Building the Product

Should I share a public roadmap with my early users, or does that just create pressure and expectations I cannot meet?

A starting point

A public roadmap builds trust and pulls in feedback, but a dated one is a promise machine that makes you look slow the moment you change direction. As a starting point: share themes and a rough 'now, next, later' without hard dates, let users vote so you learn what matters, and never publish a date you have not already decided you can miss without embarrassment. For a small team, the honest version is 'here is what we are thinking', not 'here is what we commit to by March'.

Go deeper

Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time.

3 resources 3 link-checked Read Use

Read

📄 Article

✓ Link checked Free Intermediate

Why we picked it This is the direct answer to the pressure problem in the question: if a public roadmap scares you because of dates you cannot hit, stop putting dates on it. Bastow invented the Now, Next, Later format precisely because fixed timelines create false promises, and she walks through how to communicate direction and confidence without committing to a calendar. It is the format most public roadmaps quietly adopt for exactly this reason.

Why I Invented the Now-Next-Later Roadmap

From prodpad.com by Janna Bastow

Drop dates and group work into Now, Next, and Later so the further out something is, the less certain you are seen to be about it.
The format signals priority and direction without a deadline, which is what protects you from over-promising to early users.
The roadmap's real value is the conversations it starts, not the artifact itself, so treat it as a way to talk with users, not a contract.

Open prodpad.com →

✍️ Essay

✓ Link checked Free Beginner

Why we picked it This tackles the exact question head-on: should you expose the roadmap at all, and what do you actually risk. It is honest about the real downsides (competitors watching, entitled requests, losing the surprise) while making the case that transparency usually builds more trust than it costs. Read it as a starting point to decide, then keep in mind it comes from a roadmap-tool vendor, so it naturally leans toward yes.

Should You Have a Public Product Roadmap?

From canny.io by Eric Hoppe

Transparency tends to build customer loyalty and cuts down on repetitive "is this coming?" support questions.
The honest cons are real: competitors can watch, users can feel entitled, and you forfeit the surprise of a launch.
For most early-stage products the trust you gain outweighs the risk, but you get to choose what stays private and what goes public.

Open canny.io →

Use

🛠️ Tool

✓ Link checked Freemium Beginner

Why we picked it This is the tool most teams reach for when they want a public roadmap that customers can actually vote on, not just a static list. It runs the whole loop: people submit requests, upvote the ones they care about, and see status columns (planned, in progress, shipped), which is exactly the setup this question is really asking about. There is a free tier to start, so you can test the idea with your early users before committing.

Canny: Public Roadmap

From canny.io by Canny

A voteable public board turns the roadmap into a signal of what users actually want, so you build with evidence instead of guessing.
Status columns (planned, in progress, shipped) let you be transparent about direction without promising dates, which keeps expectations in check.
Free plan available to trial with a small set of early users before you scale it up.