Free template

Free product roadmap template, outcomes first

A Now / Next / Later roadmap for a small team. It starts with the outcomes you want, commits only to what is actually being built, and keeps the ideas you are not doing yet out of the promises. Copy it or download it as Markdown.

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product-roadmap-template.md

Product roadmap: [Product name]

Overview

Who owns this roadmap and what period it covers.

Product: [Name]
Owner: [Person who decides what moves between columns]
Covers: [Quarter or number of months]
Last reviewed: [Date]

Direction

Three sentences at most: where the product is going, for whom, and why now.

Over the next [period], we are focused on [direction] for [customer], because [what you have learned].

Outcomes

The changes you want to see for users or the business. Two or three. Every item below should serve one of them.

Outcome A: [A change you can observe, such as more teams finishing onboarding]
Outcome B: [A second observable change]
Outcome C: [Optional third]

When to use it

A roadmap is a statement of direction, not a delivery schedule. Use it to agree priorities and to explain them to people who are not in every meeting.

After the first release, when there are more ideas than people to build them
When investors, customers or a new hire ask what comes next
At the start of each quarter, to decide what moves from Next to Now
When the team keeps being pulled between requests with no way to say no

The template

The complete template

Everything below is included when you copy or download it. Replace the [bracketed] blanks and delete the guidance lines as you go.

product-roadmap-template.md

Product roadmap: [Product name]

Replace everything in [brackets]. Only Now is a commitment. Next is a plan and Later is a list of bets. Review it on a fixed rhythm and keep the old versions, so a change of direction is visible rather than silent.

01Overview

Who owns this roadmap and what period it covers.

Product: [Name]
Owner: [Person who decides what moves between columns]
Covers: [Quarter or number of months]
Last reviewed: [Date]

02Direction

Three sentences at most: where the product is going, for whom, and why now.

Over the next [period], we are focused on [direction] for [customer], because [what you have learned].

03Outcomes

The changes you want to see for users or the business. Two or three. Every item below should serve one of them.

Outcome A: [A change you can observe, such as more teams finishing onboarding]
Outcome B: [A second observable change]
Outcome C: [Optional third]

04Now: committed

Work that is being built. Each row links to the requirement or issue it comes from, and has one owner.

Item	Outcome	Requirement or issue	Owner	Status
[What is being built]	[A / B / C]	[REQ-012 or issue link]	[Name]	[In progress / In review]
[What is being built]	[A / B / C]	[REQ-015 or issue link]	[Name]	[Not started]

05Next: planned

Likely to start once Now is done. Not a promise. Say why it is next, and what would have to be true first.

Item	Outcome	Why next	Must be true first
[Planned item]	[A / B / C]	[Reason]	[Dependency or open question]
[Planned item]	[A / B / C]	[Reason]	[Dependency or open question]

06Later: exploring

Ideas worth keeping. Each one names what you would need to learn before it could move to Next.

[Idea]: [What we would need to learn first]
[Idea]: [What we would need to learn first]

07Not doing

Requests you have decided against, and why. Keeping them here stops the same debate every month.

[Request]: [Why not, and what would change our mind]

08Risks and dependencies

What could stop the Now column, and who is watching it.

[Risk or dependency] (mitigation: [plan], owner: [name])
[Risk or dependency] (mitigation: [plan], owner: [name])

09Review

A roadmap nobody reviews becomes fiction. Decide the rhythm and where changes are recorded.

Reviewed: [Every two weeks / monthly]
Changes recorded in: [Where the previous version and the reason for the change live]
Shared with: [Team, investors, customers, and which version each sees]

Atrix AI

Do this with Atrix AI

Atrix does not draw a roadmap chart. It keeps the pieces a roadmap is made of live, so the Now column is always the truth.

Stages for every product
Each project sits in a stage (idea, validating, building, launched or paused), and its page shows the steps of the current mode and which one comes next.
Agreed requirements become work
Accepted requirements break into epics, stories and tasks that land in the backlog. Each issue names the requirement key it serves, and nothing enters the plan until a person pulls it in.
One board, one record
Issues move from backlog to done on the project board, so the committed column of your roadmap is simply what the board says is in progress.

FAQ

Questions, answered

What is a Now / Next / Later roadmap?

A roadmap in three columns instead of a timeline. Now is committed work, Next is planned, and Later is ideas being explored. It avoids promising dates for work nobody has scoped yet.

Should a roadmap have dates?

Only where a date is real, such as a regulatory deadline or a launch you have announced. Dates on unscoped work are guesses that get read as commitments.

How often should we update the roadmap?

On a fixed rhythm, usually every two weeks or monthly for a small team. Keep the previous version so anyone can see what changed and why.

What is the difference between a roadmap and a backlog?

The roadmap says what outcomes you are pursuing and in what order. The backlog is the list of concrete work. Items in Now should point at backlog issues; items in Later usually should not have issues yet.

Is the template free?

Yes. Copy it or download it as Markdown without signing up.

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