A roadmap tool deliberately not synced to anything.
For a client retainer, a small app that shows priorities and a rough timeline on swimlanes, kept intentionally disconnected from the ticket systems on either side.
What needed
solving.
Work on the retainer was tracked on several platforms on both the brand side and the agency side, and none was used well. A task the client submitted in the project-messaging tool could only carry an estimate as plain text, which the client could also see. Putting the same work in an issue tracker was too heavy for telling a client when to expect delivery.
What I decided,
and why.
- 01
Split the difference: priorities and a rough timeline on a swimlane view, and nothing more.
- 02
Keep it disconnected on purpose. The app doesn’t sync to either system, so nobody maintains a mapping between its items and tasks elsewhere; the audiences differ, and so does the detail each needs.
- 03
Optimize for re-prioritizing quickly rather than for precision: the point is a quick, rough idea of timeline.
What shipped,
and what isn’t proven.
It was built and used on the retainer. Not proven: who kept using it, whether it stuck, and what it replaced in practice.