5 Best Google Sheets Roadmap Templates in 2024

Are you looking to visualize your project’s goals, timelines, and outputs? If so, these Google Sheets roadmap templates are just what you need.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the best roadmap templates available in Google Sheets and how you can use them to streamline your project management process. We’ll also discuss what a good template should have and how to create one from scratch.

What’s Inside a Good Roadmap in Google Sheets?

Every roadmap template varies depending on an individual’s needs, however, here are some general categories to look out for on an online template:

• Roadmap title
• Milestones
• Important dates
• Status
• Priority level
• People-in-charge
• Notes

Some people think that dates shouldn’t be present in a roadmap. This is because many changes can happen midway through a project, therefore, you must decide whether you need a template with a date category or without one, depending on your preferences.

Best Roadmap Templates in Google Sheets

Here are some of the best Google Sheets roadmap templates that can help you plan and manage your projects effectively.

1. Kanban-style Roadmap

Developed by Taiichi Ohno, a former industrial engineer at Toyota, Kanban is a project management system that allows you to divide your tasks according to progress. Following its principles, here’s our Kanban-style roadmap.

Inside the template, you will see two tabs:

• Kanban: This is where your roadmap milestones are displayed according to category. You’ll see them divided into “Planned,” “In-progress,” “Under Review,” and “Completed.” You don’t have to edit anything in this tab.
• Details: Here’s where you list your specific roadmap items. Aside from the main field where you put your entries, you can also choose or enter values under “Priority,” “Status,” and “Details.”

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2. Google Sheets Product Roadmap Template

This standard product roadmap template lets you lay out your milestones from the planning phase to further product enhancements. Here, you can categorize your steps or activities into three sections: “Product,” “Sales,” and “Marketing.”

These categories are then divided according to phase — “Planning,” “Execution,” and “Development.” You’ll discover more about how these categories are used once you have gotten yourself a copy of our template.

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3. List-style Project Roadmap Template

Use this template if your end goal is to present your project roadmap in an easy-to-follow manner. Since this is a list, your readers would have to read from top to bottom. This way, you can organize your steps based on their importance — put the urgent ones up the list and the miscellaneous jobs down.

Our template also includes the categories “Priority,” “In-charge,” and “Details.” Determine which ones should be done first and who’s responsible for them using these fields.

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4. Agile Roadmap

The main concept behind the Agile methodology is to divide a big plan into several smaller chunks. It’s often used in software development teams, particularly on the release of their product’s functionalities and updates.

Our roadmap template features several “sprints” (as the Agile method defines them), which you can think of as phases you need to complete one at a time. We have designed it like a quarterly roadmap template, with each quarter having six sprints.

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5. Now-Next-Later Roadmap

If you simply want to prioritize your tasks relative to your current time, this roadmap template would be great to opt for. You will also want to use this roadmap type if you’re looking to do long-term planning — with the “Later” category. What’s more, it works well with Agile methodologies.

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Why Use Our Templates

Aside from being convenient, here are a few more reasons you’d want to get yourself a copy of our templates:

• Incorporate project management best practices: When designing our templates, the goal is to adhere to best practices regarding project management. You can observe this in our Agile Roadmap and Kanban-style Roadmap.
• Equipped with formulas and dropdowns: We used several functions in the roadmaps to make them organized and easy to use. You’ll also find drop-down lists there that contain commonly used values, such as “Low,” “Medium,” and “High” priority.
• Pre-formatted to keep organization: Roadmaps would be useless if they were not clean and organized. So, we made sure our roadmap Google Sheets templates contained conditional formatting and pre-selected colors.

How to Structure a Product Roadmap

One common template type is a Google Sheet product roadmap template, which gives an outline of what a product is, its development directions, and the overall timeline concerning the phases from its launch to enhancements. Here’s how you structure one:

1. Identify Your Audience

You usually create product roadmaps to show them to clients, stakeholders, product managers, and more. Hence, you need to tailor your product roadmap template in Google Sheets according to their specific needs and interests.

For example, you may need to create a roadmap with a detailed breakdown of activities when you’re dealing with a product manager. Another example is a roadmap for marketers, so they can see which product features are released at what time, allowing them to align their strategy accordingly.

2. Set the Scope of Your Product

Clearly define the scope of your product by identifying its end goal, target audience, and value proposition. This would help you determine the features that you have to include in your product.

3. Determine Your Timeline

Identify when you would start and end your project. There’s no need to specify the exact dates in your plan. Instead, you only need to present them chronologically.

For example, you may lay out the phases in which you’ll release the various features of your new product. To make it more specific, you can indicate which quarters of the year you’ll launch them.

4. Select a Roadmap Layout

After determining everything above, choose a roadmap format. The now-next-later structure may be great when you’re planning to release several versions of your product. On the other hand, a list-style roadmap template would be suitable if you want to present your milestones in an easy-to-read manner.

How to Create a Roadmap Template

We have already listed different Google spreadsheet roadmap templates above. But if you haven’t found one that suits your particular needs, here’s how to create a roadmap from scratch:

Step 1. Create a New Spreadsheet

1. Head over to https://sheets.google.com/, then start a new spreadsheet.
2. Enter a file name in the field that says “Untitled spreadsheet.”

Step 2. Insert Column Headers

3. On the first row of each column, type the following headers:
   1. Milestone
   2. Start date
   3. End date
   4. Status
   5. Priority

4. Highlight the column headers, then press “Ctrl” + “B” (or “Command” + “B” for Mac) to make them bold.
5. Alternatively, you can click on the “B” icon in the toolbar at the top.

Note: You can add as many column headers as necessary. The ones mentioned above are only the basic columns found in a generic roadmap template.

Step 3. Add Checkboxes and Dropdown Lists

Here, the concept is to give your key milestones their current status and urgency. We simplified the statuses into checkboxes that you can tick once you achieve a milestone. For the priority levels, we mentioned how to create dropdown lists in Google Sheets below.

6. Highlight the cells under the “Status” column.
7. Click on “Insert” > “Checkbox.”

8. Highlight the cells under “Priority.”
9. Go to “Data” > “Data validation.”

10. Click on “Add rule” on the appearing side panel.

11. Enter the following in the provided fields under “Criteria.”
    1. Low
    2. Medium
    3. High

12. Click on “Done.”

Step 4. Personalize Your Template

The last step is for you to customize your new roadmap sheet with your preferred color and font style.

Final Thoughts

Indeed, Google Sheets roadmap templates provide plenty of help when visualizing how a project should progress. To get started, simply get a copy of one of our roadmap templates mentioned above.

Want to access more advanced templates? Check out our premium spreadsheet templates and use the code “SSP” to get 50% off.

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You can also use Google Sheets in other aspects of your job. Visit our Google Forms and Sheets Masterclass to start mastering it today!

Related:

• Ultimate Guide to Making a Google Sheets Timeline
• 5 Useful Google Sheets Project Management Templates [Free]
• The 9 Best Google Sheets Templates to Streamline Your Life
• The 9 Best Project Status Report Templates in Google Sheets