Public Product Roadmap: The Complete Guide for SaaS Teams

A public product roadmap is a page where your users can see what you're building, what's next, and what you've shipped. It's visible to anyone — customers, prospects, and the internet at large.

If you've ever wondered why some SaaS products feel transparent and trustworthy while others feel like black boxes, a public roadmap is usually the difference.

This guide covers everything: why public roadmaps work, how to set one up without overcommitting, what to include (and what to keep internal), and the tools that make it easy. Whether you're a solo founder or a growing product team, you'll walk away with a roadmap you can launch this week.

Why Make Your Roadmap Public?

Most SaaS teams keep their roadmap in a Notion doc, a Jira board, or someone's head. It works for internal planning. But keeping it private means you're missing four things that directly impact retention and growth.

1. It Reduces Churn Before It Happens

When users can't see that you're working on the thing they need, they assume you're not. They start evaluating alternatives. They churn.

A public roadmap solves this by showing users that their requested feature is planned, in progress, or coming soon. Instead of churning, they wait. Instead of silence, they see momentum.

This is especially powerful for early-stage SaaS products where the feature set isn't complete yet. A roadmap tells users: "We know we're not done. Here's what's coming." That honesty buys you time that no marketing campaign can.

2. It Turns Feedback Into a System

Without a public roadmap, feedback arrives through scattered channels: support emails, Slack messages, Twitter replies, Intercom chats, investor meetings. Each channel creates a silo. Ideas get lost. The loudest voice wins, not the most-requested feature.

A public roadmap — especially one connected to a feedback board — centralizes this. Users submit ideas in one place. They vote on each other's ideas. You see what actually matters to your user base, not just what one person asked for on a call.

The data shifts your prioritization from gut feeling to signal. That's a meaningful upgrade in how you build product.

3. It Builds Trust Through Transparency

There's a reason companies like Buffer, GitHub, Linear, and Loom all maintain public roadmaps. Transparency signals confidence. It tells users: "We're not hiding what we're doing because we believe in where we're going."

An 2018 Spiceworks study found that 84% of IT buyers need to trust a technology brand before purchasing. For SaaS products competing on trust — which is most of them — a public roadmap is one of the easiest ways to earn it.

It also helps with sales. When a prospect asks "Do you support X?", your team can send a link to the roadmap showing X is planned for next quarter. That's more convincing than a verbal promise.

4. It Creates a Marketing Flywheel

Every item on your public roadmap is a piece of content. Every shipped feature is an announcement. Every status update is a reason for a user to come back and check.

The best public roadmaps become destinations. Users bookmark them. They share them on Twitter. They link to specific items in forum discussions. Your roadmap becomes a living product page that generates traffic and engagement without you writing a single blog post.

What a Public Roadmap Should Include

The biggest fear about public roadmaps is overcommitting. "What if we promise something and don't deliver?" It's a valid concern — and the solution is structure.

A good public roadmap uses status columns, not dates. Here's the format most SaaS teams use:

The Standard Kanban Layout

Under Consideration → Planned → In Progress → Shipped

Each column communicates a different level of commitment:

• Under Consideration — "We've heard this request and we're evaluating it." No commitment. This is where user-submitted feedback lives after it's been reviewed. It tells users you're listening without promising anything.

• Planned — "We've decided to build this." It's on the list, but work hasn't started. This is a soft commitment — you intend to build it, but priorities can shift.

• In Progress — "We're actively working on this right now." This is the exciting column. Users can see real-time progress.

• Shipped / Complete — "Done. It's live." This is where you link to your changelog entry and notify everyone who voted. The feedback loop is closed.

Notice what's missing: dates. No "Q2 2026" labels. No "March release" promises. The column structure communicates progress without creating deadlines you can't control. If something moves from Planned back to Under Consideration, that's fine — the status tells the story.

What to Keep Off the Public Roadmap

Not everything belongs on a public roadmap. Keep these internal:

• Technical debt and refactoring — Users don't care that you're rewriting your auth system. They care that login works. Internal improvements should stay internal.

• Competitive features you haven't announced — If you're building something that would tip off competitors, keep it private until it's close to shipping.

• Speculative ideas — Things your team discussed once in a brainstorm but hasn't validated. Putting these on a public roadmap creates expectations you may never fulfill.

• Specific timelines — Avoid dates. Use the status columns instead.

A simple rule: if it matters to users and you're reasonably confident you'll build it, put it on the public roadmap. If it's internal plumbing or a long shot, keep it off.

Public Roadmap Examples: How Real Companies Do It

Looking at how successful SaaS companies structure their public roadmaps can help you design your own. Here are several approaches that work:

The Kanban Board (Most Common)

Companies like Buffer, Linear, and Featurebase use a simple kanban layout with columns for each status. Items are cards that users can click into for details, vote on, and comment on.

This is the most popular format because it's intuitive. Anyone who's used Trello or a project board understands the left-to-right flow immediately. It works well for products with a steady stream of feature requests.

The Categorized List

Atlassian and Microsoft use categorized lists organized by product area. This works better for larger companies with multiple product lines. Users filter to the product they care about and see what's coming.

If you have a complex product with distinct modules, categories help users find what's relevant to them without scrolling through unrelated items.

The Now / Next / Later Format

Some teams use Now / Next / Later instead of the standard kanban. This removes even the soft commitment of "Planned" and replaces it with time horizons:

• Now — Actively building this

• Next — Coming in the near future

• Later — On our radar, no timeline

This format is popular with teams that want maximum flexibility. It's especially useful early on when priorities shift frequently.

The Roadmap + Feedback Board Combo

This is the most effective approach for product-led SaaS companies. The roadmap is connected to a feedback board where users submit and vote on ideas. When you move an idea from the feedback board to the roadmap, voters see the status change. When you ship it, they get notified.

This creates a complete feedback loop: Submit → Vote → Planned → In Progress → Shipped → Notified.

Tools like fdback, Canny, and Frill support this workflow. The key advantage is that your roadmap isn't a static document — it's a living system connected to real user demand.