It's the end of the quarter. Your team shipped 40% of what you planned. Stakeholders are frustrated. Engineers are burned out. And you're already dreading next quarter's planning session.
If this sounds familiar, you're probably making one (or more) of these seven common quarterly planning mistakes. The good news? They're all fixable.
Mistake #1: Planning to 100% Capacity
The Problem
You calculate that your team can deliver 400 story points per quarter, so you plan exactly 400 points of work. Then reality hits: someone gets sick, there's a production incident, customers report critical bugs, and suddenly you're underwater.
The Fix
Plan to 70-80% of capacity. If your team can do 400 points, plan for 280-320. This isn't pessimism — it's realism.
Reserve the remaining capacity for:
- Unplanned urgent work
- Production issues
- Meetings and collaboration
- Learning and improvement
Teams that plan to 70% capacity consistently hit their targets. Teams that plan to 100% consistently miss them.
Mistake #2: Skipping the Strategy Layer
The Problem
You jump straight into listing features without defining what you're trying to accomplish. Your roadmap becomes a random collection of requests from different stakeholders.
The Fix
Before planning features, define 3-5 strategic pillars for the quarter:
- "Expand into enterprise market"
- "Reduce churn by improving onboarding"
- "Ship mobile app beta"
Every feature should map to a pillar. If a feature doesn't support any pillar, question whether it belongs in this quarter.
This simple step prevents your roadmap from becoming a wish list and ensures everything you build moves the business forward.
Mistake #3: Treating All Priorities Equally
The Problem
"Everything is Priority 1!" When everything is important, nothing is important. Your team doesn't know what to build first, so they pick whatever seems interesting.
The Fix
Use a forced ranking system. No ties allowed. Examples:
- Priority 1: Critical (max 10-20% of features)
- Priority 2: Important (30-40%)
- Priority 3: Standard (30-40%)
- Priority 4-5: Low priority or future work
If your CEO insists Feature X is Priority 1, ask: "What existing Priority 1 item should we move down to make room?"
Forced ranking creates clarity and prevents priority inflation.
Mistake #4: Ignoring Dependencies
The Problem
You plan Feature A for Q1 and Feature B for Q1, but halfway through the quarter you discover Feature B requires Feature A to ship first. Now both are delayed.
The Fix
During planning, explicitly map dependencies:
- "SSO Integration" must ship before "Enterprise Admin Panel"
- "Mobile API v2" blocks "Mobile App Beta"
If there are dependencies:
- Schedule the prerequisite feature for an earlier quarter
- Split features to remove dependencies
- Accept that dependent features might slip
Don't discover dependencies mid-quarter. Find them during planning.
Mistake #5: No Mid-Quarter Check-ins
The Problem
You plan in January, then don't look at the roadmap until March. By then, half the team is working on unplanned features, and your roadmap is fiction.
The Fix
Schedule monthly roadmap reviews (30-60 minutes):
- Week 4: Quick check - are we on track?
- Week 8: Mid-quarter review - adjust if needed
- Week 12: Pre-planning review - start next quarter's plan
During reviews, ask:
- What shipped? What's blocked?
- Have priorities changed?
- Should we swap features in/out?
Roadmaps aren't set in stone. Adjust as you learn.
Mistake #6: Overloading the First Quarter
The Problem
You're excited about the year ahead, so you pack Q1 with ambitious features. By February, your team is exhausted and demoralized.
The Fix
Distribute effort evenly across quarters. If you have 1000 effort points for the year, aim for:
- Q1: 220 points (slightly less to account for planning overhead)
- Q2: 260 points
- Q3: 240 points (account for summer vacations)
- Q4: 280 points
Resist the temptation to frontload. Sustainable pace wins marathons.
Mistake #7: Building Without Measuring
The Problem
You ship features but never verify they had the intended impact. You don't know if "Improved Onboarding" actually reduced churn or if "Mobile Redesign" improved engagement.
The Fix
For each feature, define a success metric before building:
- "SSO Integration" → 5 enterprise deals closed
- "Improved Onboarding" → 30-day retention up 10%
- "Mobile Redesign" → Daily active users up 15%
At the end of the quarter, review:
- What shipped?
- What was the measured impact?
- What did we learn?
This feedback loop improves your planning over time. You learn which types of features deliver value and which don't.
The Quarterly Planning Checklist
Use this checklist for your next planning session:
- ✓ Defined 3-5 strategic pillars for the quarter
- ✓ Mapped all features to a pillar
- ✓ Forced-ranked features (no ties)
- ✓ Planned to 70-80% of capacity
- ✓ Identified and addressed dependencies
- ✓ Distributed effort evenly across quarters
- ✓ Defined success metrics for top features
- ✓ Scheduled monthly roadmap reviews
Remember: Done is Better Than Perfect
Your first quarterly plan won't be perfect. That's okay. The goal isn't perfection — it's to:
- Align your team on priorities
- Create visibility for stakeholders
- Build a sustainable cadence
Start simple. Avoid these seven mistakes. Improve each quarter.
In six months, you'll be shocked at how much more predictable and less stressful your planning becomes.
Build your first quarterly plan: Try our free Roadmap Planner which helps you avoid these mistakes with built-in prioritization, effort tracking, and quarterly distribution.