Step 8. Build your roadmap
You now have two scores for every use case: business impact from Step 5, and feasibility from Step 7. This step uses them to produce a prioritised, sequenced roadmap you can take to leadership.
The impact vs feasibility matrix
Plot each use case in one of four quadrants:
- Quick wins (high impact, high feasibility) — do these first. They deliver value fast and build the credibility that funds everything else.
- Strategic bets (high impact, low feasibility) — invest in closing the gap. Identify the specific data or capability investment required and plan for it explicitly.
- Easy fills (low impact, high feasibility) — do these when you have spare capacity. They add polish without distorting priorities.
- Deprioritise (low impact, low feasibility) — park unless the strategy or data situation changes.
For the purposes of this matrix, treat a score of 3 or above as "high" on either dimension.
Example — B2B SaaS
| Stage | Use case | Impact | Feasibility | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | Which campaigns are driving signups? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Marketing | Which campaigns bring in accounts that convert and stay? | 4 | 3 | Quick win |
| Sales | What is our win rate by deal size and segment? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Sales | Which prospects are most likely to close? | 3 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Signup | Where are people dropping off? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Signup | Which visitors are most likely to complete signup? | 2 | 2 | Deprioritise |
| Onboarding | What proportion complete onboarding? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Onboarding | Which new accounts are struggling? | 3 | 3 | Quick win |
| Activation | What is our time to first value? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Activation | Which users are at risk of never activating? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Ongoing usage | Which features are being used and which are ignored? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Ongoing usage | Which product investments improve retention? Who is about to churn? | 5 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Expansion | Which accounts have grown usage without upgrading? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Expansion | Which accounts are ready to expand? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Renewal | What is our renewal rate by segment? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Renewal | Which accounts are at risk of not renewing? | 5 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Churn | Why are customers leaving? | 3 | 3 | Quick win |
| Churn | Which accounts are most likely to churn in 90 days? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Win-back | What is our win-back rate? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Win-back | Which churned accounts are worth pursuing? | 3 | 2 | Strategic bet |
Example — Non-bank lender
| Stage | Use case | Impact | Feasibility | Quadrant |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing | What is the cost per settled loan by channel? | 2 | 3 | Easy fill |
| Marketing | Where should we shift budget? | 4 | 3 | Quick win |
| Referral | Which brokers are sending the best quality applications? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Referral | Which brokers should we invest more in? | 4 | 3 | Quick win |
| Application | What is application volume by channel? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Application | Are there sources we are underinvesting in? | 3 | 3 | Quick win |
| Pre-approval | What proportion proceed to full approval? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Pre-approval | Which applications are likely to fail at approval? | 3 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Document collection | How long is this taking, and where are the delays? | 3 | 4 | Quick win |
| Document collection | Which applications will miss settlement targets? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Approval | How does credit performance compare to what we expected? | 4 | 3 | Quick win |
| Approval | Which applications should we prioritise in the queue? | 3 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Settlement | What proportion of settlements are on time? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Settlement | Which loans are at risk of not settling? | 3 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Servicing | How is the book performing by cohort and channel? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Servicing | Which borrowers are showing early signs of stress? | 5 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Hardship | What proportion return to normal repayments? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Hardship | Which borrowers are at risk of entering hardship? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Arrears | Which contact approaches are most effective? | 3 | 3 | Quick win |
| Arrears | Which borrowers are most likely to resolve without escalation? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
| Discharge | How many customers are leaving at refinance? | 2 | 4 | Easy fill |
| Discharge | Which borrowers are most likely to refinance away? | 4 | 2 | Strategic bet |
Sequence into phases
Quick wins go first. Then use the breathing room they create — both the credibility and the time — to close the gaps on your strategic bets.
For each strategic bet, identify the specific blocker and treat it as a project in its own right. A use case that is blocked on data needs a data engineering workstream. A use case that is blocked on capability needs hiring, upskilling, or a vendor. Do not add strategic bets to the roadmap without a concrete plan for closing the gap.
B2B SaaS — phased roadmap
| Phase | Use case | Strategic connection |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Marketing attribution to conversion and retention | Optimises acquisition for quality accounts as the business moves upmarket |
| Phase 1 | Win rate analysis by deal size and segment | Builds the understanding needed to develop enterprise sales capability |
| Phase 1 | Time to first value by segment | Tests whether larger accounts activate differently — informs product investment |
| Phase 1 | Accounts that have grown usage without upgrading | Immediate revenue from the existing base |
| Phase 1 | Struggling new accounts early warning | Reduces early churn while customer success team is under pressure |
| Phase 1 | Churn reason analysis by segment | Tells leadership whether upmarket accounts are churning for different reasons |
| Phase 2 | Build clean cohort history for retention analysis | Enables the high-impact churn and retention models in Phase 3 |
| Phase 2 | Enrich CRM activity features for lead scoring | Enables lead prioritisation for enterprise sales |
| Phase 2 | Improve onboarding and activation event instrumentation | Enables activation and churn risk models |
| Phase 3 | Product investment analysis — what improves retention? | Answers the central product question for the upmarket strategy |
| Phase 3 | Renewal risk model with next-best-action | Protects ARR at scale as the book grows |
| Phase 3 | Churn prediction — 90-day horizon | Gives customer success a prioritised list to work from |
| Phase 3 | Activation risk + nudge recommendation | Reduces accounts that never reach value, especially important for larger contracts |
Non-bank lender — phased roadmap
| Phase | Use case | Strategic connection |
|---|---|---|
| Phase 1 | Document collection time analysis and delay drivers | Directly addresses the operational bottleneck the CEO identified |
| Phase 1 | Pre-approval conversion funnel | Baseline visibility on credit quality as near-prime expansion begins |
| Phase 1 | Credit performance vs expectation monitoring | Early warning if risk models are underperforming in the new borrower segment |
| Phase 1 | Broker quality scoring | Starts addressing broker concentration risk with data |
| Phase 1 | Broker investment optimisation | Optimises the broker mix while direct channel is being built |
| Phase 1 | Direct channel opportunity analysis | Supports the strategic goal of reducing broker dependency |
| Phase 1 | Collections contact strategy analysis | Improves recoveries with no data investment required |
| Phase 2 | Improve behavioural signal capture before hardship | Enables early hardship detection in Phase 3 |
| Phase 2 | Connect marketing data through to settlement | Enables direct channel ROI measurement and budget optimisation |
| Phase 2 | Build ML infrastructure and credit modelling capability | Unlocks the cluster of high-value predictive use cases |
| Phase 3 | Early stress detection on the loan book | The single most important capability for making near-prime lending viable at scale |
| Phase 3 | Document collection — settlement risk prediction | Converts the bottleneck from a monitoring problem into an intervention capability |
| Phase 3 | Hardship propensity model | Proactive credit quality management as the book grows |
| Phase 3 | Arrears resolution prediction with next-best-action | Improves collections outcomes across a larger and riskier book |
| Phase 3 | Prepayment and refinance-away prediction | Reduces runoff to protect loan book growth |
The test of a good roadmap
Every item on the roadmap should have a clear answer to three questions: what decision does this improve, whose decision is it, and why does it matter to the strategy right now?
If an item cannot answer all three, it should not be on the roadmap. If your roadmap does not visibly connect to the strategic priorities you identified in Step 3, go back and check your work. The value of this process is not the roadmap document — it is being able to explain, to any stakeholder, exactly why you are building what you are building.
Done well, this process takes you from a blank page to a roadmap that leadership can fund and a team can deliver, with every item traceable back to a business decision that matters.