Guided ScopeCone walkthrough
Turn planning chaos into predictable roadmaps
This guide walks you through the exact product flow: team setup, project refinement, and roadmap commitments; using demo data.
- Model real capacity with live ScopeCone components
- Refine projects through discovery, refinement, and launch gates
- Watch roadmap delivery scenarios adjust as data change
- • Summer vacations9.6w
- • Support rotation6.4w
- • Launch readiness training3.2w
Why planning weeks implode
Why spreadsheet capacity breaks roadmaps
Teams told us the same story in discovery: planning week starts with wish lists and ends in recovery mode. Sales promises dates before sizing, discovery work gets squeezed out, and platform initiatives lose their runway. By the time delivery squads inherit the roadmap, credibility is already gone.
- Commitments are made before anyone validates the effort, so delivery burns cycles chasing unrealistic dates.
- Discovery and technical work drift because there’s no protected allocation once the roadmap is set.
- After a couple of missed launches, stakeholders stop believing the status updates entirely.
This guide walks step-by-step through the ScopeCone loop that replaces wishful math with real capacity—from team setup through refinement and roadmap commitments.
How ScopeCone Works
One loop from capacity to roadmap
Here’s the loop you’ll walk through—each phase mirrors the ScopeCone product journey.
Build your team capacity model
ScopeCone starts with your actual team: people, allocations, time off.
In the walkthrough you’ll tune the Atlas Orbit crew and watch effective capacity update in real time.
Push work through the discovery kanban
PMs, designers, and engineers hand off work in the live ScopeCone board.
Drag the demo projects across stages and see uncertainty drop from 4.0× down to 1.1×.
Plan realistic roadmaps with real capacity
Slot refined work into committed, target, and stretch lanes.
Stage sliders and scenarios show how those kanban updates roll into roadmap bands.
Team setup
Step 1 · Calibrate team capacity
ScopeCone begins with the people you actually have. Adjust the demo team to see effective squad-weeks update instantly.
- Drag the capacity dial to change customer/technical allocations.
- Toggle unavailable time to mirror vacations or rotations.
- Watch effective capacity and crew splits recalc in the panel.
Features and improvements visible to customers
Refactors and foundational engineering work
Defect fixes and maintenance
Interrupt-driven or unplanned work
Use the controls to balance where the team invests its time. Percentages must add up to 100% before you can save changes.
Unavailable time
Effective capacity
76.8w
Customer facing
46.1w
Technical
19.2w
Buffer
19.2w
- • Summer vacations9.6w
- • Support rotation6.4w
- • Launch readiness training3.2w
Discovery loop
Step 2 · Run the discovery kanban
This is the real kanban you’ll see in ScopeCone. Projects move from idea to launch-ready as PMs, designers, and engineers tighten estimates together.
- Drag a project to the next column to hand it off to the next teammate.
- Each move runs another estimation pass—watch uncertainty drop from 4.0× to 1.1×.
- The floating side sheet highlights who owns the stage and how the estimate shifted.
Capture the bet and set initial guardrails
Platform Reliability Hardening
Address alert fatigue and patch runbooks ahead of peak season.
Incident review showed runbooks drifting, so SRE logged the capacity ask early.
Align stakeholders on scope, value, and definition of done.
Onboarding Flow Refresh
Improve first-week activation with guided setup and signals.
Sales and marketing aligned on which personas needed in-app guidance first.
Prototype, validate, and scope experience details
iOS App Redesign
Modernise navigation and UI while reducing crash rate.
Design partnered with the mobile guild to test prototypes and lock a slimmer flow.
Engineers lock scope, sequence, and risk mitigations for delivery.
Android Performance Fixes
Stabilise frame rate and background sync for Android clients.
Engineering paired with SRE to split the fixes into three sprints and add new monitors.
Interactive kanban loads with your demo data—hang tight.
These refined projects feed the roadmap scenarios in the next step.
Capacity planning
Step 3 · Shape delivery scenarios
Use the same ScopeCone planner you’ll see in production. The refined projects from the kanban and your team’s capacity settings power every scenario here.
Capacity models
| # | Project | Estimate | Scenario Range | Cumulative | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | iOS App Redesign | 4.2w±3.4x | 4.2-14.3w | 4.2w placeholder Best case cumulative: 4.2 weeks | 🟢 |
| 2 | Android Performance Fixes | 1.7w±3.5x | 1.7-6.0w | 5.9w placeholder Best case cumulative: 5.9 weeks | 🟢 |
| 3 | Growth Experiment Pipeline | 3.4w±2.9x | 3.4-9.9w | 9.3w placeholder Best case cumulative: 9.3 weeks | 🟢 |
| 4 | AI Assistant Console | 3.5w±2.9x | 3.5-10.2w | 12.8w placeholder Best case cumulative: 12.8 weeks | 🟢 |
Baseline
Current quarter mix without surprises or staffing shocks.
- Step 1 capacity holds steady at 76.8 weeks in this scenario.
- Customer facing capacity stays at 60% of the 76.8-week window.
- Technical capacity holds steady at 25% to keep platform work funded.
- Keeps the baseline unavailable time steady across this window.
- Use the slider to widen ranges when you rewind to earlier stages or narrow them toward the launch-ready 1.1×× multiplier.
You’re seeing the real ScopeCone capacity widgets with demo data so you can explore the workflow without connecting your org yet.
Toolkit & FAQ
Keep capacity and delivery aligned
These rituals and answers extend the three interactive steps—calibrate capacity, advance work through the kanban, and negotiate delivery scenarios together.
Capacity loop rituals
Capacity calibration
Product and engineering leads reopen the capacity model together whenever priorities shift. They confirm time off, rebalance customer vs. technical allocations, and agree on how much of the next sprint stays earmarked for discovery so the delivery scenarios stay grounded.
Discovery progression
PMs, designers, and engineers make the kanban review a standing habit. Product steers ideas through requirements, design validates experience in the UI/UX stage, and engineering shapes the technical planning pass so uncertainty drops from a wide ±4.0× toward tighter ranges.
Delivery scenario alignment
Once work reaches a confidence level the team is comfortable with, product and engineering leaders sit in the planner together. They decide what fits committed, target, and optional delivery scenarios and record the trade-offs before sharing updates with stakeholders.
Sprint guardrails
During normal sprints, teams reserve capacity for discovery and refinement instead of starving the intake flow. ScopeCone’s allocations dial keeps that split visible so you never fall back into a frantic “planning week.”
Continuous retros
After each cycle, compare what actually shipped against the delivery scenarios you committed. Adjust multiplier guardrails and intake criteria so the capacity, kanban, and planner stay in sync.