What is a Now / Next / Later roadmap?
Now / Next / Later roadmaps are how many product teams avoid promising dates they can't keep. Here's how they work and how to keep one honest.
Updated
Definition
A Now / Next / Later roadmap groups work by certainty instead of dates. Now is committed and in progress, Next is planned and being shaped, and Later is direction you're exploring.
What it is in practice
Date-based roadmaps look precise but go wrong fast: everything past the next few weeks is a guess, and the guesses get read as promises. Now / Next / Later is honest about that. The further right an item sits, the less certain it is.
Now holds work the team has committed to and started. It can carry dates, because the work is understood. Next holds work being shaped: the problem is clear, the solution is being worked out. Later holds direction: problems worth solving that haven't been explored yet.
Each item works best tied to an objective, so the roadmap says why as well as what. Items move left as they become more certain, and the roadmap is reviewed regularly, usually monthly or at each planning round.
An example from Pulse Analytics
In the Meridian Labs demo, the Pulse Analytics roadmap could read like this. Now: Self-serve dashboards, which is in progress with a target date. Next: the Governed metric catalogue, which is planned and being shaped. Later: problems like historic event backfill that the team wants to explore. Stakeholders can see what is committed without mistaking Later for a promise.
Common mistakes
- Putting dates on Later items, which turns direction back into promises.
- An overloaded Now column. If everything is Now, nothing is really committed.
- Listing features without the objective they serve.
- Updating the roadmap only when someone asks for it, so it drifts from the work.
How Ondule handles this
In Ondule, the roadmap is built from the product's objectives, milestones and epics, so it moves when the work does instead of being maintained as a separate slide.
Questions
- Does a Now / Next / Later roadmap have dates?
- Usually only in Now, where the work is committed and understood.
- How often should it be updated?
- Whenever work changes column, and reviewed at least monthly or at each planning round.
- Who is a Now / Next / Later roadmap for?
- Anyone who needs to know what's coming: stakeholders, sales, support and the team itself.