Ask Teresa: My Leaders Still Want Roadmaps with Timelines—What Should I Do?

Teresa Torres argues that product teams should not commit to specific features by specific dates, because product work is inherently unpredictable and date-based roadmaps tend to create chaos, broken trust, and wasted effort. She acknowledges that leaders often have legitimate needs for coordination, and suggests roadmap formats like Now Next Later that communicate priorities without overcommitting. Her central advice is to avoid an ideological fight over deadlines, meet stakeholders where they are, and gradually introduce opportunities and outcomes into the roadmap they already use. The piece matters because product leaders frequently face this exact pressure from executives and need practical ways to keep credibility while protecting honest planning.

01Key takeaways

• Commit to outcomes each quarter rather than specific features on specific dates, since estimates and solutions are unreliable.
• Use a Now Next Later style roadmap to show current, upcoming, and future work with decreasing certainty.
• Avoid debating deadlines in principle; first deliver the format stakeholders are asking for and build from there.
• Connect each planned output to the outcome it drives so that descoping or delays feel like progress toward the goal.
• Introduce change incrementally, starting with small adjustments that receptive stakeholders can accept.
• Explain your decision-making process and progress toward goals, and limit promises about what ships in later quarters.

02Key sections

Why date-based roadmaps fall short

Torres explains that product outcomes are uncertain, so committing to features on fixed dates sets unrealistic expectations and forces constant defense of deviations. She contrasts this with sales and marketing, which commit to outcomes rather than specific deals or campaigns.

Where roadmaps still add value

She clarifies that her objection is to date-committed feature lists, not roadmaps in general. Now Next Later formats communicate current, upcoming, and future work while signaling growing uncertainty over time.

Don't fight the ideological war

Rather than arguing about deadlines, start by giving stakeholders the feature-based roadmap they request and meet people where they are. Change works better through small steps they can accept.

Start small and iterate

Use the existing roadmap artifact to attach each output to the outcome it drives, so scope changes and delays are framed around the opportunity being addressed. Ellen Juhlin's example shows how a spreadsheet roadmap can gradually introduce outcomes.

Communicate vision and process

Shift the conversation from feature lists to how decisions are made and progress toward goals. Tell teams and customers about the next release, but avoid promising distant features that are likely to change.

03From the post

“Many teams, like sales and marketing, have time-bound goals, like reaching $X in bookings or generating Y leads by a specific date. Product teams are also held to time-bound goals. Empowered product teams, for example, are asked to deliver outcomes each quarter. But sometimes companies take this too”

04Frameworks mentioned

Summary and takeaways written by PM Atlas; quotes are short excerpts. © the original author.