The Ad. Product Backlog Management Course — Tools (4): GO Product Roadmap and the Now-Next-Later Roadmap

Let us continue discussing Product Backlog Management tools that support empowered product teams in discovering solutions, aligning stakeholders, and delivering measurable outcomes.

In this update on the course, I will compare Roman Pichler’s GO Product Roadmap and Janna Bastow’s Now-Next-Later Roadmap—the 25,000 feet level in the alignment model of the course:

Advantages of the GO Product Roadmap over the Now-Next-Later Roadmap

1. Time Frame Awareness: The GO Product Roadmap includes timelines for alignment with both internal and external stakeholders, making it appropriate for products with urgent launch schedules or market demands.
2. Goal-Centric Approach: This approach emphasizes specific product goals, aligning development with strategic objectives and ensuring that every feature contributes to these goals.
3. Feature Limitation: Limiting the number of features per goal maintains focus and avoids feature creep, ensuring streamlined and effective development efforts.
4. Measurable Outcomes: Including metrics enables specific measurement of goal achievement, offering clear indicators of success and areas needing improvement.
5. Product Value Focus: The roadmap directly ties features to the value they add to the product, aligning development with user needs and business objectives.

1. Prioritization and Flexibility: This roadmap is highly adaptable. It focuses on what’s currently in progress, what’s next, and what’s planned for the future, allowing for changes based on feedback and market conditions.
2. Clarity in Immediate Tasks: The “Now” segment clearly identifies and focuses on immediate high-priority tasks, ensuring that the team is aligned and productive.
3. Vision for the Future: The “Later” section facilitates long-term vision planning, keeping teams informed of the overall direction while allowing for flexibility to adapt to changes.
4. Adaptability in Agile Environments: This model is especially well-suited for agile development, where changes are frequent and flexibility is essential.
5. Human-Centric Approach: It promotes informed decision-making connected to business objectives and user needs, creating a more comprehensive and user-focused roadmap.

Optimal Scenarios for Both Roadmaps

• GO Product Roadmap: Best suited for products with specific launch dates or time-sensitive market opportunities and when a straightforward, goal-oriented development approach is needed.
• Now-Next-Later Roadmap: Ideal in agile, fast-paced environments where priorities shift frequently and there's a need for a flexible, long-term vision without rigid timelines.

Preference for the GO Product Roadmap

I prefer the GO Product Roadmap in situations where there are clear product goals, measurable outcomes, and a need to align features directly with business objectives. It’s especially beneficial for products with specific release schedules or market-driven deadlines.

Preference for the Now-Next-Later Roadmap

Choose the Now-Next-Later Roadmap in dynamic environments where flexibility and adaptability are essential. This roadmap is perfect for agile development processes, where priorities can change quickly based on user feedback or market fluctuations.

Maximizing Customer Value

By ensuring a well-structured, transparent, and high-quality Product Backlog, product managers and teams can:

• Minimize wasted effort on misaligned or unclear tasks.
• Prioritize initiatives that directly address customer needs and business objectives.
• Create an iterative feedback loop to refine and enhance the backlog based on real-world insights, ensuring continuous delivery of meaningful value.

The Advanced Product Backlog Management course is designed to give you practical, battle-tested tools to improve your value delivery. It’s not just about keeping stakeholders aligned or managing a backlog — it’s about using these things to drive actual results. Here’s a reminder of what you’ll learn:

1. Align Stakeholders and Teams: Build shared ownership of your Product Backlog by integrating strategy, roadmaps, and customer insights to foster collaboration.
2. Master Advanced Tools: Learn to prioritize effectively and use tools like user story mapping, product roadmaps, and discovery frameworks to maximize the value delivered to customers, reflected in the composition and ordering of the Product Backlog.
3. Say Goodbye to Anti-Patterns: Identify and resolve common Product Backlog pitfalls, ensuring transparency and alignment with organizational goals.
4. Drive Outcomes Over Output: Learn practices that turn your backlog into a strategic asset focused on delivering meaningful customer and business results.

Thanks for your patience and understanding. I know this course will be a game-changer for you, and I’m excited to share it soon.

📅 Training Classes, Meetups & Events

Upcoming classes and events:

• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Jan 27 — Online Class Release: Align, Discover, Deliver — The Advanced Product Backlog Management Course
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feb 4-6, 2025 — Live Virtual Open Space: Hands-on Agile 2025: From Concept-Based to Context-Based Agility
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Feb 12-13 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Feb 27 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Facilitation Skills Class (PSFS; English)
• 🖥 💯 🇬🇧 Mar 6-Apr 3 — Live Virtual Cohort: Align, Discover, Deliver: The Product Backlog Management Cohort Class (English)
• 🖥 🇩🇪 Mar 11-12 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Product Owner Training (PSPO I; German)
• 🖥 🇬🇧 Mar 26-27 — Live Virtual Class: Professional Scrum Master - Advanced Training (PSM II; English)

See all upcoming classes here.

I am looking forward to hearing your feedback and keeping you updated as we approach the launch date!

Best,