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.
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 Janna Bastow on inventing now/next/later, and her 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.