roadmap

When to use

• Phased delivery across workstreams. When the question is what each team ships in each phase. Workstreams down the side, phases across the top, deliverables in the cells — the whole plan reads in one glance.
• State markers are the second channel. Every cell can lead with [x] shipped, [-] in flight, [!] missed, [?] uncertain, [ ] planned, or [/] out of scope. The audience sees both 'what' and 'how it's going' without a separate status slide. A status key is emitted automatically below the grid for the markers present (suppressed only on the status variant, which already labels every cell).
• The key's words are a DEFAULT, not a fixed vocabulary. 'Shipped' is right for a product plan and wrong for a legislative one. Write a label set above the grid — ` [{[x], Enacted}, {[-], In committee}] — and those states are renamed; the ones you do not name keep theirs. The key is the MARKER you already type in a cell, brackets included. The defaults are declared in this manifest's labelSet, which is also what lint:deck` checks your keys against, so a key that would be dropped is reported before you render.
• Phase headers carry meta pills. Append ` Q2 2026 ` to a phase header and the renderer anchors a meta pill on the right of the column. Use it for date, owner, or status tags that frame the phase.

When not to use

• One workstream. A single row of phases is a timeline or list-steps, not a roadmap. Roadmap earns its grid only when at least two workstreams move in parallel.
• No state markers. A grid of bare deliverables loses half its value. Add state markers ([x] [-] [!] [?] [ ] [/]) so the audience reads progress alongside scope.
• Past five workstreams. More than five rows compresses cell text and the lane stripes lose their categorical read. Group adjacent workstreams or split by phase.

Common mistakes

• Writing the deliverable text before the state marker in a cell. Each cell must LEAD with the state marker ([x] Shipped item), not follow it — a marker placed after the text isn't recognized as the cell's state.
• Keying a label set on the state NAME rather than the marker. [{shipped, Enacted}] binds to nothing and the row is dropped. A key is the marker exactly as a cell spells it — [x], [-], [!], [?], [ ], [/] — brackets included. The brackets are load-bearing: a bare space key collapses to empty under the parser's whitespace tidy and would take the [ ] row with it.
• Naming a state the grid does not carry. A key row for a marker no cell uses would point at nothing, so it is dropped. lint:deck names the key when that happens — the rendered key is not the place to discover it.

Authoring

<!-- _class: roadmap -->

## What ships in each phase, by workstream.

| Workstream | Foundation `{Q2 2026}` | Hardening `{Q3 2026}` | Scale `{Q4 2026}` |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| First workstream | [x] Shipped item | [-] In-flight item | [ ] Planned item |
| Second workstream | [x] Shipped item | [/] Out-of-scope item | [ ] Planned item |

The key under the grid names each marker the cells carry.

Slots

Anatomy

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  header                                 │
│  Phased roadmap heading.                │
│                                         │
│  ┌───────────┬───────────┬───────────┐  │
│  │           │ Q1        │ Q2        │  │
│  ├───────────┼───────────┼───────────┤  │
│  │ Track A   │ [x] done  │ [-] wip   │  │
│  │ Track B   │ [ ] plan  │ [/] skip  │  │
│  └───────────┴───────────┴───────────┘  │
│  footer                           1/19  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Variant decision rule

• default (no modifier) — A plain phased grid — deliverables with state markers, no extra framing.
• horizons — The plan is framed as Now/Next/Later strategic horizons rather than literal calendar phases.
• status — Delivery state itself is the headline read — every cell already labels its own state explicitly, so the auto-emitted legend key is suppressed.
• swimlane — Each team's track should read as its own lane rather than a uniform grid — emphasizes team ownership over the grid structure.
• milestones — The phases are named, dated release gates (Beta/RC/GA) rather than generic quarters — pins a dated path.

Variants

<!-- _class: roadmap horizons -->

`Three-horizon planning`

## horizons spreads the bets across three horizons.

| Workstream    | Horizon 1 `{Now}`          | Horizon 2 `{Next}`         | Horizon 3 `{Later}`         |
| ------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------ | ------------------------- |
| Signal Intake | [x] Connector v1     | [-] Dedupe pass    | [ ] Auto-routing |
| Scoring       | [x] Equal weights      | [-] Per-team weights   | [/] Decision profiles |

<!-- _class: roadmap status -->

`Layout · roadmap status`

## status reads delivery state at a glance.

| Workstream    | Foundation `{Q2 2026}` | Hardening `{Q3 2026}`      | Scale `{Q4 2026}`           |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------- |
| Signal Intake | [x] Connector v1 | [-] Dedupe pass    | [?] Auto-routing |
| Scoring       | [x] Equal weights    | [-] Per-team weights | [ ] Decision profiles |
| Decision Log  | [x] Append schema    | [!] Outcome pairing      | [ ] Auditor export        |

<!-- _class: roadmap swimlane -->

`Layout · roadmap swimlane`

## swimlane gives each team its own track.

| Workstream    | Foundation `{Q2 2026}` | Hardening `{Q3 2026}`    | Scale `{Q4 2026}`           |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------- |
| Signal Intake | Connector v1     | Dedupe pass        | Auto-routing  |
| Scoring       | Equal weights        | Per-team weights   | Decision profiles    |
| Decision Log  | Append schema        | Outcome pairing        | Auditor export            |

<!-- _class: roadmap milestones -->

`Layout · roadmap milestones`

## milestones pins the dated path.

| Workstream    | Beta `{Q2 2026}`       | RC `{Q3 2026}`           | GA `{Q4 2026}`              |
| ------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------- | ------------------------- |
| Signal Intake | Connector v1     | Dedupe pass        | Auto-routing  |
| Scoring       | Equal weights        | Per-team weights   | Decision profiles    |
| Decision Log  | Append schema        | Outcome pairing        | Auditor export            |

Guides

• The six answerswhat each state marker means
• Marks in layoutsthis layout’s words for each mark, and renaming them with a label set
• Pills a component placesthe pill slots this component fills from position

Related

• ganttcontinuous task bars across a date axis rather than discrete phase cells
• kanbancurrent state by stage rather than phased schedule
• list-stepssingle workstream sequence without parallel lanes
• verdict-gridoptions scored against shared criteria, not phased delivery
• checklistsingle list with state markers, no workstream dimension