# How Buildpad works > Buildpad turns your goal into a roadmap of phases and works through them with you. Here is the big picture before you dive into the details. Buildpad takes an idea to a business in phases. You describe what you want to build, you set a goal together, Ultraplan maps the phases that lead there, and you work through them with Buildpad while everything you learn is kept on the canvas. This page is the big picture. Each part has its own page with the details. *From what you describe to a goal, a roadmap of phases, and a canvas that remembers it all.* ## It starts with a goal Every project begins with a conversation about your idea and your situation. Then you set a goal together, and the goal decides how long the roadmap is. If you are set on making the idea happen, the goal is an outcome in the world, like selling the first 200 candles by December. If you are still deciding whether the idea is worth it, the goal is the question you need answered first, like confirming people will pay before you buy wax. That gives a short roadmap, so you find out quickly and plan the real work from there. No idea yet? Buildpad starts with a [Find an idea](https://buildpad.io/docs/finding-an-idea) phase that helps you find one in what you already know. ## Ultraplan maps the phases [Ultraplan](https://buildpad.io/docs/ultraplan) turns your goal into a roadmap: a list of phases, each with a goal of its own, in the order that makes sense for your project. Each phase settles one thing, so you always know what you are working on and when it is done. Phases that test a risky assumption come early, before anything gets built on it. The first phase is one you can finish, and one that matters. *The roadmap of Two Ends. A planning phase first, numbered work phases, and a planning phase at the end.* ## Each phase is its own chat A [phase](https://buildpad.io/docs/phases) is a stretch of work you do together, often over days or weeks, in a chat of its own. You never have to figure out what to do next. Buildpad suggests the next step and why, does the part it can do, like a search or a draft, and prepares the part only you can do, like sending an email or making a call. Then you look at what came back together and decide the step after that. When a phase is waiting on someone to reply, you can work on another phase in the meantime. When Buildpad thinks the goal is met, it says so and asks whether to complete the phase. Anything still only in the chat goes on the canvas first, then the next phase begins. Read [Chat](https://buildpad.io/docs/chat) for what a conversation looks like day to day. ## Buildpad is honest with you Buildpad is not a yes-man. It has a view on what to do next, tells you when it thinks you are wrong, and says what it is not sure about. You always have the final say. Facts get checked, not guessed. When a decision depends on something out in the world, like a price, a rule, or what customers really think, Buildpad goes and finds out: - **Web search** answers a specific question in under a minute, with sources you can click. See [Research](https://buildpad.io/docs/research). - **Deep research** handles the bigger question that needs many sources read together. It runs in the background and comes back as a report on the canvas. - **Interviews** let you hear from real people. Buildpad sets up a voice interview you share with a link, and the answers land on the canvas. See [Interviews](https://buildpad.io/docs/interviews). - **Websites** are real sites Buildpad builds and publishes, to test an idea or start selling. See [Websites](https://buildpad.io/docs/websites). ## The canvas remembers everything Everything you learn and decide is kept on the [canvas](https://buildpad.io/docs/canvas), so nothing is lost between phases and you never have to repeat yourself. Buildpad organizes it in frames by topic, like the project, customers, or pricing. Inside, notes hold one thing each: yellow for a fact, cyan for a decision. Open questions sit as purple notes in a parking lot outside the frames until they are answered. Anything longer, like a finding with its detail or an email draft, becomes a document. Research reports, interviews and websites sit in the frame of their topic too. The canvas is yours as much as Buildpad's. Add, edit, move and delete anything on it, and Buildpad works with what it finds there. See [Notes and frames](https://buildpad.io/docs/notes-and-frames). *The canvas of Two Ends a few phases in: frames by topic, facts and decisions as notes, a persona document, and the parking lot of open questions.* ## Every roadmap ends with replanning The last phase of every roadmap is **Plan next phases**. There you take stock with Buildpad, confirm or change the goal, and get the next set of phases. A short, exploratory roadmap is meant to get here quickly: once the big question is answered, you plan the real work from what you learned. If your idea changes partway through a roadmap, open that planning phase and tell Buildpad what changed. It drops the phases that no longer apply and plans new ones from where the project is now. ## Usage is measured in credits Everything Buildpad does with AI uses [credits](https://buildpad.io/docs/credits): replies, web searches, deep research, Ultraplan and interviews. Bigger tasks use more. Your plan refills them with every renewal, and in a shared project the owner's credits are used.