Quick Answer (TL;DR)
This free PowerPoint template separates marketplace development into supply-side and demand-side swimlanes with a shared liquidity milestone track. Each side of the marketplace gets its own row of initiatives, and the center track marks the moments where supply meets demand at scale. First transaction, first repeat purchase, positive unit economics. Download the .pptx, map your supply and demand initiatives, and use it to coordinate the most difficult challenge in marketplace product management: building both sides at once.
What This Template Includes
- Cover slide. Marketplace name, planning horizon, and the product lead responsible for marketplace health.
- Instructions slide. How to define supply vs. demand initiatives, set liquidity targets, and read the dual-swimlane format. Remove before presenting.
- Blank marketplace slide. Two swimlanes (supply-side, demand-side) across a quarterly timeline, with a center liquidity track showing key marketplace milestones and a metrics panel on the right edge.
- Filled example slide. A home services marketplace roadmap showing supply initiatives (provider onboarding, quality scoring, provider app v2) and demand initiatives (search improvements, booking flow, review system) converging on three liquidity milestones.
Why Marketplaces Need a Dedicated Roadmap Format
Standard product roadmaps assume a single user type. Marketplaces have at least two. And features that delight one side can be irrelevant or harmful to the other. A better search algorithm helps buyers but does nothing for sellers struggling with onboarding. A faster payout system helps sellers but does not improve buyer conversion.
The dual-swimlane format makes the investment balance between supply and demand visible on a single slide. If six initiatives serve the demand side and one serves supply, the marketplace may grow demand faster than it can fulfill. Leading to poor match rates, long wait times, and churn on both sides.
The center liquidity track connects both lanes to the metric that matters most: whether transactions are actually happening. Individual features are means to an end. The end is product-market fit for the marketplace, which requires both sides to work simultaneously.
Template Structure
Supply-Side Swimlane
The top row covers everything that attracts, retains, and activates supply: provider onboarding, listing tools, payout infrastructure, quality scoring, provider analytics. Each initiative card shows the team owner, estimated effort, and the supply metric it targets (e.g., provider activation rate, average listing quality score, time to first earnings).
Demand-Side Swimlane
The bottom row covers buyer-facing work: discovery and search, booking or purchase flow, review and trust systems, support and dispute resolution. Each card targets a demand metric (e.g., search-to-booking conversion, repeat purchase rate, average order value).
Liquidity Milestone Track
The center band marks the moments where supply and demand converge into a functioning marketplace. Typical milestones include:
- First organic transaction. A buyer finds a seller and completes a transaction without manual intervention.
- Supply-demand balance. The ratio of available supply to active demand reaches a sustainable level.
- Positive unit economics. Revenue per transaction exceeds the fully loaded cost of facilitating it.
- Repeat rate threshold. A target percentage of buyers return for a second transaction within 30 days.
Metrics Panel
A narrow column on the right edge shows the current values and targets for 4-6 marketplace health metrics: take rate, fill rate, provider activation rate, buyer conversion rate, NPS for each side. This panel keeps the roadmap connected to measurable outcomes.
How to Use This Template
1. Audit your current supply-demand balance
Before mapping initiatives, assess which side is the bottleneck. If you have more buyers than available supply, prioritize supply acquisition and retention. If supply is abundant but demand is low, invest in discovery and conversion. The roadmap should reflect the current constraint, not split investment evenly by default.
2. Map supply-side initiatives
List every planned or in-flight initiative that serves the supply side. Place each on the timeline in the top swimlane. Include team ownership and the supply metric each initiative targets. If an initiative does not clearly target a supply metric, question whether it belongs in this lane.
3. Map demand-side initiatives
Repeat for the demand side. Place buyer-facing initiatives in the bottom swimlane with their target demand metrics. Cross-reference with the customer journey map template to ensure you are covering the full buyer lifecycle.
4. Define liquidity milestones
Identify the 3-4 marketplace health milestones that define success for the planning horizon. These should be concrete and measurable. "Marketplace is working" is not a milestone. "200 transactions per week with 15% provider utilization" is.
5. Check the balance
Step back and count: how many initiatives serve supply vs. demand? Does the ratio match the current bottleneck? If supply is the constraint and 70% of initiatives target demand, the roadmap is misallocated.
6. Present to both sides
Present the roadmap to supply-side stakeholders and demand-side stakeholders separately, then jointly. Each side needs to see that their needs are represented. The joint session surfaces dependencies: "The review system on the demand side depends on the quality scoring system on the supply side."
When to Use This Template
A marketplace roadmap is the right format when:
- You are building a two-sided or multi-sided marketplace and need to plan supply and demand work in parallel
- Liquidity is the primary challenge and leadership needs to see how features converge toward transaction volume
- Supply-demand imbalance is causing poor user experience on one or both sides
- Board or investor presentations need to show marketplace health beyond top-line GMV
- Multiple teams work on different sides of the marketplace and need a shared coordination artifact
If your product has a single user type, a feature roadmap or quarterly roadmap is simpler and more appropriate. For marketplace growth experiments specifically, the growth experiment roadmap tracks hypotheses and results.
Featured in
This template is featured in SaaS Product Roadmap Templates, a curated collection of roadmap templates for this use case.
Key Takeaways
- Marketplace roadmaps separate supply-side and demand-side development into parallel swimlanes, making investment balance visible.
- The center liquidity track connects feature work to the metric that matters: whether transactions are happening.
- Audit your current supply-demand balance before allocating initiative slots. The bottleneck side should get more investment.
- Include a metrics panel so the roadmap stays connected to measurable marketplace health outcomes.
- Present to both sides of the marketplace to surface cross-side dependencies and build shared understanding.
- Compatible with Google Slides, Keynote, and LibreOffice Impress. Upload the
.pptxto Google Drive to edit collaboratively in your browser.