Stop making roadmaps and just execute
When planning becomes procrastination
It’s human reflex to start planning the moment we set a goal.
Imagine you want to lose weight. The first thing you do is create a workout plan or a weekly diet. Not because it helps immediately, but because it feels productive.
Same with studying. Planning your study schedule feels better than actually studying.
Same with learning something new. Watching ten YouTube videos about it feels like the right thing to do instead of simply starting.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t make lists, plans, or consume educational content. I’m saying: be careful with the trap of feeling like you’re moving in the right direction while you’re not taking any real steps toward your goal.
The same thing happens in product development.
We make roadmaps, plan quarters, outline dependencies, create sequences: first this, then that. There’s nothing wrong with roadmaps, they’re great for direction and communication.
But if talking, writing, and aligning takes more of your time than actually building, you’re doing it wrong.
The illusion of progress
This is a form of procrastination. Productive procrastination.
You’re avoiding execution because it feels uncertain or uncomfortable.
Planning, meetings, and roadmap discussions give you a little dopamine hit. It feels like progress, even when nothing has moved.
Feedback velocity
The more time you spend planning, the more you delay real world feedback.
Building and starting from somewhere, anywhere, is the only way to uncover truths you will never get from documents or interviews.
Over-specification
Too much planning locks you into too many assumptions.
And your roadmap will likely fall apart as soon as the first assumption fails.
“We need more clarity”
Do you? Or are you scared to deliver because it opens you up to judgment?
Often “more clarity” is a socially acceptable way of saying “I’m afraid to be wrong.”
Then what should you do?
First, learn to be comfortable with discomfort.
Shipping without full certainty is intimidating, but planning an entire feature set only to drop it later is a bigger risk.
Break things down into digestible pieces.
It becomes much easier to move back and forth when you realize an insight or gut feeling was wrong.
Start pushing.
Start learning from users as early as possible and iterate on top of real signals.