Three-Horizon Roadmap Template
Now/Next/Later roadmap format with explicit discovery, delivery, and investment phases, suitable for board and customer-facing reviews.
What this template covers
Product ops teams are often asked to standardize the company's roadmap format. This template uses the Three Horizon model (Now, Next, Later) rather than month-by-month Gantt charts, communicating intent without committing to premature dates. Each horizon includes columns for discovery stage, confidence, customer-problem statement, and success criteria. Use it as the default artifact for board decks, sales decks, and internal reviews.
The template
# Three-Horizon Roadmap — [Product / Team] **Last updated:** YYYY-MM-DD **Owner:** ___________ **Audience:** Internal team / Sales / Board (delete as needed) --- ## How to read this roadmap - **Now** = in active discovery or delivery, this quarter. - **Next** = committed for the following quarter, problem is well understood, scoping in progress. - **Later** = on the radar but not yet shaped. Order is directional, not a queue. - **Confidence** is the team's belief that the work will ship in the named quarter, on a 1-10 scale. We do not publish dates. We publish problems and confidence. Dates change weekly. Problems do not. --- ## Now (this quarter) | Theme | Problem we're solving | Discovery status | Confidence | Target | Owner | Stakeholders | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Activation | New users who hit the empty-state dashboard churn within 7 days | In delivery | 8 | This Q | Maya (PM) | Onboarding eng, Lifecycle marketing | | Trust | Power users do not understand why our model rejected their input | In discovery | 5 | This Q | Sam (PM) | ML, Support | | | | | | | | | ## Next (committed for next quarter) | Theme | Problem we're solving | Discovery status | Confidence | Target | Owner | Stakeholders | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Expansion | Mid-market customers cap out at the 5-seat tier and downgrade | Shaping | 6 | Next Q | Jordan (PM) | Sales, Billing | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ## Later (directional, not committed) | Theme | Problem we're solving | Why later, not now | Owner | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Internationalization | EU and APAC customers ask for local-language support | Waiting on infra investment in i18n pipeline | TBD | | Mobile | 14% of WAUs are on mobile and bounce on key flows | Need to confirm the user research thesis first | TBD | | | | | | --- ## Out of scope this year Be explicit. This is the row leadership reads first. - _Example: rebuilding the legacy admin console. Revisit Q4 of next year._ - _Example: native integrations beyond the top 5. Partner-led only._ --- ## Change log Track every move between horizons. Roadmaps without a change log are fiction. | Date | Item | From | To | Why | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | YYYY-MM-DD | Activation theme | Next | Now | Pulled in after Q_ data showed 7-day churn worsening | | | | | | |
When to use it
- Replacing a Gantt-style roadmap
- Board deck roadmap slide
- Sales and CSM enablement
- Cross-functional planning input
How to adapt it
Copy the template above into Google Docs, Sheets, Notion, Airtable, or Confluence. Keep the section order intact, later sections often reference data entered earlier. Replace the example values with your own, then review quarterly and re-circulate to stakeholders.
Related templates
Two-day offsite agenda for quarterly planning, with pre-reads, async inputs, and decision outputs defined upfront.
Quarterly OKR worksheet tuned for product operations leaders, outcomes over output, with confidence scoring and mid-quarter check-ins.
Templates are drafted from public Product Operations research and reviewed by practicing PO leaders. Free to copy and modify for internal company use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Product ops teams are often asked to standardize the company's roadmap format. This template uses the Three Horizon model (Now, Next, Later) rather than month-by-month Gantt charts, communicating intent without committing to premature dates. Each horizon includes columns for discovery stage, confidence, customer-problem statement, and success criteria. Use it as the default artifact for board decks, sales decks, and internal reviews.
This template is written for Product Operations teams at software companies sized 50-500 employees. Common use cases include: Replacing a Gantt-style roadmap; Board deck roadmap slide; Sales and CSM enablement.
The template is designed as a Google Sheet. Copy the structure directly into your own Google Docs, Sheets, Notion, or Airtable workspace. No attribution is required for internal company use.
Start with the section structure exactly as published, then modify field names to match your organization's vocabulary. Most teams complete a first pass in 30 minutes and a polished version within one working week.