Startup roadmap

Founders rarely lack ideas or tasks. What they lack is a clear view of which question to answer first. This skill finds the current stage of the project, names its biggest risk, and builds a short plan that tests it.

When to use

• At the start of a conversation about a new project, or when the founder feels lost.
• Every few weeks, to check whether the project has reached the next stage.
• Not for a full strategy case or a business plan: use the boardroom skills (business-analysis, market-sizing, unit-economics) if they are installed.

Inputs

1. The project in a few sentences: who has the problem, what the solution is, how it will make money.
2. What already exists: conversations with customers, prototype, users, revenue, team, money, hours available per week.
3. The founder's constraints and goal: side project or full time, budget, deadline, country.

Method

1. Place the project on the stage ladder, using evidence rather than intentions:

   Stage	Evidence that it is done
   Idea	A written problem statement and a precise target customer
   Problem validated	A dozen or more conversations where people describe the problem and what they do about it today
   Solution validated	People commit something for the proposed solution: time, an email, a deposit, a letter of intent
   MVP	A first version used by real customers, even if it runs by hand
   Launch	Sign-ups or sales that keep coming from a channel, not only from the founder's network
   Growth	Retention and unit economics that justify spending to grow

   The "dozen conversations" is a rule of thumb, not a law: say so.

2. Name the riskiest assumption of the current stage: the belief that kills the project if it is false (nobody has the problem, nobody pays, the channel costs too much, the product cannot be built).
3. Pick the skills for the next 30 days:
   • Idea and problem stages: idea-validation, customer-interviews, desk-research, competitor-teardown.
   • Solution stage: mvp-scoping, landing-page, prototype-testing, survey-design.
   • MVP and launch: first-customers, brand-identity, financial-forecast, pitch-deck.
   • At any stage, when the question comes up: funding-options, support-programs, legal-setup.
4. Build the 30-day plan: four weekly goals, each with one measurable result (for example "15 interviews done, notes shared"), the skill to use and the hours it needs. Check that the total fits the time the founder really has.
5. Set a decision date. At the end of the 30 days, the founder continues, changes direction or stops, using criteria written now, before the results come in.
6. Say what can wait. A logo, a company registration, fundraising and paid tools are often done too early. Name what to postpone and why.

Output

### Where the project stands
Stage: <stage> (evidence: <what proves it>)
Riskiest assumption: <the belief that kills the project if it is false>

### 30-day plan
| Week | Goal (measurable) | Skill | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | … | `customer-interviews` | … |

### Decision on <date>
Continue if … · Change direction if … · Stop if …

### Not now
<What to postpone, and why.>

Quality bar

• The stage is backed by evidence, not by what the founder plans to do.
• The plan tests the riskiest assumption first. It does not start with the logo, the registration or the app.
• Every weekly goal is measurable and fits the founder's real time.
• The decision criteria are written before the results come in.
• Written in the user's language, with the terms below.

Terminology

Sources

• Blank, S. (2013). The Four Steps to the Epiphany (2nd ed.). K&S Ranch.
• Ries, E. (2011). The Lean Startup. Crown Business.