Red Routes

What are Red Routes?

Red routes are the core user journeys your product must support perfectly. The term comes from London’s Underground—red routes are the main lines that carry the most traffic. Everything else is secondary.

For an e-commerce site, red routes are: browsing products, reading reviews, adding to cart, checking out, and contacting support. Everything else (wishlists, recommendations, social sharing) is nice-to-have.

For a note-taking app, red routes are: create note, read note, edit note, search notes, and share note. Everything else (templates, themes, collaboration) is secondary.

Red routes force prioritization. You can’t build everything equally. You can’t test everything with equal depth. Identify red routes and invest there.

One sentence punch: Red routes separate what your product is about from what’s just features.**

Why is it important?

• Forces Ruthless Prioritization: When you identify 5 core journeys, you immediately know what’s secondary. A feature that doesn’t support a red route is questionable.
• Improves Quality: If you test the top 5 journeys exhaustively and the next 15 journeys receive surface-level testing, quality improves overall. Resources flow to what matters most.
• Aligns Teams: Designers, developers, and PMs often disagree on priorities. Red routes are the arbiter. “Does this feature support a red route?” If not, why are we building it?
• Prevents Feature Bloat: Every product ship asks “what about this feature?” Red routes answer: “Does it support a core journey? No? It waits.”

How to Identify Red Routes

1. List all user journeys — Every path through your product. “Browse products,” “Add to cart,” “Checkout,” “Contact support,” etc. Get them all out.
2. Count usage — Which journeys do most users take? Which journeys generate most revenue? Which journeys have highest abandonment? Data answers this.
3. Prioritize ruthlessly — Rank by usage, revenue, and impact. Select the top 5. Not 10. Not “3-7 depending on the week.” Exactly 5.
4. Define each journey — For each red route, map the steps. “Add to cart” involves: find product, view product, select options, confirm, see confirmation. Document the full path.
5. Measure — Add analytics to every step. Conversion rate at each step reveals where users struggle.
6. Iterate — As the product evolves, revisit red routes. New routes may emerge. Old routes may become secondary.

Red Route vs Nice-to-Have

A red route is:

• Frequently used by most users
• Contributes to core business goals
• Creates revenue or engagement
• Has high abandonment risk if broken
• Involves multiple steps and potential friction points

A nice-to-have is:

• Used by some users, not most
• Doesn’t directly impact core goals
• Doesn’t generate revenue
• Low abandonment risk if missing
• Relatively simple and low-friction

Mentor Tips

• First tip: Red routes aren’t just popular. A feature can be popular but not essential. A red route is essential to your core value proposition. “Sharing” might be popular, but if it doesn’t directly enable your core purpose, it’s secondary.
• Redefine red routes quarterly. As your product grows, red routes shift. New user segments introduce new critical journeys. Monitor and update.
• Design red routes first. When redesigning, start with red routes. Get them perfect. Then move to secondary journeys. This approach ensures your core experience is strongest.
• Test red routes with real users. Don’t assume you know the journey. Watch users attempt a red route. Where do they stumble? That’s where design effort should flow.

Resources and Tools

• Books: “Inspired” by Marty Cagan (defines core user journeys), “The Lean Product Playbook” by Dan Olsen
• Tools: Miro for mapping red routes, analytics tools for identifying usage patterns, user testing platforms
• Articles: User journey mapping on Nielsen Norman, red routes discussion on UX Collective