Create a Team Career Roadmap

A team career roadmap is a structured set of goals, milestones, and tasks for someone (or your whole team) showing how they'll develop over the next 12–18 months.

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Before You Start

• Invite your team members to Mentora (see Team Management)
• Ask them to set their Career Vision
• Schedule a meeting with them to discuss their roadmap

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Step 1: Align on Vision

In your 1:1 with the employee:

• Discuss their career vision
• Agree on 2–3 main goals to pursue in the next 12–18 months
• Identify any skills or experiences they need

Example conversation:

You: "Sarah, you want to become a Tech Lead. What do you think that journey looks like?"

Sarah: "I need to get really strong in system design and learn how to lead projects."

You: "Great. So let's create goals around that. How about 'Master System Design' and 'Lead a Major Cross-Team Project'?"

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Step 2: Create Goals

Back in Mentora, create the goals you agreed on:

For each goal:

1. Go to Goals
2. Click New Goal
3. Enter:
   • Title — e.g., "Master System Design"
   • Description — Why this matters
   • Start Date — When they'll start
   • Target Date — 6–12 months out
   • Assigned to — The team member
4. Click Create

Create 2–4 goals per person. More than that feels overwhelming.

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Step 3: Add Milestones

For each goal, break it into 2–4 milestones:

1. Click the goal to open it
2. Click Add Milestone
3. Enter:
   • Title — e.g., "Complete System Design Course"
   • Target Date — 2–4 months after start
4. Click Create

Milestones should be 3–4 months apart.

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Step 4: Add Tasks

For each milestone, add 3–5 tasks:

1. Click the milestone to open it
2. Click Add Task
3. Enter:
   • Title — e.g., "Enroll in course"
   • Priority — Medium or High
   • Due Date — 1–2 weeks after start
4. Click Create

Tasks are the weekly work that moves progress forward.

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Step 5: Review Together

In a follow-up meeting:

1. Show your employee the roadmap in Mentora
2. Walk through each goal, milestone, and task
3. Ask: "Does this feel realistic? What would help?"
4. Adjust dates or add details based on feedback
5. Agree on a check-in schedule (every 2–4 weeks)

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Example Roadmap

Goal: Become a Tech Lead (12-month roadmap)

Milestone 1: Complete Leadership Training (3 months)

• Task: Enroll in leadership course
• Task: Complete first 4 modules
• Task: Apply learnings in team meetings

Milestone 2: Lead a Major Project (6 months)

• Task: Scope the project with stakeholders
• Task: Set up team and processes
• Task: Deliver the project on time
• Task: Conduct retrospective

Milestone 3: Get Promoted (12 months)

• Task: Discuss promotion criteria with manager
• Task: Document impact and readiness
• Task: Formally request promotion

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Tips

• Make milestones specific and time-bound — "3 months" beats "sometime soon"
• Use realistic timelines — Don't pack 24 months into 12 months
• Involve the employee — They should help create their roadmap, not just receive it
• Build in buffer time — Real work happens too; don't overbook their calendar
• Update regularly — Review progress every 4 weeks and adjust as needed

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For Your Whole Team

To create roadmaps for multiple people:

1. Have individual conversations with each person
2. Create goals and milestones for each
3. Look for overlapping goals and opportunities to collaborate
4. Use the Team Page to see everyone's progress at once

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Troubleshooting

The roadmap feels too long

Reduce it to 2 main goals instead of 3–4. You can always add more later.

My employee doesn't want a structured roadmap

That's okay. You can still track their progress in Mentora with just goals (no milestones or tasks). The structure is a tool, not a requirement.

I'm not sure what goals to create

Ask them: "What would make you a stronger engineer?" or "What's blocking you from getting the role you want?" Their answers usually become goals.