Quick Answer (TL;DR)
This free PowerPoint template plans the complete end-of-life process for a product, platform, or major feature. From the initial deprecation announcement through migration support, service wind-down, and final shutdown. It tracks five workstreams in parallel: Engineering, Communication, Customer Success, Legal, and Data Management. Download the .pptx, set your EOL timeline, and manage the shutdown with the same discipline you applied to the launch.
What This Template Includes
- Cover slide. Product or feature name, EOL announcement date, final shutdown date, and program owner.
- Instructions slide. Impact assessment checklist, communication cadence guide, data retention requirements, and escalation triggers. Remove before presenting.
- Blank template slide. Six-phase timeline (Announce, Grace Period, Active Migration, Restricted Access, Shutdown, Post-EOL) with five workstream rows and readiness checkpoints at each transition.
- Filled example slide. A 6-month EOL plan for a legacy API version, showing the full deprecation sequence with three email waves, a migration toolkit, customer success outreach by segment, legal notification requirements, and a data archival schedule.
Why End of Life Needs a Roadmap
Shutting down a product is one of the hardest things a product team does. Unlike a feature sunset, which removes one capability while the rest of the product continues, EOL tells customers that something they depend on is going away entirely. The stakes are higher: lost customers, broken integrations, legal exposure, and reputational damage if handled poorly.
Teams that skip the planning phase tend to make one of two mistakes. They announce too abruptly, giving customers insufficient time to migrate, which triggers anger and churn. Or they announce but never enforce the timeline, leaving the product in a zombie state that consumes engineering resources indefinitely while customers ignore the deprecation notices.
A structured EOL roadmap fixes both problems. The phased approach gives customers clear milestones. Each phase reduces functionality progressively, creating natural urgency to migrate. And the hard shutdown date, backed by go/no-go gates, prevents the timeline from slipping. This mirrors the staged approach used in the product lifecycle: just as launch has phases, so does shutdown.
Template Structure
Six-Phase Timeline
The EOL lifecycle is longer than most launch processes. Enterprise products typically need 6-12 months. Consumer products can move faster at 3-6 months.
- Announce (Month 1). Public deprecation notice. Blog post, in-app notification, email to all affected users, API deprecation headers. Set expectations for the full timeline.
- Grace Period (Months 1-3). Product continues to function normally. Migration tools and documentation become available. Customer success begins proactive outreach to high-value accounts.
- Active Migration (Months 3-5). Intensive migration support. Weekly office hours, migration status dashboard, escalation path for blocked accounts. New signups disabled. Feature development frozen.
- Restricted Access (Month 5). Read-only mode. Users can export data but cannot create new content. Final migration push for remaining accounts.
- Shutdown (Month 6). Service terminates. APIs return deprecation errors. Redirects point to the migration guide. Data export window closes.
- Post-EOL (Months 6-7). Data archived per retention policy. Final communication sent. Support tickets redirected. Retrospective conducted.
Five Workstream Rows
- Engineering. Migration tooling, API deprecation headers, feature freeze, data export endpoints, shutdown scripts, redirect configuration.
- Communication. Announcement blog post, email sequences (announcement, reminder, final warning), in-app banners, changelog entries, partner notifications.
- Customer Success. Account segmentation by impact, proactive outreach schedule, migration assistance for key accounts, churn risk monitoring, retention rate tracking.
- Legal. Contract review for EOL obligations, data retention compliance, notification requirements by jurisdiction, terms of service updates, refund or credit policies.
- Data Management. Data export tooling, archival procedures, retention schedule, deletion timeline, compliance audit trail.
Impact Segmentation Matrix
A dedicated slide segments affected customers into four quadrants based on usage intensity and account value:
- High value, high usage. White-glove migration support. Dedicated CSM. Custom migration timeline if needed.
- High value, low usage. Personal outreach to understand if migration is needed or if the product was already abandoned.
- Low value, high usage. Self-serve migration tools with responsive support. This group creates the most support tickets.
- Low value, low usage. Standard email communication. Self-serve export. No dedicated support.
How to Use This Template
1. Assess impact and set the timeline
Count affected users, active integrations, revenue at risk, and contractual obligations. Enterprise products with annual contracts may need to honor existing terms before shutdown. The timeline must be long enough for customers to migrate without creating a crisis. Six months is the minimum for products with paid users.
2. Build migration paths
Every EOL needs a clear answer to "where do I go?" This might be a newer version of your own product, a recommended competitor, or a data export that lets users take their content elsewhere. Document the migration path thoroughly and build automated tools where possible. The migration experience determines whether customers leave angry or leave grateful. See the customer journey mapping guide for structuring this from the user's perspective.
3. Segment and communicate
Not all customers need the same communication. High-value accounts get personal calls. Active integrators get technical migration guides. Casual users get email. Set a communication cadence: announcement, 60-day reminder, 30-day reminder, 7-day final warning, shutdown confirmation. Each message should include the timeline, migration options, and a link to export data.
4. Enforce the timeline with progressive restriction
Each phase reduces functionality. This creates natural urgency without forcing an abrupt cutoff. Disable new signups first, then freeze feature development, then switch to read-only, then shut down. Users who have not migrated by the read-only phase get a strong signal that shutdown is real. Track migration progress weekly using a cohort analysis approach to identify segments that are falling behind.
5. Execute shutdown and archive
On shutdown day, terminate services, configure API deprecation responses, set up redirects to the migration guide, and begin the data archival process. Monitor support channels for 30 days post-shutdown. Conduct a retrospective to document what worked and what to improve for future EOL processes.
When to Use This Template
End-of-life roadmaps are necessary whenever you are permanently shutting down a product, platform, or major capability. Use this template when:
- A product is being discontinued and users need a structured path to migrate their data and workflows elsewhere
- A legacy platform version is being retired and active users must transition to the new version within a defined window
- An acquisition or merger requires sunsetting one of two overlapping products, and the acquired product's users need migration support
- A strategic pivot means abandoning a product line, and contractual and legal obligations require formal deprecation procedures
- API versions are being retired and third-party integrators need versioned deprecation notices, migration guides, and timeline commitments
For individual feature removal within a continuing product, the Feature Sunset Roadmap template is more appropriate. For system migrations where users move between platforms, the Migration Roadmap template focuses on the technical transition. For keeping stakeholders informed throughout the process, the Stakeholder Communication Roadmap template provides a complementary communication-focused format.
Key Takeaways
- End of life requires the same cross-functional coordination as a launch. Engineering, Communication, Customer Success, Legal, and Data Management all have parallel workstreams.
- Six phases (Announce through Post-EOL) create progressive urgency without forcing an abrupt cutoff that damages trust.
- Impact segmentation ensures high-value accounts get white-glove support while self-serve tools handle the long tail efficiently.
- The migration path is the single most important element. A shutdown without a clear alternative is an abandonment, not a transition.
- Enforce the timeline with progressive restriction. Products that announce EOL but never enforce it become zombies that consume resources indefinitely.
- Compatible with Google Slides, Keynote, and LibreOffice Impress. Upload the
.pptxto Google Drive to edit collaboratively in your browser.