The Commercial Roadmap:
go-to-market planning
cross-functional roadmap design
strategic planning
I was brought in to build a go-to-market plan for a prescription digital therapeutic startup in a market category that barely existed.
My role was to create an execution-ready roadmap with 500+ sequenced actions that could flex across different funding and regulatory scenarios, providing the structure needed to build commercial functions from scratch.
The Problem
The client, a pre-Series A digital health startup, had received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation for their mobile app and hired their first Chief Commercial Officer. They needed a comprehensive commercialization plan to secure Board approval for hiring the personnel required to execute a product launch, but their product category had no established playbook in the U.S. market. Traditional pharmaceutical launch frameworks didn't translate: there was no manufacturing or distribution to manage, but the mechanics of how doctors would prescribe an app, how insurance would reimburse it, and how patients would access it were entirely unproven. The company had no sales, marketing, or market access functions, and their Phase II trial was still enrolling. They needed a plan detailed enough to guide immediate hiring decisions yet flexible enough to adapt as regulatory milestones unfolded and funding scenarios changed.
The Solution
I built a comprehensive launch roadmap from scratch over two to three months. Using a traditional pharmaceutical launch template as a starting point, I systematically evaluated which activities applied to a digital therapeutic and which needed to be reimagined or created entirely. I designed an interactive Excel-based roadmap with over 500 action items structured by function, sequenced by timeline and dependencies, and equipped with toggle switches that allowed the client to model different funding scenarios. For critical functions like sales force sizing, I developed detailed recommendations with multiple approaches based on varying business objectives and resource constraints. The roadmap covered functions that didn't yet exist at the company, providing the structure needed to build these teams from the ground up. The company used this roadmap to secure $10M in Series B funding and executed the plan to achieve FDA authorization on April 15, 2025, making their app the first prescription digital therapeutic for its indication in the United States.
My Approach
The first order of business is rapid immersion in digital therapeutics, a domain that was completely new to me. I came to realize that they occupy a strange middle ground: regulated like medical devices, prescribed like drugs, distributed like consumer software. I had access to a “commercialization template,” but I had to make many judgment calls about what to keep, discard, and invent based on my newfound understanding of digital therapeutics and its unique market dynamics. For example, we needed entirely new workstreams around the prescription-to-download patient journey, insurance verification processes, and provider education to overcome skepticism.
The key design decision was making the roadmap interactive and scenario-responsive. I built in funding toggle switches so the client could instantly see which activities could be deferred or accelerated depending on capital raised. I focused on sequencing and dependencies because the client needed to make hiring decisions immediately even though FDA approval was uncertain. The roadmap had to work backward from a potential launch date while accounting for regulatory milestones that might shift. Given the uncertainties ahead, I designed the launch plan to adapt to foreseeable scenarios so it would remain useful as circumstances evolved.
Core Skills Leveraged
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This project required imposing structure on a fundamentally undefined market category. Prescription digital therapeutics had no established commercial models, no playbooks, no precedents for provider adoption or payer reimbursement. I deconstructed traditional pharma launches and systematically evaluated each component against digital product realities. If there's no physical distribution, what replaces those workstreams? If providers are skeptical an app can be therapeutic, what education do we need? I created a framework bridging the known and unknown, organizing 500+ activities into a coherent roadmap with functional ownership, sequencing, and dependencies. The interactive elements — funding scenario toggles and dependency mapping — acknowledged uncertainty while providing a clear path forward. This structure allowed this client company with no commercial organization to see exactly what needed to be built, in what order, and why.
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I made judgment calls balancing best practices against practical constraints throughout. When adapting the pharmaceutical template, I decided what was necessary versus nice-to-have, what could be sequenced in parallel versus what had true dependencies, and where assumptions were reasonable. In sizing the sales force, I assessed multiple scenarios based on different commercial strategies with different resource implications and risk profiles. I made calls about detail levels: hiring timelines required granular specificity because these were immediate decisions, while messaging strategies could remain conceptual since those functions didn't exist yet. This judgment about where to go deep versus stay high-level kept the roadmap useful rather than overwhelming. The Excel roadmap's flexibility and scenario planning prepared my client to demonstrate to the company’s board and investors how the company could adapt to different outcomes.
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I owned end-to-end delivery while directing a team of two analysts and integrating inputs from multiple sources. I designed the Excel structure, made critical adaptation decisions, and ensured every component fit into a coherent story. I directed my analysts on research, formatting, and data entry while owning quality control and integration. I consulted my manager for pharma launch expertise but made final calls about what applied to this novel market. I drove the project through client interactions with the Chief Commercial Officer, presenting iterations and adjusting based on evolving priorities. The execution challenge was maintaining coherence across 500+ action items while adapting to a market being defined in real time. The client used our roadmap to secure funding and executed the plan to achieve FDA authorization, validating that what I built was genuinely execution-ready.
