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leadership

Three maps better than a roadmap

"We need a roadmap, is there a template we can use?"

I see this request all the time. From clients to peers, developers to product execs.

The idea is that with the right template: you fill in the squares and your viola your roadmap is ready. I get it. A roadmap feels like such a great thing, its an artifact that says "this is what we're doing, and when we'll do it".

Most roadmaps look like this:

The OODA Loop: How to repeatably identify and overcome the worst technical debt

Technical debt isn't always immediately obvious from a far, but easily recognizable when you touch it: it feels bad. Its a broken abstraction – a manual work-around. Its a burden. Its embarrassing. You scratch your head wondering how you got here and how to never get here again. It is often so woven into your particular workflow that off-the-shelf or external solutions don't seem to apply – its isolating.