Dual-Track Roadmapping: The Discovery/Delivery Split That Changes Everything

 Traditional roadmaps only show delivery: what you're building and when. But delivery is the end of the product process, not the beginning. You need two roadmaps:

Discovery Roadmap (Opportunity Solution Tree):

• What problems are we exploring?
• What assumptions are we testing?
• What experiments are we running?
• What are we learning?

Delivery Roadmap (What You Already Show):

• What validated solutions are we building?
• What's the sequence and why?
• What's the expected impact?

The discovery roadmap feeds the delivery roadmap. Items "graduate" from discovery to delivery once you've validated the problem and solution. This prevents the biggest PM mistake: building features based on opinions instead of evidence.

In practice: Your discovery roadmap might show "Testing automated onboarding flow" while your delivery roadmap shows nothing. Two sprints later, after learning users need human touch, your discovery learns you were wrong. You just saved three months of building the wrong thing.

Share both roadmaps. Let stakeholders see the thinking that happens before building. They'll trust your delivery roadmap more because they see the work behind it.

Example Discovery Map from Wikimedia