planning ahead can make a difference.
In SAAS companies we have a challenge of communicating our roadmap to the entire company.
The pros of having a plan
The pros of a planning ahead and having a proper communication channel are:
- Reduce number of questions from stake holders, what means you get more time to work
- Improve sense of control for you teammates. A teammate that know what happens will feel more comfortable and will have better odds to upsell.
- Align on the plan. When something comes up, and you need an urgent change in the plan, you will have a better understanding on the impact of the change.
Sometimes the RnD team gets unreasonable request from people who aren’t familier with the roadmap.
Sharin the roadmap in advance can reduce this. - Improving predicatbility – Planning a head can make a difference. when a startup gets to a certain size, he needs to change his way of thinking, and plan ahead.
This doens’t mean we will stop being agile, but it means that we will plan the majority of our time to planned ahead initiatives, and what’s left will be dedicated for immediate needs. - Radiate stability. For external stakeholders, now knowing what happens next is bad. Creating a 2-3 years roadmap will allow you to solve this. Doing so you will also be able to solve big issues, and challenge the way you work towards more complexed problems.
The bottom line
Stating all the above, we see that planning a head can make a difference. It improve the confidence of all the employees, from RnD to stakeholders.
It helps you plan big nd plan ahead. And in general it sails the organization towards a goal, rather than floating and seeking for an opportunistic way.
Having said that, we need to remember that early stage startups needs to pivot and change their plan frequently, so this suggestion doesn’t apply to all startups.
The bottom line is, planning ahead can make a difference, depends on your stage and general goals.