Roadmaps are important tools in business communications. They’re ideal for keeping large and small teams on track. That’s why the lack of built-in PowerPoint roadmap templates can make it a challenge to create effective and engaging roadmaps.
While it’s possible to use templates designed for other types of charts, the best way to ensure you are able to build a product, strategy or project roadmap for your team is to use a tool like Venngage for Business and our Roadmap Maker.
We offer hundreds of professional, fully customizable roadmap templates that you can easily create and use in a PowerPoint presentation, no design skills required.
Let’s look at some inspiration roadmap templates to get you started and share some of our favorite tips and tricks for effective business communication with roadmaps.
Click to jump ahead:
- How do you create a roadmap in PowerPoint?
- PowerPoint roadmap templates
- PowerPoint roadmap slides
- PowerPoint product roadmap templates
- PowerPoint project roadmap templates
- PowerPoint strategy roadmap templates
- PowerPoint technology roadmap templates
- PowerPoint agile roadmap templates
- Downloadable PowerPoint roadmap templates
- Vertical PowerPoint roadmap templates
- How to use Venngage to create a roadmap for PowerPoint
How do you create a roadmap in PowerPoint?
As we mentioned, PowerPoint’s SmartArt tools don’t include any graphics that are specifically for roadmaps. The platform does offer two stock timelines, and it may be possible to hack other process graphics into roadmaps.
The steps to create a roadmap in PowerPoint vary depending on the type you choose, but once you’ve decided on a basic structure, you can add dates or timeframes, modify colors or add icons to make sure the roadmap is organized and clear.
But Venngage’s Roadmap Maker offers much more robust tools to let you build creative and engaging roadmaps that keep your whole team on task. (Learn more about creating a product roadmap.)
PowerPoint roadmap templates
PowerPoint roadmap templates should include your company, product or project name at the top. Beyond that, the purpose of the roadmap should guide the rest of your decisions. Use icons, colors and fonts to create a logical flow of information.
This roadmap slide template, for example, was created to organize and track the release of an app. Work is organized by version, and each version has its own color palette.
Pro tip: Breaking down huge tasks into smaller bits is a clever way to make projects manageable. There are 18 individual tasks needed to complete this product launch, but by sorting them into three release points, the goal becomes achievable.
This marketing roadmap template organizes tasks using several methods, including dates, icons and colors. While this version is geared toward high-level communications, consider adding specific tasks depending on the audience.
Roadmaps should be introduced at every step of the process, even during planning. That’s why a simple roadmap template PPT like this one is useful. The roadmap is broken down into phases, but the structure is loose enough to allow for change.
PowerPoint roadmap slides
There’s no one way to create a roadmap, and PowerPoint roadmap slides can take many shapes and forms.
Don’t fear creativity; as long as your communications are organized, your product roadmaps will be useful rather than being confusing.
Here are a couple of versions that break the standard format.
This simple PowerPoint roadmap slide takes a unique approach to explore strategy development. Colors and numbers keep the information organized.
Incorporating interesting shapes into your roadmaps can help keep your team engaged. This half-circle roadmap template is a good example of how easy it is to dress up otherwise dry information using Venngage’s Roadmap Maker.
PowerPoint product roadmap templates
For any company, launching a new product or service is a stressful but exciting time. PowerPoint product roadmap templates can help keep large and small teams on track by making sure everyone is working from the same playbook.
This product roadmap template was designed for a short product sprint, but it’s easy to customize it and extend the timeframe or add multiple teams. Note how it’s easy to see at a glance which tasks should be completed by month.
A similar approach to the previous example, this product roadmap template organizes tasks across three teams over a six-month period. Color coding and icons are used to separate teams, tasks and time.
Pro tip: Be intentional with color choice. Consider different shades of the same color to group related items, teams or tasks.
Even before you have an idea for a new product, you can use roadmaps to guide the development process. Customize this roadmap template so it applies to the goods and services your company sells. Creating a tried-and-true process for launching new products can make everyone’s lives less stressful.
PowerPoint project roadmap templates
Not every project your company has involves creating something new from the ground up. Roadmaps are important for projects of all sizes.
Keep regular projects on time and within budget with a project roadmap template. Depending on how many teams are involved, consider keeping tasks high level instead of being overly specific. In this example, the marketing team doesn’t need to know all the steps involved in code review for the web team.
Organize your workflows and projects with roadmap templates. This example could be easily customized to fit your needs, and icons can help signify what’s going to happen at each step.
PowerPoint strategy roadmap templates
Strategic discussions are also ideal matches for PowerPoint roadmaps. Roadmaps are effective organizational tools throughout the entire strategy development process.
This strategic roadmap template PPT can guide your team meeting about the coming year’s growth strategy, or you can break down strategic discussions by quarter, as this example does.
Pro tip: When putting together a strategy presentation, consider adding charts and graphs. Data visualization is an ideal way to engage your audience and boost information retention.
Strategy PPT presentations don’t have to focus only on the short-term future. While you can assume every member of the team will be with you in 10 years, it’s a good exercise to build a 10-year strategy plan like this.
Consider going literal with your strategic roadmap. Using visual metaphors related to travel like roads, cars or signs can inject energy into your PowerPoint roadmaps.
Similarly, shapes like curves or circles are naturally enticing to the human eye. While this strategy roadmap could easily be organized into a straight line, adding the semi-circle shapes makes it that much more interesting, and unique visuals aid information retention.
PowerPoint technology roadmap templates
Roadmap presentations are standard in the tech industry, as team members must consistently work to create new products and support existing ones.
That’s why any tech company or other organization that works in the space should have several technology roadmap templates they can work with.
Tech companies face constant pressure to launch something new while keeping existing products functioning perfectly. It’s often helpful for these organizations to separate the development of product features and updates well into the future.
Creating an idea-development process is also critical for tech companies. In a saturated industry, it’s important to be sure the product pipeline is full of interesting new releases. Consider creating a roadmap for product or feature development.
PowerPoint agile roadmap templates
Agile is the project management technique preferred by businesses across many different industries. While it has its roots in software development, it’s been quickly embraced outside those confines.
The agile method is renowned for providing maximum collaboration throughout a project. When creating an agile roadmap template, be sure all teams are represented. That will make it easy to see at a glance how teams might interact and overlap.
Your agile roadmap slides should always match your company’s brand identity. This example may be more applicable than the previous one for organizations with a broader color palette.
Downloadable roadmap PowerPoint templates
With Venngage for Business, you can work on a roadmap design and collaborate with your team in real time or download them as PPT or PDF files. Once you find some roadmap templates you like, you can easily organize them for quick access later on.
Many roadmap PPT templates focus only on the tasks that are needed, but in some cases, it’s helpful to keep specific goals top of mind for your team. In this example, revenue and sales goals are included alongside the steps needed to get there.
Keep all members of the staff accountable and share victories by including names or photographs of individuals or team leaders responsible for each task.
Vertical PowerPoint roadmap templates
So far, we’ve focused on PowerPoint roadmap templates that are horizontally oriented. But a vertical approach may be more applicable for your purposes. If so, keep in mind that the default settings in your PPT presentations may need to be changed to portrait.
Vertical free PowerPoint roadmap templates can help keep track not only of what tasks need to be done but which ones have been completed. Consider updating your roadmap weekly or monthly to be sure your team is well-informed.
In the previous example, the events were all organized to one side. But depending on how many individual tasks you have, it may be better to place the timeline down the center and the content on either side of that.
Pro tip: If you’re organizing your roadmap with content that’s meant to be read from side to side, be sure it’s clear how the roadmap is meant to be read. Use numbers, large text, icons or other tools to avoid any confusion.
Vertical product roadmaps don’t have to be long to be effective. This example could probably be condensed to fit within a horizontal layout, but by adding space between items, it’s easier to read and may feel less intimidating to team members.
Here’s a different take on the same information. It’s easy to see how a few tweaks can really change the look and feel of a vertical roadmap template.
Additionally, in this example, the project phases are given names, which can help team members as they collaborate by giving them more clear language.
How to use Venngage to create a roadmap for PowerPoint
Creating an effective and engaging roadmap for your project, product launch or strategy development is easy with Venngage’s Roadmap Maker.
Whether you pick one of the templates above or another from the thousands we have available, or you create something from scratch, here’s a look at how easy it is:
1. Create a Venngage account for free
You can create an account with your email, Gmail or Facebook credentials.
2. Pick from our hundreds of roadmap templates
Our templates library has sections dedicated to roadmap templates or presentations, with hundreds of fully customizable templates to choose from.
You can also check out our list of recommended roadmap infographics for more inspiration.
3. Add, update or remove sections easily with the smart editor
Most of our templates are created with the simple drag-and-drop editor that lets you design in minutes, even if you have no design skills.
We’re also rolling out new smart templates with the smart list editor, where you can add, delete or drag lists around easily. Each node in a list will correspond and adjust automatically to whatever content you create.
4. Customize to your heart’s content with various icons, illustrations, fonts colors
We offer over 40,000 icons and illustrations as well as 3+ million stock photos for you to choose from.
With a Venngage Business account, you can enjoy Business-exclusive features like real-time collaboration:
Or one-click branding, which allows you to add branding elements to any of your designs:
5. Export your roadmap as a PPT slide or PDF, or share it with a private link
A free Venngage account allows you to share your roadmap PowerPoint design publicly for free.
You can also upgrade to share your design privately, or download your presentation in PNG, PDF, Interactive PDF and PowerPoint format:
In summary: Get inspiration from our list of Powerpoint roadmap templates to create the best roadmap design that boosts team collaboration
Creating an efficient team means making sure everyone is working off the same playbook. Roadmaps for new product launches, projects or strategy development can engage teams and inspire collaboration.
Even in small companies, it’s not typical for team members to know what’s going on in other departments. While communication siloes are common, they’re not productive.
Whether you’re bringing a new product to market or revamping your old processes, creating a PowerPoint roadmap template with Venngage can enhance collaboration and improve project outcomes.
Start creating an account for free and make your roadmap PowerPoint right away, no design skills required.