Phases

Buildpad splits the road from where you are to your goal into phases, so each part gets real attention instead of being rushed through in one afternoon. A phase is a stretch of work you do together, often over days or weeks, in its own chat with its own goal. The phase list is your roadmap.

Two Ends

Build roadmap

COMPLETED!

View

1. Understand the market

COMPLETED!

View

2. Pick the scents

We land on the four launch scents and the story behind each one.

Continue

Plan next phases

We take stock of where the project stands and map out the phases that come next.

Jump here

What a roadmap is made of

• Build roadmap is the first phase of every new project. It is a planning conversation: Buildpad gathers a picture of the project, meaning the idea, you, what you have to work with and what constrains you, helps you set a goal, and then runs Ultraplan to lay out the phases. If you do not have an idea yet, Buildpad turns this phase into Find an idea instead. See finding an idea.
• Work phases are numbered 1, 2, 3 and so on. Each has a title, a goal written as something "we" achieve, an icon and a color. Ultraplan adds them.
• Plan next phases closes every roadmap. When you reach it, Buildpad takes stock of where the project stands and runs Ultraplan again, which adds the next set of work phases and another planning phase after them.

Every phase has exactly one chat. The chat header shows the phase title, and the phase list shows its goal.

The phase list

Opening a project shows the phase list in the chat panel. From inside a phase, the Phases back arrow at the top of the chat returns to it. Each phase has one button:

Phases further down the roadmap are drawn in gray with a small lock. The lock is a hint about order, not a wall: Jump here opens the phase, and it becomes active as soon as Buildpad starts it. This is useful when a phase is waiting on the outside world, like a supplier's reply, and Buildpad says so.

You do not edit phases by hand. In a planning conversation, ask Buildpad to add, change, reorder or remove a phase and it does it for you.

Working through a phase

Open a phase and Buildpad starts it: a short message on what the phase is for, why it matters, and whether you are ready. Each phase sees only its own chat, but it sees the whole canvas, so what earlier phases learned and decided is there from the first message. Something that comes up but belongs to a later phase gets a note on the canvas so it is not lost. See chat for how the conversation itself works.

Completing a phase

There is no button to complete a phase. When you think the goal is reached, say so. Buildpad tells you whether it agrees and what is still open. When you call it done, it looks over the canvas one last time to capture anything that only exists in the chat, writes a short recap, and asks if you are ready to move on. When you say yes, it completes the phase.

Pick the scents complete!

One step closer to your goal

Notes

6

Documents

2

Interviews

1

Continue

Completing a phase opens a celebration screen: the phase badge with a check, a headline saying the phase is complete, a line of encouragement, and counts of the notes, documents, interviews and websites Buildpad made during the phase. Continue returns to the phase list. Everyone who has the project open sees it.

The completed chat stays where it was. You can still read it and chat in it, and a banner above the box says the phase is complete, with a Next phase button that opens the following phase.

Yes, let's move on.

Phase complete. Everything we decided is on the canvas, and the next phase picks up from there.

1 action

You've completed this phase!Next phase

Reply...

Replanning

Ultraplan plans for the goal you set, not for the whole life of the business. A goal about finding out whether an idea holds up produces a short roadmap. A goal about launching produces a longer one. Either way the roadmap ends in Plan next phases, where Buildpad takes stock, confirms or updates the goal, and runs Ultraplan again. The new phases are added after the existing ones.

When your idea changes partway through a roadmap, the remaining phases were planned for the old direction. Go to the planning phase at the end with Jump here and tell Buildpad what changed. In that conversation it can remove the phases that no longer apply and plan new ones from the project as it is now.

Collaborators

Everyone in a project sees the same roadmap. A collaborator can open any phase, continue its chat, and complete it, and the celebration shows for everyone viewing the project. See collaboration.