Feature Tree Roadmap

Purpose

The Feature Tree Roadmap is a collaborative product game that uses the metaphor of a growing tree to help teams and customers shape a product’s future. By placing feature ideas as leaves on branches (representing functional areas), participants collectively decide which areas should grow, which need pruning, and where the product’s roots (core capabilities) must be strengthened.

At a glance

• Group size: 4–12
• Duration: 30 minutes
• Difficulty: Beginner
• Facilitation style: Visual metaphor, collaborative placement
• Setting: In-person or virtual

How to run

1. Draw the tree (before the session). Sketch a large tree with trunk (core product), main branches (feature areas or themes), and roots (infrastructure, support). Leave space for new leaves.
2. Introduce the metaphor (3 min). Explain: leaves = feature ideas, thick branches = mature areas, thin branches = emerging areas, roots = underlying capabilities.
3. Add leaves (10 min). Participants write feature ideas on leaf-shaped sticky notes and place them on the appropriate branch. New branches can be created for ideas that don’t fit existing ones.
4. Prune and discuss (12 min). As a group, review branches that are overloaded. Decide what to prune (defer or drop) and what to keep. Discuss balance: is the tree lopsided?
5. Strengthen roots (5 min). Identify infrastructure or capability investments needed to support the chosen growth areas.

Materials needed

• Large tree drawing on poster paper or digital whiteboard
• Leaf-shaped sticky notes (green) and root-shaped notes (brown)
• Markers

Pitfalls & common mistakes

• Skipping the pruning step. Without pruning, the exercise is just brainstorming with a tree picture.
• Ignoring the roots. The most exciting leaves die without strong underlying capabilities.
• Unbalanced participation. Product owners may dominate; ensure customer or user voices are heard.

Inclusion & accessibility

• Provide pre-cut leaf shapes for participants with limited dexterity.
• Read all placed leaves aloud during the pruning discussion.
• Use colour-blind-safe shades for different branch categories.

Variations

• Speed Tree: Time-box leaf placement to 5 minutes for faster energy.
• Customer-driven Tree: Run with actual customers to get market-driven input.
• Seasonal Tree: Map features to quarters (spring = Q1, summer = Q2, etc.).

When NOT to use this

• When you need fine-grained estimation or sizing — this is a shaping tool, not a planning tool.
• When the product is brand new with no existing structure to map branches to.

Source & further reading

• Hohmann, L. (2006). *Innovation Games: Creating Breakthrough Products Through Collaborative Play.* Addison-Wesley.
• Gamestorming (2010). Prune the Product Tree. gamestorming.com.