"We need to do the next session in person."

Do we? Or do we need to rethink how we're going to run it?

How would you run a roadmapping workshop? Most people would picture a long timeline on a wall, with the present or near future on the left and the far future on the right.

But that’s one way to arrange a roadmap, not necessarily the way we need to have this discussion.

I would rather run this session online, both to save travel and setup time and so that I don't have to transcribe a bunch of handwritten outputs after the session.

For the discussion, we need to see all the priorities in a single view. We need to minimize scrolling for accessibility, because someone in the session has motion sickness, and for the convenience of the discussion.

So the biggest question becomes: do the elements on the roadmap all need to be placed in chronological order? How detailed does the chronology need to be for an effective discussion?

What discussion do we actually need?

I want to start by sorting the priorities into more general groupings: now, next, future, representing 0–2 years, 2–5 years, and more than 5 years.

To move things along, I send this out as an individual exercise using a form and a Likert scale. The responses will become the foundation for the discussion.

The first activity in the session would be to confirm the groupings. But would we even need to roadmap them at this point? What would be the value of developing a detailed roadmap?

What I need from this session is agreement on the broad timing of the priorities and a discussion about whether the supporting projects and initiatives are in place. I don't need a detailed chronology yet.

Would it matter if we knew whether a priority was happening within the next 8 months versus 14 months? Not yet.

So a linear, horizontal roadmap would not add anything to the discussion at this stage.

Same priorities, different layout

Instead, I can stack the three timeframes so that they can all be seen on a single screen: three horizontal boxes labelled now, next, and future, with the priorities inside each box as cards. We can easily move the cards between boxes as the discussion progressed.

The pre-work gives us a draft to refine, and the discussion helps us land on the final "roadmap".

The result is a validated list of priorities grouped by timeframe. In this case, just as effective as a roadmap.

And I don’t have to prep, carry, and set up a huge paper timeline. I don't have to collect and transcribe dozens of handwritten sticky notes. I don’t have to travel or have others travel to my location. I don’t have to spend time setting up and tearing down a room.

I can set up a quick whiteboard with the results of the form, launch a call, and focus on facilitating the discussion.

There will always be reasons to bring people together in person. But for regular working sessions, I want to find ways for us to do the work from our desks. If each session takes less preparation and coordination, we can do more of them. Collaboration can become a regular part of how we work, rather than something we have to organize a special event around.

So the next time someone says the session should be in person, consider: does the work need physical presence, or does the approach need a rethink?

The Workshop Workshop is back November 24th at a Europe-friendly time:

08:30am-12:30pm Eastern / 1:30-5:30pm British / 2:30-6:30pm Central European

Tickets are currently on sale: $199 CAD / $149 USD / 124 EUR until October 31.