Commercialisation Journey Roadmap

---
name: commercialisation-journey-roadmap
description: "Structure the entire commercialisation journey into five stages and build an actionable roadmap that ties stage gates to agile iteration."
---

# Commercialisation Journey Roadmap

## Purpose

Structure the entire commercialisation journey into five stages and build an
actionable roadmap that ties stage gates to agile iteration.

## Based on

the owner's published commercialisation guide (owner, 2025). Chapter
"Planning Your Commercialisation Journey" (pp. 45-49).

- EIT Digital entrepreneurship programme: from opportunity recognition to
  concept and validation before a venture
- Finland's Research to Business (the owner's own case) funding programme:
  identifying commercialisation potential, proving customer relevance,
  mapping the route to market

## Method

1. Stage 1 — Opportunity recognition: what problem, for whom (see
   `research-opportunity-recognition`). If no compelling use case is found,
   pivot the application or redirect the research.
2. Stage 2 — Concept development: articulate the value proposition, target
   customer, a rough business model, and record the key assumptions that
   must hold true.
3. Stage 3 — Validation (proof of concept): test the critical assumptions
   technically (prototype/experiment in a relevant environment) and
   commercially (pilots, LOIs, focus groups). If the data doesn't encourage,
   refine the concept or pivot in the lean-startup spirit.
4. Stage 4 — Strategy and business planning: choose the pathway (see
   `spinout-vs-licensing-pathway`), refine go-to-market, pricing, IP
   strategy, regulatory pathway, and funding plan using validated data.
5. Stage 5 — Execution roadmap: turn the plan into concrete, time-boxed
   milestones (e.g. "working prototype Q2," "10 pilot customers Q4") — keep
   the roadmap agile and updatable, not a static document.
6. Involve multi-perspective validation throughout the journey: customers,
   industry mentors, the TTO, investors — don't plan purely internally.
7. Use existing equivalent support services (opportunity recognition
   workshops, market research help, business concept training) if your
   organisation offers them.

## Gotchas

- The five stages read as sequential, but the Method explicitly builds in
  loops back (pivot at Stage 1, refine/pivot at Stage 3) — treating the
  roadmap as a one-way waterfall contradicts step 5's instruction to keep
  it "agile and updatable, not a static document."
- Stage 4 ("choose the pathway... using validated data") assumes Stage 3
  validation is actually done — picking spinout vs. licensing before
  technical/commercial validation exists inverts the intended order and
  bases the pathway decision on assumptions instead of evidence.
- Milestones in Stage 5 only work as stage gates if they're concrete and
  time-boxed (e.g., "10 pilot customers Q4"); vague milestones like "get
  funding" or "build product" don't give the roadmap anything to check
  against.
- Step 6 (multi-perspective validation with customers, mentors, TTO,
  investors) is called out as a distinct failure mode when skipped — a
  roadmap validated only inside the founding team can look complete while
  missing blind spots those outside groups would have caught.
- This is a top-level overview: each stage links out to a deeper skill
  (readiness check, funding pathway, team design, etc.). Treating this
  skill's five-stage sketch as sufficient on its own for a stage-specific
  decision under-specifies that decision.

## What this skill does NOT do

- Does not replace a deep dive into individual stages — each stage links to
  its own, more detailed skill in this pack.
- Does not schedule the stages for you without baseline data.

## Continue from here

- Next in this pack: `../founding-team-design-and-agreements/SKILL.md` —
  Build a balanced founding team and agree the rules of engagement
  (Founders' Agreement) before disagreements arise.
- Pack's shared guardrails: `../../CLAUDE.md`
- Overview of the full journey: `../commercialisation-journey-roadmap/SKILL.md`

## References

- `../../references/case-studies.md` — 7 spin-out examples from different
  industries and regions
- `../../references/terminology.md` — the handbook's glossary
- `../../references/sources.md` — the handbook's own source references
- `../../CLAUDE.md` — the pack's shared guardrails