VIX Project Roadmap

The project roadmap defines the scope of your project, gives a rough timeline, and sets the responsibilities of each team member. It is okay if it changes over the course of the semester, this is to help you plan out what your team will do, not a set in stone list of requirements for you to achieve.

Your project roadmap should follow the checklist below in terms of content, but get creative in layout and design! Unlike a technical or research document, your VIX project roadmap should be visually enticing and captivating (this is technically a marketing document). Use this document to pitch your project idea. Sell it to us!

The exact format and content changes each semester, so follow the below checklist closely, but here are some examples from previous years.

Upload Product Mockup here – Due Monday June 9 at noon

Upload Project Roadmap here – Due Monday June 16 at noon

Product Mockup

The most important part of your roadmap is the product mockup - what is your end goal? This can be a sketch, 3D model, flow chart, wire diagram, or anything else that helps you visualize and cement your end goal. It can even be a picture of a physical model than you make with mixed materials! Mockups are due a week before roadmaps, and you should think about building your roadmap around your mockup.

The process of making a mockup should help you figure out all the different components you will need, and then you can use that in determining your timeline and assigning tasks to each person when making your roadmap.

Here are some examples from prior semesters.

Roadmap Checklist

○ Team Information

□ Team/project name and logo

□ Team meeting time (must be M-F, 9-5) and meeting place (must be GH1, GH2, or GH3)

○ Members - for each member include:

□ Name

□ Photo

□ 2 goals - these are the goals you will present in subgroup (eg, make art, get better at designing user interface, make money, music, use AI, learning 3D printing, make a sick video, build a usable product…)

○ Project Information

□ One-sentence description of project

□ Market research andNovelty: What is already out there? what are you adding? (eg, making it low-cost / DIY / customizable / modular / faster… or maybe you just want to learn how to do it yourself the same as already exists)

□ Labelled Mockup (sketch, 3D model, or diagram with the most important features labelled)

○ Semester Plan

□ List of supplies and costs (must be < $200)

□ Timeline of specific tasks and assignments (who will do what)

○ Roadmap design

□ Look cool? Make the theme/design express the vibe of your project

□ Readable? Make sure all components are clearly labelled/explained

□ Length? Roadmap can be made as 1-2 horizontal slides or one vertical A4 page

Roadmap / VIX Tips

  • You can use any software to make your roadmap, some popular choices include Canva, Powerpoint, Adobe Express… Feel free to use premade templates or themes, or use GenAI to come up with graphics to accent your roadmap (but not your mockup!)

  • Your target audience for the roadmap should be the general public - not just other sybbure students. It’s okay to make it a little fun and silly, but this WILL be shared with faculty who work with and fund sybbure, so try to include more technical details about your project and some thought into what you want to get out of it. Think of it as your pitch to convince people that your project is cool!

  • You can use ChatGPT or other LLMs to help make a roadmap, but don’t have it just do the whole thing for you. This is an exercise to help you get better at planning and creating a vision for your project.

  • Picking a good VIX project. This is tricky, there is really no way to know ahead of time how good a project will be. What we do know, however, is the more effort and thought you put into VIX, the more you will get out of it. If you try to check boxes mindlessly without putting much thought into what you’re doing, you might get through the semester and you might even end up with a descend deliverable, but what did you really get out of it in that case? On the other hand, if you genuinely try to find something you are passionate about, you will enjoy working on your project more, and you will learn more about yourself and what you want to do in life. VIX projects can become startups (eg, SunPod) or inspire you to pick a field of research for grad school (eg, SyncRun, SickleCell) or become your new favorite hobby or help you realize you hate something you thought you would love.

  • To do well in VIX. If you put in the required hours of work per week and communicate with team sybbure (via slack or in-person), you are doing well in VIX. If you do not do this, you are not doing well in VIX. That’s really all there is to it. Don’t stress, but make sure you are meeting expectations and communicating with us throughout the semester. And remember it’s always okay to pivot if you aren’t enjoying your project, but keep trying to do something cool!