Our Story
Roadmap Planner started with a simple frustration: why is roadmap planning so complicated?
We're product managers, developers, and founders who have collectively used dozens of project management tools. From heavyweight enterprise platforms that require a Ph.D. to configure, to lightweight task trackers that can't handle strategic planning, we found that most tools missed the mark for quarterly roadmapping.
In early 2024, we faced our own annual planning challenge. We needed to map out features across four quarters, prioritize them, visualize them in a Gantt chart, and share the plan with stakeholders. The existing tools either:
- Required expensive subscriptions and long onboarding times
- Forced our data onto their servers with uncertain privacy practices
- Overcomplicated simple tasks with features we didn't need
- Made it hard to export and share our roadmaps
So we built our own tool. It took a weekend to create the first version - a simple HTML page with vanilla JavaScript that ran entirely in the browser. No server, no database, no login. Just open the page, plan your roadmap, export to CSV, done.
We shared it with a few friends in the product management community, and the response surprised us. People loved the simplicity. They loved that it was free. Most of all, they loved that their data stayed private.
That's when we decided to polish the tool and share it with the world. Roadmap Planner was born.
Our Mission
We believe that roadmap planning should be:
Simple
You shouldn't need a week of training to plan a quarter's worth of work. Our tool has three levels (projects, subprojects, features), a straightforward priority system (1-5), and automatic scheduling. That's it.
We intentionally avoid feature bloat. Every feature we consider gets the "weekend test" - could we have built the first version of this tool in a weekend if we included this feature? If not, we probably don't need it.
Privacy-First
Your roadmap contains sensitive business information. Future product launches, competitive strategies, customer commitments - this data shouldn't live on someone else's server.
Roadmap Planner stores all data in your browser's memory. Nothing is sent to our servers. Nothing is saved to localStorage. When you close the tab, the data is gone (unless you export it to CSV). We literally cannot see your roadmaps, even if we wanted to.
This isn't just a privacy feature - it's a design philosophy. We don't want the responsibility of securing your data. We don't want to be a target for hackers. We don't want to write privacy policies explaining how we handle your information. The simplest solution is to never have your data in the first place.
Free
Roadmap planning is fundamental to building products. It shouldn't be locked behind a paywall.
We don't have premium tiers, feature limits, or "upgrade to unlock" prompts. The tool you see today is available to everyone, whether you're a solo founder or a Fortune 500 product team.
How do we sustain this? A few ways:
- We keep costs near zero by not running servers or storing data
- We accept donations from users who find value in the tool
- We run unobtrusive ads to cover basic hosting costs
- We're building this because we need it ourselves - it would exist even if no one else used it
We're committed to keeping Roadmap Planner free forever. If the ads and donations cover hosting, great. If not, we'll host it out of pocket. This tool solves a real problem for us, and we want to share that solution.
Open and Portable
Your roadmap data should be yours. You should be able to move it, analyze it, share it, and archive it without asking permission.
That's why we use CSV as our primary format. CSV files can be opened in Excel, Google Sheets, Notion, or any other tool you prefer. You can commit them to Git, email them to stakeholders, or archive them for historical reference.
We'll never lock you into our tool. If you find something better, export your CSV and move on. No hard feelings.
What We're Building
Roadmap Planner is intentionally simple today, but we're actively developing new features based on user feedback:
- Multiple time units: Planning in months, weeks, or days instead of just quarters
- Collaboration features: Ways to share roadmaps without compromising privacy (thinking about encrypted sharing links)
- Improved Gantt visualizations: Better color coding, dependency arrows, and export options
- Template library: Pre-built roadmap structures for common use cases (SaaS launch, mobile app development, etc.)
- Integration hooks: Export to JIRA, Linear, Asana, and other tools
We maintain a public roadmap (naturally, we use our own tool) and invite feedback through our Discord community and email.
Who We Are
Roadmap Planner is built and maintained by a small team of product enthusiasts:
- Product managers who've planned hundreds of quarterly roadmaps
- Software engineers who believe in simplicity and privacy
- Designers who think good UX means getting out of the user's way
- Community members who contribute feedback, bug reports, and ideas
We're not a venture-backed startup chasing growth metrics. We're people who needed a tool, built it, and decided to share it. We work on Roadmap Planner in our spare time because we genuinely enjoy making planning easier for others.
Our Principles
1. Privacy is Not Negotiable
We will never compromise on privacy. If a feature requires storing user data on our servers, we won't build it. If a monetization strategy requires selling user data, we won't pursue it.
2. Simplicity is a Feature
Every feature we add makes the tool more complex. Complexity is a debt we pay every time someone uses the tool. We are ruthless about saying no to features that don't justify their complexity cost.
3. Users Own Their Data
Data portability is not optional. Users should always be able to export everything and take it elsewhere. We design for this from the start.
4. Free Means Free
No hidden costs, no feature limits, no "free trials" that require credit cards. The tool is free to use, period.
5. Build in Public
We share our roadmap, our challenges, and our learnings. We listen to feedback and explain our decisions. We want users to feel like co-creators, not customers.
Join Us
Roadmap Planner is more than a tool - it's a community of people who believe planning should be simple, private, and accessible.
Here's how you can get involved:
- Use the tool: The best way to support us is to actually use Roadmap Planner for your planning
- Share feedback: Email us at roadmapplannerapp@gmail.com or join our Discord community
- Spread the word: Tell your product manager friends, share on social media, write about us
- Support development: If you find value in the tool, consider buying us a coffee
- Contribute ideas: Suggest features, report bugs, or share how you use the tool
We're excited to see where this journey takes us. Thank you for being part of it.
- The Roadmap Planner Team
roadmapplannerapp@gmail.com