Ditch the Gantt Chart:
Now, Next, Later

Janna Bastow

CEO & Co-founder, ProdPad
Co-founder, Mind the Product

OCT 16 2022

The Framework

Now · Next · Later

"The value isn't in your roadmap — the value is in the roadmapping process."

Invented at ProdPad after every customer team slipped their Gantt deadlines
No mandatory dates — certainty decreases as you look further out
Works on Post-It Notes; the tool follows the mindset
Hard dates still OK for genuine constraints (regulation, seasonality)

Core Idea

Your Roadmap Is a Prototype for Your Strategy

300K

Mind the Product members

200+

ProductTank cities worldwide

columns replace infinite Gantt rows

A roadmap is a communication tool, not a delivery commitment — its job is to surface and test assumptions
Share early assumptions with teammates, customers, anyone who will listen — the value is the conversation, not the doc
When stakeholders push back, the prototype is working — update it, don't defend it
Soft launch (dev ships when done) before hard launch (marketing fanfare) kills the deadline-alignment problem between dev and marketing entirely
Marketing gets working software to build campaigns from, not designer mockups of something that may still change

Why teams miss every timeline roadmap ProdPad saw the same pattern in every early customer: month two, everyone asked to move everything one month to the right. Not just poor PMs — the best PMs. The timeline format was manufacturing false certainty, not accountability.

Deep Dive

Why Timeline Roadmaps Are Broken — And the Fix

The root problem

A Gantt roadmap puts a timeline on the X-axis. That forces every idea to get a due date — even ideas 12 months out where no one knows the scope. The format creates false precision and pressure to commit to fiction. Big teams that over-plan often ship slower than tiny teams that just build.

The cone of uncertainty

The further out you plan, the less you know. Now, Next, Later maps directly to this — high certainty now, low certainty later. Hard dates are still allowed for genuine external constraints (GDPR, school-year start, Christmas rush) but stop penalising every other item with fake precision.

PMs aren't bad at delivery — timeline roadmaps are structurally broken. Every PM Janna surveyed slipped their Gantt dates.
Sales teams never give exact delivery dates on pipeline deals — they give a process and a probability. PMs deserve the same respect.
Product can make the same argument: invest a quarter's budget, run X experiments, some fail, some succeed — by Q-end the right metrics move, same as sales.
Psychological safety enables retrospectives, which enable teams to change their own process, which naturally produces discovery-led culture.
Culture calcifies — change it pocket by pocket. Find one strong leader, run a startup-lab experiment, let results do the talking, then spread outward.

"Your sales team isn't asked to give exact dates on their deals. They give a process. PMs deserve the same respect."

Tactics

How to Ship This Inside Your Company

Start with a single willing team — don't try to convert the whole org at once
Once 2–3 groups run Now·Next·Later independently, band them together to get VP-level air cover
Frame the business case as competitive survival — fintech, health, edu all have startups nipping at incumbents' heels
Run retrospectives first — they signal psychological safety, which unlocks everything else
Use tools that make bad practices structurally hard: no dates field = no false promises
Ask "what problem does this solve?" before any idea enters the roadmap; embed outcome reviews after each item ships

What great product teams share Continuous customer discovery + psychological safety. Teams that can question leadership and each other naturally evolve past Gantt charts into outcome-driven roadmaps.

Contrarian

Roadmap Myths That Cost Teams Months

✗ Roadmaps need dates on everything INSTEAD → ✓ Dates on distant items are fiction. Only genuine external constraints need a date. Everything else gets a column: Now, Next, or Later.

✗ Missing a deadline means the PM failed INSTEAD → ✓ Every PM Janna surveyed missed their Gantt dates. The format was broken, not the PM. Accountability comes from outcomes, not from hitting made-up delivery numbers.

✗ Marketing needs a launch date before dev even starts INSTEAD → ✓ Soft-launch first (ship when done), then hand working software to marketing for the hard launch. Better campaigns, zero deadline stress, real beta-user testimonials.

✗ More planning = faster, more predictable shipping INSTEAD → ✓ Certainty theater burns the very time it was meant to protect. Tiny teams that just build often out-ship large teams drowning in planning rituals.