Visual Roadmap

The visual roadmap provides an interactive, drag-and-drop interface for planning and visualizing your project's milestones and business goals. Unlike traditional linear lists, the roadmap shows how work items relate to each other and contribute to your strategic objectives.

The visual roadmap uses a directed graph to show dependencies and goal relationships, making it easy to understand the critical path and how multiple workstreams contribute to business outcomes.
**Reverse Planning**: A practical approach is working backwards from your goals. Start with your desired outcome, then build the dependency chain in reverse by asking "What must be done before this?" This ensures every milestone directly serves your goal.

Goals vs Milestones

The roadmap visualizes two distinct types of items:

Milestones (Flag Icon)

Milestones are concrete, deliverable work items that your team executes. They represent specific features, releases, or deliverables that can be planned, worked on, and completed.

Characteristics:

  • Contain work items (tasks) that teams complete
  • Have detailed progress tracking
  • Can be assigned to specific teams
  • Track velocity and generate forecasts
  • Move through status lifecycle: Concept → Planned → In Progress → Done

Visual Appearance:

  • Rectangle shape with flag icon
  • Shows team avatar and business value score
  • Displays progress chart when in progress
  • Color-coded by status (gray=Concept, purple=Planned, blue=In Progress, green=Done)

Goals (Target Icon)

Goals represent high-level business objectives or strategic outcomes. They provide context and direction for your work, showing why you're building certain features.

Characteristics:

  • Multiple milestones can contribute to achieving a single goal
  • Don't contain work items directly
  • Help prioritize and align team efforts
  • Provide business context for technical work

Visual Appearance:

  • Circular shape with target icon, visually distinct from milestones
  • Shows business value score
  • Same color-coding by status as milestones
**Multiple Paths to Goals**: Because multiple milestones can point to the same goal, you can track progress toward strategic objectives from different angles simultaneously. Your **goal path** (amber arrows) shows which of those routes you're actively pursuing right now.

Dependencies and Goal Paths

The roadmap visualizes two types of relationships between items:

Dependencies (Purple Arrows)

Dependencies show prerequisite relationships between milestones. A purple arrow from Milestone A to Milestone B means "A must be completed before B can start."

Features:

  • Animated when on the critical path
  • Prevents circular dependencies
  • Used for forecast calculations
  • Click to remove (Owners only)
  • Enable reverse planning from goals backwards to current state

Goal Paths (Amber Arrows)

Goal paths represent your chosen route through the roadmap - the specific sequence of milestones you've decided to focus on right now to achieve your goals.

Think of your roadmap as a map showing many possible routes to your destination. Some paths are direct, others are scenic detours, and some are experiments you might explore later. The goal path highlights which route you're actually taking.

Why Goal Paths Matter:

Your roadmap can contain multiple options and ideas - not all of them need to align or happen. You might have:

  • Experimental features you're considering
  • Alternative approaches to the same problem
  • Nice-to-have features for later
  • Multiple ways to achieve a business outcome

The goal path lets you say "this is what we're doing now" without deleting the other options.

Features:

  • Amber (orange) colored arrows to distinguish from regular dependencies
  • Always animated to highlight your strategic focus
  • Thicker than regular dependencies
  • Filter the roadmap to show only goal path work
  • Multiple milestones can contribute to the same goal (parallel progress)
  • Used to determine execution priority and forecasts

Setting the Goal Path:

When you mark a milestone as "on goal path" (isOnGoalPath = true):

  1. It gets included in execution order calculations
  2. It appears in schedule forecasts
  3. It's prioritized for team assignment
  4. It shows in the "Goal Path Only" filter

Milestones not on the goal path remain visible but are deprioritized - they're possibilities, not commitments.

Grid and Positioning

The roadmap uses a grid for consistent spacing. All nodes snap to the grid when dragged.

Position Persistence: When you drag a node to a new position, the coordinates are saved and persist across sessions.

Editing and Permissions

Owner Permissions

Only project Owners can edit the roadmap structure:

  • Drag nodes to reposition them
  • Create new milestones/goals by double-clicking empty space
  • Connect nodes by dragging from connection handles
  • Delete dependencies by clicking edges
  • Create dependencies using the + buttons that appear on hover

Viewer Permissions

Other roles (Collaborator, Stakeholder, Viewer) can:

  • View the roadmap and all connections
  • Click nodes to see details
  • Use filters to focus on specific work
  • Cannot drag, create, or modify structure
While Collaborators can create and edit milestones through other interfaces (like the backlog), they cannot modify the roadmap layout or connections. This ensures Owners maintain control over strategic planning.

Interactive Features

Creating Connections

Drag from handles:

  1. Hover over a milestone/goal to see purple connection handles on left and right
  2. Drag from the source (right handle) of the prerequisite
  3. Drop on the target (left handle) of the dependent milestone
  4. The connection is created immediately

Using + buttons:

  1. Hover over a milestone to see + buttons on left and right
  2. Click the left + button to create a new prerequisite
  3. Click the right + button to create a new dependent milestone
  4. A new node is created and automatically connected

Creating New Nodes

Double-click creation:

  1. Double-click empty space on the canvas
  2. A dialog opens to configure the new milestone/goal
  3. Choose type (Milestone or Goal), name, and description
  4. The node is created at the clicked position (snapped to grid)

Deleting Connections

Click edges to delete:

  1. Click any dependency edge (arrow)
  2. Confirm deletion in the dialog
  3. The dependency is removed (does not delete the milestones)

Filtering the View

Goal Path Filter:

  • Toggle "Goal Path Only" to show only milestones that contribute to strategic goals
  • Hides milestones not connected to goals via amber arrows
  • Helps focus on strategic work vs exploratory/experimental work

Status Filters:

  • "Exclude Done Milestones" hides completed work to declutter the view
  • Status filters combine: you can show only in-progress work on the goal path

Visual Legend

The roadmap includes a comprehensive legend showing:

Status Colors:

  • Gray: Concept (early ideation, not planned)
  • Purple: Planned (scheduled but not started)
  • Blue: In Progress (actively being worked on)
  • Green: Done (completed)

Node Types:

  • Flag icon = Milestone (concrete deliverable)
  • Target icon = Goal (strategic objective)

Connection Types:

  • Amber animated arrow = Dependency on goal path (thicker)
  • Purple solid arrow = Regular dependency (thinner)

Usage Instructions:

  • Drag nodes to reposition (Owners only)
  • Double-click empty space to create new nodes
  • Connect nodes by dragging from handles
  • Click edges to delete dependencies

Use Cases

The roadmap is designed for a few core patterns. See Goal Path Planning for a full guide on methodology.

Reverse planning: Start with your goal, then work backwards asking "What must be done before this?" until you reach work you can start today. Mark that chain as your goal path.

Managing alternatives: Connect multiple milestones to the same goal. Put only your chosen approach on the goal path. Alternatives stay visible without cluttering your committed work.

Strategic alignment: Use goals to represent OKRs or initiatives. Connect milestones to show how tactical work serves strategy. The goal path shows your current focus, not every possibility.

Dependency visibility: Connect milestones to see what's blocking what. Combined with the goal path, this makes the critical path obvious at a glance.

Best Practices

1. Use goals sparingly

  • Create goals for significant business outcomes, not every feature
  • Typical projects have 3-7 major goals
  • Too many goals dilute focus
  • Consider using Goal-type milestones as sub-goals for hierarchy

2. Be intentional with the goal path

  • The goal path is your commitment, not your wishlist
  • Only mark milestones as "on goal path" if you're actively pursuing them
  • Keep alternatives visible but off the goal path
  • Review and adjust the goal path as priorities change

3. Use reverse planning

  • Start with the goal (outcome) and work backwards
  • Ask "What must be done immediately before this?" for each step
  • This ensures every milestone directly serves the goal
  • Creates clearer dependencies and reduces scope creep

4. Minimize dependency complexity

  • Keep the graph as simple as possible
  • Long dependency chains increase risk and forecast uncertainty
  • Parallel work is better than sequential when possible
  • Use dependencies to capture true prerequisites, not nice-to-haves

5. Use spatial layout meaningfully

  • Position goals at strategic locations (often top-right as "north star")
  • Flow dependencies left-to-right (past → future) or bottom-to-top (foundation → goal)
  • Group related milestones visually
  • Use the grid to create clear rows or columns
  • Reverse planning often creates vertical or diagonal chains toward goals

6. Use filters strategically

  • Use "Goal Path Only" during strategic reviews and planning sessions
  • Use "Exclude Done" to focus on current/future work
  • Combine filters to create different views for different audiences
  • Full roadmap view (no filters) shows all possibilities and context
  • Goal path view shows commitments and priorities

FAQ

Q: What's the difference between a dependency and being on the goal path?

A: Dependencies are prerequisite relationships ("A must finish before B starts"). The goal path is your chosen strategy ("these are the milestones we're focusing on now"). A milestone can have dependencies without being on the goal path. See Goal Path Planning for more on when and how to use each.

Q: Can I create circular dependencies?

A: No, the system prevents circular dependencies. You cannot create a dependency that would form a loop (e.g., A depends on B, B depends on C, C depends on A).

Q: What happens if I delete a milestone that has dependencies?

A: Deleting a milestone removes all its dependencies. Dependent milestones become unblocked, and prerequisites lose their connection.

Q: Can milestones contribute to multiple goals?

A: Yes. You can connect a milestone to multiple goals via dependencies. The roadmap visualizes all these connections, making it easy to see how work contributes to different objectives.

Q: How do forecasts use the roadmap data?

A: Forecasts traverse dependency chains to calculate cumulative duration. Only milestones on the goal path are included in execution order calculations and delivery forecasts. Off-path milestones are visible but not scheduled. See Understanding Project Forecasts for details.

Q: Can Collaborators see the roadmap?

A: Yes, all roles can view the roadmap. Only Owners can edit structure and positioning.

Q: Does the roadmap work on mobile?

A: The roadmap is optimized for desktop/tablet use. On mobile, you can view and navigate but editing is limited by screen size and touch precision.