The quickest way to design a public roadmap is to look at how other teams publish theirs. We opened twelve public product roadmaps on 20 September 2026 and noted their columns, dates, voting and caveats. They fall into four formats: horizons without dates, voting-driven status boards, dated roadmaps, and release stages. Each example has something worth copying and something to watch for, and a table at the end compares all twelve. For the reasoning behind these choices, read Public product roadmaps: a practical guide.
Horizon roadmaps: order without dates
These roadmaps say what comes first without saying when. They suit teams that ship continuously and would rather not publish deadlines.
GitHub
GitHub's public roadmap is a GitHub project board. The default view groups items into Up Next, Exploring, Shipped and Paused. Every item is an issue labelled with its release phase (public preview or GA), the plans it applies to and, where relevant, a GitHub Enterprise Server version. Conversations on roadmap issues are locked; questions go to GitHub's feedback discussions. The repository README states that the roadmap is not a commitment to deliver any feature by any date, and that shipped issues are closed with a link to the changelog post.
Copy the Paused column, which admits that some work has stopped, and the plan labels, which show a customer whether an item applies to them. Watch the documentation: the README still describes quarter columns, while the board we opened was grouped differently. Update your how-to-read note when the format changes.
AWS containers
The AWS containers roadmap covers ECS, ECR, Fargate and EKS on a GitHub project board with four columns: Researching, We're Working On It, Coming Soon and Just Shipped. The README defines each one; Coming Soon means roughly a couple of months out. An FAQ explains why there are no dates and says the roadmap can change at any time. Anyone can open an issue to request a feature, and community-submitted issues are tagged Proposed for the team to review.
Copy the FAQ. Answering 'why are there no dates?' on the page removes the most common complaint about horizon roadmaps. Watch the mix: requests and committed work live in one issue tracker, so the Proposed label does a lot of work. Keep unreviewed requests visibly apart from committed work.
Diversion
Diversion's public roadmap is a Productboard portal with four tabs: Upcoming, Later, In consideration and Done. The first card on the Upcoming tab is the disclaimer: the board reflects current development paths, is not a commitment on timing, and plans can change without notice. Some cards add a note such as 'Currently in alpha'. Visitors can submit ideas and rate how important an item is to them, from Not important to Critical.
Copy the placement of the disclaimer, on the board where people actually look. Watch the naming: Later and In consideration are close in meaning, so say what separates them.
Voting-driven status boards
These roadmaps sit on a feedback board: customers vote on requests, and the roadmap shows the ones the team has moved into a status.
Canny
Canny's own feedback site shows three roadmap columns, Under Review, Planned and In Progress, beside boards for feature requests, integrations and languages. Each card shows its vote count and board. Shipped work is announced in a changelog linked from the header rather than in a roadmap column.
Copy Under Review as a public column: it tells requesters their post has been seen before any decision is made. Watch the end of the journey. A customer who checks only the roadmap does not see what was delivered, so link shipped items to the changelog prominently.
Ahrefs
Ahrefs runs its roadmap on Canny with Planned, In Progress and Complete columns. Each card carries a vote count and a product label such as Rank Tracker, Keywords Explorer or Brand Radar, and the sidebar lists one board per product area with its post count.
Copy the product label on every card, so a customer who uses one tool can scan straight to it. Watch the titles: requests reach the roadmap in customers' original words, some phrased as complaints. Edit titles when items move to Planned.
Featurebase
Featurebase's roadmap has four columns, Planned, Next up, In Progress and Done, each headed by an item count. When we opened it, Planned held 130 items, Next up 20, In Progress 11 and Done 498. Each card shows its category, comment count and vote count.
Copy the Next up column. Placed between Planned and In Progress, it gives a status board the sense of order that Now / Next / Later provides. Watch column size: a Planned column of more than a hundred items is hard to read as a commitment.
Buffer
Buffer's roadmap uses Exploring, Planned, In Progress and Released. Each card shows a vote count, a date and the board it came from, such as Feature Suggestions, Buffer API or New Channel and Integration Requests.
Copy the separate board for API requests, which stops developer asks competing for votes with interface requests. Watch the dates: they show a month and day with no year, so a visitor cannot tell how old a request is once it has been on the board for more than a year.
Loom
Loom's product roadmap is a Productboard portal with three tabs: Coming soon, Under consideration and Launched. Within each tab, cards are grouped by product area (Recording & Editing, Sharing & Collaboration, Integrations), and each shows a count beside a person icon. Opening a card asks how important the item is to you, with four answers from Not important to Critical, and a Submit idea button sits above the tabs.
Copy the importance scale. It records how much an item matters to each person, which a single upvote cannot. Watch the unexplained number: counts on one tab ran from 0 to 3,535 with no label saying what they measure.
Dated roadmaps: quarters, months and versions
These roadmaps attach a time to each item. They serve customers who plan purchases and rollouts around you, and they take the most work to keep accurate.
Atlassian Cloud
Atlassian's Cloud roadmap lists features as cards, each with a short description, a category, a product, a status (Coming soon or Released) and a quarter such as Q4 2026 or Q1 2027. Filters cover category, status, time and app. The page shows a last-updated date and offers a quarterly email. A disclaimer at the foot says the content is for information only and should not be relied on for purchasing decisions.
Copy the last-updated date, the simplest proof that a dated roadmap is maintained. Watch scale: with many products on one page, the filters do most of the work.
Microsoft 365
The Microsoft 365 roadmap, now titled the AI at Work roadmap, listed 1,776 updates across three statuses: In development, Rolling out and Launched. Items show a rollout start month and, for some, a separate month when a preview is available. Filters cover product, status, release phase and platform. The introduction says all information is subject to change, and that items are removed once they become generally available or are cancelled or postponed.
Copy the split between preview and rollout dates, which tells admins when they can test a change and when their users will see it. Watch the removals: a roadmap that deletes items once they ship cannot show a track record.
Mastodon
Mastodon's roadmap is a short page with three labels: Released, Next release and Exploring. Released and Next release items name a version (4.6 and 5.0 when we opened it) with a one-line description, and larger items link to a blog post. Exploring items carry no version, and the page has no voting.
Copy the use of versions in place of dates. 'Version 5.0' is honest about order without promising a month. Watch the missing caveat: the page has no disclaimer, so readers have to infer that Next release items could still move.
A roadmap by release stage
PostHog's roadmap groups items by maturity rather than time: Concept (ideas the company has committed to exploring), Alpha (in testing with a small group of users) and Beta (ready to enable). Each item names the internal team that owns it. There are no dates or votes. Betas can be switched on straight away, items still to come have an email waitlist, a 'Your idea here' card invites suggestions, and shipped work is left to the changelog.
Copy the owning team on each item, which shows there is someone behind it, and the waitlist, which captures interest at the moment it exists. Watch the vocabulary: Alpha and Beta mean more to developers than to other buyers. PostHog defines each stage in a sentence; if you borrow the format, do the same.
What the twelve have in common
Only two of the twelve, Atlassian and Microsoft, put a target date on items. Mastodon uses version numbers, GitHub labels Enterprise Server versions, and the rest show order or status alone. Half let customers vote or rate importance, and five of those six run on a hosted feedback tool: Canny, Featurebase or a Productboard portal. Five carry an explicit caveat that plans can change (GitHub, AWS, Diversion, Atlassian and Microsoft), and every one of the twelve gives shipped work somewhere to go, whether a Shipped column or a changelog.
The lesson: pick horizons or statuses unless customers genuinely plan around your dates, add a plain caveat, and make shipped work visible to the people who asked. The public roadmap template starts you with Exploring, Planned, In progress and Shipped. In Looph the public roadmap is a view over your feedback board statuses, so moving a post moves the card and notifies its voters; set up and publish a roadmap covers mapping columns to statuses and keeping items internal.
The twelve by the numbers
Of the 12, 6 let visitors vote on or rate items. Any kind of date or version appears on 4, but only 2 commit to a target date on items. A column or label for work that has shipped appears on 10, so a visitor can see the roadmap is moving.
The pattern is clear enough to borrow: show order rather than dates unless your buyers plan in quarters, let customers vote if you want the roadmap to double as a feedback channel, and always show what shipped.
Public roadmap examples at a glance
Voting includes importance ratings; dates means a target date or version on items.
| Company | Format | Voting | Dates shown | Roadmap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Horizon board: Up Next, Exploring, Shipped, Paused | No | Server versions only | github.com |
| AWS containers | Horizon board: Researching to Just Shipped | No, requests via issues | No | github.com |
| Diversion | Horizon tabs: Upcoming, Later, In consideration, Done | Yes | No | Productboard portal |
| Canny | Status columns: Under Review, Planned, In Progress | Yes | No | feedback.canny.io |
| Ahrefs | Status columns: Planned, In Progress, Complete | Yes | No | ahrefs.canny.io |
| Featurebase | Status columns: Planned, Next up, In Progress, Done | Yes | No | feedback.featurebase.app |
| Buffer | Status columns: Exploring, Planned, In Progress, Released | Yes | No | suggestions.buffer.com |
| Loom | Status tabs: Coming soon, Under consideration, Launched | Yes | No | Productboard portal |
| Atlassian Cloud | Dated cards: Coming soon, Released | No | Quarter | atlassian.com |
| Microsoft 365 | Dated list: In development, Rolling out, Launched | No | Month | microsoft.com |
| Mastodon | Release labels: Released, Next release, Exploring | No | Version | joinmastodon.org |
| PostHog | Release stages: Concept, Alpha, Beta | No, email waitlist | No | posthog.com |
Frequently asked questions
Should a public roadmap show dates?
Usually not. Only Atlassian and Microsoft, of the twelve compared here, show a target quarter or month; both have customers who plan rollouts around them. The rest show order, status or versions.
Where do companies host a public roadmap?
Three places come up in these examples: a page on the company's own site (Atlassian, Microsoft, Mastodon, PostHog), a GitHub project board (GitHub, AWS), or a feedback tool such as Canny, Featurebase or a Productboard portal (Canny, Ahrefs, Featurebase, Loom, Diversion). Buffer runs its roadmap on a suggestions subdomain.
Can customers vote on a public roadmap?
On six of the twelve, yes. Canny, Ahrefs, Featurebase and Buffer show upvote counts, while Loom and Diversion ask visitors to rate how important an item is.