When using a project management tool, one can be overwhelmed by the many visualization options, such as boards or timelines. The underlying problem is that someone can think these options exclude one another, ask themselves why they are there, and wonder what is the difference.

When using the journey analogy, we can see that these visualizations are just a different way to view the same underlying structure.

We can imagine boards like having a real-life board with sticky notes. There are different ways to set up this board, but let's say we have three sections: “New”, “In progress”, and “Done”. Every task is a sticky note, and we can see how this view makes it easy to move our tasks around the board. If a task is buying a plane ticket for our journey, we would put it in the “New” section in the planning phase, in the “In progress” section while buying it, and in the “Done” section after the purchase. This is great for tracking the journey’s progress.

Timelines are just a useful overview of the beginning and end dates of every task and milestone, or action and destination reached in our journey metaphor. This view can also be really helpful when visualizing how tasks are interconnected and which must be performed before others to reach a certain milestone.

And finally, we have filters, one of the most underestimated view options in project management tools. Imagine how real life would be easier if you could plan a journey by having the possibility to, in a second, switch from seeing every action you need to do grouped by destination cities or by day of the week.