Roadmaps

Visualize strategic goals, track progress, and effectively align with stakeholders across all stages of your project. See the big picture with collaborative whiteboard features and creative design elements from Canva’s free online roadmap tool.

Create a roadmap

Create a roadmap online

Get a clear idea of your goals and how to achieve them by creating a digital roadmap with Canva's free roadmap maker. Our fully customizable templates, extensive design library, and powerful Canva Whiteboards tools make creating your own product or project roadmap a breeze. Lay out tasks and milestones, collaborate with your team in real time, and share your roadmap instantly.

Infinite space made for unlimited ideas

Professionally designed templates to fast-track your workflow

Share and ideate with anyone, anytime on any device

Run a workshop with whiteboard elements, sticky notes, and a timer

Embed your roadmap in Docs, presentations, and more with no fuss

Easy online whiteboard tools and data visualization

How to create a roadmap

Open Canva — Launch Canva and type “Roadmap” in the search bar to start a whiteboard design.
Choose a roadmap template — Browse our collection of free, pre-built templates to find a design that best fits your project. You can narrow down your search by style, theme, or color, or you could build a roadmap from a blank layout.
Input your information — Add the contents of your roadmap. Identify your goals, objectives, and action steps and break them down into smaller tasks. Then, set milestones and specify a target completion date for each activity or deliverable. Indicate the name of the person responsible for each goal or milestone.
Use whiteboard tools and elements — Make full use of Canva Whiteboards while roadmap planning. Highlight important points with shapes and icons. Demonstrate cross-functional dependencies with arrows or connecting dots. Use color palettes to show the status or progress of tasks. You can also find visual cues like graphs, tables, images, and video clips in our library.
Share and ideate — Share your whiteboard design with your team via email or generate a link. Use digital sticky notes to leave comments or upvote submitted ideas and set a timer to track your virtual collaboration sessions. You can also present your roadmap to stakeholders straight from the Canva dashboard.

Create a roadmap

What is a roadmap?

A roadmap is a visual representation of goals and the steps needed to accomplish them. It gives a high-level overview of strategic actions and initiatives across teams throughout a project. Roadmaps also serve as a communication tool to ensure alignment with stakeholders. Companies use roadmaps for many things, from product development and sales strategies to corporate reorganizations. Individuals can also create a simple roadmap to lay out their personal goals.

Create a roadmap

Why use roadmaps?

Roadmaps are used to set and keep track of goals. During a roadmapping exercise, teammates brainstorm, plan, and strategize on how to achieve the objectives of a new product, service, or process. A well-designed roadmap keeps everyone aware of what needs to be delivered, when, and how it ties to the overall vision.

When you use a roadmap, each individual from different teams has access to the same information at all times. It’s a single source of truth that helps you align priorities, measure progress, recognize bottlenecks, and work together better as you reach your end goal.

Keep your project on course

Get a clear picture of your goals and what it takes to get there with a roadmap created using Canva's free roadmap creator. Break initiatives down into actionable tasks, tie each theme to a business goal, and drill down on details based on the level of information you want to share. With purposefully built templates, a multitude of design elements, and online collaborative whiteboard tools, it's easy to craft a strategic plan that keeps you focused on what you're trying to achieve from one project phase to the next.

Visually map your strategy

Roadmaps are designed for teams with big ideas and ambitious goals—and need help making them happen. With Canva’s dedicated roadmapping tools, you have everything you need to design a clear action plan to move your project forward. Customize your map as you see fit. Insert text blocks for key milestones and add captions in sleek fonts for extra detail. Categorize tasks by status or priority level using colors and grids. Highlight dependencies with arrows, lines, and connectors. Want to make your map even more engaging? Find effective visual aids like photos, videos, illustrations, vectors, and graphs from our free media library.

Drive your team in one direction

Roadmapping can be a time-consuming and arduous process, especially if you’re trying to do it across teams and time zones. Enter Canva Whiteboards. Our free online collaboration tool allows you to plan and strategize together in real time, from wherever. Simply send a link to your product roadmap template and brainstorm away! Tag the persons in charge of each development stage, provide context using virtual sticky notes, or respond to comments with emoji reactions and stickers. Color-coded mouse pointers let you track what your collaborators add to your design, so the people and groups involved are on the same page.

More free lanes for big ideas

Mind brimming with roadmap ideas? Enjoy an infinite canvas where you can build upon concepts and themes with no limits. Expand your roadmap presentation to a whiteboard and use as many shapes, lines, elements, and diagramming tools as you like to capture and share your ideas in one digital space. You can access Canva on your web browser or app on any desktop or mobile device—bringing compelling, effective roadmaps right at your fingertips, whenever you need them.

“Canva helps even the least experienced designer (me) make simple and professional-looking social media posts, and diagrams for my clients.”

Kelsey J

Frequently Asked Questions

A roadmap’s main purpose is to outline a project's vision, goals, and progress over time. It identifies specific tasks and action steps and how they support the overall objective. Roadmaps are also helpful in communicating both short-term and long-term plans to stakeholders.

The structure of a roadmap varies from one project to another, but there are key components present in all roadmaps. A roadmap should have a clear description of the goals and significant project milestones. It also indicates when work starts, when it’s expected to be completed, and any dependencies between tasks that can impact project delivery. No matter the type of roadmap you need, it should present your vision (the “why”) and the action steps (the “what”), all plotted on a timeline (the “when”).

Roadmaps are for anyone who needs a visual representation of their goals and how to achieve them. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, product manager, student, or professional, roadmaps are a great way to organize your ideas and plans and put them into action.

A good product roadmap is simple, concise, and easy to understand. It contains a clear plan with specific goals, work items, and timelines, so everyone involved gains context and is on the same page, even while working async. A roadmap should also be flexible and dynamic enough for you to adapt quickly and make smarter decisions whenever new opportunities, challenges, or unexpected circumstances arise.

A roadmap is a high-level overview of a specific business goal. It includes the overarching objectives and a generalized view of initiatives and deliverables. A roadmap typically consists of various shapes, icons, symbols, and colors. They’re used to paint a clear picture of a project at a glance.