Map types

A map type is the kind of canvas you choose when you create a board. CardBoard supports about 19 map types today: user story map, sitemap, kanban, persona, business model canvas, journey, opportunity solution tree, four Ls retrospective, sailboat, SWOT, Wardley map, freeform canvas, and others.

The map type tells the board how cards can be arranged, what’s structural and what’s decorative, and what kind of connections make sense. On a kanban, columns are the structure. On a sitemap, the parent–child tree is. On a freeform canvas, position is whatever you decide. The map type makes the rules.

Choose a map type when you create a board, and pick the one that matches the conversation you’re trying to have. A team starting a new feature might use an opportunity solution tree to find problems worth solving, then a user story map to break the chosen solution down, then a kanban to execute — different boards, different map types, same workspace.

Many map types share an underlying canvas grammar. A user story map and a swimlane kanban both arrange cards in lanes — the same shape with different labels. That’s why new map types are cheap when they fit an existing grammar (relabel and ship) and expensive when they don’t (a new canvas engine has to learn the shape).

The map type is set at board creation and doesn’t change. If you started a story map and want a kanban, create a new board; cards can be copied between boards.

Note

Map types used to be called “Templates” in older copy. The rename surfaces that the choice is structural, not just a starting point — a template is a pre-filled starting board, while a map type is the shape of any board, filled or empty.