Asana has Timeline view, Portfolios, and Goals. These features give you the raw materials for a roadmap. What they do not give you is a framework for deciding what goes on the roadmap, how to structure it for different audiences, or how to keep it updated without it becoming a full-time job.
Roadmap templates provide that structure. This guide shows how to pair them with Asana.
Picking the Right Roadmap Format
Your roadmap format depends on your audience and planning style.
Now/Next/Later. Create three Asana sections in a project. Drag initiatives into the right column. Best for teams that avoid hard dates. Update every cycle by moving items forward.
Theme-based. Create Asana sections by strategic theme: Growth, Retention, Infrastructure, Debt. Each task represents an initiative. This format helps leadership see how work connects to strategy.
Timeline. Use Asana's Timeline view with start and due dates on each initiative. Best for teams with external commitments, launches, or regulatory deadlines.
Quarterly. Create a project per quarter. Each task is an initiative with an owner and status. Archive completed quarters. This keeps the current view focused.
Browse the full roadmap templates collection for more structures and examples.
Building Your Roadmap in Asana
Step 1: Create a dedicated roadmap project. Do not mix roadmap items with your daily task backlog. Create a separate project called "Product Roadmap Q2 2026" (or whatever timeframe you use).
Step 2: Add initiatives as tasks. Each initiative gets a task with a description, owner, dates, and status. Use custom fields for: Status (Planned, In Progress, Shipped), RICE Score, and Theme.
Step 3: Prioritize with scoring. Score initiatives using RICE or weighted scoring. Enter scores in custom fields. Sort by score to determine roadmap order.
Step 4: Set up views. Create a Timeline view for date-based planning. Create a Board view sorted by theme for stakeholder presentations. Create a List view sorted by score for sprint planning.
Step 5: Connect to Portfolios. Add your roadmap project to an Asana Portfolio. This gives leadership a cross-team view of all roadmaps without diving into individual projects.
Keeping the Roadmap Current
Stale roadmaps lose trust. If your roadmap says "In Progress" on something that shipped two months ago, nobody will check it.
Weekly (5 minutes): Update task statuses. Move shipped items to Done. Flag blockers.
Per cycle: Re-evaluate what moves from Next to Now. Score new candidates. Remove items that no longer make sense.
Quarterly: Review themes. Are they still aligned with company goals? Kill initiatives that are not delivering. Add new bets.
Use Asana's project status update feature to send a weekly roadmap snapshot to stakeholders. This takes 2 minutes and prevents the "Is this roadmap still current?" question.
Tips for Asana Roadmap Management
Use Asana Goals to connect roadmap initiatives to company objectives. When leadership asks "Why are we building this?", the Goal link answers the question.
Multi-home tasks across your roadmap project and your execution project. This way, updates in the execution project automatically reflect on the roadmap. No double entry.
For teams with multiple products, create one roadmap project per product and group them in a Portfolio. The Portfolio view is your cross-product roadmap.
Use the value-effort matrix during quarterly planning workshops to quickly sort new initiative ideas before formal scoring.
The feature prioritization guide covers the full process of moving from ideas to a ranked roadmap.