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Created by Matt Wagnon
Created on Feb 14, 2017

Produce a Roadmap without Dates

Well often times a roadmap doesn't and should not have dates from various reasons (no estimate, dates always change). Release plans have dates.  As a PM I would like the ability to show/ build a roadmap that is detached from dates that are often no more accurate than my dart game against a calendar.  Often times showing strategic long term vision is key to a prospects buying decision and existing customer's retention rates.  being able to show release dates for what we know we are releasing and the short term as well as a vision roadmap at the feature/ initiative level would be a big step into how we can show and talk about the roadmap in our on site visits with prospects and existing customers.

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  • Stacie Smith
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    Jan 30, 2024

    We are also looking to do this. I am very surprised this is not a capability of AHA! I can use Jira if we want to use dates and create Release Plans. Once you show someone any type of time, it is stuck in their minds and hard to undo. At the time we create roadmaps we don't always know a lot but we understand the priority of features, so we can group things by Now, Next, Future until we get to the point of further discovery and we start releasing planning. It would be nice to have a way to create a true roadmap without time, but then to lay a view over the top that starts to bring the time elements in as we start to release plan.

  • Admin
    Austin Merritt
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    Feb 13, 2023

    Hi there, thank you for the heads up. The link should take you to this article in our knowledge base: https://www.aha.io/support/roadmaps/strategic-roadmaps/analytics/list-report-calculations

    Are you able to access that?

  • Matthew Wagnon
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    Feb 10, 2023

    I searched for this to show another PM about this issue 6 years ago. I noticed a new ADMIN response.

    I don't think the link in bullet point 2 works anymore.

  • C Harman
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    Jul 23, 2020

    I echo the comments here. Dates are NOT an important part of a Roadmap. TIMESPANS are. There is a difference. Please, please, please align with industry best practices.

  • Guest
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    Sep 5, 2019

    Hi, 

    It is concerning that the Aha! team considers dates as an important aspect of a roadmap. :O

    Problem statement: "The Why?"

    While planning items are still ok, when customers look at a roadmap with a quarter, they assume that it is set on stone. Although you may add a bold asterisk and communicate clearly that roadmaps are directional plans and not release plans, people read/listen to what they want. As roadmaps evolve constantly, customers are subjected to frustration and the core persona for Aha! - "product manager" - is put on a bad spot. 

    Suggested solution:

    Hence it is a critical need for Product managers using Aha to have the ability to build roadmaps with high-level groupings such as 3 months, 6 months, 1 year and beyond..

  • Alex Henry
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    Aug 12, 2019

    Echoing many others here: THIS FEATURE DOES NOT ALREADY EXIST.

    It's an incredibly important feature. I can't produce a client-friendly roadmap with Aha in its current form - it's not good practice to nail yourself to a date more than 3 months ahead, yet at the moment the roadmap view will not let you avoid it.  

    I like to organise items into 'next 3 months', (high certainty)  'next six months' (lower certainty)  and 'in the coming year'.  Currently there is no way to neatly do this without showing exact dates.  I've tried using the pivot view to achieve the same outcome but it cannot be done either.  

    The absence of this feature is notable,  and it's concerning that it's not on the roadmap (with a date or without!)

     

     

  • D D
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    Jun 12, 2019

    This does NOT already exist. 

     

    Guys, lean roadmaps are a thing. Your competitors offer this: https://www.prodpad.com/blog/how-to-build-a-product-roadmap-everyone-understands/ Many people are using them. They do not have dates. They are like giant Kanban boards with columns like "Now, Next, Later, Done" etc. These are not date based, they are more like statuses. It really doesn't matter if you "feel that is an important aspect of a roadmap" because increasingly it is NOT, whereas the release plan is about dates. 

     

    Please give us the ability to create a lean roadmap with no dates at all. This should be very easy, guys. 

  • Guest
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    Jun 6, 2019

    At the product/story level I solved this by creating multiple columns in the Parking Lot space.  The only difference between an Aha! Release and Parking Lot is that their are no dates on the parking lots.  So, I created one release with a delivery date and that's called Current.  Then in the Parking Lot space I created Near Term and Future and use a third as the actual Parking Lot. This works well with my team.  Sadly it's only at the product and story level.  It will be a significant step up in product maturity when Aha! adds the ability to visualize these buckets and initiatives without dates. Leading product organizations have accepted the removal of dates a couple of years back.  I'm a huge fan of the Aha! tool but this gap is large and late.

  • Guest
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    Jan 11, 2019

    I agree with the other comments. Aha! seems to be release management software, not roadmap software and there is a big difference.

  • Tim Bouhour
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    Nov 15, 2018

    This definitely doesn't already exist - based on Marty Cagan's "Inspired", "Product Roadmaps Relanched" by Bruce McCarthy, or many of the other current best practices in the industry, I entirely agree with the comments below that a roadmap should not have dates, that would be a release plan.

  • Guest
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    Mar 16, 2018

    Agree completely that the admin response here does not answer the request.  I have the same request and the example provided still has dates (broad as they may be).

  • Guest
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    Feb 2, 2018

    We showed our Product Owners the article provided in the Admin response, and this does not meet their needs.

    They want the ability to create a long-range roadmap (gantt-style) without specifying any dates. Similar to the functionality of this Atlassian add on: https://www.productplan.com/features/ which allows you to customize your timeframes - quarters, months, sprints — or no dates at all. And they want to easily move things around in this view (like you can in the starter roadmap view). I don't think this idea should say "already exists" when it doesn't.

  • Matt Wagnon
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    Feb 17, 2017

    Thanks for the reply.  From the link you sent i still see dates whether those dates are Quarter's or 1H and 2H.  This is not really what I was looking for.  A roadmap is not a release plan and a release plan should have dates.  A roadmap should be able to show vision both short and longterm and should not require dates.  I would like a way to display the delivered roadmap functionality without dates and sorted in a different matter.  I'm sorry but I don't consider this already existing based on the provided documentation.

  • Samantha Hopkins
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    Feb 15, 2017

    I desperately want this! I'm having to shuffle dates around all the time as priorities change. I just want a release with no dates to be scheduled later please  & thank you.