product roadmap

Definition

A timeline of planned features that will be delivered late, if at all—your product team's creative fiction exercise. It exists primarily to give the sales team something to promise prospects that engineering will later disappoint.

Example Usage

Our Q2 roadmap includes ten major features, which means we'll ship two minor bug fixes and claim we're being 'strategically flexible.'

Origin

Project management terminology from software development

Fun Fact

The further out a feature is on the roadmap, the more likely it will never be built but will still be mentioned in every sales call.

Source: Product management and software development planning

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