A roadmap is a text file wearing a diagram. Write yours as plain text on the left; get a clean, deck-ready now/next/later graphic on the right. Change the text, the picture follows — no more nudging boxes in slides.
Paste a markdown roadmap (### Now headings with - bullets, as exported by this tool or written by hand). Replaces the editor.
title: Trading roadmap | title (optional; date: overrides today's date, date: off hides it) |
horizons: Q3, Q4, 2027 | rename the columns (2–8; default Now, Next, Later) |
horizons: quarterly from Q3 2026 x4 | generate quarter columns (also monthly from Aug 2026 x6) |
wip: 8 / wip: off | first-column overload warning threshold (default 6) |
fade: off | disable the certainty fade on later columns |
palette: ember | diagram scheme — accent, background wash, card tint: ocean (default) · slate · ember · plum |
accent: #C05621 | any hex; derives a matching scheme (overrides palette) |
NOW / NEXT / LATER | start a column section (a horizon name on its own line) |
Trading: Auto-bidder v2 | item in the Trading swimlane |
Auto-bidder v2 | item with no lane |
[done] [doing] [risk] [blocked] | status tag, anywhere in the item |
… -- note text | smaller second line on the card |
… -> https://jira/PROJ-42 | makes the card title a link (marked ↗) |
// comment | ignored |
Start typing — or load an example.
Roadmaps decay because updating them is friction: the truth changes in minutes, but the diagram lives in a slide nobody wants to reflow. Making the source plain text removes the friction — an update is one line, the layout is the tool's problem, and the diagram is always regenerable. Text also diffs: paste versions into git or a doc and you can see exactly what moved between planning cycles, which slides will never tell you.
The default now/next/later form (over date-based Gantt) is deliberate: dates on a roadmap read as commitments and get negotiated; horizons communicate sequence and intent while staying honest about uncertainty — which is also why later columns fade slightly. See ProdPad on the origin of now/next/later, and Janna Bastow's case against timeline roadmaps. If your organisation plans in calendar time anyway, generate month or quarter columns (horizons: quarterly from Q3 2026 x4) — the certainty fade applies just the same.
The snapshot/compare feature exists because the most useful roadmap artefact isn't the roadmap — it's what changed since last time. Snapshot before each planning cycle; the comparison renders new, moved, and dropped items as an exportable slide.