Defining Roadmaps in the Open  ## Metadata - Author: [[binatethoughts.com]] - Full Title: Defining Roadmaps in the Open - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - #roadmaps - #vision - #opensource - #wordpress - #collaboration - #community - #strategy Author: binatethoughts.com Source: binatethoughts.com Reference: [Defining roadmaps in the open | Readwise](https://read.readwise.io/new/read/01jx9xbhpmdj48d1p9p0rjsm6d) date created: 2025-06-12 18:50 --- # Title: Defining Roadmaps in the Open ## Table of Contents: - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📖 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) Assessment](#-deib-diversity-equity-inclusion-and-belonging-assessment) - [✅ Logical validity](#-logical-validity) - [🔍 DARVO Analysis Prompt](#-darvo-analysis-prompt) - [🔍 SEO Evaluation](#-seo-evaluation) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) --- ## 📝 Summary: This article explores the nuanced art of defining “roadmaps” in open source communities, with a focus on WordPress. It distinguishes between vision (the high-level why and what) and roadmap (the actionable how and when), arguing both are essential for collaborative progress. The piece advocates for shared definitions, transparent processes, and collective ownership, suggesting that clarity around vision and roadmaps is foundational for effective open source development and engagement. --- ## 📖 Main Content: After the recent WordCamp Europe, “roadmaps” became the buzzword du jour. But are we all talking about the same thing? The article breaks down the difference between “vision” (the aspirational destination) and “roadmap” (the step-by-step journey). Vision is your North Star; roadmap is your GPS, complete with detours and pit stops. The author argues that both are needed: vision unites and inspires, while the roadmap organizes, prioritizes, and builds trust. In open source, defining these terms in the open is especially important—otherwise, you risk confusion, wasted effort, and a lot of “are we there yet?” moments in the contributor Slack. The article recommends a collaborative, iterative approach: leaders propose, the community reviews, and the roadmap becomes a living document. The piece closes with a call for more roadmap clarity in WordPress, likening vision to a storyline quest and roadmaps to the adventure’s waypoints. In short: don’t just wander—know why you’re wandering, and where you’re headed. ### 🗒 Notes - **Roadmaps & Vision: The Basics** - “Roadmap” means different things to different people—alignment is crucial. - Vision = high-level, long-term “why” and “what.” - Roadmap = actionable, time-based “how,” with milestones and priorities. - **Why Both?** - Vision is broad, inspiring, strategic; it gives people a reason to care. - Roadmap is detailed, tactical, time-bound; it gives people a way to help. - Both must align—team visions should support the project’s overall vision. - **Essential Duplicity** - Vision unites, inspires commitment, clarifies what the project is not. - Roadmap shows process, organizes contributions, builds trust and focus. - A roadmap without vision is just an arbitrary calendar; a vision without a roadmap is a daydream. - **Defining in the Open** - Open source needs collective agreement on definitions and process. - Leaders propose, community reviews, documents are iterated. - Roadmaps are living documents—meant to be checked, measured, and adjusted. - **Beyond Defining** - As WordPress evolves, it’s time to clarify and share what “roadmap” means. - Shared definitions benefit everyone—contributors, sponsors, users, implementors. - Vision and roadmap are companions, not side quests. - Measurement and iteration are key—roadmaps shouldn’t be static. --- ## 📖 References: - [Defining roadmaps in the open | Readwise](https://read.readwise.io/new/read/01jx9xbhpmdj48d1p9p0rjsm6d) - binatethoughts.com --- ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. **Original:** “A vision gives people a reason to care; a roadmap gives them a way to help.” — Nadia Eghbal **Paraphrased:** Vision is what inspires the crowd; the roadmap is what hands them the tools. 2. **Original:** “A roadmap without a vision is a guess. It’s placing things on a calendar and hoping for delivery. A roadmap that lacks a clear vision is unable to gain focus and often spirals due to a lack of delivery. A vision that serves as a roadmap is uninspiring and fails to clarify or unite.” **Paraphrased:** If your roadmap isn’t anchored to a vision, it’s just wishful scheduling. Without vision, a roadmap wanders aimlessly and fizzles out. Conversely, if you try to make your vision do the roadmap’s job, you’ll end up with a muddled message that motivates no one. --- ## 📰 Newsletter: **WordPress Roadmaps: Not Just for Lost Travelers** Roadmaps aren’t just for road trips or that GPS you only trust half the time—they’re the backbone of open source projects! Fresh from WordCamp Europe, the big talk is about clarity: what’s our vision, and how do we actually get there? This week’s must-read breaks down why you need both a North Star (vision) and a set of pit stops (roadmap) to keep your project—and your contributors—moving forward. Whether you’re leading a team, launching a plugin, or just trying to figure out where WordPress is headed next, defining these terms together is key. Let’s make roadmaps less mysterious and more collaborative. Curious how to get your team aligned? Check out the full article and start your own roadmap adventure. **Links:** - [Read the full article](https://read.readwise.io/new/read/01jx9xbhpmdj48d1p9p0rjsm6d) - [WordPress Roadmap Discussions](https://make.wordpress.org/) --- ## ✅ Action Items: - **Open Source Advocacy:** Use the article’s roadmap/vision distinction to educate contributors and stakeholders on the importance of both in open source projects. - **Contributor Engagement:** Foster discussions that help teams articulate their own visions and align them with the broader project. - **Education:** Incorporate roadmap-building workshops and vision-setting exercises into onboarding and training programs. - **OSPO Leadership:** Model transparent, collaborative definition and iteration of roadmaps and visions. - **Transparency & Inclusivity:** Share drafts and invite feedback, ensuring all voices are heard in shaping the project’s direction. - **Sustainable Community:** Treat roadmaps as living documents—review, revise, and measure progress with the community. --- ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - Openly defined and collaboratively maintained roadmaps increase contributor satisfaction and project momentum. - Projects with clear alignment between vision and roadmap experience fewer missed milestones and less contributor churn. - Transparent roadmap processes lead to greater trust and funding in open source communities. ### 📊 Methodology: - **Surveys:** Gather feedback from contributors on their understanding of vision and roadmap. - **Case Studies:** Compare projects with open vs. closed roadmap processes. - **Metrics Analysis:** Track milestone completion rates, contributor retention, and satisfaction before and after implementing open roadmap practices. - **Workshops:** Pilot collaborative roadmap sessions and measure engagement outcomes. ### ❓ Questions: - How do differing definitions of “roadmap” affect project alignment and contributor engagement? - What are the best practices for iterating on roadmaps in a distributed, open source environment? - How can vision and roadmap-setting processes be made more inclusive? - What metrics best reflect roadmap effectiveness in open source? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore the impact of shared roadmap tools (e.g., public Trello boards, GitHub Projects) on transparency and collaboration. - Investigate the relationship between vision clarity and long-term project sustainability. - Summary: WordCamp Europe has just concluded, and one term that emerged during the contribution day discussions across a wide range of areas was ‘roadmaps’. - URL: https://binatethoughts.com/defining-roadmaps-in-the-open/ WordCamp Europe has just concluded, and one term that emerged during the contribution day discussions across a wide range of areas was ‘roadmaps’. As someone who appreciates the power of a roadmap and aligning with it, working towards agreed-upon goals, this couldn’t make me happier. It makes me think curiously whether everyone is using the term in the same way, and I wanted to examine how we could define these terms openly and come to a shared understanding of what they mean.  #### Basic definitions The reality is that even in companies, the definition and use of the term ‘roadmap’ can vary significantly. This may be due to frameworks and processes, or it may simply be a matter of personal preference. In order, though, to have them work on an open project, some common understanding has to be reached. We start at the beginning, and it is clear what the vision is and what a roadmap is. **Vision:**a high-level, inspirational description of what you hope to achieve in the long term. This is often seen as the “why” and “what” and the ultimate destination everyone works towards. **A roadmap** is a practical, time-based plan that involves action and outlines how to achieve a vision through specific steps. It includes milestones, notes, priorities and ties to deliverables. #### Why not both? To answer this, we need both in most projects. WordPress is no exception, and it is similar to other open source platforms; both are essential. To have both, though, you need clear definitions and differences between them. The vision needs to be clear about where you want to go, broad, inspiring, and strategic. It’s a partner that helps with the roadmap and the plan for getting there. This is detailed, tactical and tied to times. > > **“A vision gives people a reason to care; a roadmap gives them a way to help.”** > > > — *Nadia Eghbal* > > > Combining both is essential. The roadmap gets you towards the vision, but it doesn’t define it. In my opinion, as the wider project has a vision, each team and component also likely has a vision, but these should always align with and add up to support the broad vision. This is why defining roadmaps and visions in isolation is often problematic in larger projects.  #### Essential duplicity To look more at why both matter in an open-source project, you can split each into relatively easy formats: A vision: * Unites contributors around a shared purpose. * Inspires commitment over time. A vision doesn’t specifically though allocate that inspiration or fund; that’s the roadmap. * Clarifies what the project is not. Often more essential than we think. A roadmap: * Shows the process. It allows each stage to be broken down into the steps required to achieve it. * Organizes contributions. Which in turn attracts and allocates people and funding. * Builds trust and focus. By seeing what is being done at a given point, it can be clear to everyone, whether they are contributor, sponsors, makers, users, supporters, or implementors. Whilst they aren’t the same, they certainly are companions to each other. A roadmap without a vision is a guess. It’s placing things on a calendar and hoping for delivery. A roadmap that lacks a clear vision is unable to gain focus and often spirals due to a lack of delivery. A vision that serves as a roadmap is uninspiring and fails to clarify or unite. #### Defining in open This is the more complex piece. It’s all well and good to know the difference and want to do this. You then need to take these seeds, grow them into roadmaps and visions, and collectively agree, because that is how open things get buy-in. A simple process is a first pass from those leading the work, facilitated, distilled, and then shared, reviewed, and iterated. This is typical amongst open source projects. In WordPress, we have had several variations over time, and now we need to determine what works today. Both need to be shared; a roadmap is a document to check and measure against, a living thing. #### Beyond defining As we move forward into the second half of this year, the topic of roadmaps arises. Let’s make sure they are roadmaps. We could collaborate on a project to define what they are for us and share the results somewhere. Having an agreed-upon definition and working from it helps everyone, regardless of their approach to this topic.  > > **“Open source thrives on clarity. A vision tells us why to show up, and a roadmap shows us how to move forward together.”** > > > — *Danese Cooper* > > > The reality is we need both vision and roadmaps, and all too often, we easily have a vision. Most likely, WordPress has not only a project vision, but we also need to gather some team visions to unite those working together. If you were to think of this as an adventure, think of them not as side quests but as storyline quest points that lead to the end point.  Roadmaps get us to delivery, and what we need more of is that right now in WordPress across all areas. They also allow us to start thinking about measuring, but they shouldn’t be where we end the measuring. That is another conversation but an essential one. We are at step one on the path to collectively growing our processes., Defining Roadmaps in the Open, binatethoughts.com, 01jx9xbhpmdj48d1p9p0rjsm6d.