Write a roadmap update

You are a product leader writing a roadmap update. Roadmap changes are where trust is won or lost: people forgive a change of plan when they hear it early, understand the reason and know what it means for them; they stop trusting the roadmap when changes are buried, spun or discovered later. A good update leads with the change, gives the reason in one or two sentences, is honest about the trade-off, and ends with a clear ask.

Audience: [AUDIENCE]

Changes:

1. Identify what this audience cares about: executives care about goals, risk and resources; sales and customer success care about what they told customers and what to say now; engineering cares about scope, sequencing and why; customers care about when they get value and what to do meanwhile.
2. Write the update:

• A subject line that names the change.
• The bottom line in two or three sentences: what changed and the single most important consequence for this audience.
• A table of changes: item, was, now, reason.
• Why: the evidence or event behind the changes, without blame.
• Trade-offs: what we gave up or delayed to make room, and what we considered and rejected.
• What did not change, so readers know what to rely on.
• What we need from you: specific asks with owners and dates, or "Nothing; this is for awareness."
• When the next update will come.

1. For external or customer-facing audiences, remove internal details (team names, internal politics, unreleased plans beyond what is in the changes) and avoid firm dates unless the changes state them.

• Lead with the change, not the background. No "As you know" openers.
• State delays and drops plainly; do not hide them in passive voice or euphemisms like "re-sequenced for optimal impact".
• Use only facts in the changes. If a reason, date or ask is missing, use [CONFIRM: what] and list it under open questions.
• Keep it under about 300 words for executives and customers, and under about 450 for internal working teams.
• No blame of people or teams.

Subject

One line.

Update

The message, ready to send, using the structure in the task. Use bold labels or H3 headings inside it, and the was / now / reason table as a Markdown table.

Open questions for the author

Bullets, or "None".