Blog

Our Plan

Mission and Values

2025 Roadmap

Q1 2025 Q2 2025 Q3 2025 Q4 2025 Q1 2026
Key Milestone ✅ Notifications Galore
✅ COUCHERS v1 LAUNCH
Merchandise Mania
Blog It Like You Mean It
App Ahoy
New Features ✅ Push Notifications
✅ Add Members Tab to Communities
✅ Badges
✅ Notifications Feed
✅ Pending Host Request Notification
✅ Strong Verification
✅ Phone Number Verification
✅ Activeness Probes
✅ Donations Portal
✅ Display Username on Profile
✅ Language Picker
Host Address Verification
✅ Feedback Option: "Did Not Stay"
✅ Block / Unblock Members
Event Co-organizers
✅ Remove Friend
Merchandise Store
✅ Event Reminder
Add more Pages to Weblate for Translation
Boost New Users in Search
Integrate Blog in Dashboard
Prepare Android and Apple Apps
Publish Beta-Apps
Updates ✅ Granular Notification Settings
✅ Pretty Notification Emails
✅ Translate Couchers.org to Chinese (Simplified), German & Portuguese (Brazil)
✅ New Chat Bubble Design in Messages
✔️ Tech Debt Upgrades
✅ Rebuild Desktop Map Search
✅ Roadmap Revamp
✅ Blog Revamp
✅ Event Time Picker
✅ Reference System Update
✅ Mobile Map Search
✅ Update Community Page
✔️ Bug Hunt (find and fix bugs)
✔️ Improve Language Selector
Improve Sign-up flow
Translate Couchers to French and Portuguese (Portugal)
Update Blog Design
Operations ✅ Re-engage Previous Volunteers Through Newsletter
✅ Set-up Zulip for Community Builders
✔️ Attract New Volunteers
✔️ Grow Community to 100k Members
✅ Rebranding to Own Identity
✅ Regular Posts on Social Media Accounts
✔️ Design and Produce Merchandise
Welcome Text to New Members from Community Builders
Offer Merchandise
Improve Automated Emails
Create New Page Explaining Couch Surfing
Engage Community to write Blog Posts
Create New Moderation Dashboard for Mods
Create New Page Comparing Couchers

✅Completed ✔️Partially completed

About the Roadmap

Our roadmap is designed around Milestones with quarterly goals in mind, setting realistic timeframes for meaningful progress. However, some tasks may extend into subsequent quarters as needed. To stay adaptable, priorities can shift, items may be postponed indefinitely, and new tasks might be introduced as opportunities arise. This flexibility ensures that we remain focused on delivering value, all while acknowledging that Couchers is powered entirely by the dedication of passionate volunteers working in their free time.

Milestones

We currently build around a quarter-based system of strategic Milestones. We divide the year into calendar quarters, Q1 (Jan to Mar) to Q4 (Oct to Dec) and choose a strategy and development focus that we call a Milestone for each quarter. This helps the various teams at Couchers to rally behind a common goal and have clarity on what they should be working on together. Each strategic milestone is brainstormed and chosen by the Board of Directors along with the core volunteer team using input from the community.

Github Project Boards

Explore the latest updates and detailed information on our ongoing projects by visiting our project board views for Development and Operations on Github which we update regularly. Note that some of the information there may be highly technical in nature and not be accessible to all audiences; and dates or timelines listed there are by no means guaranteed and are only an indication.

Do you have ideas or suggestions

Please let us know at support@couchers.org - we love feedback!
Check out https://couchers.org/volunteer to see how you can contribute.