what to build next? Starting Up
  5. How often should an early-stage startup ship? Starting Up
  6. How do product teams keep a consistent shipping rhythm as they grow? Starting Up
  7. How do I say no to feature requests without losing customers? Starting Up
  8. How do I know when something we shipped is actually working versus just launched? Starting Up
  9. We ship fast but our codebase is turning into a mess. How much should a two-person startup care about tech debt? Starting Up
  10. How do I run a weekly ship cadence when I am non-technical and depend on a dev agency or freelancers? Starting Up
  11. Should we ship an ugly, half-working version now or wait until it feels good enough to be proud of? Starting Up
  12. Every user interview gives me a different feature request. How do I turn messy feedback into a real prioritisation decision? Starting Up
  13. What is a sane way to prioritise between fixing bugs, paying customer promises, and building the exciting new thing? Starting Up
  14. How do I stop myself from adding features nobody asked for just because I enjoy building? Starting Up
  15. When is it right to stop iterating on a feature and just kill it? Starting Up
  16. How do I set a roadmap when half my revenue comes from one big customer who keeps asking for custom features? Starting Up
  17. How should our shipping process change once we hire our first engineer and it is no longer just me pushing to production? Starting Up
  18. Should I share a public roadmap with my early users, or does that just create pressure and expectations I cannot meet? Starting Up
  19. How do I keep shipping weekly when I am building solo and constantly interrupted by support, sales, and admin? Starting Up

Tools that do it for you

The readingMost used across these answers

The terms

Product RoadmapUser StoryProduct BacklogPrototypeTechnical Debt

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