Roadmap trade-offs
Many inputs, limited resources: keep the evidence and reasons for what you do and don’t build.
SLATEPATH / USE CASES
Start from the work you are already doing
Slatepath is not another task list. It is for teams whose decisions cross roles, need evidence and get revisited. Pick the situation closest to yours and look at what it produces.
What this page covers
Each use case answers four things: what triggers it, who takes part, how the work moves and what is left at the end. If you only need to schedule tasks and don’t need to keep the reasons behind decisions, the end of the page says when Slatepath is not the right tool.
Four jobs, not four personas
Research synthesis
After the interviews: insights that still trace back to the original quotes and counter-examples.
Cross-team launches
Product, marketing, sales and support agree on messaging, dependencies and launch criteria.
Weekly decision review
Leaders separate what is decided, what needs evidence, what is blocked and what is due for review.
01 / Quarterly roadmap: from “who asked” to “why we build it”
Trigger: sales promises, support tickets and internal proposals arrive at planning together. The product lead has to decide what goes into this quarter and what waits.
| Who | Product runs it; support and sales bring the raw input; engineering estimates the cost; the decision owner confirms the trade-off. |
|---|---|
| In Slatepath | Each input records its source and strength of evidence → inputs merge into candidate options → counter-examples and unknowns are marked → the decision gets an owner and a review date. |
| What you get | One decision record, the reasons options were ruled out, and an evidence trail linked to the work that follows. |
02 / User research: insights that lead back to the original quotes
Trigger: once a round of interviews is done, the report’s conclusions get retold, and the sample, counter-examples and original words fade away.
| Who | Researchers organise the snippets; product and design cite the insights; data colleagues cross-check. |
|---|---|
| In Slatepath | Every piece of evidence keeps its participant number, date and context; an insight built from several snippets carries its supporting material, counter-examples and uncertainty. |
| What you get | A visible chain from insight to quote to product decision, instead of a PDF summary nobody can trace. |
The test: in a review, can a colleague click back to the original evidence and state the limits of the conclusion?
03 / Cross-team launch: who signs off on launch criteria
Trigger: one launch touches the website, email, sales scripts and support docs, and the positioning and definition of done are scattered across files.
| Who | The go-to-market lead keeps the launch brief; product, marketing, sales and support each confirm their own dependencies. |
|---|---|
| In Slatepath | One audience and value proposition; for each channel, the deliverable, owner, deadline, blockers and the person who confirms it is ready. |
| What you get | A launch brief you can check, instead of asking “are we ready?” on launch day. |
The test: does every channel use the same version of the message, with a clear sign-off before launch?
04 / Weekly decision review: progress is not the same as judgment
Trigger: the weekly report says “in progress”, but nobody knows which topics are decided, which are stuck on evidence and which old decisions need another look.
| Status | What the review does |
|---|---|
| Decided | Confirm the follow-up work and the review date |
| Needs evidence | Name who adds it and by when |
| Blocked | State the blocker and who unblocks it |
| Expired | Decide again, or close it with a reason |
What you get: a snapshot of decision status with owners and next steps. The meeting is for judgment, not round-robin updates.
Take one use case all the way
Want to see what a real page leaves behind? The read-only bulk export decision has the scope, three kinds of input, the options dropped, an owner and review criteria.
Four reusable templates
Decision brief
Scope, goal, options, evidence, owner, deadline.
Evidence snippet
Source, quote, context, date, tags, counter-examples and confidence.
Launch checklist
Channel deliverables, dependencies, sign-off, launch criteria and status.
Weekly review
Grouped by decided, needs evidence, blocked and due for review, with next steps.
When Slatepath is not the right fit
Another tool or approach may suit you better if:
- You only need a task board or sprint tool and don’t record why decisions were made.
- Decisions are made by one person, with no cross-functional evidence or disagreement to record.
- The team doesn’t intend to maintain decision records and is fine losing traceability.
- You need an approval workflow, a ticketing system or a support desk.
- You expect a tool to produce insights or make decisions for you; Slatepath is a place to record and collaborate, not an automatic decision-maker.
- Your existing docs and project tools already hold evidence and decisions well, and the team doesn’t forget why it decided things.
- You only need to show results, not keep the process and reasons.
Questions
Can I sign in and use the product here?
No. This site offers a read-only walkthrough and doesn’t create accounts.
How is this different from docs or task tools?
Slatepath holds the layer of decisions and their reasons: why you build something or don’t, who decided and when to look again. Docs and tasks can stay where they are.
Are the teams and results in the examples real?
No. People, data and release notes are illustrative.
Which page should I read first?
If you are planning a quarter, start with the roadmap use case here, then open the full decision in the product tour. To understand the method, read the guides under Resources.
See one decision from start to finish
From scattered feedback to a conclusion you can review. Read-only, no sign-in.