A roadmap without a north star is just a to-do list with dates.
Every quarter, leadership asks for the roadmap. Teams scramble to fill it. They pull from stakeholder requests, executive wishlists, and whatever’s been sitting in the backlog longest.
It has the shape of strategy without the spine.
Without a north star, every request feels equally valid. The loudest stakeholder wins. The most politically connected project gets prioritized. The backlog grows because nothing filters it.
Call it strategy debt. You deliver, but nothing stacks. Every quarter is a fresh start-not by design, by default.
The symptom: your team is busy but the business keeps asking “what has data delivered?”
You need a north star that makes prioritization self-evident. Not a filter-a compass.
Strategy tells you what to build-and what to ignore.
How many items in your backlog would survive a clear north star filter?