From Hurricane Spaghetti to Transit Maps: Making Sense of Your ServiceNow Roadmap

If you’ve ever watched a hurricane forecast, you’ve seen the “spaghetti model”, dozens of lines crisscrossing the map, each showing a possible storm track. That’s what many ServiceNow backlogs look like. A tangle of requests, features, and ideas all moving in different directions.

It’s not that the requests are bad. In fact, most of them are valid. The problem is that without strategy and prioritization, everything feels urgent, nothing connects, and the organization can’t see the bigger picture. It’s overwhelming, like staring at that hurricane spaghetti model and trying to guess which noodle will hit land.

Contrast that to a Transit Map

A good subway map is clean, intentional, and easy to follow. It shows clear lines, phased stops, and connections between routes. You can see where you are today, where you’re headed tomorrow, and how everything ties together.

That’s the difference an Advisory-led roadmap makes. Instead of reacting to every new request, you align them to business outcomes, group them into logical phases, and sequence delivery in a way that’s realistic and transparent.

Clear Roadmap = Leadership Buy-In

On a recent engagement, we started with what looked like a hurricane spaghetti model, a massive list of disconnected requirements from multiple workstreams. By layering those into a transit-style roadmap, the client could finally see how each phase built on the next. What had felt chaotic suddenly made sense.

The lesson is simple: ServiceNow roadmaps aren’t just about what gets built, they’re about telling a story leadership can follow. And when leaders understand the journey, they stay engaged, fund the work, and support adoption.

Don’t let your ServiceNow investment get lost in the storm. Move from spaghetti models to transit maps, and your roadmap becomes the clearest track to value.