In a startup, the roadmap is not a task list; it is a continuous process of decisions about what you will not work on. When the team is small, the greatest risk is not making the wrong bet, but spreading yourself across several minor bets that do not change the outcome. For this reason, prioritisation should function as a management system, not as an endless discussion or a purely aesthetic exercise.
The first step is to distinguish between “wishes” and “levers”. A lever is something that, if it works, visibly impacts a relevant business metric: activation, retention, recurring revenue, or margin. If an initiative does not drive a specific metric, or you cannot explain why it does, it is not a priority; it is noise. This does not mean that everything must be measured to the penny, but every bet should have a clear logic of impact.
The most practical tool for prioritisation is the impact-effort matrix, but it is important to understand it correctly. Impact does not mean “I like it”; it refers to the expected magnitude of change if the initiative succeeds. Effort does not only refer to hours of work; it also includes complexity, dependencies, technical risk, and coordination costs. The matrix helps to organise, but the final decision is not made by the matrix: it is made by management, taking into account the opportunity cost.
Opportunity cost is the real price of choosing one initiative because, by doing so, you forgo another. In a startup, it is often higher than the direct cost. For example, if you assign your best team member for two weeks to an internal improvement that saves time, you may delay a product change that would increase retention. That forgone opportunity does not appear on the calendar, but it is reflected in results and growth. Therefore, each initiative should answer two key questions:
- What will we stop doing if we pursue this?
- What happens if we postpone it for four weeks?
A simple and effective operational method is to build the roadmap in three layers:
- Layer 1: Quarterly objectives | Few in number, measurable, and connected to the business, for example “reduce churn”, “shorten sales cycle”, or “increase activation rate”.
- Layer 2: Key bets | Usually two or three, explaining how each objective will be achieved.
- Layer 3: Maintenance | The minimum required to ensure the system does not fail, supporting and stabilising unavoidable commitments. If maintenance consumes more than half of capacity, the problem is not the roadmap but operational debt, which should be treated as a strategic risk.
Finally, the roadmap needs a cadence: weekly reviews to detect blockers and assess capacity, and monthly reviews to adjust priorities based on the data. Changing is not failure; it is management. Changing impulsively, however, is failure.
The Economic Office of Galicia provides guidance to SMEs and self-employed individuals to strengthen business management.
