A product roadmap is a time-ordered view of what a product team plans to build, organized by impact rather than dates. Popularized by the Now/Next/Later format in the 2010s (Janna Bastow, ProdPad), modern roadmaps prioritize outcomes over feature lists. This template organizes initiatives into three time horizons plus a dedicated branch for cross-team dependencies — useful when syncing engineering, design and marketing around the same release.
A product roadmap is a high-level view of what a product team will build and why, organized over time. Unlike a technical timeline with hard dates, modern roadmaps prioritize outcomes (business results) over outputs (features). The format most used today is Now/Next/Later, popularized by Janna Bastow at ProdPad in 2011, which groups initiatives by horizon: Now (in progress, high confidence), Next (next 2-3 months, medium confidence), and Later (possible, low confidence). This structure avoids the problem of date-based roadmaps, which become commitments and erode trust when they slip. A well-crafted roadmap communicates strategy: why we're doing this rather than just what.