Product management glossary
Now, Next, Later roadmap
Definition: A Now, Next, Later roadmap groups work into three horizons instead of exact dates: what the team is working on now, what comes next, and what is planned for later.
The format was popularized as an alternative to date-driven timeline roadmaps, which often promise precision a product team cannot deliver. Grouping work by horizon signals confidence: items in Now are committed, items in Next are likely, and items in Later are ideas that may change.
Now, Next, Later roadmaps suit teams working on outcomes rather than fixed feature lists, and they are easier to share externally because they avoid hard dates.
The weakness is maintenance. When something ships or slips, someone has to move items between columns by hand, and the roadmap quickly goes stale if nobody does.