Create and edit roadmaps

Pendo Roadmaps is a communication tool that helps you visualize and share your product vision. This article provides instructions for creating and editing roadmaps. For an overview of functionality, see Roadmaps in Listen.

Create a roadmap

You create a roadmap from the Roadmaps page in Listen, which you can find in the left-side menu of your Pendo subscription. Roadmaps are created from templates. Select + Create roadmap and then choose either the Timeline template or the Now, Next, Later, template.

Timeline template

To create a roadmap using the Timeline template.

1. Enter a meaningful name.
2. Optionally, enter a description for your roadmap.
3. Choose a starting month for your first quarter.
4. Add your first Swimlane. A roadmap must include at least one swimlane.
   • Choose a meaningful name.
   • Add a description (optional). Any description you add here is viewed by hovering over the information (i) icon at the end of the swimlane in your roadmap.
   • Choose a color for the swimlane.
5. Select + Add new swimlane to add swimlanes.
6. Select Save changes in the bottom-right corner of the page.
   

Now, Next, Later template

Selecting the Now, Next, Later template takes you straight to the roadmap for editing.

You can change the name and description by opening the ellipsis (...) menu in the top-right of the page and selecting Settings. From the Settings page, you can also add and edit swimlanes. When you've made your edits, select Save changes.

Add swimlanes to your roadmap

Use swimlanes to group items on your roadmap. You can add new swimlanes in three ways:

• By selecting the Add swimlane button at the bottom-left of your roadmap.
• By selecting the ellipsis (...) on the right side of an existing swimlane, and then Add Swimlane.
• By editing the roadmap settings, which you access by selecting the ellipsis (...) in the top-right of the roadmap's page, and then Settings.

The first two options for adding swimlanes open an Add swimlane window. Enter a name, add a description (optional), and choose a color for your new swimlane.

Alternatively, open Settings from the ellipsis (...) dropdown menu at the top of your roadmap. Here, you can edit several aspects of the roadmap, including swimlanes.

You can also reorder your swimlanes from here by dragging and dropping them up and down the Swimlanes list. When you're done adding and editing your swimlanes, select Save changes in the bottom-right corner of the page.

Add items to your roadmap

You can add three types of items to your roadmaps:

• Initiatives: Larger projects or goals that line up to your departmental or company strategy. You can add measurable data to the initiative title or description, such as "Reduce churn by 10%", to show how your planned features have business impact.
• Features: Smaller pieces of work that you plan to explore or deliver. A feature can be a piece of research, an item that engineering plans to deliver, or marketing to support a launch. 
• Ideas: Product ideas created in the Validate page of Listen that you plan to evaluate before committing to building them. For this reason, ideas are only visible in internal versions of a roadmap. You can promote an idea to a feature first, which then makes it available to see in public versions. For more information, see Add, promote, and remove ideas in your roadmaps.

You can add existing initiatives and features from the backlog. If an initiative or feature doesn't yet exist, you create them and add them directly to your roadmap. For instructions, see Manage items in your roadmap.

Ideas must already exist before you add them to your roadmap or promote them to features that you then add to your roadmap. For instructions on creating ideas, see Create and manage ideas. For instructions on adding ideas to your roadmap, see Add, promote, and remove ideas in your roadmaps.

Edit items on your roadmap

You can edit the details of an item either from within the backlog or from its location in your roadmap. After you've added items to your roadmap, you can also do the following:

• Nest features and ideas within an initiative on your roadmap.
• Move and resize items on your roadmap.

For instructions, see Manage items in your roadmap.

Edit an existing roadmap

You can edit the roadmap name, description, and swimlanes from within your roadmap in Settings.

1. Select your roadmap from the Roadmaps list. 
2. Select the ellipsis (...) in the top-right corner of the roadmap.
3. Select Settings from the dropdown menu.

This opens the Settings window, where you can:

• Rename your roadmap.
• Edit the description.
• If using a timeline template, edit the starting month for Q1.
• Change the names, descriptions, and colors of existing swimlanes.
• Remove, add, and reorder swimlanes.

After you’ve edited your roadmap, select Save changes in the bottom-right corner of the page, or select Cancel to revert to the unedited roadmap.

Delete an existing roadmap

Find the roadmap you want to delete in the Roadmaps list, and select the trash icon on the right side of that roadmap row. This opens a window asking you to confirm or cancel the action. Select Confirm to delete the roadmap. 

Warning: You can’t recover a roadmap after it’s been deleted. Your initiatives and features will be deleted along with your roadmap. Ideas will still exist in the Validate page of Listen. In the future, initiatives and features will become roadmap-agnostic, and continue to exist in the backlog when a roadmap is deleted.