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Intrapreneurship in Enterprising Families

Why Create a Roadmap?

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"The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one."

-Mark Twain

What is it that you want to describe?

How does your roadmap represent a change from the status quo?

Who is the audience and what do they need to know?

When do the key milestones take place and are they SMART?

What activities do you need to describe?

How accurate is your information?

Road

Product or Service Development

Roadmap Marker

Customers and Market

Roadmap Marker

Funding Strategy

Roadmap Marker

Product or Service Development

  • What is the status quo?
  • What needs to be done before you have a minimum viable product/service that can be showcased?
  • By when do you expect to have the minimum viable product?
  • By when do you expect to be able to bring this new product/service to the market, assuming you have the necessary resources?

Customers and Market

  • Once you have defined your customer segment, you need to reach out to your potential clients to assess their interest in the product/service, their willingness to pay for it, their price sensitivity (pricing strategy).
  • You need to decide on how you are planning to enter the market. What is your specific market entry strategy?

Funding Strategy

  • How much money do you need in order to successfully take your new product/service to the market?
    • You will need to showcase with some form of a financial statement that this really is the amount of money you need.
    • Take the amount you assume you’ll need and multiply it by 1.5, in order to account for contingencies. That way you can avoid disappointment from the family or the financiers because you ran out of cash and have to ask for more…
  • By when do you need this money?
  • Which types of funding sources have you identified?
  • Have you considered internal (family) versus external funding; or potentially a combination of both?
  • What other types of capital will you leverage, other than financial?

As Mark Twain said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.”

Once you have created a Business Model Canvas and understand how the different elements of the venture will work, and you have ensured that the new venture is aligned with both the family and the business, you’re ready to develop the roadmap that will lead you from this moment straight through to the successful launch of your new project, step by step.

This is the plan that will make it all happen.

In your action guide, you will find a completed roadmap for our case story.

There is no single right way to create a roadmap – but here are some of things you should consider as you get started.

  • What is it that you want to describe with your roadmap, whether it’s Business Development, Technology Development or a Product Release?
  • How does your roadmap represent a change from the status quo?
  • Who is the audience and what do they need to know?
  • When do the key milestones take place and are they SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound)?
  • What activities do you need to describe?
  • How accurate is your information? Is the level of detail appropriate? Is uncertainty accurately represented?

A roadmap defines the next steps for taking the business idea forward. Here are some key points to keep in mind when developing your roadmap:

  1. Product or service development
  2. Customers and market
  3. Funding strategy

When creating your own roadmap, you need to align all the key activities so they form a logical sequence. Click on each key point to review the questions you should be considering, and then click Next when you’re ready to continue.