Background
Roadmaps align engineering, design, and stakeholders on what not to build. A Now / Next / Later narrative communicates strategy without fake Gantt precision.
Your mission
Create a 2-quarter product roadmap for a product you know (BoardingPass, your internship team product, or a fictional student career tool). Present it as a stakeholder-ready slide deck.
Required framing
Use Now / Next / Later horizons (not calendar dates only):
| Horizon | Typical timeframe | Content |
|---|
| Now | Current sprint – 6 weeks | Committed, scoped work |
| Next | 6 weeks – 1 quarter | Validated bets, needs discovery |
| Later | Beyond 1 quarter | Strategic themes, dependencies |
Slide requirements (suggested 8–10 slides)
- Title + product vision (one sentence)
- Goals & success metrics for the period (2–3 KPIs)
- Now — committed initiatives with owner type (eng/design/partner)
- Next — upcoming bets with open questions
- Later — themes (e.g. mobile app, B2B university tier)
- Dependencies — platform, legal, data, third-party APIs
- Risks & trade-offs — what you are explicitly not doing and why
- Ask from leadership — headcount, budget, or decision needed
Requirements
- Themes over task lists — "Assisted apply" not "fix button color."
- Success metrics tied to outcomes (activation, saved jobs, submission rate).
- Roadmap artifact — CSV, Notion table, or Productboard export linked in deck.
- One risks slide — mandatory; name 2–3 trade-offs.
Evaluation criteria
- Strategic clarity — stakeholder sees priorities without reading Jira.
- Honest uncertainty — Next/Later items flag discovery needed.
- Metric linkage — features connect to KPIs, not vanity releases.
- Visual scan — timeline or swimlane readable in 30 seconds.
Tips
- Color-code by team or outcome, not random hues per slide.
- Include one "deprioritized" item to show discipline.
- BoardingPass examples: agentic search depth, experience platform, apply automation.
Submission checklist
