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Glossary
Roadmap & strategy

What is Initiative?

An initiative is a high-level strategic effort that groups related projects, epics, and tasks together to achieve a specific business outcome. It serves as the bridge between the high-level product vision and the tactical work performed by development teams over several months or quarters.

When to use it

Teams should use initiatives to organize their roadmap around outcomes rather than just lists of features. Use them when you need to coordinate multiple workstreams toward a single strategic goal, such as expanding into a new market or improving user retention, providing stakeholders with a clear view of the 'why' behind the work.

Example

A SaaS team aiming to increase their trial-to-paid conversion rate by 20% might create an initiative titled 'Self-Serve Onboarding Excellence.' This initiative would coordinate several epics, such as implementing an interactive product tour, redesigning the billing page, and creating a library of automated tutorial emails. By grouping these efforts, the product manager can report on the collective success of the conversion goal rather than just the status of individual features.

How Planet Roadmap helps with Initiative

Planet Roadmap has an OKR tree view that lets you nest initiatives directly under your strategic objectives to visualize how every project contributes to your top-level goals.

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FAQ

How is an initiative different from an epic?
An epic is a discrete unit of work that can be broken down into specific user stories, typically completed within a few weeks. An initiative is a broader strategic bucket that often spans multiple quarters and encompasses several different epics to achieve a single business result.
How many initiatives should a team have active at once?
To maintain focus and ensure resource allocation is effective, most organizations should limit themselves to 3–5 active initiatives per department. Focusing on a small number of high-impact initiatives prevents team burnout and increases the likelihood of achieving significant progress on key metrics.

Related terms

Product StrategyRoadmapObjectiveOKRThemeEpicMilestoneValue vs Effort Matrix

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