Now Next Later roadmap template — editable, free
Now, Next and Later sort work by sequence, so what you commit to is order rather than a date. Now is started, Next is agreed, Later is a direction. The items still carry dates underneath — the board ignores them and the timeline views use them.
| View | Groups by | Visible fields |
|---|---|---|
Now, Next, Later | Stage | Name, theme, owner |
Leadership | Theme | Name, stage, quarter — owner and status hidden |
By theme | Theme | Name, stage, dates |
All items | Nothing — one flat list | Name, stage, theme, status, owner |
What does Now, Next, Later commit to?
Order, and nothing else. That’s the whole argument for the format. A quarterly roadmap says this ships in Q1 and that ships in Q2, which is a claim about dates you usually can’t support past the current quarter. Now, Next, Later says this comes before that, which is a claim you can support and won’t have to correct.
The failure mode is relabelling: teams adopt the three columns and then use them to mean this quarter, next quarter, and the one after. At that point the format is a quarterly roadmap with vaguer words, and you’ve given up the format’s one advantage for nothing.
What is in this template?
Eight items across three themes — activation, retention and platform — with a dependency chain and one milestone, so the timeline views have something real to draw. Four views are saved, and they differ in exactly the way the field table above describes.
The Leadership view is the one worth looking at first. It’s the same eight items with a filter that drops Later, grouped by theme, showing quarters and hiding owner and status. Nothing was copied to make it. Change an item in the board and the leadership timeline is already current, which is the difference between a saved view and a slide you rebuild.
How do you keep Later from becoming a backlog?
Put a number on it and hold to it. Later is for things you have decided to do and not yet decided when — perhaps six or eight items. Anything beyond that’s a backlog, and a backlog on a roadmap makes the roadmap unreadable without making the backlog useful.
The related reading here is roadmap for executives, because the fields you hide from a full Later column are the same set, for the same reasons.
Can you export it for a deck?
Yes — any view, at 3840 × 2160, which fills a 16:9 slide without cropping. The export draws the view the way the editor draws it, so the board you approved is the board that lands in the deck.
If you want the meeting advice rather than the format, how to present a roadmap to executives covers what to open with. For a more general starting point, the Roadmap maker opens with eight sample items across three teams.
Common mistakes
Treating Now, Next and Later as this quarter, next quarter and the one after. They’re confidence bands, and relabelling them as quarters gives away the only thing the format buys you.
Letting Later fill up. A Later column with thirty items in it’s a backlog wearing a roadmap’s clothes, and nobody reads it.
Adding exact dates to every item anyway. If each item has a date, the columns are decoration and you have a Gantt chart with extra steps.
Using one view for every audience. The leadership view exists so you don’t have to hide the owner column by hand before each meeting.
Questions
What is the difference between Now, Next, Later and a quarterly roadmap?
A quarterly roadmap commits to when. Now, Next, Later commits to order. It’s the better fit whenever your confidence drops off past the current quarter, which is most of the time.
How many items should be in Now?
As many as the team can actually hold, which is usually three to five. Now is a statement about capacity, and a Now column of twelve items isn’t describing anything.
Can I add dates to this template?
The items already carry start and end dates, drawn as quarters. The board ignores them and the timelines use them, which is the point of keeping one set of items.
Does the file work anywhere else?
It’s plain JSON with readable field names, so it opens in any text editor and reads sensibly in a diff.
Related
- Roadmap for executivesFour fields to show, two to hide, and why each call goes the way it does.
- How to present a roadmap to executivesWhat to open with, what to hide, and how to keep the dependency question from taking the meeting.
- Roadmap makerAdd items, get a table, a board and a timeline, and an image sized for your slide.
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