Vision vs Strategy vs Roadmap: Understanding the Product Hierarchy

Ask a product leader to explain their vision, strategy, and roadmap. Watch what happens.

Most can articulate a vision (we want to be the leading X). Many can walk through their roadmap (here’s what we’re building). But when you ask about strategy—the choices that connect vision to roadmap—you often get a blank stare or a restatement of one of the other two.

This isn’t a knowledge gap. It’s a missing layer.

Vision, strategy, and roadmap are a hierarchy. Each level has a distinct purpose. Skip a level—especially strategy—and you get either unfocused roadmaps or unreachable visions.

The Hierarchy

Vision (Why / Where)
    ↓
Strategy (What / What Not)
    ↓
Roadmap (When / Who)
    ↓
Delivery (How)

Each level answers different questions:

Each level constrains the one below. Vision constrains strategy. Strategy constrains roadmap. Roadmap constrains delivery.

Vision: The Destination

Vision describes the future state you’re working toward. It’s aspirational, long-term, and relatively stable.

Good vision statements:

• “Make every home a smart home” (aspirational, clear direction)
• “Be the platform developers choose first” (competitive positioning)
• “Democratise financial services” (accessible, ambitious)

Bad vision statements:

• “Build great products” (not differentiating)
• “Increase revenue 20%” (that’s a goal, not a vision)
• “Ship the new checkout” (that’s a feature)

Vision is the destination. It tells you where you’re going but not how you’ll get there.

Strategy: The Choices

Strategy is the most misunderstood layer—and the most often skipped.

Strategy is not a list of things you’ll do. It’s a set of choices about what you WILL and WON’T do to achieve your vision.

Good strategy includes:

• Focus areas: “This year we’re prioritising retention over acquisition”
• Trade-offs: “We’ll accept slower growth to achieve profitability”
• Positioning: “We’re the premium option, not the cheap one”
• Constraints: “We won’t pursue enterprise customers until 2027”

Strategy makes roadmap decisions easier. When an opportunity arises, you can ask: “Does this align with our strategic choices?” If yes, consider it. If no, decline it.

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The “Product Promises” Concept

One approach I love: defining 4-6 “product promises” that capture what your product will stand for.

For example:

1. Reliability: “The service is always available”
2. Speed: “Actions complete in under 2 seconds”
3. Simplicity: “New users are productive within 5 minutes”
4. Security: “Enterprise-grade data protection”
5. Value: “Clear ROI within 90 days”

These promises become strategic pillars. Every roadmap item should advance at least one promise.

In RoadmapOne , you can create custom tags for your promises. Then you can see:

• How much capacity is allocated to each promise?
• Are we neglecting any strategic pillar?
• Does our actual allocation match our stated priorities?

This creates strategic accountability. If you claim reliability is a priority but only 5% of capacity goes to it, you’re not being honest with yourself.

Roadmap: The Sequence

The roadmap shows what outcomes you’re pursuing, who’s pursuing them, and when.

Critically, the roadmap should be constrained by strategy. If strategy says “prioritise retention,” the roadmap should have more retention-focused objectives than acquisition-focused ones.

This is where most teams go wrong. They create a roadmap from accumulated requests without checking strategic alignment. The result: a roadmap that serves many masters but advances no coherent strategy.

For more on roadmap structure, see outcome-based roadmaps .

Delivery: The Execution

Delivery is how teams build what’s on the roadmap. It’s the tactical layer of sprints, stories, and pull requests.

Delivery should be constrained by the roadmap. If an objective is on the roadmap for Q2, delivery capacity in Q2 should go toward achieving it.

Why Strategy Gets Skipped

Strategy is the hardest layer because it requires saying “no.”

Vision is fun—you’re imagining a better future. Roadmap feels productive—you’re planning work. Delivery is tangible—you’re building things.

But strategy? Strategy is about what you WON’T do. It’s about choosing between good options. It’s about disappointing stakeholders who want things that don’t fit the strategy.

Most leaders avoid this discomfort. They jump from vision (“we want to be #1”) to roadmap (“here’s what we’re building”) and wonder why the roadmap doesn’t achieve the vision.

The Strategy Gap Symptoms

How do you know you’re missing strategy?

Symptom 1: Everything Is Priority 1

Without strategy, you can’t deprioritise. Every request seems important because there’s no filter. The roadmap becomes a wish list.

Symptom 2: Roadmap Reflects Politics, Not Strategy

Items get on the roadmap based on who asked, not what advances the mission. Different stakeholders get “their” items, creating an incoherent portfolio.

Symptom 3: You Can’t Explain Trade-Offs

When asked “why this and not that?”, you don’t have a clear answer. Or the answer is “stakeholder X wanted it.”

Symptom 4: Roadmap Reviews Are Feature Debates

Instead of checking strategic alignment, roadmap reviews become debates about individual features. There’s no higher-order principle to resolve conflicts.

Symptom 5: Vision and Roadmap Don’t Connect

The vision says one thing (“be the simplest solution”) and the roadmap does another (adding complexity to serve enterprise). Nobody notices because strategy isn’t there to enforce alignment.

Building the Strategy Layer

Step 1: Articulate the Vision

If you don’t have a clear vision, start there. What future are you working toward?

Keep it stable. Vision shouldn’t change annually.

Step 2: Identify Strategic Choices

For the coming 1-3 years, what must be true for vision progress?

• Which customer segments matter most?
• What trade-offs will you make?
• What won’t you do?
• Where will you focus vs spread thin?

Write these down. Make them explicit. Debate them with leadership.

Step 3: Define Product Promises

What 4-6 things will your product stand for? Make these specific enough to guide decisions.

Not “good user experience” but “new users productive in 5 minutes.” Not “reliable” but “99.9% uptime guaranteed.”

Step 4: Constrain the Roadmap

Before items go on the roadmap, check: “Does this advance our strategic choices and product promises?”

If no, it doesn’t belong—no matter who asked for it.

Step 5: Tag and Measure

In your roadmap tool, tag items by strategic pillar . Then review: does allocation match stated priorities?

If strategy says “retention is #1 priority” but 70% of roadmap is acquisition, you have a gap.

Align your roadmap to strategy with RoadmapOne—free sign-up

The Cascade in Practice

Here’s how the hierarchy works for a real decision:

Vision: “Be the platform developers choose first”

Strategy choices:

• Prioritise developer experience over admin features
• Focus on top 3 programming languages (not 10)
• Trade customisability for simplicity
• Invest in documentation as much as features

Roadmap objectives (strategic alignment):

• “Reduce time-to-first-success from 30 mins to 10 mins” (developer experience, simplicity)
• “Achieve 95% satisfaction on docs” (documentation investment)
• “Ship TypeScript SDK” (top language focus)

What’s NOT on the roadmap (strategic filtering):

• Admin portal redesign (deprioritised vs developer experience)
• Ruby SDK (outside top 3 languages)
• Advanced customisation options (trades against simplicity)

Notice how strategy makes roadmap decisions easy. Without strategy, you’d debate each item individually. With strategy, items either fit or they don’t.

Common Questions

“Who owns strategy?”

In most organisations: CEO for company strategy, CPO/VP Product for product strategy. But ownership matters less than existence. Somebody needs to define it.

“How detailed should strategy be?”

Detailed enough to guide decisions, concise enough to remember. 5-10 statements, not 50 pages. If you can’t fit it on one page, it’s too complex.

“How often should strategy change?”

Strategy should be stable for 1-2 years. If you’re changing strategy quarterly, it’s not strategy—it’s tactics dressed up.

“What if leadership won’t define strategy?”

Start bottom-up. Define your product promises. Propose strategic choices. Share data on current allocation. Sometimes showing the gap forces the conversation.

“How does this relate to OKRs?”

OKRs are goal-setting for strategy execution. Company OKRs should reflect strategy. Team OKRs should be constrained by company OKRs. The roadmap pursues those OKRs.

See OKR vs Roadmap for more.

The Annual Planning Connection

Annual planning is when vision, strategy, and roadmap should align:

1. Confirm vision (probably unchanged)
2. Review/update strategy (what choices for this year?)
3. Build annual roadmap (what outcomes, in what sequence?)
4. Decompose to quarters (what’s Q1, Q2, etc?)

If you do this well, quarterly planning becomes much simpler—you’re just refining and adjusting within strategic constraints.

Conclusion

Vision, strategy, and roadmap form a hierarchy. Each level constrains the one below.

• Vision is the destination (where you’re going)
• Strategy is the choices (what you will and won’t do)
• Roadmap is the sequence (when, who, what order)

Most teams skip strategy, jumping from vision to roadmap. The result: roadmaps that don’t advance vision because there’s no filter for what belongs.

Fix it by making strategy explicit. Define your product promises. Identify your choices. Constrain your roadmap to match.

When strategy is clear, roadmap decisions become easy—and your roadmap will actually achieve your vision.