Should You Make Your Roadmap Public? Pros and Cons

Every product team debates this at some point: should our roadmap be public? The answer depends on your product, your users, and how much you're willing to share. Here's an honest breakdown.

The Case for a Public Roadmap

A public roadmap builds trust. When users can see what you're working on and what's planned, they're more patient and more loyal. Specific benefits:

• Reduces "when will you build X?" questions — Users check the roadmap instead of filing support tickets
• Surfaces real demand — Voting shows which features matter most
• Attracts the right customers — Prospects who see planned features are more likely to sign up
• Creates accountability — Public commitments push teams to follow through

A public Linear board makes this low-effort. Your team works in Linear as usual, and the public board syncs automatically. No separate roadmap document to maintain.

The Case Against

Public roadmaps have risks:

• Commitments feel binding — Users may hold you to timelines you can't control
• Competitors see your plans — Though execution matters more than ideas
• Scope creep pressure — Popular vote items may not align with your strategy
• Disappointment when plans change — Removing a planned item can frustrate users

These are real concerns, but they're manageable with the right approach.

The Middle Path

You don't have to share everything. Most teams that publish a public roadmap share a curated subset:

• Show committed work and active development
• Keep exploratory ideas and strategic bets private
• Use a public Linear board with project or label filtering to control visibility
• Be transparent about priorities without promising timelines

How to Start

Start small. Make one project public — feature requests or community ideas. See how users engage. Expand from there.

A public Linear board gives you the flexibility to share as much or as little as you want, with real-time sync so it never goes stale.