Visualize

Visualize

Grounded in: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information — Edward Tufte: maximise the data-ink ratio and let the structure of the data pick the form. The rule that does the work here — a PM artifact is usually a comparison, a ranking, or a sequence, and each has one obvious right shape. A RICE table is a ranking, a Now/Next/Later board is a sequence, an OKR tree is a hierarchy. Match the form to the structure and the visual needs almost no decoration.

Turns the structured output of a PM skill into a single self-contained HTML file — no server, no build, no external fonts or CDNs — that opens in any browser and is built to be screenshotted into a deck, a Slack post, or a doc. Text artifacts inform; a clean visual persuades and travels. This is the skill that makes the work shareable.

It renders five PM artifacts, each with a purpose-built layout:

When to use this

• A skill just produced a prioritization, roadmap, OKR set, metrics review, or journey map and you want a picture, not a table.
• You're prepping a deck, a leadership update, or a Slack/Notion post and need a screenshot-ready visual.
• Someone says "can you make this a board / matrix / scorecard / chart" or "visualize this."
• You want the artifact to travel — a RICE matrix lands in a planning review far harder than a markdown table.

Before you start (gather these)

• The artifact + its data — the prioritized list (with RICE/Kano scores), the roadmap items by horizon, the OKRs with progress, the metrics with current/prior/target, or the journey stages. If a sibling skill just produced it, use that output directly.
• Which visual — infer it from the artifact type; if genuinely ambiguous, ask once. Don't render a roadmap as a matrix.
• House style — if memory/house-style.md defines brand colors/fonts, use them via the CSS variables below so the visual looks like the company's, not generic.

If you have the structured data, proceed and render — don't make the user reformat it for you. If the data is missing scores/values a widget needs (e.g. RICE numbers), fill what you can and clearly mark gaps in the visual rather than inventing numbers.

Process

1. Pick the widget from the artifact type (table above). One artifact → one focused visual; don't cram two.
2. Map the data into the widget's structure — e.g. for the matrix, each item needs an x (effort) and y (impact); for the board, each card needs a title, horizon, and one-line why.
3. Build ONE self-contained .html file using the design system and the matching template below. Inline every style. No <script src>, no Google Fonts, no CDN — it must render offline and survive being emailed.
4. Apply house style if defined — override the CSS variables only; keep the structure.
5. Write it to the project at ./<artifact>-<slug>.html (e.g. roadmap-q3.html), then tell the user the path and that they can open it in a browser and screenshot it. Offer to adjust colors/labels.
6. Never invent data to fill the picture. A visual makes numbers look authoritative — only render what's real; mark estimates with a ~ and unknowns as —.

Design system (use for every widget)

Put this in a <style> block; override the :root variables from house-style.md if it defines brand colors.

:root{
  --ink:#0f172a; --muted:#64748b; --line:#e2e8f0; --bg:#ffffff; --surface:#f8fafc;
  --accent:#4f46e5; --good:#16a34a; --warn:#d97706; --bad:#dc2626;
  --radius:12px; --shadow:0 1px 3px rgba(15,23,42,.08),0 1px 2px rgba(15,23,42,.04);
  --font:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;
}
*{box-sizing:border-box} body{margin:0;background:var(--bg);color:var(--ink);font-family:var(--font);
  line-height:1.45;padding:32px;-webkit-font-smoothing:antialiased}
.wrap{max-width:1040px;margin:0 auto}
h1{font-size:22px;margin:0 0 4px} .sub{color:var(--muted);font-size:13px;margin:0 0 24px}
.foot{color:var(--muted);font-size:12px;margin-top:28px;border-top:1px solid var(--line);padding-top:12px}
.card{background:var(--bg);border:1px solid var(--line);border-radius:var(--radius);box-shadow:var(--shadow)}

Every file: a .wrap container, an <h1> title + .sub line (artifact + date + product), the widget, and a .foot credit line ("Product Manager OS · The Product Channel"). Keep it calm and uncluttered — whitespace is the point.

Output template (worked: Now / Next / Later board)

This is the reference build — the other widgets follow the same shell, swapping the widget block. Fill [brackets].

<!doctype html><html lang="en"><head><meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width,initial-scale=1">
<title>[Product] — Roadmap</title>
<style>
:root{--ink:#0f172a;--muted:#64748b;--line:#e2e8f0;--bg:#fff;--surface:#f8fafc;--accent:#4f46e5;--good:#16a34a;--warn:#d97706;--bad:#dc2626;--radius:12px;--shadow:0 1px 3px rgba(15,23,42,.08),0 1px 2px rgba(15,23,42,.04);--font:-apple-system,BlinkMacSystemFont,"Segoe UI",Roboto,Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif}
*{box-sizing:border-box}body{margin:0;background:var(--bg);color:var(--ink);font-family:var(--font);line-height:1.45;padding:32px}
.wrap{max-width:1040px;margin:0 auto}h1{font-size:22px;margin:0 0 4px}.sub{color:var(--muted);font-size:13px;margin:0 0 24px}
.board{display:grid;grid-template-columns:repeat(3,1fr);gap:16px}
.col h2{font-size:13px;text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:.05em;color:var(--muted);margin:0 0 12px;padding-bottom:8px;border-bottom:2px solid var(--line)}
.col.now h2{color:var(--accent);border-color:var(--accent)}
.item{background:var(--surface);border:1px solid var(--line);border-radius:10px;padding:12px 14px;margin-bottom:10px}
.item .t{font-weight:600;font-size:14px}.item .w{color:var(--muted);font-size:12.5px;margin-top:3px}
.tag{display:inline-block;font-size:11px;color:var(--accent);background:#eef2ff;border-radius:6px;padding:2px 7px;margin-top:8px}
.foot{color:var(--muted);font-size:12px;margin-top:28px;border-top:1px solid var(--line);padding-top:12px}
</style></head><body><div class="wrap">
<h1>[Product] — Roadmap</h1><p class="sub">Now / Next / Later · [date]</p>
<div class="board">
  <div class="col now"><h2>Now</h2>
    <div class="item"><div class="t">[Item]</div><div class="w">[why it's now]</div><span class="tag">[outcome]</span></div>
  </div>
  <div class="col"><h2>Next</h2>
    <div class="item"><div class="t">[Item]</div><div class="w">[why]</div></div>
  </div>
  <div class="col"><h2>Later</h2>
    <div class="item"><div class="t">[Item]</div><div class="w">[why]</div></div>
  </div>
</div>
<p class="foot">Product Manager OS · The Product Channel</p>
</div></body></html>

The other four widgets (same shell, swap the block)

• RICE/Kano matrix — a position:relative square plot (.plot{aspect-ratio:1;border-left:2px solid var(--line);border-bottom:2px solid var(--line)}); place each item as an absolutely-positioned dot (left:%effort, bottom:%impact) with a label; axis captions "Effort →" / "Impact ↑"; top-left quadrant tinted as "quick wins." Fallback when no x/y: horizontal ranked bars of RICE score.
• OKR tree — each Objective is a .card with its title, then nested Key Results as rows, each with a label and a progress bar (.bar{height:8px;background:var(--line);border-radius:4px} .bar>i{display:block;height:100%;background:var(--accent);border-radius:4px;width:[pct]%}) and a [current]/[target] value. Color the bar --good/--warn/--bad by pace.
• Metrics scorecard — a responsive grid (grid-template-columns:repeat(auto-fit,minmax(180px,1fr))) of .cards: metric name, big current value, a trend chip (▲/▼ colored by good direction) vs prior, target underneath, and a left border in --good/--warn/--bad for 🟢/🟡/🔴 status.
• Journey swimlane — a CSS grid: columns = stages, rows = "Doing / Thinking / Feeling / Pain / Opportunity." First column is sticky row labels. Put an emoji emotion (😀😐😣) in the Feeling row; tint Pain cells faint red and Opportunity cells faint green so the problem areas pop.

Avoid (anti-patterns)

• External dependencies. A Google-Fonts link or a Chart.js CDN means it breaks offline and on a plane and behind a firewall. Inline everything — the file must work double-clicked from a USB stick.
• Inventing data to make it look complete. A blank cell is honest; a made-up RICE score in a polished matrix is a lie with a nice font. Mark gaps —.
• Cramming two artifacts into one file. A roadmap and a scorecard in one page reads as a cluttered dashboard. One artifact, one focused visual; render two files if asked.
• Chartjunk. Gradients, drop shadows on everything, 3D, rainbow categorical colors. The design system is deliberately calm — restraint is what makes it look senior.
• Wrong widget for the data. A roadmap is a board, not a matrix; OKRs are a tree, not a bar chart. Match the structure to the artifact.

Tips

• Build for the screenshot. Keep it to one viewport-ish height where you can, generous margins, big readable type — assume it ends up cropped into a slide.
• Lead the eye. Accent-color only the one thing that matters (the "Now" column, the quick-wins quadrant, the red metric); everything else stays neutral.
• Reuse the shell. Title + sub + widget + foot is constant; only the middle block changes. That consistency is what makes a deck of these look like one product.
• Offer the follow-up. After rendering, ask if they want it in brand colors (pull from house-style.md) or a second view — a screenshot beats a paragraph in 90% of PM comms.