💡Product Circle ⭕ Chat - The Real Reason Now-Next-Later Roadmapping Works with Janna Bastow
💡Product Circle ⭕ Chat 35 with Janna Bastow the inventor of the Now Next Later Roadmap
💡Product Circle⭕ Chat runs every second week as a Zoom call that anyone can join to talk all things product, product management and problem solving. Creating value for customers and the business.
Best of all, when you attend live, you receive goodies like free courses and decks (like Janna Bastow provided), a free book (like Rich Mironov, Roman Pichler and others provided), access to their course for free (like John Cutler provided) and many more. Don’t forget to follow the 💡Product Circle ⭕ Chat calendar on Luma and register from our next talk on 💡 Product Circle ⭕ Chat - GenAI in Product Management with Greg Prickril this week on 15 January!
Happy New Year!
We’re a quarter of a century in and I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone. The speed of tech innovation has been even faster. I’ve been watching the announcements from CES2025 and have to admit it’s wild how the barrier to creating, prototyping and having our own agentic AI team to speed up product work. That’s why I’m really excited about our next Product Circle Chat. I hope to see you there.
Before we get to Janna Bastow’s talk (and recording) below, I’d like to share with you two great courses I’m running. Both virtually and both based on my 20+ years in Product Management.
1. Product Commercials Masterclass - P&L for Product Managers
You’ll learn how to read a Product P&L, what the acronyms mean, which ones are important for product people, how to forecast out and how to read the impact of your product activities on the monthly profit and loss statement. We go into how to create a financial business case model to support your Product Initiatives plus how to communicate and present the Product Health to the leadership team. Tailor your messaging to your audience, influence leaders and get support for your product goals.
Over 4 hours of live training, you’ll get recordings, slides, certificate and a financial business case template you can use for your own modelling.
This course is from my real experience in Product Managemement during my time at Telstra, Optus and Virgin mobile presenting to CEO, C-suite and other Leaders.
Level up your commercial acumen in 2025 with the Product Commercials Masterclass - P&L for Product Managers this February.
Come along and bring your team.
2.Pricing and Monetisation Strategies Masterclass
The Pricing & Monetisation Strategies Masterclass is one I’m really proud of. I used to teach it over 5 years ago at General Assembly in Sydney Australia. I’ve now updated it to include mine (and everyone’s fascination), GenAI.
In over 4 hours, over 3 days virtually, you’ll learn to actually calculate your customer’s willingness to pay. We start with understanding your Customer’s Perception of Value, calculate Willingness to Pay, understand the importance of Price Elasticity of Demand and how to find your Product’s Zone of Genius. We get into the factors in choosing a pricing strategy, the monetisation tactics available, how pricing psychology impacts conversion and why messaging matters. I take you through the legal and regulatory impacts on Pricing and well as how you can use GenAI in your pricing the maximise willingness to pay.
Plus, you get the recordings, the slides and a certificate upon completion.
Stop leaving money on the table with the Pricing and Monetisation Strategies Masterclass in March.
Come along and lets maximise your customer’s willingness to pay.
Now let’s get back to Janna’s talk on The Real Reason Now-Next-Later Roadmapping Works!
“It’s not your job to have all the answers. It’s your job to ask the best questions” - Janna Bastow
This 💡Product Circle⭕ Chat was run on the 4 December 2024 at 6pm (Sydney Australia time) with Janna Bastow Recording below👇🏼
🌏First Truly Global Chat🌍
We reached a Global milestone with this 💡Product Circle⭕ Chat! With our incredible speaker Janna Bastow joining us from the UK, 🎯 Tasneem Gould co-hosting from New Zealand, and Irene Liakos hosting in Sydney, Australia, this session spanned continents and time zones.
It was great to hear the questions and discussions from senior product leaders around the world!🌍
🔥Formula for a Great Product Culture
Janna Bastow, the inventor of the "Now, Next, Later" roadmap framework and co-founder of ProdPad 🎉spent over an hour with us sharing why the Now Next Later Roadmap works.
📜“Your roadmap is a strategic communication document. So if it's not part of your strategy, then don't put it on the roadmap.”
We dove deep into what makes a great product culture, and Janna shared invaluable insights into building environments where teams can thrive.
Here’s the formula:
🔑 Alignment
It’s not just about knowing what to build—it’s about understanding why. Great teams align around the problem to solve and the business impact they’re driving, not just feature lists.
🔑 Autonomy
Micromanagement? 🚫 No. Empowered teams need the freedom to experiment, fail fast, and iterate. Autonomy is the secret to fostering creativity and innovation.
🔑 Psychological Safety
Without trust, there’s no progress. A product culture where individuals feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and even admit mistakes is the bedrock of success.
Your roadmap isn’t just a list of features or deadlines; it’s “a prototype for your strategy.”
By focusing on problems to solve rather than solutions to build, teams can stay flexible, aligned, and outcome-driven.
🌟 Key insights 🌟
from Janna’s chat:
1️⃣ Timeline Roadmaps ≠ Success: Most timeline roadmaps are just guesses with dates, leading to misaligned expectations and tech debt.
2️⃣ "Now, Next, Later" for Clarity: A lean roadmap empowers teams to align on what matters—solving problems and achieving business goals.
3️⃣ The Role of Psychological Safety: Create space for your team to pitch ideas, report errors, and iterate without fear of failure.
4️⃣ OKRs as the Backbone: Tie objectives to roadmap initiatives, ensuring your team’s efforts drive measurable business impact.
5️⃣ Continuous Learning: Your roadmap is a living document—regularly validate assumptions, adapt to new insights, and evolve your strategy.
“Your value as a PM isn’t in having all the answers—it’s in asking the right questions.”
Product Circle Chat 35 - Topic
Topic: The Real Reason Now-Next-Later Roadmapping Works
In this talk, Janna Bastow, the inventor of the Now-Next-Later roadmap, talks about the genesis of the framework and why it's been so widely adopted, and looks and the underlying reasons why it's usurping the timeline roadmap as the number one way of planning a product strategy.
You'll get handy tips on how to create your own Now-Next-Later roadmap as well as how to get your team on board with the format, no matter what their objections in the past have been.
Product Circle Chat 35 - Video
Product Circle Chat 35 - Speaker
Janna Bastow is a product manager and the inventor of the Now-Next-Later roadmap, and currently CEO and co-founder of ProdPad, product management software that helps you manage your roadmap and your product backlog. Janna continues to work with companies as a trainer and mentor to help them figure out how to build and learn, without breaking the bank. She likes to inspire great product conversations by asking: “What problem are you trying to solve?”
Janna also co-founded Mind the Product, an international product management community and series of events for fellow product people. It was started in 2010 with the very first ProductTank meetup in London and followed by the Mind the Product conference in 2012, and it now has grown to consist of more than 300,000 members and sold out events in hundreds of cities around the world.
You can find Janna at Linkedin and ProdPad.
🎁 Gifts
Like everyone who attends Product Circle Chat Live, Janna had two great gifts!
1) Access to a free course on How to Move from Timeline to Agile Roadmapping. This course helps people understand the benefits of Now-Next-Later and how to transition away from timeline based roadmaps to this way of working.
2) A slide deck on how to “Convince Your Stakeholders to Ditch the Timeline”. It's complete with speaker notes, and is designed to help people present the benefits of Now-Next-Later to their teams and stakeholders.
Product Circle Chat - Q&A
❓ How do I get involved?
1. Subscribe to the Product Circle Chat Calendar on Lu.ma and get notified of every 💡 Product Circle ⭕ Chat event
2.Register & Show up - Register to the Product Circle Chat event, block your calendar out and come to the next Chat 📅
3. Share - bring a friend or two who wants to talk all things Product 👯♂️👯♀️
4. Volunteer - volunteer to host or present at one of the future Product Circle Chats 🙋♀️. Drop me an email at irene@phronesisadvisory.com
❓ Will there be more sessions?
Yes. Fortnightly. Every second week.
❓ What if I can’t make the next session or don’t want to miss the next Product Circle chat invite?
Really want to come to the session but 😭 can't make this specific 💡 Product Circle ⭕ Chat?
📆 Get an invite directly into your inbox
👉 Subscribe to the Product Circle Chat Calendar on Lu.ma and get notified of every 💡 Product Circle ⭕ Chat event
💪 We've got you!
❓ Still have Questions?
Talk to me. Send me an email at irene@phronesisadvisory.com
Are you new to Product Management and want to learn from me?
I created a Course. For people new to Product Management.
Aligned it with the Learning Outcomes created by Product greats like Jeff Patton and others. Had it certified by the globally recognised ICAgile.
Choose to spend 2 days learning from me - either face to face or via Zoom - with ICAgile Certified Professional in Product Management (ICP-PDM).
And if you’re looking for a sneaky discount, send me an email at irene@phronesisadvisory.com