Now-Next-Later Roadmap skill for Claude and Codex

Now-Next-Later Roadmap as an AI skill. It asks for Product and strategy, Initiatives, Team capacity and 3 more, then does the rest. Free to install in Claude…

Install it once and Claude or Codex runs it for you. When your request matches, your AI loads the skill, asks for anything it is missing, and works through the template itself. Prefer to fill it in by hand? See the full prompt template.

Download the skill (.zip) · View SKILL.md

When it is used

Use when a product team needs to sort initiatives into Now, Next and Later columns with reasons and without committing to dates. Do not use for sprint planning or a dated release schedule. Related topics: product, business.

What it will ask you for

• Product and strategy (longer free text)
• Initiatives (longer free text)
• Team capacity (free text, e.g. "Two squads or four engineers")
• Constraints (longer free text)
• Evidence (longer free text)
• Audience (choose one: Internal team, Leadership, Customers)

How it works

1. Rank the initiatives against the stated goals and evidence rather than by who requested them.
2. Fill Now only with scoped work the team can finish with current capacity, and move the rest down.
3. Write the problem, target outcome and one-sentence column reason for every initiative.
4. Note dependencies and the condition that must be true before each Next or Later item moves up.
5. List what was cut with the reason, adapt the wording for the audience and set a review cadence.

What you get

Three columns of initiatives, each with problem, outcome and reason, followed by dependencies, a cut list with reasons and a review cadence.

What it watches out for

• Overfilling Now, which turns the roadmap into a wish list that the team misses every month.
• Adding dates to Next and Later, which customers and executives will read as promises.
• Ranking by request volume alone, which favours the loudest customers over the goal.

How to install

Claude.ai and the Claude desktop app

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Open Settings, then Capabilities, and find Skills.
3. Choose Upload skill and select the .zip.
4. Ask Claude for help with the task. It loads the skill when your request matches.

Claude Code

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Unzip it into ~/.claude/skills/ (or .claude/skills/ inside a project).
3. Start a new session. Claude Code loads the skill when your request matches.

Codex

1. Download the skill .zip.
2. Unzip it into ~/.agents/skills/ (or .agents/skills/ inside a project).
3. Codex picks it up on its own. Type $ and the skill name to use it, or just ask for the task.

Cursor

1. Download the Cursor rule (.mdc).
2. Save it in .cursor/rules/ inside your project.
3. Cursor's agent applies the rule when your request matches its description.

AGENTS.md (Codex, Cursor, and other coding agents)

1. Copy the AGENTS.md section.
2. Paste it into AGENTS.md at the root of your repository, creating the file if needed.
3. Coding agents that read AGENTS.md follow it when your request fits.