Aha! FAQs
Aha!'s Frequently Asked Questions page is a central hub where its customers can always go to with their most common questions. These are the 630 most popular questions Aha! receives.
Frequently Asked Questions About Aha!
To-dos are a powerful way for you and your team to manage tasks that need to be completed. You can add to-dos to most record types and screens in your Aha! account.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Create a to-do
Assign to-dos
Organize to-dos
Report on to-dos
Create a to-do
There are two types of to-dos.
To-dos have a Name,Description,Assignee, andDue date. Assignees mark the to-do complete when they have completed the task.
Approval to-dos function like to-dos with two key differences:
They have additional resolution options. Users can choose to Approve, Approve with changes, or Reject an approval to-do.
They can be configured as part of a workflow approval gate in your status workflow, where they are assigned to a workflow approval group.
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You can create either type of to-do from theTo-dossection of a record, including requirements attached to features and activities. Click the(+)button, select the to-do type, then fill out the to-do. ClickSaveto create your to-do, or clickClick here to add another to create multiple to-dos.
Note: If used as part of a fixed workflow, approval to-dos will appear automatically in theWorkflow approvalssection of a record.
To-dos do not have to be attached to an Aha! record. Click the+button in the upper righthand corner of your screen to create a private to-do.
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Assign to-dos
When you create and assign a to-do, or add or remove to-do assignees, the relevant users receive an email and a notification from Aha! with a link back to the relevant record. You can also assign to-dos to yourself (though Aha! will not notify you in that case).
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Organize to-dos
To-dos are manually sortable so they can be organized based on due date or other personal preferences. To sort, hover over a to-do untilthe cross appears. Then click and drag the to-do to your preferred order.
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Report on to-dos
Like any record type in Aha!, you can report on to-dos.
Build reports on to-dos and their associated attributes, such as assignee, status, and due date.
On any record using a fixed workflow, scroll down to theWorkflow approvalssection andclickView in pivot reportto view a pre-built report on the approvals by record and status transition.
Navigate to your My work page to get a quick snapshot of your to-dos, or to-dos for members of your team..
View ArticleAn Aha! workflow is the set of statuses and transitions that a record such as an initiative, feature, or idea may move through during its lifecycle. You can customize your team's workflow by workspace so that Aha! mirrors however your team works best. You can also customize your team's record layouts, types, and statuses.
You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to create a custom workflow at the account level. But any user with owner permissions can apply created workflows to their workspace. They can also clone workflows to create a copy for themselves or edit existing workflows to make changes.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Adda customworkflow
Add custom statuses
Choose status categories
Set transition buttons
Add feature types
Apply a custom workflow to a workspace
Apply custom ideas workflow
Adda customworkflow
Toadda custom workflow, go toSettings > Account >Configure statuses and workflows.Use the workspace type tabs to select the type of workflow you want to add or edit.
TheUniversaltab lets you add or edit goal and initiative workflows.
The workspace type tabs let you add or edit release, feature, and idea workflows for that workspace type. These are also referred to as schedule, activity, and idea workflows.
When you click theAdd workflowdropdown, you can select which type of record workflow you wish to customize.
Aha! offers built-in example workflows for a variety of record types.You can use theexampleworkflow provided for your record type or add your own to guide users through your processes.
After you select from thedropdown, Aha! will create a copy of the example workflow for that record type. Update the Name of the workflowand add an optionalDescription.
Next, select whether your workflow will beflexibleorfixed.
Flexible workflows allow users to skip steps in the workflow and do not support approval gates. They are best suited for workflows that do not follow the same steps in the same order every time drafting a go-to-market blog post for a content marketing team, for example, with a variable number of reviews depending on the post's content.
Fixed workflows do not allow users to skip workflow steps and support approval gates. They are best suited for workflows that need to be consistent, like a product development initiative that needs regulatory and financial approval before implementation can begin.
Note: If you choose to create afixedworkflow, then you may want to read more about workflow approvals.
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Add custom statuses
There are two ways to add custom statuses. You can edit the workflow's example statuses to reflect your processes. Or you can delete the example statuses and create new ones by clickingAdd status.
You may want the names of your custom statuses to map to the statuses used in other third-party tools (like your bug tracking system). This is particularly valuable if you have integrated Aha! with a third-party tool.
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Choose status categories
Status categories in Aha! have a special purpose categories help you automate certain displays and actions.
When you add a new status or edit an existing status, you will be able to choose the status category that best matches. You can have multiple custom statuses that have the same status category.For example,Design andDevelopmentstatuses might both be part of theIn progressstatus category. If the status does not match one of the category options, leave it blank.
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There are some considerations when choosing status categories for ideas:
Whena user adds anew idea, the idea defaults to the first status that has not been assigned to a status category. These appear in order from top to bottom you can drag statuses to reorder.
Promotingan idea to a feature will automatically change the idea status to the first custom statusin the status categoryIn progress.
Only statuses that are in a status category will be published to or trigger email notifications from public and private ideas portals.
Shippinga featuretriggers the idea status to change to the first status in the status categoryDone.
Status categories also affect features and releases:
When a release is shipped, all features with statuses not in the categoriesDone,Shipped,orWill not dowill be moved to another release.
Any features with statuses in the categoryDonewill be changed toShipped.
Finally, the status changes of a feature's requirements affect the parent feature:
If any requirement has a status in the category of In progress, then the feature status will change toIn Progress.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Done, then the feature status will change toDone.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Shipped, then the feature status will change toShipped.
If all requirements have a status in the category of Will not implement, then the feature status will change toWill not implement.
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Set transition buttons
Transition buttons help Aha! usersfollow a predefined workflow. To add transitions between two statuses, click the+icon in theTransition buttons column beneath the first status. Then you can choose how the statuses should flow and add a name for the transition button.
If you want to add approval gates to your transitions so that a record will need a formal approval before it can move to the next status you will want to read more about workflow approvals.
The name of the transitionappears on thebutton for moving between states, so choosean action phrase, such as "Start designing." It is also helpful to acknowledge the completion of a step in your flow, such as "Requirements completed."
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Add feature and activity types
When you create a newfeatures or activities workflow, scroll tothe bottom of the workflow creation pagefor the option to edit or create Custom types. Types allow you to add templates to the feature or activity's description, as well as to any requirements. This way, you can streamline bug reports or follow a gather consistent information from an IT request.
When you add a new feature or activity, the first type on the list will be the default. We recommend reordering feature and activity types to represent the most commonly selected types first.
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Apply a custom workflow to a workspace
The last step in setting upa custom workflow is to apply it to a workspace. Workspace owners can do this by navigating toSettings > Workspace > Configure. This is true for all workflow types, except ideas, which are covered in the next section.
Changes to a workflow areapplied immediately and affect existing records.
Note: If you change the workflow for a record type inSettings > Workspace > Configure, it will change the statuses for all records in that workspace, which cannot be undone.
To change your account’s default workflows assigned to new workspaces, navigate to Settings > Account > Configure statuses and workflowsand click theSet defaultsbutton at the top of the page.
The default workflows you set are automatically applied when new hierarchy elements are created. Note that the updated default workflows are only applied to newly added workspaces they are not applied to existing ones, whichyou must updateindividually.
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Apply custom ideas workflow
Idea workflows are assigned inSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configure.Click on theEdit ideas workflowbutton and select the new workflow to be applied. You will then be prompted to map current statuses to new statuses.
After your ideas workflow is updated, you can also decide which statuses show in your ideas portal. Go to Settings > Account > Configure statuses and workflows. Select your workflow and you will see a column that indicates whether the status is visible on your portal or not.
To show a status in your ideas portal, click on the status and check the Show in ideas portal option.
View ArticleWhether it's a product launch, new client implementation, or a marketing campaign, your team's success often depends on your ability to prioritize your work, coordinate with other teams, and deliver on time. Releases in Aha! help you do just that.
Releases, also called "schedules" in some Aha! workspace types, are built around a release date. This is more than just the day when implementation ends. Think of it from your customer's perspective: the release date is the date when they will have a new experience of your product, program, or service.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of these links to skip ahead:
Create a release
Create release templates
Add features, phases, and milestones
Create dependencies between features, phases, and milestones
Customize the Gantt view
Show master features on the Gantt chart
Copy an existing release to a new release
Share a release
Create a release
Navigate to theReleasessection of Aha! to get started. By default, you will open theReleases > Ganttpage, which shows you a Gantt chart view of any existing releases. Gantt charts make it easy to visualize dependencies and manage dates, so most release management happens on this page.
ClickAdd release to create a release.
Note: You can also create a release from theFeatures > Board page, if you want to start adding features from a parking lot immediately.
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TheRelease name is the name of your release.
You can choose toCreate a new release orCopy an existing release.
Choose the workspace where you want toAdd new release to.
Select aRelease date. This is the date when every item in your release should be complete. You can create release phases or milestones for important stages in the release later.
If you have enabled capacity planning, choose how you want to track the progress of your release, in hours or story points.
Use theThemefield to enter a description of your release.
Select a releaseOwner. This user will receive notifications about everything happening in the release.
Select aRelease template, if you are using one. You can create a release template elsewhere.
When you have added all the necessary details, clickCreate release. You will see it appear on the Gantt chart (and as a column on yourFeatures > Board). By default, theStart date for a release is one month before itsRelease date. You can always adjust this if you need to.
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Create release templates
If your releases have a consistent set of release phases, you can create release templates that apply either to just your workspace or to all workspaces under a parent line. You will need to have owner permissions to create a release template.
To create a template, start by navigating to the parent line or workspace that will be using your release templates. Use theSettings icon to navigate to eitherSettings > Parent line >Release phases and milestonesorSettings > Workspace >Release phases andmilestones.
Create one or more release templates that include phases and milestones that are appropriate for different types of releases (e.g. SaaS vs. on-premise, beta vs. GA, major vs. minor releases). While creating phases and milestones for your template, you can also add to-dos, which help you to ensure that the various cross-functional tasks defined throughout your template are easily repeatable with each new release set the number of days in between phases and definedependencies between your phases and milestones.
When you addnew releases, you can choose from the following release phase template options:
Default: A simple template provided by Aha! to help get you started.
A custom template: Any template that you created for the parent line or workspace.
No template: Choose to create a release and enter all of the phases and milestones manually.
You can also apply a new release template to an existing release. There are two options when doing so: keep all existing phases and milestones and add the ones from your new template or delete all existing phases and milestones and replace them with the ones from your new template.
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Add features, phases and milestones
Now that you have a release, you will want to add features to it and structure it with release phases.
Features and master features represent the work that you will complete in your release. Release phases help you structure the flow of your release and come in two types: phases and milestones.
Phases are containers of work within your release you may have design, development, and test phases, for example, and you can group features within phases.
Milestones are single important dates to your project such as the date that design is completed or the date that the app store approves your mobile application.
Both types of release phases are optional. Add them if your release involves a lot of cross-functional dependencies or if they're helpful for organizing your release.
Use these steps to add records to your release:
If you want to drag and drop features or master features into a release, navigate toFeatures > Board and open the parking lot slider. Drag feature or master feature cards from the parking lot to your release.
If you want to add features individually or structure release phases and milestones, click on your release in the Releases > Gantt view to open its detail drawer. From here, clickAdd feature,Add phase, orAdd milestone. Edit the details of each after you add them.
If you know exactly where you want to add a release element, expand your release on the left side of the Gantt view, then click the+icon between the two records where your new release element should appear. From there, you can add aNew feature,Existing feature (one that has been hidden from the Gantt view), aMilestone, or aPhase.
Note: You can also use the+icon that appears alongside a phase name to addNeworExisting features directly to the phase.
All features will be visible on the Gantt chart by default even if they do not have StartandEnd dates. This way, you can organize them in the context of the rest of the release before assigning them dates. Features without dates will appear at the start of a release but with hazy bar borders.
Assign dates to a feature by clicking and dragging its bar on the Gantt view or by clicking on it to open the feature detail drawer. You can also hide the feature from the Gantt view by clicking theMore optionsbutton beside the feature's name and selectingRemove from Gantt.
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Create dependencies between features, milestones, and phases
Even in the most agile teams, there are times when one activity can't start until the preceding one ends. You might need to complete a design phase before development can start. Or you may need to have an introductory call with a client before you can start work on their project. Aha! supports finish-to-start dependencies between features, phases, and milestones both within a release and across releases and workspaces.
To create a dependency in your release, hover over a release element, then click and drag the ball icon that appears next to the dependent release element.
If the dependent release element is in the future, the dependency line will be grey. If the dependent element is in the past or if the dates slip on the release element it depends on the dependency line will turn red.
If you have dependent release elements and move the parent record, you will need to move the child records manually. This is because child records can have date ranges independent of parent records.
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Customize the Gantt view
You can further customize the Gantt view to focus on critical elements of your plan.
From the top of the Gantt page:
Use the filters on top to show or hide different date ranges, workspaces, releases, or shipped releases. You can also use theAdd filter button to add additional filters.
Note: You can also add theRelease settings dropdown as a filter on many roadmaps and reports, where it will allow you to show or hide parking lots and shipped releases.
Use theReleases / Master features toggle to group features by release or by master feature.
Use theCustomize view icon to customize the Gantt layout, including whether to display weekends and assignees or whether you want to color the Gantt bars or show progress on your Gantt.
From the lefthand side of the page:
Click theMore optionsicon beside any release to:
Sort phases and milestones by theirStart dates,End dates, orAlphabetically. This changes the view for you but not for other people who view the release. To share your view with other people, clickSave in the upper-right corner of the page.
Sort features byRank (their rank on theFeatures > Board),Start date,End date, orAlphabetically. Sorting features on the Gantt view does not affect their sort order in theFeatures > Boardview, and does not change the view for other people who view the release. To share your view with other people, clickSave in the upper right corner of the page.
Click theMore optionsbutton beside any release or phase toAlign the release or the phase with its visible children. This is useful if you want your release to start with theStart date of your first feature, and finish with theEnd date of your last feature.
Click theMore optionsbutton beside any feature toRemove from Gantt. This will hide the feature from the Gantt view without removing it from the release. You can click the+icon andAdd existing feature to show the hidden feature again.
From the Gantt chart:
Click and drag to manually re-sort the order of any feature, master feature, release, release phase, or milestone. If a record has child records, it needs to be collapsed before you can move it.
From theReleases > Detailpage:
Add or remove phases and milestones according to the unique needs of your release. Select the release to bring out the release detail drawer (or go to Releases > Detail). To remove phases or milestones, hover over the desired one and click the xicon to the right. Toadd, click the Add Phase or Add Milestone buttons.
Note: The Releases > Detail viewis hidden for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable it, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
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Group features by master feature
You can use master features to manage groups of features that share a common theme. Features can be linked to both master features and releases, so it can be helpful to visualize master features in a Gantt view, and how they will be delivered through releases.
To show master features on the Gantt chart, click theMaster featuresbutton at the top of the page. You can customize this view just as you can the releases view, including the ability to add dependencies between features and master features.
There are two differences to note:
You can choose to color the bars byWorkspaceorRelease as well asStatus,Assignee, andType.
You can see a new field at the top of the Gantt view calledRelease names. Click this to see theRelease dates of the releases in the date range you have chosen.
Both features and master features without dates appear in the master features view as well. Features will appear at the start of a master feature with those same hazy borders to their bars. Master features will span the width of the timeline with hazy borders on their bars. You can add dates to dateless records or select theMore optionsbutton next to the feature and selectRemove fromGanttto hide it.
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Copy an existing release to a new release
When creating a new release, there are instances when it is desirable to copy all phases, milestones, features, dependencies, and to-dos from an existing release.Choosing to copy a release differs from selecting a release phase template for a new release in that a copy alreadyincludes the features and dependencies.
This option is most applicable for companies that reuse a set of features that need to get done as part of every release. Acommon practice is to create a release to serve as a template that contains not only phases, milestones, and dependencies but also a company standard set of release/launch "work tasks" modeled as features.
Upon creating a new release, you can chooseCreate new release or Copy existing release. The existing release can come from any workspace and across parent lines.
You can also copy any existing release from itsMore optionsmenu.Copying a release will copy all the features and phases contained in that release, as well.
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Share a release
Plans are made to be shared. Once you have customized your release, it is time to share it with the people it affects.
Tie the work to people by assigning records, creating to-dos, adding watchers, or @mentioning Aha! users in comments.
To fold your report into a presentation, click the More optionsbutton at the top of the page andselectAdd to presentation. In your presentation, you can select the release's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your release, click the More optionsbutton at the top of the page andselect Share as webpage.
For a static version of your release, click the More optionsbutton at the top of the page andselectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleIdeas management in Aha!provides a flexible and powerful built-in notification system so that you no longer have to manually update your idea creators and subscribers. This article details how that notification system works.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Notifications by user type
Notifications by idea status
Notifications by portal type and user origin
Notifications table: Public or Private Portal
Notifications table: Submit onlyportal
Improve email reception from Aha!
Notifications by user type
There are threetypes of users on any portal:
Public creator: This user self-registered or was added as a public user for a public portal and created an idea. Any idea they create is public, by default.
Employee/Partner creator: This user self-registered or was added as an Employee/Partner and created an idea. This means any ideas they create are private, visible only to other Employee/Partner users. This type of user is useful for users who do not have access to your entire Aha! account, but who submit ideas that you do not want visible to your entire portal like a beta test group, for example, or an invitation-only group of power users.
Aha! user: This user is also an Aha! user, meaning they have access to log into your Aha! account andwill automatically be logged into the ideas portal. If they create an idea from within Aha!, it is automatically set to private. If they create an idea on a public or private portal (like any other user), it will default to Employee/Partner settings and only be visible to others who are employees or partners.
When a user creates, votes on or comments on an idea they become subscribers to that idea. Subscribers are notified of important status changes to an idea. When notifications are received the "sender" is your company'sportal account name.
When an idea is created by a portal user, they will receive an email acknowledgment thanking them for their submission. Then, on a public or a private idea portal, the user will be notified as the idea progresses through your idea statuses. Similarly, if a portal user votes or comments on an existing idea, they will become subscribers and also be notified of changes to the idea. Ideas portal users can one-click unsubscribe to portal email notifications if they do not want to receive notifications.
If needed, owners and contributors can change idea creators. This allows owners and contributors to submit an idea on behalf of a customer or user, then change the creator back to the customer. This is useful for reporting purposes but also ensures that customer or user is subscribed to that idea.
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Notifications by idea status
Not all status changes trigger notifications. Notifications will only be sent to portal users when the status changes to any status which has Show in ideas portal checked in your idea workflow. You can customize the idea workflow by going to Settings > Account > Configure statuses and workflows.
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Notifications by portal type and user origin
In addition to notifications sent based on status,other notifications are triggered based on the portal type and user type.
You may choose to have a public, private or submit only portal.
Public portals allow anyone to self-register, but you can also add email domains to allow a subset of portal users to be classified as Employee/Partner. This means that a public portal can have both types of users.
Private portals, on the other hand, ensure that no one can access that portal unless they have an email address that matches the email domains you've entered into the configuration. For example, companyemail.com would allow [email protected] to self-register.
Submit-only portals do not allow users to view their ideas once submitted. However, users still receive notifications when their ideas change fundamentally, or if someone comments on their idea.
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Notifications table: Public or Private Portal
X = users who receive email if subscribing, watching, or participating
Action
Public Creator / Subscriber
Employee/Partner Creator/Subscriber
Aha! user
You create an idea
X
X
-
You vote on an idea
-
-
-
Someone else votes on an idea
-
-
-
An admin response is posted
X
X
X
Aha! user publicly comments
X
X
X
Aha! user privately comments
-
-
X
Private portal/non-Aha! user comments
-
X
X
Public portal/non-Aha! user comments
-
-
X
Idea status changes*
X
X
X
*Notifications will only be sent to portal users when the status changes to any status which has Show in ideas portal checked in your idea workflow.
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Notifications table: Submit onlyportal
A submit only portal allows anyone to submit an idea, but no one can see those ideas published.
X = users who receive email if subscribing, watching, or participating
Action
Portal user
Aha! user
You create an idea
X
-
Admin response is posted
-
X
Aha! user privately comments
-
X
Idea submitter comments via email
-
X
Idea status changes*
-
X
*Notifications will only be sent to portal users when the status changes to any status which has Show in ideas portal checked in your idea workflow.
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Improve email reception from Aha!
If you or your portal users report that your emailed idea notifications are getting caught by your company's spam filters, you may need to whitelist Aha! email domains and IP addresses.
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View ArticleUsers can submit feedback to an ideas portal by navigating to the portal itself and completing your idea creation form. This is a great way to ensure that you collect the exact information you need and encourage your users to interact with you, the portal, and (if structured this way) with the other users and ideas on it.
However, emailed ideas are just as valuable to you. If you allow your portal users to create ideas by email, you give them an option that is quick and simple encouraging painless feedback submission and welcoming them into your portal community at the same time.
When a user submits an idea by email, they are automatically created as a portal user in your account. Because ideas portal users are free and unlimited in every Aha! billing plan, you can invite or import as many users as you want.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Emailed ideas
Reasons to avoid forwarding an email address to your portal
Manage ideas portal spam
Emailed ideas
Users can create their ideas by email. You can find the email address they need to send their ideas to by navigating toSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configure. From there, look at theIdeas via email field.
When a user sends an email to that address:
The email's subject will become the idea'sSummary.
The email's body will become the idea'sDescription.
The email's from: email address will become theCreator (and display in theCreatorfield unless you have anonymized ideas in your portal). The sender will receive a confirmation email when their idea has posted to the portal.
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Reasons to avoid forwarding an email address to your portal
Though it might be tempting, we do not recommend that you create an email address that forwards to the unique address you see inIdeas via email. It creates a security vulnerability in the following situation:
A corporate email address, such as [email protected], has messages forwarded to anIdeas via email address.
A public or private idea portal is in use.
New ideas submitted to the portal are set to be portal visible automatically.
Internal applications are used that allow self-registration of users with email addresses on the corporate domain.
If those conditions exist, you risk the following:
A malicious user registers for internal applications using the [email protected] email address.
A registration email is then sent to [email protected].
The registration email gets published as an idea through the Ideas via email forwarding. The malicious user views the registration idea and uses the idea to access the registration content to create their account on the internal application.
If an address on your domain is used for idea submission, you should take caution to ensure that your portal is either a submit-only portal or that you set your default idea visibility to be Not visible in portal so that no malicious email could populate into the portal automatically.
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Manage ideas portal spam
Idea portals can represent a public face for your teams and your brands but emailed submissions introduce the potential for spam submissions. The spam filter addresses this problem.
To enable the spam filter for your portal, navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals, click on a public or submit-only portal, check the box forEnable idea spam filterin theSettingstab. Once enabled, the spam filter will scan all new ideas and public comments.
To review items marked as spam, navigate to theSpam foldertab. From here, you can view items marked as spam for ideas or public comments.
Click the link in the first column to view the record in question.
Click the link in theUser column to view the user's profile.
Hover over an item to mark it asNot spamortoDeleteit.
Note: All ideas and idea comments marked as spam will be automatically deleted 30 days after they were created.
To mark an item as spam that the spam filter missed, click theMore optionsbutton, then clickMark as spam.
Note:
Do notdeleteideas or commentsif you feel they are spam mark them as spam.The Aha! spam filtershave two levels of learning: local and global. Local learning is taught by the ideas portalowners and occurs whenever something is marked as spam that is not spam and when something is marked as Not Spam and Aha!thinks it is.
Do not mark unwanted ideas or comments as spam. Manage these ideas through your processes and workflows or simply delete these as appropriate.
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View ArticleAn Aha! ideas portal givesorganizations a place to bring customers, employees, and other stakeholders to the innovation table. Ideas portals give you a way to integratecustomer feedback directly into your roadmap.
When customers use your ideas portal, it should feel like anatural extension of your product, service, or brand.That is why we give you full control over customizing every aspect of your ideas portal, including the branding, email communications, and terminology.
To brand your portal and set customizations, go to Settings > Account > Configure ideas portals. Next, select the name of the portal you wish to edit and then click on the tab you wish to customize. You will need to be an administrator with customizations permissions to configure your ideas portal.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Settings
Single sign-on
Portal branding
Email branding
Terminology
Portal users
Settings
We will start with theSettingstab of your portal settings, which is broken into three sections.
Portal details
Enable portal: Check this box to enable or disable your portal.
Portal URL: This is the URL users will use to access your portal. It is in the format of your custom name.ideas.aha.io. For example, at Aha! our ideas portal is https://big.ideas.aha.io. Click here if you would like to learn how to use a custom domain instead.
Portal title: This text will be displayed in bold in the center of the header of your ideas portal.
Portal workspaces:Click the hierarchy dropdown to select the workspace(s) you would like associated with this portal. You can have a different portal for each workspace, multiple portals in the same workspace, or multiple workspaces pointing towards the same portal. Remember, ideas belong to a workspace; portals are the viewpoints through which you and your users can see ideas.
Portal type: Select the type of portal you would like to create.
User settings
Employee/Partner emails: Place a subset of your users in a separate user group.
Idea visibility: Change the default visibility for a newly submitted idea. You can leave this asDefault orCustomizeit.
User name visibility: You can choose to anonymize your portal for your users' privacy. Within Aha!, their information will still be visible so that you can appropriately manage your portal users and their ideas.
User consent: You can include an optional consent step in your users' profile creation process. The text of the consent checkbox is up to you. Generally, customers include this step if they plan on using their portal users' information outside of the portal.
Enable spam filter: If you allow ideas and comments to be created by email, you will likely want to enable a spam filter to guard against irrelevant content.
Voting rules
Votes per user: By default, each user in private and public portals has unlimited votes they can vote for every idea in the portal if they like. If you want to change this structure, you can. Use this setting to limit the total number of votes to give your users.
Votes per idea: By default, each user can vote for each idea once. Use this setting to change that, so that users can vote multiple times for the same idea.
ClickUpdate all portal settings at any time to save your changes.
User self-registration
Users with email addresses specified in theEmployee/Partner emails field can self-register for your public or private portal. You can also use this field to create a subset of ideas portal users. This could be employees that should be privy to how ideas affect your internal product roadmap or a focus group you want submitting feedback on a campaign that is not yet public.
For this article, let's focus on self-registration.You may enter comma-separated values to allow users to self-register from specified email domains. For example, "acme.com, mycorp.com" will allow users with both @acme.com and @mycorp.com email addresses to self-register.
If your users have email addresses from multiple subdomains, you can match them all with a wildcard. For example, "*.acme.com" will allow users with email addresses from product.acme.com, marketing.acme.com, or any other subdomain.
Note: If you only enter *.acme.com, a user with the email address [email protected] will not be allowed to self-register. If your employees have emails on both the base domain and on subdomains, you should use multiple comma-separated entries to match them all, e.g. "acme.com, *.acme.com"
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Single sign-on
Your ideas portal supports single sign-on (SSO) through the use of either SAML 2.0 or JSON web token (JWT). Either option provides a great way to automatically authenticate your own users into your portal. This is a very useful option if you are utilizing a private ideas portal because it prevents you from having to manually invite users.
Click theSingle sign-ontab of your portal settings, then follow along with either of the following articles to establish an SSO connection.
SAML 2.0
JSON web token
If you select SAML 2.0, you can also make use of the following integrations:
OneLogin
Salesforce
G Suite by Google Cloud
ClickEnable to enable SSO for your portal.
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Portal branding
The Portal brandingsection allows you to take full control of the look and feel of your portal by adding your own HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. You can also go here to add your own logo and custom favicon to align the branding of the portal with the branding of your company.
Domain
Custom domain / CNAME:By default, your portal URL is in the format <yourname>.ideas.aha.io (for example, our ideas portal is big.ideas.aha.io ). If you prefer to use a URL with your company's own domain to create a unified brand experience for your portal users, check this box, enter aDomain, and select whether you or Aha! would like to manage theSSL Certificate.
ClickSave custom domainto save your changes. For more information, read about configuring your portal with a CNAME.
Header
Subtitle: This text will be displayed under the portal title.
Logo
Logo: Upload your company, product, or portal logo here. It will be visible on the portal and in all email notifications to your portal users.
Favicon
Favicon: Upload a favicon here.It must be .png, .gif, or .ico, and 16x16 pixels.
Custom styling
Through advanced portal branding,you can fully customize the HTML of the header and footer as well as add your own custom CSS and JavaScript to the portal. This allows you to to create a header that follows the same theme of your corporate website. It is how we customized our own ideas portal.
Display style:Choose your display style.Standardportals cannot be embedded and include the default header and footer, whileEmbedded portals allow you to load an iframe and remove the default header and footer.
Custom header: Insert HTML to replace the default header. This will appear at the top of every page in your portal.
Custom footer: Insert HTML to replace the default footer. This will appear at the bottom of every page in your portal.
Custom CSS: Insert CSS to customize your portal.
Custom JavaScript: Insert JavaScript to customize your portal.
ClickUpdate custom stylingto save your changes.
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Email branding
You can add your branding to all email notifications that are sent. Include your company name in the From field, change the reply-to email address, and even add custom stylesheets. Navigate to theEmail brandingtab in Aha! to adjust these settings.
Turn off portal emails: You can choose to disable all notification emails by checking this box. Just be aware that this will also disable password reset emails.
Company name: Any idea-related emails from your portal will have this name in the From field.
Reply-to email:Emails sent from this portal that do not affect ideas, such as password resets, will display this address.
Accent color: Customize your ideas portal emails with an accent color. The color you select here will appear twice in the emails: as the border of any buttons in the email and as the background border to the email body. The background border color will be 10\% the opacity of your selected accent color. ClickSave and send me a test on any email template to see how your accent color will appear.
Show header: Choose to show or hide the default header on emails from your portal, which says, "Reply to this message and your response will be added to the idea."
ClickSave email settings to save your changes.
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Customize email templates
Your email portal uses five different email templates to generate email notifications:
Invitation: Invites a user to join your portal. TheGreetingfield here is unique to the email templates; use it for the header text above the email's body (e.g. "Welcome to Fredwin Cycling Ideas, Bryan!").
Note: If you have a submit-only portal, or if you have enabled single-sign on (SSO) for your portal, your users will not receive invitation emails, and therefore you will not see theInvitationtemplate listed here.
Thank you:Thanks a user for submitting an idea to your portal.
Status changed:Alerts the user to a status change to an idea they are subscribed to.
Admin response:Alerts the user that an official admin response has been left on an idea they are subscribed to.
New comment:Alerts the user that a new comment has been left on an idea they are subscribed to.
You can adjust the Subjector Body of each template to match your preferred terminology and copy. Use HTML to further customize the design and formatting of your emails.
You can also use several variables to include dynamic information in your email:
Invitation:
Variable
Meaning
$PORTAL_TITLE
The Portal title of your idea portal, found on theSettingstab of your portal settings
(e.g. Fredwin Cycling Ideas)
$PORTAL_USER_FIRST_NAME
The invited user's first name
$PORTAL_USER_LAST_NAME
The invited user's last name
Thank you:
Variable
Meaning
$IDEA_REF
The idea's record reference number (e.g. DEMO-I-38)
$IDEA_NAME
The idea'sSummary
$IDEA_DESCRIPTION
The idea'sDescription
Status changed:
Variable
Meaning
$IDEA_REF
The idea's record reference number (e.g. DEMO-I-38)
$IDEA_NAME
The idea'sSummary
$STATUS
The idea's currentStatus
$IDEA_DESCRIPTION
The idea'sDescription
Admin response:
Variable
Meaning
$IDEA_REF
The idea's record reference number (e.g. DEMO-I-38)
$IDEA_NAME
The idea'sSummary
$ADMIN_RESPONSE_DESCRIPTION
The text of the Admin response
New comment:
Variable
Meaning
$IDEA_REF
The idea's record reference number (e.g. DEMO-I-38)
$IDEA_NAME
The idea'sSummary
$COMMENTER_NAME
The name of the user who commented on the idea
In each template, clickInsert default template to revert your changes back to the original template.
ClickSave email templateto save your changes and clickSave and send me a test to see a test email.
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Terminology
You can override the default button names and field names across your portal in the Terminologytab. After you enter your own custom text and click Save terminology, your terminologywill be instantly updated on your ideas portal. There are more than 45 different terminology options you can update.
You can also change the label Ideasto your own terminology so that internal teams evaluating ideas in Aha! reference a custom name on the navigation menu. Read this article for more information about how to customize your terminology.
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Portal users
ThePortal users tab reveals a list of your portal users and details about their portal activity.
Email: Click this to edit a user's profile. From theEdit portal usermodal, you can update their profile information,Resend an inviteto your portal,Send a password reset email, orclickUpdate portal user to save your changes.
Ideas: Click this link to see a list report of a user's submitted ideas.
Comments: Click this link to see a list report of a user's comments on ideas.
Votes: Click this link to see a list report of ideas a user has voted for.
Actions:Hover over a user toEdit,Unsubscribe,Disable, orDeletethem.
Under theMore options button,you can Export, Import, or Copy users. TheImportoption will take you to our CSV Import wizard.
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View ArticleA CNAME is a DNS record that allows users to specify that a domain name is an alias or an alternate name for another domain.
Through the use of a CNAME, you can change your ideas portal from the yourname.ideas.aha.io format (for example, our ideas portal is at ( https://big.ideas.aha.io/ ) to a custom name based upon yourown company's domain presence to create a unified brand experience.This allowsyou to host the portal at a subdomain such as ideas.yourcompany.com.
How it works
First youmust configure a CNAME record with your domain host.You will likelyneed to work withyour internal technical support team to help you to create a custom configuration of your company domain.
Your hosting provider should provide step by step instructions for adding a CNAME record to your domain's DNS settings. These steps are unique to each provider so if you are not familiar with the process it is best to search their support documentation. You should map your CNAME to the domain portal of the Portal URL in the settings, e.g.yourname.ideas.aha.io.
Oncea CNAME record has been added to your domain's DNS settings, add the custom domainto your Aha! ideas portal configuration and click save. This is located in Aha! by navigating to Settings > Account > Configure ideas portalsand then editing one of your portals; the CNAME option is under the Portal branding tab of the portal configuration page.
If you decide to use a custom domain for your idea portal you also have the ability to chose how the SSL certificate is managed. You can opt to have Aha! manage the certificate for you, or you can provide your own custom SSL certificate. This is important because while the idea data and login information is always transferred over HTTPS, the certificate is required for the portal URL to display HTTPS when using a custom domain.
Note: If no certificate is provided or you do not let Aha! manage it this may cause warnings to be displayed to your users who navigate to your portal URL using certain browsers and the URL bar may also show "Not Secure."
View ArticleYour workspace-level settings show you any ideas portals associated with your workspace (with links to their account-level settings), as well as what idea categories you have created for your workspace. They will also link to your account-level ideas portal settings, where you can configure the portals themselves.
Your account-level idea settings allow you to create and configure portals inSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals. You can also add custom fields to your ideas inSettings > Account > Custom fields or edit the idea layout inSettings > Account > Custom layouts.
These settings are just the beginning. To dive into how Aha! can help you manage ideas for your product or service, head over to the ideas section of our knowledge base.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Configure
Categories
Other settings articles:
Account
Workspace
Integrations
Personal
Account
Workspace
Integrations
Personal
Billing
Ideas
Customizations
Import
Configure
An ideas portal can be as sophisticated as you need it to be. You can have one portal per workspace, multiple workspaces pointing to the same portal, or multiple portals stemming from the same workspace. TheSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configuresettings are where you set defaults for any portals associated with that specific workspace. This is where you can see links to the associated portals themselves.
Default idea assignee is an optional field. If you would like every new idea to be assigned to a product manager for review, for example, you can set it here. If you have a team of people reviewing submitted ideas, you may choose to leave this field blank.
Workflow for ideas will default to theExample ideas workflow. This is the lifecycle of the idea record type, from creation to review to promotion or resolution status. You can create custom workflows inSettings > Accounts >Configure statuses and workflows. ClickEdit ideas workflowto change the workflow for ideas in this workspace or click the hyperlink to move toSettings > Accounts > Configure statuses and workflows.
Scorecard for ideasallows you to use scorecards to prioritize ideas. If you promote an idea to an initiative, master feature, or feature, the idea score will carry over to help you prioritize the promoted record against other records of the same type.
Ideas via email determines the email address used to submit ideas for your specific workspace.For security purposes, we do not recommend forwarding another email address to the ideas portal email address.
Ideas portal for emailed ideasdetermines where ideas submitted by email will go. Click the dropdown to select a portal. It is a good idea to create unique names for each ideas portal. This will make it easier to find what you are looking for in dropdown selections.
Edit the custom fields for ideas takes you toSettings > Account > Custom fieldswhere you can create, edit, or delete custom fields. These fields can be internal to help you manage and prioritize submitted ideas or external to help you gather pertinent information from your users.
ClickUpdate ideas configurationto save your changes.
At the bottom of the page, you will seePortals for <workspace name> and a list of each ideas portal associated with your current workspace. Click the portal name to be taken toSettings > Account > Configure portalswhere you can edit the portal. Click theOpen portalicon on the right side of any portal to open the portal itself.
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Categories
Idea categories organize your ideas. When a user submits an idea to your portal, they will be able to place it in a category. When a user browses your portal, they will be able to browse by category. Your idea categories could be parts of your product ("Reports," "Profile," "Checkout") or different teams of experts ("Digital marketing," "Content marketing," "Product marketing") who will be best equipped to help the idea submitter.
ClickCreate idea categoryto create one or hover over a created category toEdit orDelete it. Categories can nest in a hierarchy, so you can have multiple child categories under a parent category.
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View ArticleThis integration allows you to enable your customers and employeesto easily register or log in to your Ideas portal via OneLogin SSO. This article will review setup instructions.
To get started, you will need to set configurations withinboth your OneLogin and Aha! accounts.
Add the app in OneLogin
Go to Add Appand search forSAML Test Connector (IdP w/attr)
SelectSAML Test Connector (IdP w/attr)and save the configuration
Go to the SSO tab, where you'll need to copy the URL forthe SAML 2.0 Endpoint (HTTP)
On the SSO tab, click on View Detailswhich appears under the X.509 Certificate field. On this page, copy the SHA Fingerprint string
You will need both the SAML 2.0 Endpoint and SHA Fingerprint to enable SSO for your Ideas Portal
Enable SSO for your portal in Aha!
Go to Settings > Account > Configure ideas portals.
Select the Idea portal that you would like to set up and go to the Single sign-on tab
Select SAML from the Identity Provider dropdown and this will unhide additional details about the configuration
Select Manual Settings
Paste the SAML 2.0 Endpoint link (from OneLogin) into the Single Sign-On endpoint field in Aha!
Paste the SHA Fingerprint field (from OneLogin) into the Certificate Fingerprint field in Aha!
Enable the configuration
Complete configuration in OneLogin
For the ACS (Consumer) URL field in OneLogin, paste the SAML service provider metadata URL from Aha! (https://yourdomain.ideas.aha.io/auth/saml/metadata)
If you optionally define the Audience in OneLogin, use the SAML entity ID from Aha! (https://yourdomain.ideas.aha.io/)
Upon completing this configuration, your Idea portal users will be able to access your portal using their OneLogin SSO.
View ArticleYou can change the look of your ideas portal and the look of the email notifications associated with it using custom CSS and JavaScript in your portal settings. You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to do either.
To customize your portal design, navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals.Hover over the portal you wish to customize, then clickEdit.
If you want to customize the look of your portal,clickon the Portal branding tab.
If you want to customize the look of your portal's email notifications, click on theEmail brandingtab.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Customize your portal
CSS examples
JavaScript with CSS Example
JavaScript Example
Customize your portal's email notifications
Examples
Customize your portal
Navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals.Hover over the portal you wish to customize, clickEdit, thenclickon the Portal branding tab.
Add your logo, custom header, and custom footer to ensure that the look and feel of your ideas portal is consistent with the rest of your web properties. Then use the Custom styling fields to tailor the look of your portal. You can addCSS, JavaScript, or a combination of the two.
CSS examples
Use theCustom CSSfield for these example customizations.
Customization
Custom CSS
Change your portal background to plain white
body {
background-color: white;
}
section {
border: none;
box-shadow: none;
}
Change the colors of theShare idea button
.btn-primary {
background-color: red;
}
.btn-primary:hover {
background-color: darkred;
}
Change the vote indication color
.btn-vote.voted .vote-count {
color: yellow;
}
.btn-vote.voted .vote-status {
background-color: yellow;
}
Change the idea list filter hover cover
.filters .filter:hover {
background: yellow;
}
Remove the vote tally
Note: The second half of this code hides the "X votes" tab on individual records.
.idea-endorsement {
display: none;
}
.idea-content .nav-tabs > li:nth-child(2) {
display: none;
}
Change the text color
.portal-sidebar .filter.active {
background: green;
}
.filters .filter span {
color: green;
}
.filter {
color: green;
}
.btn-outline.btn-primary:hover, .btn-outline.btn-primary:active {
background-color: rgba(177, 232, 163, 0.33); # A lighter green color
}
.btn-outline.btn-primary {
border-color: green;
color: green;
}
.nav > li > a {
color: green;
}
.nav > li.active > a {
color: green;
}
.breadcrumb li:first-child a {
color: green;
}
.breadcrumb a {
color: green;
}
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JavaScript with CSS Example
Use theCustom CSSandCustom JavaScript fields for these examples.
Note: Do not use opening and closing <script> tags.
Customization
Custom Javascript and CSS
Add an image to the left of the page
JavaScript:
$('section').prepend('<img class="fred-image" src="https://secure.aha.io/assets/fred_reading.png" />');
CSS:
.fred-image {
position: absolute;
left: -140px;
}
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JavaScript Example
Use the Custom JavaScript field for this example.
Note: Do not use opening and closing <script> tags.
Customization
Custom JavaScript
Change the prompts on the ideas form
$("label[for=ideas_idea_name]").text("What is your issue?");
$("#ideas_idea_name").attr("placeholder", "One sentence summary of the issue");
$("#ideas_idea_description_attributes_body").attr("placeholder", "More details of the issue. What are the steps to reproduce the problem?");
$("input[type=submit]").val("Send Issue");
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Customize your portal's email notifications
Navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals.Hover over the portal you wish to customize, clickEdit, thenclickon the Email branding tab.
To style the emails sent from your portal, you can select an Accent color and scroll to the bottom of the page to customize the email contents.
A few notes on custom styling:
You can style email template textusing tags or inline CSS.Customizations should be wrapped in <p> paragraphs for proper spacing.
Email bodies allow for standard HTML block elements like lists (<ul>) and headings (<h1> to <h6>).
Inline HTML tags are allowed, like <b>Bold</b>, <i>Italic</i>, and Hard line break <br>.
Examples
Customization
Template
Custom CSS
Reformat theemail body
All
<h3 style="color: teal; font-family: Arial; text-align: left">
Idea "$IDEA_NAME" has changed status to: $STATUS
</h3>
<div class='user-content' style="color: dimgray; font-family: Arial; font-size:12px; text-align: left">
$IDEA_DESCRIPTION
</div>
Change the Invitation email button and button text color.
Invitation
<btn style="background-color:teal; color:white; font-family: Arial">Join Now</btn>
Change theInvitationemailGreeting color and font
Invitation
<span style="color: teal; font-family: Arial">You have been invited</span>
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View ArticleEvery organization wants better ideas, but it’s tough to actually capture ideas from customers, employees, and others in a manageable way.
Single Sign-On (SSO) allows your usersto log in to your ideas portal using theirexisting SAML-enabled IDprovider, such as Active Directory, OneLogin,PingIdentity, Okta and many more.With SSO, you can increase engagement of your idea portals as employees and customersno longer need to keep track of yet another email and password.This allows you to tightly integrate your idea management system with the roadmapping process.
Note: Aha! also supports SSO for the Aha! application itself.
This article will provide informationon how to set up SSO for your public and private idea portals. Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
How it Works
Enable SSO for any Idea portal
Existing Aha! user accounts andSSO
How it Works
When a user authenticates to the ideas portal, they will be presented with the option to authenticate to the portal via SSO only. If they are already logged in to the SSO provider, they will automatically be logged in to your portal without any additional actions.
Public portal : Once SSO is configured, users will be prompted to log in before posting or voting ideas. Anyone can view ideas, regardless of whether they are logged in.
Private portal : In order to access the portal, users will be prompted to log in via SSO. If SSO is configured, any user with the SSO account will be able to access the Ideas portal, regardless of email domain.
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Enable SSO for any Idea portal
Aha! provides the flexibility to set up SSO for each idea portal. To get started, go toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals. You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to do so.
Select the idea portal where you would like to set up SSO.
Click the Single Sign-On link.
Select SAML from the Identify Provider dropdown. TheSAML 2.0 configuration will display.
The SAML 2.0 configuration will differ based on the SAML provider that you've selected. Learn more about SAML 2.0 configurations and instructions to set upOneLogin for your ideas portal.
For those who prefer a JWT Single Sign-on process, Aha! also provides this capability.
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Existing Aha! user accounts andSSO
Aha! idea portals prompt theuser for their email address to determine if they already have an Aha! login. If the email enteredis not registered in Aha! they will be redirected to SSO based upon your configuration.If their email addressis registered in Aha! they will be re-directed to login via Aha! to ensure they do not havetwo separate logins.
This setting is selected by default, and can be disabled by uncheckingthe box Access for Aha! users.
When using SSO, email addresses should be managed within the identity provider system. If an email addressis modified within Aha!, the email address will be reset to the value in the identity provider system.
Note: Disabling this option on custom CNAME portals will prevent Aha! users from accessing the portal.
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View ArticleA publicportal provides an ideas forum that is open to anyone who is given the public URL. Since public portals can be indexed by search engines, it can also help users and prospects find your service.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Public ideas portal users
Adding ideas
Searching for ideas
Custom brand your portal
Public ideas portal users
Users may register one of two ways: by clicking on the Log in/Sign up link or by entering an idea where they will be prompted for an email address.
Ideas submitted by users are publicly visible by default, but don't worry, we provide options to filter for spam.
If the portal has been configured to include specific domains, any ideas submitted by users who register with that domain will automatically be marked private. Private ideas are not visible to any users who are not logged in as an employee or partner. To restrict a public portal to specific domains, navigate toSettings > Account >Configure ideas portals, select a portal, and add domains toEmployee/Partner emails. ClickUpdate all portal settingsto save your changes.
Publicportals areuseful for teams that want to provide a way for anyone to provide feedback but also to encourage voting and discussion to help with prioritization.All users will be able to submit ideas, see what else has been suggested, vote and comment on ideas and follow ideas.By following ideas, a user will be notified when it has been implemented.
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Adding ideas
Once a user logs in, submitting ideas is easy. Simply click Add a New Idea. When a user is done, they may also log out of the portal.
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Searching for ideas
Users can search for pre-existing ideas before submitting their own and if they find one, they can vote, comment, and subscribe to it. This helps you avoid duplicate ideas that you have to merge in the future.
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Custom brand your portal
Like any ideas portal, the public portal can be custom-branded and you may use CSS, JavaScript and custom fields to make it look and feel just like your website.
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View ArticleSalesforce has the ability to function as an identity provider for Aha! using SAML 2.0. It is a popular option among customers that have an active customercommunity being run through Salesforce already and is commonly used to allow the Salesforce community users to authenticate into an Aha! ideas portal through single sign-on. Salesforce could also function as the identity provider to allow all users to authenticate into the actual Aha! application, although that is a much less common workflow.
The first step is to set up Salesforce to function as an identity provider. This is done within Salesforce: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=identity_provider_enable.htm&language=en&type=0
With Salesforce set up as an identity provider, you can then go into Aha! and enable SSO for your idea portal (or account). The idea portal SSO is located under Settings > Account > Configure ideas portals.
Salesforce will function as a SAML based identity provider, so select SAMLfrom the dropdown menu. As a SAML provider, there are various configuration customizations that can be passed to Aha! These are outlined here: Single sign-on: SAML 2.0
Note: When configuring SSO with Salesforce,the Single sign-on endpoint field in Aha! needs to be populated with the "SP-Initiated Redirect Endpoint" URL from the "SAML Login Information" settings in Salesforce. The default endpoint provided by Salesforce utilizes a HTTP POST as opposed to a HTTP GET that is expected when running SSO.
View ArticleJSON web token (JWT) is a technique that can be used for single sign-on (SSO) between a custom application and another application. In this case JWT can be used for SSO to an Aha! idea portal so that users of your web application canlogin to the portal and submit ideas using their application credentials.
JWT SSO can only be usedfor private idea portals.
SSO can be enabled for a portal under Settings > Account> Configure ideas portals. Choose the portal for which you want to enable SSO. On the Single sign-on tab choose the JSON Web Token identity provider. Fill in the optional fields, then clickEnableto save your changes.
Click any of the links below to skip ahead:
Remote login URL
Remote logout URL
Access for Aha! users
The JWT single sign-on process
Building the JWT response
Redirecting the user to a specific page after login
Single sign-out
Remote login URL
This field is required. It must contain the URL that users should be redirected to in in order to authenticate before redirecting back to Aha!
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Remote logout URL
This field is optional. Use it if you want to send your users to a specific URL after they have logged out of the portal.
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Access for Aha! users
Aha! ideas portals prompt theuser for their email address to determine if they already have an Aha! login. If the email enteredis not registered in Aha! they will be redirected to SSO based upon your configuration.If their email addressis registered in Aha! they will be re-directed to login via Aha! to ensure they do not havetwo separate logins.
This setting is selected by default, and can be disabled by uncheckingthe boxAccess for Aha! users.
When using SSO, email addresses should be managed within the identity provider system. If an email addressis modified within Aha!, the email address will be reset to the value in the identity provider system.
Note:Disabling this option on custom CNAME portals will prevent Aha! users from accessing the portal.
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The JWT single sign-on process
When a user authenticates using SSO they go through the following process:
The user navigates to your private ideas portal, e.g. https://myaccount.ideas.aha.io/.
Aha! recognizes that your account is configured to use JWT.
The user's browser is redirected to your application using the Remote login URL that you configured onthe Configure portal screen.
Your application recognizes that it has received a JWT authentication request.
Your application authenticates the user.
Your application builds a JWT response and redirects the user back to yourideas portal using the URL https://myaccount.ideas.aha.io/auth/jwt/callback, including the JWT response.
Aha! validates the JWT response. If this user has never accessed the ideas portal before a new portal user record is created.
The user is granted access to the private ideas portal.
Note that all of the communication between Aha! and your application happens via URL parameters in the user's browser and there is no direct communication between the systems.
It is possible to start the process at step 5 without the user visiting Aha! first.
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Building the JWT response
When it receives a JWT authentication request your application must wait for a JWT response. The response should include a HS256-encoded token containing these fields:
iat - The integer time the response was created in seconds since the Unix epoch.
jti - A randomly created token that uniquely identifies this response.
first_name - the first name of the user that was authenticated.
last_name - the last name of the user that was authenticated.
email - the email address of the user that was authenticated. The email address is used to uniquely identify the user within the Aha! ideas portal.
Here is sample Ruby code to generate a response:
iat = Time.now.utc.to_i
jti = "#{iat}/#{rand(36**64).to_s(36)}"
payload = JWT.encode({
:iat => iat,
:jti => jti,
:first_name => "John",
:last_name => "Doe",
:email => "[email protected]",
}, secret_key)
redirect_to "https://#{subdomain}.ideas.aha.io/auth/jwt/callback?jwt=#{payload}"
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Redirecting the user to a specific page after login
After a user successfully logs in to your portal, you can direct them to a specific URL.
The request to the SSO page will contain a parameter named "return_to". If this parameter is included in the JWT response then the user will be redirected to that page after the login process completes. e.g.
redirect_to "https://#{subdomain}.ideas.aha.io/auth/jwt/callback?jwt=#{payload}&return_to=/ideas/APP-I-469"
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Single sign-out
Single sign-out allows the user to sign out of one application and be automatically signed out of both applications. Single sign-out is optional.
There are two parts of single sign-out:
Sign-out from the idea portal.Enter a "Remote logout" URL in the JWT configuration. When the user logs out of the idea portal they will be redirected to this URL. Your application should detect the access of this URL and also log the user out of the application.
Sign-out from your application. When the user logs out of your application you should redirect them to the "/portal_session/logout" URL of the ideas portal. This will log the user out of the ideas portal as well. The user will beredirected back to your application to log in again.
For those who prefer a SAML Single Sign-On process, Aha! also provides this capability.
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View ArticleAha! was designed with security in mind. That is why we provide security features such as the ability to enable single sign-on and two-factor authentication for all customers.
For our most security conscious customers we offer the ability to protect your entire account from access outside of specified IP addresses. This includes access to the Aha! application, ideas portals and presentations; ensuring that even if a user's Aha!credentials are compromised, access to your confidential data will still be protected.
The ability to set IP address based access controls is available for all customers on the Enterprise+ plan.
How it works
The setting is available for Aha! account administrators to configure through the Settings > Account > Security and single-sign on page. You may specify IP addresses as a comma-delimited list as well as an entire range of IPv4 addresses.
Once the IP addresses are in place, users attempting to access Aha! outside of the defined addresses will be presented with an error message letting them know they need to access the site through a VPN or from within the corporate network.
And don't worry, if you accidentally try to set an IP address access that does not contain your current IP address - the system will stop you and prevent you from locking yourself out of your account.
Idea portal access control settings
By default, all idea portals will inherit the IP address accessrequirements set within the account. However, if you want to manage IP access to an idea portal independently of your account settings, you may do so. After you enter your first IP address inSettings > Account > Security and single sign-on, you will see a corresponding field calledIP address restrictionsin your idea portal settings.
To exempt an ideas portal from the account-level IP filter, navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals, then select a portal.Scroll to the bottom of the Settings tab for the portal and select Allow access from any IP address.
View ArticleA privateportal provides an ideas forum for registered users only. The URL is publicly available, but unless a user is registered, they will not be able to log in. Private portals areuseful for teams that want to provide a way for select groups such as employees, partners, or key customers to provide feedback to help with prioritization.
All registered users will be able to submit ideas, see what else has been suggested, vote and comment on ideas andsubscribe to ideas.Users who submit and subscribe to an ideaare automatically notified whenthe ideahas been implemented.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Private idea portal users
Portal challenge screen
Viewing ideas
Adding new ideas
Private idea portal users
Users can only register if they use an email address that belongs to one of the domainsincluded underEmployee/Partner emailstab of a portal's profile. To get to a portal's profile, navigate toSettings > Account >Configureideasportals, then click on the portal you wish to edit.Alternatively, you can set up single sign-on for ideas.
To limit a private portal to a subset of users, leave theEmployee/Partner emailssection blank. Under thePortal userstab, you can add users by clickingAdd portal user. For a larger list of users,selectImport usersunder theMore optionsbutton. You can import both users and ideas to a private ideas portal.
Aha! users who have permission to the product from within Aha! will still be able to use the private portal even if they are not listed as a portal user.
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Portal challenge screen
When a user first navigates to the public URL, they are presented with a challenge screen where they can enter their credentials or register. Once a user registers, they will be sent a confirmation emailto validate their identity.
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Viewing ideas
Once a user logs in, they can view all previously submitted ideas, vote, and comment.
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Adding new ideas
As a user types a title for their idea, existing ideas display. This allows the user to add acomment or vote on similar ideas. Userscan also search before adding a new idea.
Like any ideas portal, a privateportal can be custom-branded. You can use CSS, JavaScript, andcustom fields to make it look and feel just like your website.
View ArticleAccount-level settings affect your entire Aha! account, including all workspaces in your workspace hierarchy and all users.
This article will explain each account setting in the Customization section. You can also read about account settings here and account customization settings here.You need to be an administrator with customizations user permissions to access this section of the account settings.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Open your account settings by clicking onSettings > Account. Click any of the links below to skip ahead:
Configure workspaces
Configure statuses and workflows
Configure workflow approval groups
Configure broadcasts
Configure Aha! scorecards
Configure time frames
Configure tags
Custom fields
Custom layouts
Custom tables
Configure ideas portals
Configure workspaces
From this setting, you can adjust your account's workspace hierarchy. Use theAdd dropdown at the top to add a workspace or parent line. Use the table to view, edit, rearrange, or delete any aspect of your hierarchy. You can also use this setting to clear demo account data from your account.
Note: If you do not have administrator permissions for a section of your hierarchy, you will not be able to edit or delete any workspaces in that section.
Toedit a parent line, click theEdit button to open the Edit parentline modal.
TheParent linefield shows where your parent line fits into the hierarchy specifically who a parent line's parents are in the hierarchy. This field is optional since a parent line might have no parents of its own.
TheName field is the name you would like to display throughout Aha! reports, roadmaps, and records.
Aha! records use thePrefix field to build unique identifiers for records in that parent line. The abbreviation you pick here should be a good shorthand for the parent line. You can edit it, but editing the prefix will not change any records created with the original prefix.
The Parent linetype field is useful in a couple ways. Parent lines with equivalenttypeswill be grouped on equivalent levels of the hierarchy report. A parent line also inherits its terminology in the top-level navigation menu from its type.
It may be helpful to select consistent type nomenclature across your Aha! account before you start creating parent lines (for example, "Company > Division > Subdivision > Product," or "Organization > Team > Group > Workspace"). You can also edit this field at any time if your account's nomenclature needs to change.
There are situations where you might want to have inconsistent nomenclature in your account if you want to ensure that no one will be able to accidentally report on one product workspace's initiatives under a different product line's goals, for example.
Workspaces in parent line focuses on the children under a given parent line. This field is optional since a parent line might have no child workspaces.
ClickSave parentline to save your changes when you are done.
To edit a workspace, click theEdit button to open the Editworkspacemodal.
TheParent linefield shows where your parent line fits into the hierarchy specifically who a parent line's parents are in the hierarchy. This field is optional, since a parent line might have no parents.
TheName field is the name you would like to display throughout Aha! reports, roadmaps, and records.
Aha! records use thePrefix field to build unique identifiers for records in that parent line. The abbreviation you pick here should be a good shorthand for the parent line. You can edit it, but editing the prefix will not change any records created with the original prefix.
ClickSave workspaceto save your changes when you are done.
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Configure statuses and workflows
An Aha! workflow is the set of statuses and transitions that your records may move through during their lifecycles. Because different teams' records need to pass through different lifecycles, this setting allows you to customize workflows for each part of your hierarchy and each record type.
Use theSet defaults button to select the default workflow for each record type in your account's workspaces. ClickSet default workflows to save your changes.
Use the filters or search bar to find an existing workflow to Clone, Edit, orDelete, or use theAdd workflow dropdown to create a new workflow. You can create or adjust workflows for the following record types:
Goals
Initiatives
Releases
Master features (select "Features")
Features
Requirements
Ideas
Note:
After you have created a custom workflow, you still need to apply it to a workspace. You need to do this on a per-workspace level, so navigate toorSettings > Workspace > Configure, scroll down toWorkflow and click the appropriateEdit <record type> workflow button. Then select your custom workflow. ClickUpdate <record type>statuses to save your changes.
To apply a custom idea workflow, navigate toSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configureand select the appropriateWorkflow for ideas.
To update an idea workflow, navigate toSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configure and follow the same process.
To edit, add, or delete custom statuses, click into a workflow using the Edit button.
You can use Custom statuses to delineate each step of a record's lifecycle and customize their names to fit your team's vocabulary. The statuses you select here will appear in theStatus dropdown on a record.
You may want the names of your custom statuses to map to the statuses used in other third-party tools (like your bug tracking system). This is particularly valuable if you have integrated Aha! with a third-party tool.
TheStatus category will not appear on thatStatus dropdown. Instead, status categories allow you to group statuses together for example, a feature may have three custom statuses ("Research," "Design," and "Review") that are all part of that feature's "In progress" lifecycle stage.
If your custom status does not match up to a status category, leave it blank.
There are some considerations when choosing status categories for ideas:
Whena user adds anew idea, it defaults to the first status (in order from top to bottom you can drag statuses to reorder) that has not been assigned to a status category.
Promotingan idea to a feature will automatically change the idea status to the first custom statusin the status categoryIn progress.
Only statuses that are in a status category will be published to or trigger email notifications from public and private ideas portals.
Shippinga featuretriggers the idea status to change to the first status in the status categoryDone.
Status categories also affect features and releases:
When a release is shipped, all features with statuses not in the categoriesDone,Shipped,orWill not dowill be moved to another release.
Any features with statuses in the categoryDonewill be changed toShipped.
Status colors are not just for show. If you establish consistent status colors across a team or group of teams, you will be able to skim through sets of records (such asFeatures > Board) to find the records that you need to address first.
Transition buttons help Aha! usersfollow a predefined workflow. To add transitions between two statuses, click the+icon in theTransition buttonscolumn beneath the first status. Then you can choose how the statuses should flow and add a name for the transition button.
The name of the transitionappears on thebutton for moving between states, so choosean action phrase, such as "Start designing." It is also helpful to acknowledge the completion of a step in your flow, such as "Requirements completed."
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When you create a newfeatures workflow, scroll tothe bottom of the workflow creation pagefor the option to edit or create custom types. The type you move to the top of the list will be the default type that your users will see when they create features using that workflow. We recommend reordering types to represent the most commonly selected types first.
Read our articles on custom statuses and workflows and on workflow approvals for more information.
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Configure workflow approval groups
Workflow approval groups are groups of Aha! users that approve or reject approval to-dos in a fixed custom workflow. You will use them in four different areas in your Aha! account:
Create the workflow approval group at the account level. Choose a name that defines the group, such as Legal, or Finance.
Populate the workflow approval group at the parent line level. If you add users to a group at this level, child workspaces can inherit the group's users.
Customize the workflow approval group users at the workspace level. If you add group users at this level, they will replace any inherited users.
Read this article for more information on workflow approvals.
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Configure broadcasts
System broadcasts allow you to send a message to all Aha! users on your account. They will be displayed at the top of every screen.
ClickAdd broadcast to add a broadcast. Configure yourmessage and add an image (including an image hyperlink if you like). TheEnabled checkbox will send your broadcast; leave it unchecked if you would like to see a preview of your broadcast before you send it, or disable an existing broadcast. TheStickycheckbox will prevent users from closing your system broadcast.
Click theAdd broadcastbutton to save your changes.
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Configure Aha! scorecards
Aha! scorecards allow you to prioritize multiple record types using a single numerical score. You can use a simple equation or create your own advanced equation. The following record types can be prioritized with scorecards, though by using custom fields and custom layouts, you can add a scorecard field to almost any record type:
Competitors
Features
Ideas
Each workspace can have different scorecards for each of those record types. Much as you did with custom workflows, you will need to navigate toSettings > Workspace > Configureto select a scorecard for competitors and features, and navigate toSettings > Workspace > Ideas > Configureto select a scorecard for ideas.
Use theAdd scorecard button to create a scorecard, customize the name, equation, or metrics, and adjust it based on the built-in preview. All your changes are saved automatically.
Back in theConfigure scorecards view, hover over any extant scorecard toClone,Edit, orDelete it.
Scorecards are a complex and powerful part of Aha! Beyond prioritizing various record types, a record's score can be used in custom worksheet and calculation columns. This article is a great start for more information on scorecards.
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Configure time frames
By clearly defining your strategy through high-level goals and initiatives, you can ensure that your team stay focused on what matters. Time frames allow teams focusing on strategic planning to group their goals and initiatives based on the time frame associated with their strategic execution.
This is especially important for teams that kick off the year with strategic plans divided into quarterly or half-year objectives. It allows the team to plan out their year-long strategy up front. Then, they can group related goals and initiatives together in the time frames they will be delivered in for easy reporting and filtering across the application.
Click theAdd new time frame button to create a new time frame. Click theName field to edit it. Your time frame can nowbe addedfrom both theStrategy > Goalspage and theStrategy > Initiativespage.From either page, simply click theTime framefilter dropdown and select your new time frame.
You can create as many time frames as you would like and choose to Archive those you no longer wish to display. Archived time frames will hide the time frame and associated goals and initiatives. The data will still exist in reports, but be hidden from the goals and initiative pages to remove distractions from your team.
Use theMergebutton to merge your selected time frame into the time frame you select. Use theDelete button to delete a time frame.
With your time frames created, you can start associating your goals and initiatives with them through the Time frame field on the goal and initiative cards.
You can alsogenerate reports on time frame related data, such as reports on features completed against your goals and initiatives in each time frame.
In the reports tools, you can add time frame data by adding columns forGoal > Goal time frame and Initiative > Initiative time frame.
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Configure tags
Tags are a highly flexible tool that you can use in the following record types:
Master features
Features
Ideas
In theTagsfield on these record types, users can create their own tags as they work (to prevent this, you can create your tags field as a Pre-defined tags field). You can also navigate to this setting and use theAdd tag button to create a tag and assign it a color. Your tag can include letters, numbers, or emoji.Click theCreate tagorCreate tag + add another buttons to create your tag.
Back in theConfigure tags page, click any of the hyperlinks under theUsed in column to create a list report showing you a list of your selected record type that is using the given tag. Click theEdit button to change the name or color of a tag. Click theReplace button to replace a given tag with another existing one. And click theDelete button to delete a tag.
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Configure fields
Custom fields in Aha! are incredibly powerful. In conjunction with custom layouts, custom worksheets, and calculation columns, custom fields allow you to collect, organize, and analyze the exact information you need to make masterful strategic decisions.
Use the top-level buttons to select a record type, then clickAdd custom field to create a custom field. Select from a variety of custom field types, and follow the prompts specific to your selected field type. Click theCreate button to create your custom field.
Back in the Configure fieldsscreen, use the search bar to search for a field in your selected record type. Click a Custom fieldhyperlink to edit it, or click theEdit button, then clickSaveto save your changes. Click aUsed in layouts hyperlink to open and adjust the associated layout, then clickSaveto save your changes.
Finally, click theDelete button to delete a custom field, and click theMore optionsbutton toExport custom fields.
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Configure layouts
Each record type in Aha! has a layout the series of fields that comprise it. For each record type, you can customize a layout for the record's creation, called aCreate <record type> layout, and for the record after it has been created, called a<record type> detail custom field layout. You can add or rearrange fields (custom or standard) to fit your team's ideal workflow. See our article on custom layouts for more detail on this process.
Use the top-level buttons to select a record type, then clickAdd custom layout to create a layout. Drag fields to add, rearrange, or remove them for each layout type, then clickAdd layout to save your changes.
Back in theConfigure layouts screen, use the search bar to search for a layout in your selected record type.Click a Custom layout hyperlink to edit it, or click theEdit button, then clickSaveto save your changes. Click aUsed inhyperlink to be taken to that workspace'sConfigure settings.
Finally, hover over a layout to use theActions buttons toClone,Edit, orDelete a layout.
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Custom tables
If you are an Enterprise+ customer, you can create and configure custom tables. Custom tables allow you to organize, analyze, and report on data relevant to your team. Like custom fields, they allow you to go well beyond the basic functionality of Aha! fields and reports. Once created, custom tables will appear as an option in the first button of your navigation bar (by default,Info > Custom tables).
Use theCreate custom table button to create a custom table follow the prompts and clickCreateto save your changes. Click any hyperlink underName to navigate to the custom table in question, or click any hyperlink underRelationships with to see the custom field that links a given table to a record type on a custom layout. Finally, hover over a custom table to see theEditandDelete buttons in theActions column.
For more information on creating, editing and using custom tables, see this article.
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Configure ideas portals
Ideas are a foundational part of Aha! They allow you to gather, prioritize and interact with feedback on your product, project, team or service. Portals are where those ideas are gathered.
Click theAdd portal button to add a portal. Configure your portal, then click theUpdate all portal settings button to save your changes.
Back on theConfigure ideas portals page, click a hyperlink under theNamecolumn to edit that portal. Your changes will apply to all workspace(s) that use that portal. Click a hyperlink under theUsed in column to edit a specific workspace's portal settings. Your changes will apply only to that workspace. Finally, hover over a given portal so see buttons under theActionsbutton that will allow you toEdit,Open,orDelete a portal.
For more information about ideas and idea portals, see the Ideas section of the knowledge base.
View ArticleOnce you have created an ideas portal, theIdeas > Overviewpage will populate with real-time summary data about the ideas that have been submitted. Use it to manage submitted ideas and promote the best ideas into the work that your team will complete.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Ideas status chart
Submitted ideas chart
Public comments
Idea management sidebar
Ideas status chart
At the top of the page, you will see a breakdown of all ideas in your portal by Status.
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Hover over any section of the pie chart to see more details about a particular status. Click on any section of the chart or the name of any status on the right to generate a pre-filtered list report of all ideas in that status.
If you are reviewing new ideas, clicking on theNeeds review status would be a great way to start. Work your way through a focused list of ideas that you need to review and change their status as you go.
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Submitted ideas chart
Below the idea status chart, you will see a timeline of your Ideas submissions per day for the last 30 days.
Hover over any day to see the total ideas submitted on that day. In the lower-left corner, you will see the total number of ideas ever submitted to your portal.
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Public comments
Below the submitted ideas chart, you will see thePublic comments section.
This is a chronological list of all public comments to ideas in your portal.
If you are an administrator with customization permissions, click any user's name or avatar to be taken to theirPortal usersettings inSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals > [Portal] > Portal users. From there, you can manage that user's profile.
Click on any idea's name to open the detail drawer for that idea and adjust details as necessary.
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Idea management sidebar
On the right side of theIdeas > Overviewpage, you will see a series of useful tools for managing your ideas.
Let's start at the top.
Watchers shows you any Aha! users who are watching the Ideas > Overview page (and will receive notifications when users take actions on the page), and allows you to add more watchers if you like. If you and a team manage the ideas for this portal, you can choose to be watchers and stay up to date on every change.
New shows you your six most recently submitted ideas. Click any idea to open its detail drawer or clickNew to generate a list report of all ideas in your portal, sorted by Idea created at.
Popularshows you your six most popular ideas based on votes. You can see the votes next to each idea. Click an idea to open its detail drawer or clickPopular to generate a list report of all ideas in your portal that have at least one vote, sorted bynumber ofvotes.
Recently promotedshows you your six most recently promoted ideas. Click any idea to open its detail drawer or clickRecently promotedto generate a list report of all ideas in your portal that have been promoted to features, sorted byFeature created at.
Recently shipped shows you your six most recently shipped promoted ideas. Click any idea to open its detail drawer. ClickRecently shippedto generate a list report of all ideas in your portal that have been promoted to features and then either Ready to ship orShipped, sorted byFeature last status change.
Top contributorsshows you your eight top ideas portal users, based on the number of ideas they have submitted. You can see the number of ideas they have submitted to your portal beside their name. Click on any contributor's name to generate a list report of all ideas that user has created, sorted byIdea created at, or clickTop contributorsto generate a pivot table of all users for your ideas portal and a count of ideas they have submitted.
Note: You may refer to "features" by other names, depending on your Aha! use case or how you have customized your terminology.
View ArticleIdeas portal users are free and unlimited in every Aha! billing plan, so you can invite or import as many users as you want. This guarantees that you can hear from anyone you would like feedback from. It also means that you will likely want to manage your portal users.
Each ideas portal you create has its own settings to help you manage users for that portal. You can invite, edit, and disable users, as well as follow links to ideas they have created, commented on, or voted on.
To manage users for an ideas portal, navigate toSettings > Account > Configure ideas portals, click on the portal you wish to manage, and then click to thePortal users tab.
You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to manage ideas portal users.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Invite a single ideas portal user
Import multiple ideas portal users by CSV
Resend an invitation to an ideas portal user
Edit an ideas portal user'sprofile
Reset an ideas portal user's password
Disable or delete an ideas portal user
Unsubscribe or resubscribe an ideas portal user from notifications
View a portal user's content and activity
Invite a single ideas portal user
When users submit ideas, they are automatically captured as portal users. To add users who have not yet submitted ideas, follow these steps to invite them to the portal:
From thePortal users tab, click the Add portal user button and then enter the user's name and email address.
(Optional) Select the Employee or partner checkbox to identify a user as an employee or partner to provide more flexibilityfor idea visibility. See Ideas overview to learn more about this setting.
Click Create.
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Import multiple ideas portal users by CSV
You may have multiple users or multiple ideas to import. If that is the case, navigate toSettings > Workspace > Import from CSV to bulk-invite users to your portal. If you need help, use this article on the CSV import.
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Resend an invitation to an ideas portal user
If you previously invited a user to the ideas portal but they have not received the invitation email, ask them to check their spam folder to make sure it was not routed there. If they still have not received the message, follow these steps to resend the invitation:
From the Portal userstab, hover over the user's name and clickEdit.
Click Resend invite.
If you are still having trouble, contact [email protected] for additionalhelp.
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Edit an ideas portal user'sprofile
From the Portal userstab, hover over the user's name and clickEdit.
Edit the user's profile.
Click Update portal userto save your changes.
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Reset an ideas portal user's password
From the Portal userstab, hover over the user's name and clickEdit.
Click Send password reset. The user will receive a password reset email.
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Disable or delete an ideas portal user
Sometimes it is necessary to disableor deleteusers because theyhave changed employment or you wish to prevent them from adding or viewing ideas. You may disableor deleteany user by hovering over the user so that the menu options appear.
From the Portal userstab, hover over the user's name.
ClickDisableorDelete.
Note: If the user has submitted, voted, orcommentedon ideas, their content will be retained but the user information will be deleted. If the user has not had any activity,the user informationwill be deleted entirely.
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Unsubscribe or resubscribe an ideas portal user from notifications
If a user doesn't want to receive notifications, you can opt out of notifications for them by following these steps. They can also unsubscribe to any emails they receive.
From the Portal userstab, hover over the user's name.
Hover over the user's name and then clickUnsubscribe. To resubscribe the user, click Resubscribe.
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View a portal user's content and activity
User management is about more than just the administrative aspects. ThePortal userstab also allows you to engage with any ideas your users have created and any actions they've taken on your ideas portal.
From thePortal users tab, There are three columns beside each user:Ideas,Comments,andVotes. If your user has created an idea, left a comment, or voted for an idea, you will see clickable numbers in these columns.
Click any number. Aha! will generate a list report based on that user's content or actions. From there, dive into the data.
Enjoy!
View ArticleThe reporting capabilities in Aha! provide visualization, data, and analytics on almost every element in the Aha! data model. There is no need to export data into a spreadsheet for analysis because Aha! offers a powerful analytics engine on all account plans.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Set advanced filters
Set filters to automatically update
Lock and unlock a filter
Set advanced filters
With Aha! advanced filtering, you can quickly analyze your unique management data using All, Any, and None filter logic.This allows for powerful searches where you can craft logical strings to focus on just the data you are looking to display.
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Creating advanced filters is easy. Click the Add filter button to open up the filtering menu.The top section allows you to choose which filters you wish to add. The bottom section provides a visual of the filters that have been added as well as the option to toggle between basic and advanced filtering.
With basic filtering, the resulting data will match all of the filter values.
Advanced filtering enables All, Any, and None filter logic and creates nested logical groups through the use of groups and subgroups.
All:Enables the "AND" logic between filters and includes results matching all of the filter values
Any:Enables the "OR" logic between filters and includes results matching any one of the filter values
None:Excludesresults matchingany of the filter values
To enable "OR" logic, select Any in the filter set up. After clicking Set filter, select multiple values from the filter dropdown on your report.
Groups and subgroups are created by clicking the More optionsbutton on the far right of the filters you have added. Subgroups are nested under a parent group and function as a way to create a filter that is based on the previous filter. In the below screenshot, theAnyfilter forProduct nameandRelease statusare the parent filters. The followingNone filter forFeature typeis part of a subgroup nested under the parent filter.
Once you have defined the filters you want, click Set filterto apply the filter.If you are adding filters to a view, save the view so you can refer to it in the future.
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Set filters to automatically update
Aha! users add and remove records constantly. When you report on dynamic data elements, it can be helpful to include all records for your desired record type, including records that have not yet been added.
To set a report filter that includes all records, including records within a record type or group which does not yet exist, try choosing the Auto-update filter option. Once the auto-update filter option has been enabled, any new records added to the record type or group will be automatically added to the report filter.
This option is available for
Goal name
Initiative name
Workspace name / Product name
Master feature name
Release name
When this filter option is enabled, you cannot deselect a child record. This setting is only available for removable report filters some report filters are inherent to the report and cannot be removed. As such, these types of filters cannot use the auto-update filter option.
Note: The Select all filter option will not include new records that are added to a record type or group. To have records automatically added to the filter as data changes, you must enable the Auto-update filter option.
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Lock and unlock a filter
Report filters can be locked on saved views to control access to data when sharing a report.
Locked filters cannot be changed or removed unless they are unlocked. The filter can only be unlocked by users who are owners or contributors that have view and edit permissions on the report, which are defined in the report details.
To lock a filter on a saved report:
Create a new report or choose an existing report where you have view and edit permissions.
Add a filter by clicking the filter icon.
Right-click on the filter to lock and unlock.
Save the report. Now, when this report is shared, the filter will be locked.
Filter locking and unlocking is available on all reports where filtering is available.
View ArticleThis article is about theActivity webhook functionality. For the Integration webhook, go here.
Activity webhooks allow the sending of Aha! activity to third-party applications as changes are made in Aha! to records. Configuring the Activity webhook consists of a few simple steps.
First, you need to select which activities in your account you wish to have transmitted through the webhook. This is done by selecting the product, record type, and fields you want to transmit data from.
Second, you can optionally filter which users' activity will be transmitted through the webhook. This is useful if you want to have the webhook only send activity related to specific people.
Lastly, click theEnable checkbox at the bottom of the page and add the webhook to your third-party application to begin sending activity from Aha!
Troubleshooting
Note: All activity waits five minutes before posting to the Activity webhook. This is to keep communication concise and avoidexcessive messaging when a user is performing multiple edits at once.
To help you troubleshoot any errors, we give you direct access to the detailed integration logs on the configuration screen. Contact us atif you need further help.
View ArticleBetter ideas lead to innovation, and innovation leads to market leadership. Every organization wants better ideas, but it's tough to actually capture them in a manageable way.
Aha! allows you to collect, curate, and promote ideas into features or initiatives to ensure that key feedback and requests are seamlessly integrated into your planning and development processes. And because ideas portal users are free and unlimited in every Aha! billing plan, you can invite or import as many users as you want.
Through our integrations with Salesforce and Zendesk, sales and support team memberscan search for and link to existingideas orcreate new onesto help add extra value to the ideation process.
Ideas is a dedicated section in Aha! that you can use to create and managenew ideas, feature requests, or feedback for consideration in your roadmap. However, to capture any new ideas from users, you will need to create a custom ideas portal.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Create a custom ideas portal
Submit, comment, and vote on ideas
Idea visibility
Hide portal user names
Change the idea submitter
Manage and promote ideas
Create a custom ideas portal
The ideas portal is configured through your account and workspace settings. Both are accessed by clicking your name in the top corner of Aha! and selecting Settings. This will allow you to configure a portal and add the Ideas tab at the top of the page when you are viewing that product or workspace.
You may configure multiple ideas portals types per product, e.g.: a private portal for partners and a public portal for customers. You can also configure one portal for all of your products and workspaces, e.g.: when customers use more than one product they will only need to remember one idea portal but be able to choose between products.
When you create a portal, there are three different types to choose from:
Submit only : Create a form that users can fill out to submit new ideas. You will need to share the location of the form with users and they will not be able to see other submitted ideas.
Private : Create a forum that is only available to registered users of specific, pre-defined email domains. These users can submit and view ideas submitted by other registered members of that forum.
Public : Create a forum that is visible and available to anyone who knows the link. Both public users and registered private users can submit ideas to this forum. Public users' ideas will be visible to everyone. Private users' ideas will be visible to only other registered private users.
Go ahead and configure your ideas now if you don't need to read more about each portal type.
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Submit, comment, and vote on ideas
All ideas portal users are free and unlimited. This means you can have as many stakeholders as you would like submitting and providing feedback on ideas.
To submit an idea, users can navigate to your portal and fill out your idea creation form, or they can create ideas by email.
The ability for ideas users to vote and comment on ideas is especially important because it adds the users as subscribers. Subscribers areautomatically notified when status changes and admin comments are made. This makes it simplefor you to engage interested stakeholders for further feedback on an idea as well as easily notify stakeholders when theiridea has been shipped. Ideas portal users can one-click unsubscribe to portal email notifications if they do not want to receive notifications.
Users can edit their ownideas in the portal after they have been submitted. If they locate an idea inMy ideasthat should be updated or refined for better context,they may selectEdit ideaand edit the idea name, description, orcustom fieldsfor the idea.
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Idea visibility
By default, an idea's visibility is controlled by how and by whom it's created. Visibility of an idea can be changed by Aha! users in the idea's detail drawer. The following lists how ideas are created and defaultvisibility.
Ideas submitted by public users will be visible to anyone on the public portal.
Ideas submitted by a registered employee/partner will be visible to other employee/partners.
Ideas submitted by a registered Aha! user will be private by default and only be visible to other Aha! users in your account.
The default visibility for submitted Ideas (i.e. Salesforce, Zendesk, and email ) can also be customized.This provides you withmorecontrol over how Ideas are managed and monitored in your portals. It is important to note that ideas submitted throughZendesk will inherit the default visibility from that portal's visibility settings. The following are the customizedvisibility options.
Not visible in portal
Visible to employees and partners
Visible to anyone
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Hide portal user names
Customers have the option to make users within their ideas portal anonymous. While we believe transparency in the ideation process is important, sometimes you need to provide customers with anonymity. This option makes it so users in a public or private idea portal cannot see the names of other users.
Ideas submitted by others will show up as submitted by an anonymous user while ideas submitted by the user will still display to them as an idea they submitted.
Aha! users viewing the idea within Aha! can still see full details on who submitted the idea, so teams will not lose visibility into where requests come from with this setting enabled.
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Change the idea submitter
At times, it is helpful to change the idea submitter. For example, if you are still receiving ideas through email or in discussions with customers, you might want to submit the idea on a customer's behalf. An owner or contributor can set another user as the submitter by editing the idea and setting the new user as the idea creator. If the customer is also a portal userand the idea is made visible to them,they will be able to see that idea under My ideas.
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Manage and promote ideas
Aha! users have three different views( Overview (shown), List, and Chart) to manage submitted ideas.
The key to idea management is that Aha! users can easily review ideas,engage stakeholders who expressed interest in the idea and then promote an idea to an initiative, master feature, or feature.
Once promoted to an initiative, master feature, or feature, a link is created between the idea and the newly created record. Then the idea votestotal becomes visible on the record, which provides a helpful reference during prioritization. The idea will automatically be marked as Planned in the ideas portal after the record is created and all users on the idea's notification list will be notified. At the same time, any Aha! account users watching the idea will automatically become record watchers within the system. This way, when the conversation moves from ideas to an Aha! record, the original interested parties on the team can automatically continue to follow the conversation.
When the initiative, master feature, or feature gets completed and marked as shipped, the idea automatically updates to reflect the completion. All stakeholders are notified that the record has been shipped.
This also works in the other direction for master features and features. An existing master feature or feature in Aha! can have an idea created from it through the More options button. This is especially useful if your backlog needs to be trimmed and you want to move master features and features back to ideas. It is also helpful when you have a master feature or feature planned that you want to present in your portal so that people can follow its status.
View ArticleThe starter roadmap is the perfect tool to create a beautiful visual roadmap for any audience. With the starter roadmap, you can quickly sketch out your plans, adding data as you go. Whether you are new to Aha! or a seasoned pro, the starter roadmap can help you build, visualize, and communicate your plans in minutes.
The starter roadmap is available in both product and marketing workspaces.
The starter roadmap for product teams
The starter roadmap for marketing teams
The starter roadmap for product teams
If this is your first time using the starter roadmap, start with this video.
With the starter roadmap, you can add records like goals, initiatives, releases, master features, and features by dragging them onto your roadmap. Then, customize the roadmap and craft the perfect view to share with your team.
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How it works
The starter roadmap is located at Roadmaps > Starter. The menu on the right side of the page shows the record types that you can add.
As you drag and drop records onto the roadmap, you are simultaneously creating and linking real data in your account. Changes made on the starter roadmap will be reflected throughout the Aha! application. For example, if you move a feature from one release to another, it will also move on the features board and anywhere else the feature is displayed within a release.
Click into the record details to add descriptions, scores, attachments, and anything else you need to define your records.
To add existing records, select the Use existing tab and then choose from the records that appear in the dropdown for each record type. To add new records, choose the Create new tab, and then drag and drop the record types on the right side of the page.
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Understanding record type relationships
As you assemble your roadmap, it is important to understand the relationships that are being created when you drag and drop elements on the page.
When you add a goal, that goal will be linked to the product where the goal was added.
When you add an initiative or a release in a goal swim lane, the initiative or release will be linked to that goal.
When you add a feature to a release, that feature will be linked to that release.
However, features are not directly linked to a goal or initiative when you drag them onto the roadmap. This is done by design to provide teams with the flexibility to link features to different goals or initiatives rather than the release at large.
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Releases and features mode
Toggle between the Releases and Features modes to change the focus of the roadmap. The releases mode displays releases as bars on the roadmap this is preferred if you want to focus on the timing and contents of your releases. The features mode is ideal if your plans are centered around master features (also called epics). In this mode, master features are shown as bars on the roadmap (instead of releases).
In features mode, when you add a new master feature, it is automatically added to the first active release (or parking lot, if no active releases exist). If a feature is added to a master feature, that feature will be added to the same release as the one that is assigned to the master feature. If a feature is added on the roadmap without a corresponding master feature, the feature will be assigned to the first active release or parking lot.
The features mode also shows you a timeline of your releases. Any releases related to the features and master features on the roadmap can be shown in the Release dates bar. To enable the Release dates bar, navigate to Customize view > Show release dates.
Note: The following logic is applied when you move features and master features on the starter roadmap:
When you move a master feature to a new product, this changes the release for the master feature but not the child features.
When you move a feature from one master feature to another, the feature remains in its original release (and product).
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Additional options
The starter roadmap includes a variety of customization options so that you can craft the perfect visualization for your audience.
The More details button that appears when you hover on each bar of your roadmap can be used to customize the record. It includes three options:
Edit name: Edits the name of the object that appears on the roadmap. This is not the actual name of the record. This provides flexibility on your records without modifying the actual name of the record.
Hide from export: Keeps the object visual on the roadmap but it will be hidden when exporting as a PDF, image, or Aha! presentation.
Remove from roadmap: Removes the object from the roadmap but does not delete it from the Aha! application. You can also remove a record from the roadmap by dragging it into the Drop here to remove from roadmap zone in the lower-right corner of the page.
To adjust the time frame and the way that dates are represented on the roadmap, select the calendar icon. From there, you can adjust the calendar resolution to increase or decrease the granularity of the dates that appear on the roadmap (including quarters, months, weeks, days, or automatic). You can also choose the start and end dates for your roadmap.
If the Record progress setting is enabled for your product or workspace, you can visualize progress on your roadmap by enabling the Customize view > Show progress option.
Choose how you want colors to be displayed on the roadmap by setting the Customize view > Color bars by option.
To share your roadmap, click the More details button and choose from Add to presentation, Save as image, or Save as PDF. You can choose which records are shown by selecting the records that you want displayed in the Customize view > Show in export menu.
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The starter roadmap for marketing teams
With the starter roadmap, you can add records like goals, initiatives, schedules, master activities, and activities by dragging them onto your roadmap. Then, customize the roadmap and craft the perfect view to share with your team.
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How it works
The starter roadmap is located at Roadmaps > Starter. The menu on the right side of the page shows the record types that you can add.
As you drag and drop records onto the roadmap, you are simultaneously creating and linking real data in your account. Changes made on the starter roadmap will be reflected throughout the Aha! application. For example, if you move an activity from one schedule to another, it will also move on the activities board and anywhere else the activity is displayed within a schedule.
Click into the record details to add descriptions, scores, attachments, and anything else you need in order to define your records.
To add existing records, select the Use existing tab and then choose from the records that appear in the dropdown for each record type. To add new records, choose the Create new tab and then drag and drop the record types on the right side of the page.
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Understanding record type relationships
As you assemble your roadmap, it is important to understand the relationships that are being created when you drag and drop elements on the page.
When you add a goal, that goal will be linked to the workspace where the goal was added.
When you add an initiative or a schedule in a goal swim lane, the initiative or schedule will be linked to that goal.
When you add an activity to a schedule, that activity will be linked to that schedule.
However, activities are not directly linked to a goal or initiative when you drag them onto the roadmap. This is done by design to provide teams with the flexibility to link activities to different goals or initiatives than the schedules at large.
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Schedules and activities mode
Toggle between theSchedulesandActivitiesmodes to change the focus of the roadmap. The schedules mode displays schedules as bars on the roadmap this is preferred if you want to focus on the timing and contents of your schedules. The activities mode is ideal if your plans are centered around master activities. In this mode, master activities are shown as bars on the roadmap (instead of schedules).
In activities mode, when you add a new master activity, it is automatically added to the first active schedule (or parking lot, if no active schedules exist). If an activity is added to a master activity, that activity will be added to the same schedule as the one that is assigned to the master activity. If an activity is added on the roadmap without a corresponding master activity, the activity will be assigned to the first active schedule or parking lot.
The activities mode also shows you a timeline of your schedules. Any schedules related to the activities and master activities on the roadmap can be shown in theSchedule datesbar. To enable theSchedule datesbar, navigate toCustomize view > Show schedule dates.
Note: The following logic is applied when you move activities and master activities on the starter roadmap:
When you move a master activity to a new workspace, this changes the schedule for the master activity but not the child activities.
When you move an activity from one master activity to another, the activity remains in its original schedule (and workspace).
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Additional options
The starter roadmap includes a variety of customization options so that you can craft the perfect visualization for your audience.
TheMore detailsbutton that appears when you hover on each bar of your roadmap can be used to customize the record. It includes three options:
Edit name: Edits the name of the object that appears on the roadmap. This is not the actual name of the record. This provides flexibility on your records without modifying the actual name of the record.
Hide from export: Keeps the object visual on the roadmap but it will be hidden when exporting as a PDF, image, or Aha! presentation.
Remove from roadmap: Removes the object from the roadmap, but does not delete it from the Aha! application. You can also remove a record from the roadmap by dragging it into theDrop here to remove from roadmapzone in the lower-right corner of the page.
To adjust the time frame and the way that dates are represented on the roadmap, select thecalendar icon. From there, you can adjust the calendar resolution to increase or decrease the granularity of the dates that appear on the roadmap (including quarters, months, weeks, days, or automatic). You can also choose the start and end dates for your roadmap.
If theRecord progresssetting is enabled for your product or workspace, you can visualize progress on your roadmap by enabling theCustomize view > Show progressoption.
Choose how you want colors to be displayed on the roadmap by setting theCustomize view > Color bars byoption.
To share your roadmap, click theMore detailsbutton and choose fromAdd to presentation,Save as image, orSave as PDF. You can choose which records are shown by selecting the records that you want displayed in theCustomize view > Show in exportmenu.
View ArticleThere are hundreds of ways you can customize Aha! to match how your team works.Some teams may wish to go beyond custom statuses, fields or terminology and add their own custom extension to the Aha! data model. Custom tables, available to Enterprise+ customers, enable exactly this.
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By managing this information directly in Aha!, you can make better prioritization decisions and share the most important information related to your plans and roadmaps. For example, you could make a custom table to manage a central list of key strategic customers. In addition, markets or opportunities can be centrally located and visible across your organization.
What you track with custom tables is completely flexible and up to you in all cases, you can then easily link what is being trackedto your initiatives, features, and ideas for a single view intoroadmap impact.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
How it works
Master-detail relationship
Many-to-many relationships
Reporting and searching
How it works
Note: TheInfo > Custom tablesview is hidden by default in new Aha! accounts. If you are an Enterprise+ customer and would like to enable the view, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
A custom table is a collection of records organized in a table with data defined by custom fields. The information can be managed within Aha! and can also be programmatically imported and kept up-to-date through our API.
Administrators with customization permissions on the Enterprise+ plan can create and configure custom tables by following these steps:
Navigate toSettings > Account > Custom tables and clickCreate custom table.
You can create your custom table from scratch or begin with an example table and modify it as necessary. The examples you will see are for common use cases, including datasets related to customers, markets, opportunities, partners, or release history. The example tables create a set of relevant custom fields. If you use an example table and you'd like to link the custom table to your existing Aha! records, you will still need to set up a relationship custom field. See step 4.
Add and modify custom fields by clicking theAdd custom field option or click on the custom field name to modify the field.
Note:The value in the first field will be used as the identifying name for the row's record when it appears in Aha!
Linkyour custom table to existingdata via two custom field types: the master-detail relationship and the many-to-many relationship. Master-detail relationship fields display the whole custom table on a record, and allow you to edit the custom table from that record. Many-to-many relationship fields let you link records to custom table records.
Note:
Don't forget to add your master-detail or many-to-many custom fields to a record layout!
After you have created a custom table, a newCustom tables option will appear in yourInfo navigation dropdown.
Owners and contributors on the Enterprise+ plan can add records to any custom table in the account.Custom table records are associated with a workspace or parent line. They can be viewed and edited from a given workspace or parent line under Info > Custom tables. Each tabrepresents a table with data in the selected workspace.
Note: You can edit many custom table records at the same time using the bulk edit action.
Custom tables need at least one record before they will appear inInfo > Custom tables.To add the first record to a custom table within a workspace, click the + iconand select the custom table from the Add custom tabledropdown. Once the first record has been added, the records can be accessedand edited through the new corresponding tab.
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Master-detail relationship
The master-detail relationship embeds a custom table on another record. You can add, edit or delete information on the custom table from the record (or from the custom table, of course). The benefit of the master-detail relationship field is that you can see the whole custom table at once and have full context when you update information on it.
For example, say that your team has trouble shipping releases on time. You could use a custom table to track releases in your account that have shipped past their expected release date. Add fields to track the expected release date, actual release date, and any comments on the slip.
If you add this table as a master-detail field for releases,then the details drawer for all releases will contain the custom table which can be easily updated as needed to reflect changes to the release schedule.
Note: If you want to use a spreadsheet-like table in your records, you may need a custom table, or you might benefit from a custom worksheet. You can use custom worksheets to perform calculations on data using custom equations and a variety of field identifiers.
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Many-to-many relationships
The many-to-many relationship custom fieldfunctions similar to a predefined-tag field. It allows you to associate multiple records from a custom table to your Aha! records. For example, associating customers with a feature.
What makes the custom table especially powerful is that by clicking on the tag, you can open up thedetails drawer for that specific record, allowing you to view key information for the underlying record.
When adding a many-to-many field, you can specify which custom table records are available for selection from the Record visibility setting on the custom field.
Entire account: Displays all records in the account. While all records are available for selection, the user will only see those available for their user permissions.
Workspace and parent lines only: Displays only records that are in the current workspace and those inherited by its parent line(s).
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Reporting and searching
Custom tables allow you to visually bring data together.As with all Aha! data, the data in a custom table is reportable. To view your custom table as a list report, which opens it up to the ability to add filters, sorting, and other data, click theMore options menu on the righthand side of your custom table, then clickView as list report.
Beyond that option, you can generate lists, pivot tables, charts, and timelines from your new custom table, and reference custom table records in custom worksheets. You can also search for custom table records using Aha! search.
View ArticleNote: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
A workspace typically represents what you build and deliver to customers. It is what your customers buy or what your internal stakeholders use.
Please keep in mind:
Workspacesareused toset strategy,plan releases, capture ideas, and add features.
Parent linesareused toset strategyand create hierarchy by grouping workspaces together.
If your company builds and delivers multiple products, services, or programs to customers, then you will likely need to create a workspace in Aha! for each one. This will provide a place to manage strategy, releases, features, and ideas individually for each workspace. It will also give each of your teams their own workspace.
We automatically use your account name to create a top-level entity. This helps to create a nested portfolio structure to organize your data. It is also useful to set strategy at the top level and link it to work done on the workspaces. This makes it easy to have corporate-level goals and workspace-level initiatives that tie to them.
Create your workspace fromSettings >Account > Configure workspaces.You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to do this.
Click onAdd Workspace.
Select the parent line it belongs to (if one exists).
Enter a workspace name, optional description, and prefix. Then clickCreate Workspace.
large portfolio of workspaces
After you add your individual workspaces, you will see them available in the navigation. Remember that you and other users are not able to edit or delete workspacesthat you do not havepermissions for.In settings, navigate toSettings > Account > Usersto edit permissions.
If you only have one workspace or a large portfolio, read these articles for setting up a single workspace or a .
View ArticleThe portfolio roadmap shows planned work across an entire portfolio. With the portfolio roadmap, you can visualize the timing of your releases and see how those releases drive the success of your key strategic initiatives.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Create your roadmap
Customize your roadmap
Share your roadmap
Create your roadmap
Navigate toRoadmaps > Portfolio to create a portfolio roadmap.
Note: The portfolio roadmaphidden by default for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable it, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
The first time you access the portfolio roadmap, you will see releases for the workspace where you are currently working. You can customize the roadmap by clicking the Hierarchydropdown on the top left. Select the workspaces or parent lines you wish to see, or select the auto-update filter option in the parent line submenu to select all workspaces and automatically update the report when new workspaces are added.
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Then, click the Update roadmap button that appears once you close out of the Hierarchydropdown.
This will present a view of your releases for the workspaces you have selected. If you have releases that are associated with a strategic initiative, they will be placed into swimlanes based on their release association. If you have not created any initiatives, the releases will be organized in a single swimlane called Releases.
If you are visualizing parent lines, they will appear in their own swimlane. At the parent line level, you will see various colored circles across the roadmap. These circles represent releases in the child workspaces of the parent line.
If you have set strategic initiatives for your workspace and they roll up to line-level initiatives, the circles will be organized to show how the releases at the workspace level are impacting the line-level initiatives.
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Customize your roadmap
Start dates for releases on the portfolio roadmap are represented as the first phase or milestone date, which can be set on the Release details drawer click on a release to add phases and milestones. As you manipulate a release, the dates will shift on the portfolio roadmap.
The Settings dropdown in the top-left corner includes several customization options.
Use the Release dates radio buttons to showinternal or external release dates. You can configure the dates themselves on the Release details page.
Use theColor bars by radio buttons to color the roadmap bars byWorkspaceor recordStatus.
If you choose Workspace, the roadmap will display releases with the color that has been defined in the Workspace > Overview page.
If you choose Status, the bar color will be based on the status colors defined for your workspace in Settings > Account > Configure statuses and workflows.
Check theShow progresscheckbox to visualize the progress of a release as depicted by the release bars shaded with a solid color. The progress is based on the number of completed features in the release out of the total number scheduled for the release.
Lastly, you can change the resolution of the roadmap by clicking the calendar icon on the top-left corner. You can also use the gray timeline control bar along the top to scroll left and right in addition to zooming in and out.
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Share your roadmap
With your portfolio roadmapcompleted, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top right of the screen.
To fold your roadmap into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation you can select the roadmap's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your roadmap, select Share as webpage.
For a static version of your roadmap, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleNew
This week, we added the ability for you to move cards into priority order in each status column on the workflow board. Changing the order of cards on the workflow board does not impact the order of cards in other Aha! views.
items linked to integrations
Improvements
To make it easier to find records without descriptions, you can now add a description filter for several record types. Use it to find records where the description is Empty or Not empty.
Imports from UserVoice are now significantly faster for large accounts.
You can now add approval to-dos to release templates in order to standardize the approval process of your releases.
Fixes
An issue was causing the initiative Start date to appear in the Customize record card modal, but not the initiative End date.
An issue was causing some to no longer appear as linked.
View ArticleImprovement
It is now easier to add yourself as a watcher. If you are not a watcher on a record and you open theWatchers dropdown, your name will appear at the top of the list of available users.
Fixes
An issue was causing idea vote timestamps to calculate incorrectly.
An issue on the hierarchy report was causing filters to show an incorrect list of available products.
View ArticleWorkspace-level settings affect a particular workspace or parent line in your Aha! account.
This article will explain each workspace setting in theWorkspace: <your workspace> section. Because there are several default workspace types and because you can customize your account's terminology inSettings > Account,this section of your workspace settings may instead read as "Product: <your product>," "Subdivision: <your subdivision>," or however you have configured your workspace hierarchy.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Open your workspace settings by navigating toSettings > Workspace.
Click any of the links below to skip ahead:
Configure
Strategic models
Strategic positioning
Release phases and milestones
Terminology
Navigation
Workflow approval groups
Configure
First, let's work through theConfiguresettings.If you navigate toSettings > Workspacewhile in a parent line, theConfigure settings will be the only section available.
The workspace profile settings affect a workspace's workflows, layouts, and scorecards.
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TheColor setting configures the color for your workspace, which you can see inRoadmaps > Portfolio. Use a hex color code to enter a custom color.
TheDefault assignee setting determines who Aha! features and requirements will be assigned to. This can be any user in your account or you can have these records remain unassigned by default.
TheScorecard for featuressetting determines the scorecard available for your features. Aha! includes a default scorecard but you can substitute it for a custom scorecard if you choose.Anytime you change the default scorecard here, you will erase all previously entered scores for all features in your workspace.
Like theScorecard for features, theScorecard for competitors determines the scorecard available for your competitor profiles. You can score your competitors inStrategy > Competitors > Chart view by dragging them around the 2x2 competitor matrix. You can also score by clicking on a competitor then clicking on theThreat scorecard field.Aha! includes a default scorecard, but you can substitute it for a custom scorecard if you choose.Any time you change the default scorecard here, you will erase all previously entered scores for all features in your workspace.
The next settings section affects the workflows for various record types in your workspace. You can choose to inherit workflows from higher levels of the workspace hierarchy for consistency or you can create new workflows for your workspace's unique needs.
In this section, you can change the workflow for the six basic record types. If you work in a product, IT, or service workspace, they are called:
Goals
Initiatives
Releases
Master features
Features
Requirements
For each record type, the process to adjust a workflow is the same. ClickEdit <record type> workflowto open theChange workflow modal. From here, you can change the workflow using theNew workflowdropdown or map the statuses in your current workflow to new statuses using theNew statusesdropdown. If you are adjusting the workflow for a master feature, feature, or requirement, you can also map the record types from your current workflow to new types using theNew types dropdown.
ClickUpdate <record type>statuses to save your changes. Note that any changes you save take effect immediately across every relevant record in your workspace.
Click theCustom statuses and workflows hyperlink next to each record type to navigate toAccount > Settings > Configure statuses and workflows. From here, you can create, edit, or delete the workflows that you want to apply to your workspace. You will need to be an administrator with customization permissions to access this part ofAccount > Settings .
The last setting in this section istheRecord progresssetting. Use it toEnable,Disable,orInherit the ability to track the percentage of work completed in a given record.
The next setting section will allow you to adjust the way that fields are laid out on records in your workspace. It is called theCustom layouts section.
To create, edit, or delete a custom layout, you will need to be an administrator with customization permissions. Navigate toAccount > Settings > Custom layoutsto adjust the layouts available for your workspace.
You can choose toInherit record layouts from the next level up in your workspace hierarchy. You can also work through each of the available record types and decide one-by-one whether you would like to inherit or select your own custom layouts.
Your terminology for the record types available in your workspace might change depending on your workspace type.
For example, if you are working in a product workspace, custom layouts are available for the following record types:
Ideas
Idea submission forms
Idea portals
Products
Personas
Competitors
Creative briefs
Goals
Initiatives
Releases
Master features
Features
Requirements
For each record type, use the custom layout dropdown to select the layout you want the record to display in your current workspace.
Not every team chooses to use master features, so theMaster features workspace setting allows you to choose whether you would like toEnable,Disable,orInherit your master feature settings from the next level up in the workspace hierarchy.
Some record types are visible ascards. TheFeatures > Boardpage, for example, will display your features or master features as cards nested under their respective releases and parking lots. TheCustomize cards setting allows you to select the fields that these cards will display.
You can, of course, choose to inherit card layouts from the next level up in your workspace hierarchy. Otherwise, selectCustomize card layouts and click theCustomize cards button. TheCustomize record cardsmodal will appear with tabs for each record type that can appear as a card in your workspace.
As we mentioned previously, the record names displayed here may differ depending on your Aha! use case. In a product, the record tabs available are:
Initiatives
Releases
Release phases
Master features
Features
Requirements
To-dos
Click on a tab to open that record type's card layout. Note that there are two types of card layouts anExpanded view and aCollapsed view.
Click the view buttons on the righthand side to see how the card will display in those views.
Click theAdd row button to add room for more fields.
Hover over the right side of a card and click theX to remove a row.
ClickReset to defaultto return to the default card layouts.
Drag fields from left to right to add them to a card, or from right to left to remove them. Drag fields around the card layout to rearrange them.
ClickCancelto revert your changes orSave to save them.
The last setting section in theConfigureworkspace settings isPlanning.
These settings affect the way that you want to estimate and track a team's capacity in your workspace, and generate the data that populates the capacity report.
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Strategic models
Strategic models help you define and focus your strategy. InStrategy > Models, you can select from a variety of example models or you can create a strategic model template for your team's use.
ClickAdd template to create a new template. TheAdd templatemodal will appear.
TheTemplate namefield lets you name your template.
TheStart from field allows you to build your template from scratch or use one of the example templates as a foundation.
TheCategory name field maps to theModel type filter back on theStrategy > Models page. If you have a lot of models in your account, theModel type filter allows you to sort through them.
ThePermissions field shows you where in your workspace hierarchy your template will be available. If you create a template at the parent line level, you can choose whether the template will be available to child workspaces under that line.
Click theAdd template button to create the template, then adjust the template by adding, editing, rearranging, or deleting components. Any changes you make will be reflected immediately on theStrategy > Models page.
Navigate to Strategy > Modelsto use your template.
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Strategic positioning
While strategic models help you define your strategy, strategic positioning helps you articulate the problems or opportunities that your product, program or service solves.
For consistency's sake, it can be helpful to create a positioning template for your team. TheStrategic positioningsettings help you do this.
ClickAdd template to create a new template. From the Add templatemodal, you can name the template, create it from scratch or with one of our examples, categorize it, and then decide how it is shared.
Templates created at the parent line levels in Aha! can be shared across all workspaces under that parent line. Templates created at the workspace level are only available within that specific workspace.
Once you have created your template, you can access it by clickingAdd positioning thenShared templates on theStrategy > Positioning page.
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Release phases and milestones
TheRelease phases and milestones settings allow you to create, edit, and delete release templates for your workspace.
It can be helpful to think about releases as containers for work. Together, you and your team are working towards a single date, called the release date, when your project will be complete.
Release templates allow you to infuse releases with a consistent structure. This is particularly useful if your team has repeating types of work, such as a weekly go-to-market launch or monthly updates to your iOS app.
Note: If you create your template on a parent line, it will be available to all child workspaces in your account. Because of this, most teams should be creating these templates at the parent line level, not the workspace level.
Hover over an existing template to EditorDelete it, or clickAdd release template to create a template.
When editing or creating a release template, you can edit the template'sNameandDescription, attach any relevant assets, and click theAdd release phase button to add a release phase.
Release phases come in two types: phases and milestones. Milestones are single important dates to your project such as the date that design is completed, or the date that the app store approves your mobile application.Phases are containers of work within your release you may have design, development, and test phases, for example. Both types of release phase are optional. Use this template to design a workflow that best helps your team.
When adding phases and milestones, you will be presented with a few options:
Name:The name of the phase or milestone.
Description:The description that appears when accessing the phase or milestone details.
Type:Allows you to select if this is a phase or a milestone. Remember, a phase represents a range of time with a start and end date, while a milestone represents one specific date.
Days after prior phase:Allows you to stagger your phases and milestones. Using a negative value here will allow you to define phase or milestone overlap in your template.
Depends on:Allows creation of dependencies between phases and milestones within your template.
Default duration:The default duration allows you to specify how long each phase is. This is not applicable to milestones since milestones are a single specific date.
Color:Allows you to specify the color of the phase or milestone when visualized on roadmaps.
To-dos:Allows the creation of to-dos as part of the template. Template to-dos can have a summary, description, and assignee. They cannot have pre-defined dates.
Note: You cannot retroactively apply templates to existing releases. They are only available for new releases.
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Terminology
Your team will work best in Aha! if they can work with language that they are used to.Instead of releases, for example, your team might have multiple ongoing projects, or perhaps your features are called stories. You might prefer epics to initiatives, or epics to master features.
TheTerminology setting section allows you to customize the names of Aha! record types in your workspace or inherit a standard terminology from higher levels of your workspace hierarchy.
To customize the terminology for your currently selected workspace, click the gear icon at the top of your screen to head toSettings > Workspace > Terminology. From there, clickCustomize terminology.
SelectUse default terminology if you would like to retain the default terminology for your workspace type.
SelectCustomizeterminology to customize each record type. You can also click this option to see the default terminology and adjust it as needed. ClickUpdate to save your changes.
The names you enter in this menu will be displayed everywhere in the workspace except the Settings pages.
Note: If you choose to customize the terminology for a workspace, Aha! will display your customized term in any place that it refers specifically to that workspace. Aha! will still use the term “workspace” when referring to the general concept of a workspace or to a group of workspaces.
If you are customizing the terminology for a parent line, each workspace in that parent line will inherit that same terminology. You can always customize each workspace individually if you need to.
Parent lines themselves inherit their terminology from the parent linetype inSettings > Account > Configure workspaces. Edit thetype to change how it will be displayed in the top-level navigation buttons in Aha! but be aware that changing a parent line'sType could affect how your hierarchy report is displayed.
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Navigation
In addition to customizing your terminology, you can also customize the navigation buttons at the top of your Aha! page for each workspace.
You can navigate to these settings throughSettings > Workspace > Navigation, or by hovering over your navigation bar and clicking the pencil icon that appears.
SelectUse navigation inherited from <workspace>to inherit your workspace navigation from a higher level of the workspace hierarchy.
SelectCustomize navigation to choose what pages are shown or hidden in your workspace. ClickUpdateto save your changes.The navigation that you choose will be presented to all users in your workspace.
Note: By default, theIdeassectionis disabled. TheIdeassection is automatically enabled when you create an ideas portal in your workspace.
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Workflow approval groups
Workflow approval groups are groups of Aha! users that approve or reject approval to-dos in a fixed custom workflow. You will use them in four different areas in your Aha! account:
Create the workflow approval group at the account level. Choose a name that defines the group, such as Legal, or Finance.
Populate the workflow approval group at the parent line level. If you add users to a group at this level, child workspaces can inherit the group's users.
Customize the workflow approval group users at the workspace level. If you add group users at this level, they will replace any inherited users.
Read this article for more information on workflow approvals.
View ArticleGreat products are oftenthe result of having a breakthrough plan. Aha! makes it easy to define your strategy by setting product overview, goals, and initiatives for each product and product line. Since initiatives often drive your goals, you can also link these together.Then, to indicate the strategic importance of your team's work, you can link releases and features to initiatives and goals. We call this the "red thread of strategy" and believe that it's essentialto the roadmapping process.
Identify gaps in strategy
Hover over any object on the diagram to findgaps in your strategy. You can see therelationships between your product lines, products, goals, initiatives, and releases all on one screen. This helps you find "orphan" goals or initiatives.
Share your strategy
This approach to roadmapping helps youcreate powerful visuals to share with your stakeholders.UnderRoadmaps > Diagram, you mayvisualize and sharean unparalleledview of what you plan to develop and why.
Each layer of the chart represents a different set of data. Start with your products at the core and work out to your releases at the edges. You can zoom in and out, and even filter the screen by your products, goals, initiatives, and releases to get the exact view that you want.When you have the view you want, save it and/or share it with key stakeholders by adding it to an Aha! presentation.
A great roadmap starts with a clear product vision and a canvas that explains howcustomer and market forces shape the product's direction. That is why you mustvisualize your strategy and relationships.
View ArticleThe Aha! Azure DevOps integration gives you insight into the progress of your releases once you send them over to your engineering team. Typically, though, there is another level of detail. The engineering team breaks out the release-level iteration into child sprints in Azure DevOps and assigns features (or master features) to them.
You can track the progress of your features and master features at the sprint level by creating a custom field in Aha! and mapping it to the appropriate iteration level in Azure DevOps.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Create a custom sprint field
Sync sprints with mapped fields
Associate existing features with Azure DevOps sprints
Pull new features and sprints into Aha!
Create custom sprint field
To do this, you will need two things. First, create an integration with Azure DevOps. This is a workspace-level integration, so you will need to be an owner of your product or workspace to create or edit the integration.
Second, you will need to create a custom field to map to the Azure DevOps sprint field. You will need to be an administrator with customization privileges to create a new custom field and add it to a feature layout, though owners can apply a custom layout that includes the new custom field to features in their workspace.
Note: We recommend selecting anEditable choice listas your custom field, since that will allow the integration to choose from a list of existing choices or create a new one if necessary.
Sync sprints with mapped fields
Once you have a custom field created, and that field has been applied to the feature or master feature layout that your workspace uses, you are ready to map it to an Azure DevOps field. You will need to have your Aha! releases mapped to an Azure DevOps iteration, so that features in those releases can display the Azure DevOps sprint from a child iteration level.
Navigate toSettings > Workspace > Integrations and click on the Azure DevOps integration you wish to use.
Click to theMappingsstep.
MapReleases toIteration.
UnderFeatures, click Field mapping.
On the left, select your custom field.
On the right, select theIteration level where you have sprints in your Azure DevOps environment. Usually, this isIteration Level 3.
In the middle, you will notice that the sync arrows are now set to one-way, from Azure DevOps to Aha!
ClickSave and continue.
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Associate existing features with Azure DevOps sprints
If you have existing features in releases in Aha!, you can use your mapped fields to display the sprint from Azure DevOps. This can happen automatically if you have enabledAutomatic sending andAutomatic import in theEnablestep of your Azure DevOps integration, but let's walk through it manually to show you the functionality.
In Aha!:
Open the detail drawer for a feature.
UnderIntegrations, clickSend, then select yourAzure DevOps integration.
The feature will flow from Aha! to Azure DevOps, where it will be created as a task, epic, or feature, depending on how you configured the integration.
In Azure DevOps:
Open the new item.
Change the item's iteration path to include a child sprint.
ClickSave.
The task is now associated with the Azure DevOps sprint, and back in Aha!, you will see your sprint custom field populated with the name of the Azure DevOps sprint.
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Pull new features and sprints into Aha!
If you need to import new features from a sprint in Azure DevOps, the integration will also sync those features with their parent release.
In Azure DevOps:
Create a task.
Assign it to a given sprint.
When Aha! next imports data, Aha! will recognize that the feature is part of a child sprint in an existing release.
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View ArticleIdeas portals in Aha! allow you to manage the feedback you receive in records called ideas. You can connect ideas directly to your strategy and planning efforts, promote them to backlogs or strategic initiatives, and discuss them internally or with the community of users in your ideas portal.
If you come to Aha! with a collection of ideas already, you will want to import those records and the associated users into your new ideas portal. Aha! has two ways to do this: by CSV import or from UserVoice.
Note: We recommend that you import portal users before you import ideas so that Aha! can associate imported ideas with pre-existing portal users.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Import ideas and users by CSV
Import ideas and users from UserVoice
Import ideas by CSV
Wherever you collected feedback formerly, it is likely that you can export your information in the form of a CSV file. Use the Aha! CSV import wizard to import ideas or ideas portal users.
Notes on the CSV import:
When you import ideas portal users, Aha! will give you the option to send them an invitation email. This allows the users to opt-in to the new portal by creating a login associated with their email address. We have made this step optional since you may not want to email your entire list of users.
Each CSV import applies to a single ideas portal. If you have multiple portals in Aha!, create a separate import file for each.
You will not be able to import a CSV file that contains duplicate emails or emails of users that already exist in that portal. If yousee a "Portal user already exists" error displayed upon import,remove that user from the CSV file and try again.
Upon import, you will be able to review the ideas before making them visible to the public. Their default visibility status will be set toAha! users only for this reason. You can bulk edit the ideas to change their status faster.
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Import ideas from UserVoice
TheImport from UserVoicetool allows you to shift your ideas portal from UserVoice feedback to Aha! ideas including both the records themselves and the users associated with them. You can import the following information:
Idea name
Idea status
Portal users
Idea votes
Idea comments
To import from UserVoice:
Navigate toSettings > Workspace > Import from UserVoice.
Choose the workspace or product that the UserVoice ideas will be imported to.
Choose the ideas portal that the UserVoice ideas will be imported to.
Enter your UserVoice credentials.
Note: theUserVoice domain field just needs your subdomain; you can omit the ".uservoice.com" part of the URL.
Click theTest connection button to connect Aha! to UserVoice.
Configure field mapping between UserVoice suggestion statuses and Aha! idea statuses. You can configure Aha! with custom statuses to match what you have in UserVoice. Or you can map the existing UserVoice statuses to new Aha! statuses.
Click theImport buttonto complete the import.
Notes on the UserVoice import:
We recommend that you use this import as a one-time process to transfer records from UserVoice to Aha! with the idea being that your Aha! ideas portal will be your only ideas portal going forward. If you complete this import more than once, you risk duplicating ideas that exist in both imports, as UserVoice ideas have noreference ID or equivalent unique identifier that Aha! can use to recognize and avoid duplicates.
When you import UserVoice ideas into Aha!, the ideas will all be set as private. You can use the Ideas > List page in Aha! to bulk edit the ideas and change their visibility after they have been imported.
Aha! will only import new users. This is to keep Aha! from importing duplicate users if it determines that a UserVoice user already exists as an Aha! user.
When users are imported, Aha! does not automatically send out an invite email. This allows you to import ideas with their associated users and not email every user at the same time of the import. Your users will exist in Aha! after the import, however, so they can access your portal and reset their password to access the ideas within your Aha! ideas portal. You can manage your users in thePortal users tab of your portal settings.
Votes that are anonymous are not copied to Aha! because we cannot associate them with a user. This can happen when a user deleted themselves from UserVoice after placing a vote.
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View ArticleMany teams use a shared kanban board to improve visibility and increase the flow of work. A common board gets everyone on the same page to visualize resourcing, evaluate project statuses, and manage collaborative work.
In Aha!, this is called a workflow board. You can create one for the following record types:
Initiatives
Master features / Master activities
Features / Activities
Requirements
TheFeatures workflow boardhas a few settings that theInitiativesworkflow board does not, so we're going to focus there in this article.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of these links to skip ahead:
Enable the workflow board
Customize your workflow board
Arrange your workflow board
Enable the workflow board
Workflow boards are available for every Aha! account. The initiatives workflow board is available inStrategy > Initiatives. Click theWorkflow viewicon to see it.
The workflow board for master features, features, and requirements needs to be enabled on a workspace-by-workspace basis. To do this, navigate toSettings > Workspace > Navigation. Check the box under Features for Workflow to enable the board for kanban or scrum work. You will need owner user permissions to see these settings.
Once enabled, you will seethe new option underFeatures > Workflow. You now have an agile board to view the status of all of your master features, features, and requirements. The record type dropdown in the upper left allows you to switch between the different types of records.
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Customize your workflowboard
This kanban board is yours, so we have made it highly customizable. At the top of the workflow board, you will find a variety of settings and filters to help you make this board an insightful representation of your team's workflow.
Use theRecord typedropdown to select whether you wantFeatures,Master features, orRequirements to display on your workflow board.
Use theCard sizebuttons to toggle betweenBig orSmall cards.
Customize the view of your workflow board by clicking theCustomize viewdropdown. From there:
TheCustomize cardsoption will allow you to customize the layout forFeatures,Master features,orRequirements in eitherExpanded orCollapsed views. Drag the field(s) you want to include in the cards from the list on the left to the example card on the right. The changes you make here will affect theFeatures > Workflowpage, but not theFeatures > Board page, so you can customize record cards differently for each page if you prefer.
Use theGroup bydropdown to control how you want to display cards on the workflow board. ChooseAssigneetogroup cards in swimlanes by individual team member or select None to group cards without swimlanes.
Cards are displayed in status columns. TheStatuses dropdown includes every status in the workflow for your record type. Select the statuses you want to show on your workflow board.
If you have enabled capacity planning and time tracking for your product, use theCapacity planningcheckboxes toShow work estimated,remaining, ordone. If you have checked any of those three boxes, you can also check theShow work per userbox to display the same information for each user's row as well as each status's column.
Work estimate: This is the sum of the work estimates within each column.
Work remaining: This is the sum of thework estimates minus the work done (across all records in each column).
Work done: This is the sum of the work that has been logged using the Log time button (across all records in each column).
Show work per user: Thissetting shows capacity metrics to the right of the user’s name and is the sum of all master feature, feature, or requirement estimates assigned to each user.
Click theSave viewbutton on the right to save your view.
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Arrange your workflow board
Just like most reports and boards in Aha!, you can use filters on your workflow board to focus on the exact users, workspaces or releases that you want to analyze. You can also click theAdd filter button to add a filter of your own.
Records on the workflow board are ordered based on their respective rankings by default:
Initiatives will be ordered based on the order defined on the Strategy > Initiativespage.
If multiple releases are shown on the workflow board, records in earlier releases will appear first, and within a release group that is based on the record rank. If multiple workspaces are present, then the release date is still used and records will appear in release date order.
Features and master features will be ordered based on the order defined on the Features > Board.
Requirements will be ordered based on their order defined on a feature.
Click theSave viewbutton on the right to save your filtered view.
You can also create a custom card order by dragging and dropping cards on your workflow board to a new order:
Cards will retain their order relative to each other, even if you start with a filtered list, or switch yourGroup by settings.
Everyone who can view your workflow board sees the same card order, so your changes will be reflected immediately. This way, everyone has a shared understanding of work prioritization.
View ArticleEvery team working together to meet ambitious goals needs to answer the following questions:
Can we complete the most important work items with the people we have available?
Is anyone overbooked or underutilized?
How would rescheduling work affect a person's capacity and the overall plan?
What work is unscheduled or unassigned and who has the capacity to take it on?
You need to be able to report on your team's capacity so you can make informed decisions about changes that affect your roadmap and the opportunity cost associated with them. Thecapacity report is the perfect tool for this.
You will need to be an owner of your workspace to enable the capacity report, though users with any permissions level can use it.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Enable the capacity report
Visualize your team's capacity
Resolve capacity conflicts
A user has too much work assigned to them
A user has scheduled work conflicts
Resolve unscheduled work
Share your capacity report
Note: The capacity report is hidden until at least one workspace in your Aha! account enables capacity planning.
Enable the capacity report
To use the capacity report, first you need to enable capacity planning in your workspace by navigating to Settings > Workspace > Configure > Planning.
Capacity planning in Aha! lets you selectTime orStory points as your default units. To use the capacity report, selectTime. ClickUpdate workspace configurationto save your settings.
After you enable capacity planning, customize your menu navigation to enable the capacity report. Once done,you will see the option to select the capacity report inRoadmaps > Capacity.
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Visualize your team's capacity
Let's start by orienting you with the report itself. The report will start on thecapacity view the view that shows you your team's capacity by user and by month.
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The capacity report looks at the features that your team has committed to. Use the filters at the top of the report to focus it to the exactPeople,Workspaces, orRelease settings you want. This mayinclude or exclude parking lots and completed releases. You can also click theAdd filterbutton to add more filters and theCalendar button to adjust the report's date range.
On the left side of the capacity report you will see a list of Aha! users with access to your workspace. Any featureassigned to a user will appear in that user's row either by month in the report itself or in theUnscheduled work section below the user's name.
On the right side of the capacity report, you will see each user's capacity per month. Any feature assigned to a user that has aStart dateandDue date will contribute to that user's total monthly capacity the report calls these Scheduled features. You may choose to add anEstimate to features that you think will be resolved before their due dates.
At the bottom of the report, theUnassigned section will display features that have been scheduled but lack an assignee. Just like the other rows in the capacity report, you can see a link here toUnscheduled work work that, in this case, is both unscheduled and unassigned.
Hover over any cell in the report to see the capacity for that user in that month, in days. Click any month to see theTimeline view, and click on any user'sUnscheduled work to see theUnscheduled work view. We'll discuss both views in the next sections.
Finally, you will see a few different colors in thecapacity view.
Grey shows that a month or part of a month is available that the user has untapped capacity that month.
Blue shows that a month or part of a month has planned work in it that is, features assigned to that user whoseStart dates fall in that month.
Green shows that a month or part of a month has completed work in it features that were assigned, scheduled, and completed.
Red shows that a user is over capacity in a given month. They either have more work than they can be expected to complete in the month or they have features whoseStart dates,Due dates, orEstimates conflict with each other.
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Resolve capacity conflicts
The capacity report shows you at a glance where members of your team are over capacity. It gives you the tools to resolve conflicts right on the report. If you see red on a month or you notice that the total capacity percentage for a month is over 100\%, it's a sign that there is a capacity conflict. Click on the month you want to work on to open theTimeline viewfor that user's scheduled features in that month.
In the timeline view, you will see a list of features assigned to a user along with scheduling information about them theirStart dates,Due dates, andEstimates. Click on theFeature name to open the feature's detail drawer and edit it or click on any of the scheduling fields to edit those.
Note:
If you do not enter anEstimate, the report will calculate one for you based on days between the feature'sStart dateandDue date. You can also adjust those dates to adjust your estimate.
If you enter anEstimatethat is shorter than the time between a feature'sStart date andDue date, the capacity report will assume that work on that feature will begin on theStart date as long as no other higher-ranked features have the sameStart dateand end when theEstimateis complete.
If you enter anEstimate that is longer than the time between a feature'sStart dateandDue date, the capacity report will still tell you how many extra days' work the feature needs. But it will not update to show you work completed in the colored progress bar as you log work on the feature.
The timeline viewshows you every day in your selected month and how your scheduled features play out throughout the month. You can hover over each day in the month to see how much work is planned for a given feature on that day.
The timeline view alsoincludes colors that are similar to those you saw in thecapacity view:
Light blue shows when a feature is scheduled but when no work is planned. Weekends, for example, will be this color.
Blue shows when work is planned on a feature.
Green shows work completed.
Aredborder around a scheduled feature shows that it's in conflict either with another feature or because there is not enough time to complete the work planned in the scheduled time.
Before we resolve two common capacity conflicts, it's useful to consider a few assumptions that the capacity report makes:
It assumes that each team member works for eight hours every day.
It assumes that each team member works five days every week (M-F).
It assumes time-based estimates in minutes, hours and days. Unless you specify otherwise, it will assume that an estimate is in days. So, for example, it will interpret an estimate of "1" as "1 day."
It currently visualizes capacity for features only. We plan to expand the report to support more record types in the future.
It assumes that each user will have one feature in progress at any given time (i.e. that your team works on features serially, not in parallel).
With those assumptions in mind, we're ready to resolve capacity conflicts. Here are the two most common conflicts you will face.
A user has too much work assigned to them
In this scenario, when you click on thetimeline view for a user in a given month, you will see a feature whoseEstimateis longer than the scheduled time available to it (the time between the feature'sStart dateandDue date).
To resolve this conflict:
Expand the scheduled time available by adjusting the feature'sStart dateorDue date.
Reduce theEstimate for the feature. Depending on the complexity of the feature, this may require a discussion with the feature assignee.
A user has scheduled work conflicts
In this scenario, when you click on thetimeline viewfor a user in a given month, you see features that overlap with each other. Remember, the report assumes a user will work on one feature at a time so scheduling a user to work the whole day on two features will trigger an over capacity warning. The report also assumes that a user will work on features in order of rank so if two features have the sameStart date, the one higher on the list will be started first.
Note: To see a feature's rank, navigate to the features board.Features are ranked within a release (the higher the order, the higher the rank) and between releases (the earlier the release date, the higher the rank). Releases on the features board are organized left-to-right by release date.
To resolve this conflict, make sure that each feature has enough unallocated days to complete its planned work estimate before itsDue date.
To do this, look at the colored progress bars for each feature. In the screenshot above, you can see that the first feature'sDue dateoverlaps with the second'sStart date, but since only one feature has planned work on that day, there is no capacity conflict.
However, the second and third features both plan to start work on the sameStart date. This is a conflict. Since the capacity report assumes that the user will work on one feature at a time and start with the higher-ranked feature first, the capacity conflict is with the third feature.
Our options are to:
Shift theStart date for the third feature to a day where the user has no other planned work and extend the Due date so that there is enough time to complete theEstimate. In this example, Thursday the 6th would work, though technically two features are scheduled for work on that same day so if they are not completed during their planned days, this could become another conflict.
Shift theStart date for the third feature to a day where the user has no other planned work. Also change theDue dates for the other two features to that no other feature is scheduled for work on that day.
Change theEstimates for any of these features so that periods of planned work do not overlap.
Assign one or more of these features to other users.
Change the rank of the features to prioritize which feature should be worked on first. In a scenario where one feature'sDue dateoverlaps with a higher ranked feature'sStart date, changing the features'rankwould resolve the conflict.
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Resolve unscheduled work
In addition to thecapacity viewand thetimeline view, the capacity report has one further view: theunscheduled work view. You can access this view by clicking theUnscheduled work link beneath any user's row, including the row forUnassigned features.
Features show in this view if they lack both aStart dateand aDue date.
Click aFeature name to open the detail drawer for a feature.
Use theDuration section to enter aStart dateandDue datefor a feature.
Use theEstimatesection to enter an effort estimation that differs from the feature'sDuration. If you leave this blank, theEstimatewill equal theDuration.
Use theAssignee section to change the feature'sAssignee.
Once you have scheduled a feature, it will appear in boththecapacity view and thetimeline view of the report. It will contribute to a user's capacity calculations if assigned to a user.
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Share your capacity report
Once your capacity report is ready, clickSave to name it, save it, and adjust viewing permissions.
Then you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top right of the page.
To fold your report into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation, you can select the report's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your report, select Share as webpage.
For a static version of your report, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleTeams spend dozens of painful hours every quarter trying to reconcile and consolidate different roadmap views. That is why we created Aha! to be the one toolthat captures all of your structured and unstructured data in one place. Aha! lets you easily create and share reports with your various stakeholders.
Everyone needsto be able to create custom tables and charts to share internally and present to customers. You also want to be able to analyze and report on what’s planned across your product, workspace or portfolio.Analytics reports in Aha!provide the reporting features and formats needed to analyze what’s happening and planned without spending hours of time duplicating data and manipulating spreadsheets.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
List reports
Pivot reports
Charts
Capacity reports
Dependencyreports
Hierarchy reports
Diagram reports
List reports
The Roadmaps > Listviewis your go-to tool for creating custom list reports based on over 100 different data objects. With the list table, you can add column headers for every Aha! data object. Then you can filter and sort the data to present different views of what you have going on across your product management environment.
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Read our Create a list table article for full details on how to create your own.
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Pivot reports
The Roadmaps> Pivot view is an incredibly powerful tool for taking all of the data in Aha! and creating in-depth analysis reports on what is going on. Similar totheRoadmaps > List view, the pivot view allows you to manipulate data from the over 100 different data objects stored in Aha! and then organize it all in a customizable pivot table.
Read our Create a pivot table article for full details on how to create your own.
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Charts
TheRoadmaps> Chartview is a beautifulway of communicating your product management information visually. The chart report helps you create your own custom visuals using any of the data elements that you manage in your Aha! account.
Read our Create a chart article for full details on how to create your own.
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Capacity reports
Note: The capacity report is hidden until at least one workspace in your Aha! account enables capacity planning, then customizes their menu navigation to show the report.
TheRoadmaps > Capacityreport is the perfect tool to help you visualize your team's capacity, by month, for the features you need to complete to achieve your strategic goals. First, enable capacity planning in your Aha! account, then use the capacity report to see who has availability to take on more work, who is overburdened, and what scheduled features conflict with each other and might not be completed on time. The capacity report also highlights work that is unscheduled or unassigned, so you can ensure that there are no unexpected gaps in your roadmap.
Read our Capacity report article for full details on how to create your own.
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Dependencyreports
Note: The dependency report ishidden by default for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable them, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
UnderRoadmaps> Dependency, you canvisualizeproduct relationships in a single, customizable view. This is separate from the dependency map, which shows dependencies for a single record, such as a feature. The dependency report allows you to view dependencies for multiple objects at once, such as all of the dependencies for every feature withinan upcoming release.
Read our Create a dependency report article for full details on how to create your own.
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Hierarchyreports
Note: The hierarchy report ishidden by default for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable them, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
TheRoadmaps>Hierarchy view is the perfectway to compare the alignment of your product and product line strategy with the actual work that is planned. The hierarchy report makesit easy to visualize relationships across your goals, initiatives, releases, and features and to identify where you have gaps in delivering on your strategy.
Read our Create a hierarchy report article for full details on how to create your own.
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Diagram reports
Note: The diagram report ishidden by default for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable them, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
UnderRoadmaps> Diagram, you mayvisualize and sharean unparalleledview of what you plan to develop and why.
Each layer of the chart represents a different set of data. Start with your products at the core and work out to your releases at the edges. You can zoom in and out and even filter the screen by your products, goals, initiatives, and releases to get the exact view that you want.When you have the view you want, save it and/or share it with key stakeholders by adding it to an Aha! presentation.
Read this article for more details on creating diagram reports.
View ArticleInitiatives are high-level efforts that help you achieveyour goals. Adding initiatives to Aha! helps you weave the "thread of strategy" throughout your roadmapping process. Every release you plan will have a purpose of driving towards one or more of your initiatives. Releases, master features, and features can be directly linked to the initiativethey impact.Linking the work to initiativesensures that your team is delivering what matters.
Initiatives are often achievable within 3-12 months, but can sometimes be longer term. You can create them at any level in your hierarchy and roll them up from the workspace to company level.To use a product management example, your "Expand into China" initiative at the workspace level may take 12 months, but it is rolled up to the "Expand internationally" initiative at the product line level which may take multiple years to fulfill.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Ways to use initiatives
Create an initiative
Link an existing initiative to a goal
Link an initiative to a feature
Link an initiative to a release
The initiatives board
Filter initiatives
Chart and compareinitiatives
Edit initiative grid labels
Ways to use initiatives
After you create initiatives, you can use them to:
Track and share initiatives with your team and key stakeholders using Aha! presentations.
Explain the relative value and effort of each initiative by manually dragging themto the chart on the Strategy > Initiatives page.
Based on relative value and effort, you can rank ororder them within the list, and the Initiative Rank can be exposed as an attribute inthe Reporting area. You can show your progress by setting it from the Progress dropdown next to the initiative below the chart.
You can also link the related goals and initiatives to the time frame in which they are expected to be completed. This allows teams to do long-term strategic planning and then filter based on the time frame to keep the team focused on what is next.
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Create an initiative
Follow these steps to create a new initiative.
Go toStrategy > Initiatives.
Click Add initiativeand then enter the initiative name and a description.
To roll it up to an initiative at the parent-line level, select a parent line from the Roll up to parent line initiative dropdown.
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To link the initiative to a goal, select a goal from the Link initiative to goals dropdown.
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Link an existing initiative to a goal
While initiatives can be independent entities, you can link them to goals when they drive the team to achieve that objective.
For example, your goal may be to become the #1 mobile app in your market. You can link initiatives related to enhancing your iOS and Android apps directly to that objective. You may also have a goal at a parent-line level above that. If enhancing your mobile apps will impact that goal, you can link those initiatives to the parent-line goal as well.
Follow these steps to link an existing initiative to a goal.
Go toStrategy>Initiatives. (You can also link them from the Strategy > Goals page.)
Click on an initiative to open the details card.
Click in the Goals field on the right and then select goals that are at the same level or higher in the workspace hierarchy.
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Link an initiative to a feature
Linking features to initiatives allows you to show the strategic importance behind why features are being prioritized.
Go toFeatures > Board.
Click on a feature to open the details card and then click in the Initiative field.
When prompted, choose one of the following:
Select an initiative from thedropdown.
SelectAddinitiative, enter the appropriate information, and then clickCreate initiative.
Note: Linked records in Aha! do not inherit any links from each other. For example, linking an initiative to a feature will not link any goals associated with that initiative down to the feature. Read this article if you also want to link goals to features or other Aha! records.
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Link an initiative to a release
You can also link initiatives to releases. By considering which initiatives(and goals) a release impacts, you can identify what does and does not matter. Clearly defined initiatives keep the team on track and enable you to tellkey stakeholders why your plan is the best strategy.
SelectReleases > Overview.
Click on a release to open the details card and then click in the Initiatives field.
Select one or more releases from the dropdown.
Click X to close the details card and save your changes.
Note: Linked records in Aha! do not inherit any links from each other. For example, linking an initiative to a release will not link any features associated with that release to back to the initiative. Read this article if you also want to link goals to releases or other Aha! records.
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The initiatives board
To view your initiatives in a kanban-style board, click the Workflow view icon located in the upper-left corner of the Strategy> Initiatives section. The workflow view offers a way to help you easily move, compare, and prioritize initiatives across your organization.
To move initiatives between statuses, drag an initiative card from one status column to another.
To set a custom rank for your initiatives, drag and drop them into the order that reflects their priority. The order you select here will be visible to everyone who can view your initiatives board, so that everyone has the same context on your strategic goals.
Use the Customize viewicon to configure the initiative cards or statuses that appear on the board.
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Filter initiatives
Follow these steps to filter your initiativesto show which ones are completed, in progress, not yet started, or any other custom status that you have set up.
Go toStrategy > Initiatives.
Click the Changefilter icon in the top-left corner and then select a filter.
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Chart and compareinitiatives
You can visualize your initiatives on the chart to help you better understand which initiativesto pursue. Drag your initiativeson the chart to compare them as they relate to one another in the context of your goals or your workspace.
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Edit initiative grid labels
You can also customize the text to use terminology that fits how you want to map them. Click on the default labels and axis values on the grid to edit them. Then type in the new value or metric.
View ArticleThehierarchy reportis the perfectway to view the relationships between the product lines and products in your account.
We make it easy to visualize relationships across your goals, initiatives, releases, master features, and features. You can see how they are connected within a single product, or across multiple products in your organization. By linking your strategy to your work, the strategic value that each releaseand featuredelivers to your product quickly becomes apparent.
Build your hierarchy report
From theRoadmaps > Hierarchypage, choose Select Datato open the configuration modal. As you select objects, elements without a relationshipcannot be selected and will automatically grey out (see below for some reasons why this might be happening).
As you select objects you will also see aFilter dropdown activate, which allows you to filter that hierarchy level to display the results you wish to see.
ClickSave to create your report.
customize your terminology
Adjust the data
If your hierarchy report does not look like you expect it to, these are common causes:
Goals and initiatives in the first columns of the hierarchy report are ordered based on their prioritization inStrategy > GoalsandStrategy > Initiatives. To reorder them, navigate to the appropriate page and drag the cards into the order you prefer.
Product lines in Aha! have an editable field calledType. Product lines with equivalent types will be grouped on equivalent levels of the hierarchy report.
It may be helpful to select consistent type nomenclature across your Aha! account before you start creating product lines (for example, "Company > Division > Subdivision > Product," or "Organization > Team > Group > Product"). You can also edit this field at any time if your account's nomenclature needs to change.
There are situations where you might want to have inconsistent nomenclature in your account if you want to ensure that no one will be able to accidentally report on one product's initiatives under a different product line's goals, for example.
See this article to adjust your product hierarchy.
Communicate strategic plans
The power of the hierarchy report comes from visualizing dataacross multiple levels.For example, you can easilyshow your executive team how the goals and initiatives you set for yourproduct roll up to support the product line and company level goals.
Report on status updates
In addition to showingrelationships, you can also configureeach column individually using the Add column databuttontodisplay the status of the data objects. This is particularly powerful if you are looking to create a visual of all the work that goes into a high-level strategic goal,and want to keep track of the status of all the underlying goalsthat contributeto the company goal'ssuccess.
Make better prioritization decisions
Hierarchy reports do not stop at goals and initiatives. With releases and features included, the relationship between strategy and work becomes even more apparent. This allows you to make better prioritization decisions and focuson drivinghigh-level strategy. Additionally, you can see when releases, features or strategic efforts are not aligned with the larger plans.
Customize columnnames
By default, column headers will inherit the Aha! terminology unless you to matchwhat your team uses everyday. You can also customize column headers' names simply by clicking on the column name toperform an inline edit. If you save the view, Aha! will retain the name changes for your saved reports.
View ArticleStrategic initiatives connect your vision to the work that will make your goals a reality. The strategy roadmaphighlights the timing around yourstrategic initiatives, and isparticularly useful if you are doing top-down planning and looking out over a year or more.
In this article, we've focused on a product management use case, but of course product managers are not the only professionals focused on strategy. Strategic initiatives inform every activity a marketing team commits to, and if your team focuses primarily on multiple projects or services, strategic initiatives unite your work under one strategic direction.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Addinitiativesto your roadmap
Define the dates of your initiatives
Customize your roadmap
Share your roadmap
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Addinitiativesto your roadmap
If you already have initiatives defined in Aha!, the strategy roadmapwill automatically populate with all of the initiatives that have been defined for the product you are navigated to.
You can click the Initiatives name filter to add additional initiatives to the view from across your various products. You can also quickly add new initiatives by clicking the + Add initiativebutton that appears in blue at the bottom of your list of initiatives as shown in the screenshot above.
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Define the dates of your initiatives
With your initiatives added to the roadmap, you can then manipulate their dates by dragging them left or right. Clicking on the start or end of an initiative will also allow you to extend or shorten the duration. By default, the duration of an initiative is determined by the start date and end date of the product releases associated with an initiative. Editing the initiative on the roadmap view will override this default and allow the initiative to have time ranges defined outside of the release schedule.
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Customize your roadmap
You can control how your initiatives are showcased by clicking the Customize viewdropdown on the roadmap.
Hide weekends: Thisoption will allow you to focus the roadmap on the Monday-Friday business week and hide Saturday and Sunday from the roadmap view.
Show goals: Allows youto add goals to your strategic roadmap and visualize how your initiatives and goals are connected. Each goal will be displayed to the right of the initiative that is associated with it.
No coloration for bars: This option sets the view to the default color scheme where the initiatives all appear as purple bars.
Color bars by initiative color:This option allows you to manually define the bar colors by editing the color of the initiative itself.There are 40 preset options for colors or use any custom color using its hex color code.
Color bars by status:This allows the initiatives to be color-coded by status so you can easilyvisualize the status of your initiatives across your entire portfolio and identify what is on track and what might be slipping behind.
Display the time period of your choice by specifying the timeline StartandEnd datesfor the display along with the desired time scale of days, weeks, months, or quarters.
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Share your roadmap
With your strategy roadmapcompleted, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore options button on the top right of the screen.
To fold your roadmap into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation you can select the roadmap's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your roadmap, select Share as webpage.
For a static version of your roadmap, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleNote: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
You likely spend hours every month crafting perfect roadmap views for each of yourkey stakeholders and then tweaking them for eachgroup. We also know it's tedious when you mustmake small changes that lead to hours of additional formatting work in Excel and PowerPoint.
Features in Aha! are the fundamental building blocks of work. If you are part of a product team, you might also call them "user stories" if on a marketing team, you might call these "activities." We will use product management terminology for this article, but note that this roadmap is valuable however you define the foundational unit of work in your Aha! account.
Use the Roadmaps > Featurespage in Aha! to create beautiful roadmaps andshare them with key stakeholders.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Choosing which releases to add across your workspace hierarchy
Customize those releases and features
Customize the roadmap's time range
Display master features
Only show specific features
Share your roadmap
Choose releases
Use the Releasesdropdown to select which releases to add to your roadmap. By default, the timeline will include current releases for the product you are viewing. With the Releasesdropdown, you can add past releases and cross-product releases to the timeline.
By clicking the small arrow by a product or product line on the releases dropdown, you can also select all releasesand automatically update when new releases are added.
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Customize releases and features
Customize the detail you show at the release and feature level withthe Customize viewdropdown menu.
For customer views, you canshow the theme of the release and key features of interest. Internalstakeholders will want to understand the strategic importance, which is conveyed throughgoals and initiatives. To further illustrate how each highlighted feature delivers specific categories of functionality or customer requests, you can show default and custom fields.
You can also choose whether to present your internal or external release date. The external release date can be different than the internal release date. It can also be rounded to a broader time frame (e.g. "show releases by quarter"). This makes the external release date particularly powerful for teams practicing continuous deployment. This is because it allows them to visualize their releases as containers of work being completed in a time frame instead of on a specific date. When sharing your roadmap, you can then select whether your internal or external release dates are presented.
Note: If you choose to include custom fields, they will display in the order that they appear in your custom layout.
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Customize the roadmap's time range
Set your timeline to displaythe time period of your choice. You can specify the timeline start and end dates for the display, along with the desired time scale of days, weeks, months, or quarters.
If you are showing releases that fall outside the bounds of your selected start and end dates, you will be notified with a link on either end of your timeline that additional releases are outside your selecteddate range.
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Display master features
If you have master features enabled in your account, you can enable their display on the roadmap. Simply click theCustomize view button and selectShow master features. The master features will then display as objects on the release below your goals and initiatives.
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Only show specific features
Choose which releases you want to share, then choose the features that you want to highlight by checking the boxes next to any that are relevant.Unchecked boxes will not be visible in the published view of your Aha! presentation.
Features will display in the same sort order as they appear on the Features > Board page which represents their prioritized rank order.
You can also add filters to bulk edit which features are visible on your timeline.
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Share your roadmap
With your features roadmapcompleted, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top right of the screen.
To fold your roadmap into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation you can select the roadmap's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your roadmap, select Share as webpage.
For a static version of your roadmap, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleNo one knows your stakeholders better than you. Communicating your roadmap to stakeholders at the right level of detailis key to not only achievingbuy-in around your plan, but also to the success of your relationship with them in general.
There is no "one size fits all" visualization of your roadmap that works for everyone, and youmust interact with a wide variety of folks that have a vested interest in your roadmap. Choosing the right visual report based on that stakeholder persona is key to plan alignment and overall partnership.
Note: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Executive sponsorsand strategic programs
Development teams
Project and Program Management
Customers
That "special" stakeholder
Executive sponsorsand strategic programs
When you are reporting your roadmap status to an executive sponsor or a strategic program owner, they want to hear the general "are we good" summary. The level of questionswill be similar to the following: "Are we on trackto meet our business objectives?,"or "Which success metrics are being attacked this quarter?"
Program sponsors are often transferring your roadmap informationto higher-level team members, as well. For this reason, their recurring update should be a summary level. They also are looking for how they can help you, with leverage on escalations if needed.
The Roadmaps > Strategy is a valuable lead-in report for this level of stakeholder, as they are typically interested in high-level initiatives that link directly to business goals. They want to ensure that everything ison track.
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You can also consider the Roadmaps > Diagram for this audience if the focus of the discussion is that strategic goals/initiatives have roadmap coverage.Have a potential drill-down view likethe Roadmaps > Features roadmap "at the ready"for detail backup.
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Development teams
Technical teams like developers and engineers need to feel confident that they are building what matters and that there's passion and buy-in about their daily activities supporting your product, service or program. The features roadmap is also a great way to introduce these concepts, and how both individual features and the plan roll up to important business objectives.
Sharing this even at earlier stages of planning is also a great way to leverage the development team's expertise on slight prioritizationchanges for features, in case there's a key technical efficiency to be gained withdevelopment timing.
As part of the planning process, it's also important to ensure that they have all of the detail required to develop the features. In this case, a custom Roadmaps > List report of features and requirements will be a powerful visual view to efficiently confirm that a large effort has the right level of feature definition to execute.
Finally, every development team cares about capacity. Ambitious goals are meaningless unless they are tied to a team with the bandwidth to work towards them. The Roadmaps > Capacity report breaks down each month into users and the features assigned to them. And through integrations with developer tools, development teams can populate this report with accurate effort estimations.
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Project and Program Management
Managers of programs and projects are often "seeing around corners" and looking for risks across products and releases. For this type of discussion across roadmap owners, the Releases > Gantt report can be used to easily visualize key milestones across workspaces and releases and how they depend upon or affect each other.
Quickly create dependencies across any two releases in your portfolio, to show what must be completed to keep your upcoming release on track.
For detailed status on features within a roadmap plan, utilize the Roadmaps > Features report with feature status enabled under Customize Features; add filters for specific initiatives or goals as needed depending on the program owner's area of responsibility.
Finally, project and program managers often need insight into the team's capacity for a given project. Knowing who has available bandwidth and who is overburdened with work helps them manage risk of deadlines slipping and make triage decisions early. The Roadmaps > Capacity report fits this need perfectly.
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Customers
For customers, you want a roadmap that creates excitement, while still sharing onlywhat you're ready to share. Leverage the Roadmaps > Features report with external dates at the level of precision you are comfortable sharing with that audience, and hide any features from the Aha! presentation that may not be committed yet.
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That "special" stakeholder
How stakeholders receive and process your roadmap message can be unique. Leverage custom reports like Roadmaps > Customto get just that right message format that resonates with your audience.
All stakeholders can be unique in their needs regarding communication on your roadmap. By leveraging the work you've already done in your roadmap and saved reports for these stakeholders, you can provide just the updates everyone needs to gain passion, buy-in, and theright-sized information on the plan.
View ArticleAha! provides multiple ways to create beautiful roadmaps and then shareyour roadmaps with your team. In addition to roadmaps that cover common needs the strategy roadmap, the feature roadmap it's useful to get acquainted with the custom roadmap, which you can use to create a roadmap that fits your exact use case.
You can use the custom roadmapto visualize datesfor the following record types:
Strategic initiatives
Products and workspaces
Releases
Master features
Features
Ideas
To-dos
You can even visualize the custom date fields that you add to any of those objects.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Create your roadmap
Customize your roadmap
Share your roadmap
Create your roadmap
The custom roadmap is located under Roadmaps > Custom.The easiest way to get started is to click the Views dropdown and select Related views. You can also use one of the example roadmaps presented when clicking theAdd roadmapbutton. The related views and example roadmaps cover recommended roadmapsand are a great way to get familiar with how the tool works.
If you are ready to dive in and create your own custom roadmap, simply do the following:
Click theAdd dataicon on the top-left to choose what data you want to visualize on your timeline in the Rows and Cells fields.
Choose the Time frame that you want to display. This can be a range of dates by using Duration or a specific date by using Milestone.
Add a sort order to your row and cell values by clicking theSort rowsicon and theSort cells icon.If you customize your roadmap to use compact bars, the sorting will be automatically set for the best visualization.
Click Donetoapply your settings.
Optionally, click the Add filters icon on the top left to filter by different elements. For example, you may want to filter by Initiative to only show data items related to a specific strategic initiative.
Use the time control slider and theSet dates dropdown icon to focus the roadmap. You can displayyears, quarters, months, weeks, or even days of the week on the timeline view.
Note: Records without dates will display on custom roadmaps by default as bars with infinite length. To resolve records without dates, open the record's detail drawer and add dates to it. To hide records without dates, filter your roadmap where your date fields areIs not blank.
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Customize your roadmap
Click theCustomize viewicon to customize the look and feel of your roadmap.
From here, you can change your roadmap's color scheme, choose to show or hide progress, and select whether you want a compact or expanded feel to the finished product.
When you've finished customizing, clickDoneto save your work, then clickSaveviewto save your roadmap.
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Share your roadmap
With your custom roadmapcompleted, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top right of the screen.
To fold your roadmap into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation you can select the roadmap's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your roadmap, select Share as webpage.
For a static version of your roadmap, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
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View ArticleIf you have enabled many integrations in your Aha! account, they can quickly become difficult to manage separately. This is especially true if you have multiple instances of the same integration or have multiple integrations applied to several workspaces.
We created the integrations management report to give you at-a-glance information on your integrations, with links to each integration, workspace, or integration template if you need to make adjustments.
To access the default integrations management report, you will need to be either an administrator or an owner in Aha!, but reviewers and viewers can create list reports with integrations as the primary record type.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
Use the integrations management report
Customize the integrations management report
Create a new report on integrations
Share your integrations report
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Use the integrations management report
To access the integrations management report, navigate to:
Settings > Account > Integrations for account-level integrations.
Settings > Workspace > Integrationsfor workspace-level integrations.
From there, click theManagebutton. This will load a prebuilt list report with five columns:
Click on theIntegration name to navigate to the settings for that integration.
Sort or filter byIntegration typeto focus on a particular integrated application.
Sort or filter byIntegration enabled to focus on integrations that are (or are not) currently enabled. Click on an integration's name to navigate to its settings and enable or disable it.
Use theIntegration templatefield to find integrations using the same template or to adjust a particular template.
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Customize the integrations management report
This report is a list report and is yours to customize. Sort or filter any of the columns or use theAdd data,Add filter, or+icons to add or remove information.
When you have finished customizing the report, clickSave view to save it and adjust viewing and editing permissions.
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Create a new report on integrations
When you first create a custom list report, you select a Primary record type to base it on. You can use integrations as a primary record type, just like you would with features, initiatives, or releases.
To create a new report on your integrations, navigate toRoadmaps > List and clickCreate new report. SelectCreate a custom list report, then selectIntegrationas yourPrimary record type.
From here, build and customize the report as you see fit.
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Share your integrations report
With your integrations management report completed, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top-right of the page.
To fold your report into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation,you can select the report's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your report, select Share as webpage.
To export your report for further analysis, selectExport to ExcelorExport to CSV.
For a static version of your report, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
View ArticleNote: Depending on your workspace type, this article may refer to Aha! record types differently than your team does.
The Features > Listpage is an incredibly powerful tool for taking all of the data in Aha! and creating commonly used reports for yourself or your team. It's also a great place to very quickly and easily answer complex questions.Similar tothe Roadmaps > List page, this page allows you to manipulate data from the over 100 different data objects stored in Aha! and then organize it as a saved view, export it in various formats, or bulk edit features.
Note: theFeatures > List view is hidden by default for new Aha! accounts. If you would like to enable it, you can do so by customizing your menu navigation.
import from CSV
Create your feature (and requirements) list
Adding columns is easy. Just click the Add data icon on the top far-left side and choose the tables you want to include. Once you have your tables, you can then choose the columns you want to populate.You may drageach column to place them in the order that you want. Remove columns by hovering over and clicking on the Xthat appearsto the right ofeach column name. You can also create custom column headers by clicking on the column name and performing an in-line edit to the name of your choosing.
Customize your report
After adding all of the data columns to the list table that you want to display, you canreorganize the columns, sort the data within the columns, and rename the column headers.
To sort your data by a specific column, hover on the column header and click themore details button. Then, select from one of the sort options in the dropdown. You can also sort multiple columns by clicking theSort data icon in the top-left corner. This will allow you to sort columns based on multiple values, such as alphabetically by feature status and feature name.
List reports can be customized further in the following ways:
To reorganize the columns, click on the column header and drag it to the desired location on your report.
To change the name of your column headers, select the text within the column header to begin editing the name.
To modify the width of a column, drag the edge of the column header to the desired size.
To add a column, delete a column, or add a calculation column, hover on the column header, choose themore details button, then select an action.
Duplicate records
You may notice instances where the same feature is listed multiple times. This occurs when there is one-to-many relationships between the feature and a data column on the list. An example would be if you add requirements to the list and a feature has multiple requirements. That feature would appear multiple times once for each requirement.
Savefeatures (and requirements) list views
To save the view,click the Views dropdown on the upper right of the page and selectSave view. When you save a view, you will have the option to name the saved view, choose who you wish to share your saved view with, and select if others can edit the view. Saved views are then accessible in the Saved views tab within theViews dropdown.
Publish features (and requirements) list views
You should always save your list prior to publishing in an Aha! presentation. This ensures you can access the list and edit it in the future without having to also change what page is referenced in your presentation.
Once you have a useful view, you can share it with your internal or external stakeholders through a presentation or save it for future working sessions.To share your list, select theMore options buttonandadd it to a new or existing presentation.
Exportfeatures (and requirements) list views
In addition to presentations, users have four other options for exporting theirFeature > List:
Export to CSV
Export to Excel
Save as image
Save as PDF
To export the list in any of these formats, click the More optionsbutton located in the upper right of the screen. Exporting to a CSV or Excel file can be useful when you need to work offline (you can to update data later). The image and PDF export options are useful if you wish to publish the content elsewhere, such as a PowerPoint document or an internal wiki.
View ArticleThe Aha! dependency report allows you to see how work is related by visualizing complex product relationships in a single, customizable view. This is separate from the dependency map, which allows visualization of dependencies for a single record. The dependency report allows you to view dependencies for multiple objects at once, such as viewing all of the dependencies for every feature within your upcoming release.
How it works
Navigate toRoadmaps > Dependency to access the dependency report. Upon accessing the report, you will be prompted to select the data you wish to visualize.
Primary record type:Allows the selection of the record type that contains dependencies you wish to visualize.
Dependency type:Allows filtering of the type of dependency that will be visualized.
Dependent record type: Allows the selection of the record type that will be visualized from dependencies to the parent record type.
There is also a product selection dropdown on this initial page which allows filtering the data to a specific product. By default, this will be selected for the product or product line you are navigated to when accessing the report.
After clickingCreate a report, the dependency report will be populated based on the data you selected. If your primary records contain dependencies to multiple different record types, such as other features as well as goals and initiatives, the record type selected as your Dependent record type will be listed out. All other dependent records will be summarized asOther records.
With your dependencies visualized, you can add additional data through theAdd column data button or add filters through theAdd column filter button. This is a great way to add information, such as the status or release data of dependent records, as well as filter the information to only include records related to a key upcoming effort.
Note: You can add data to the report for both primary and dependent records.
Once you have your perfect report created, do not forget to save the report by clicking theViews dropdown on the top-right of the page. You can then share the report with others through theMore options button located next to theViews dropdown.
View ArticleYou can use pie charts to visually show your product data andquickly assess the information presented. In this article, we use Ideas by status as an example. Outlined below is the three-step process to create a pie chart.
Create a chart
This article outlines the three-step process required to create a pie chart in Aha!
Step 1. Create a pivot report
To create a pie chart, you need to start by creating a new pivot report. This is where you select the data you want to display in the chart and format it in a way that will automatically convert to a pie chart.
1. SelectRoadmaps > Pivot
2. Click Add report.
3. In the Create a new pivot report window:
Click Create a custom pivot reportor
Select a report example from the list on the right.
Step 2. Choose data columns and filters
You can now choose the columns and filters to display in the pie chart.It is important to remember that all data displayed will be in relation to the first data table you add.
1. On the report page, click theAdd dataicon.
2. In the Select Data for Pivot table window, select the columns to display in the chart, and then click Done.
The Rows section must only contain one column containing a single row of data. If there is more than one column in that section, you will receive an error message when you convert the report to a pie chart.If there are multiple rows of data only the first row will be displayed in the pie chart.
Important: When you select the first column, future selections will change based on the first selection. This ensures that your table has valid data objects that can be pivoted against each other.Refer to creating a pivot chart for more details.
The values for the field displayed in the pivot cell columns (e.g., Idea status shown in the Columns area in the example below) will form the foundation of the slices in the pie chart.
The unique number of pivot cell values (e.g., Idea name shown in the Cells areas in the example below) represents the count for each pie slice.
Step 3. Convert pivot report to a pie chart
After you have the correct data represented in the pivot report, you can convert the report to a pie chart.
1. On the pivot report, click theChart data icon, and then click theCustomize view icon.
2. In the Chart Editor window, click on the Charts tab.
3. Select Pie, and then choose a layout.
4. Click OK.
If you want to customize the data that displays on the pie chart (such as title, percentages, colors, or fonts), see .
View ArticleColumn charts are two-dimensional charts that visualize your roadmap to let you easily compare data.
They are especially useful in situations where you want to:
display the number of features delivered per release.
present the number of ideas in each workflow status.
visualize how many features have been delivered against each product component each quarter.
Aha! presentation To learn how to create a column chart in Aha!, follow the three-step process below.
Step 1. Create a pivot report
The first step is to create a pivot report. This is where you select the data to display in the chart and format it in a way that automatically converts to a column chart.
On the main menu, select Roadmaps > Pivot.
Click Add report.
In the Create a new pivot report window, select:
Create a custom pivot report, or
choose a report example from the list on the right.
Step 2. Choose data columns and filters
Now, you can choose the columns and filters to display in the column chart. It is important to remember that all data displayed will be in relation to the first data table you add.
In the below example, ideas were added first. The product and feature tables were added second. This is visualized by them being indented beneath the idea table. This means any product or feature data displayed would be displayed in relation to ideas. If you choose to show feature names, for example, only features related to an idea would be displayed.
On the report page, clickAdd dataicon in the top-left corner.
In the Select Data for Pivot table window, click Add columns. Select the columns to display in the chart.
Select what you want to display in the chart:
The data in the Rows section determines the grouping of the cell value bars.
The data in the Columns section is used to group the cell data along the horizontal axis.
The data in the Cells section will be counted along the vertical axis.
Click Done.
If you want to add a filter:
Click theAdd filterbutton.
Select the filters, and then click Set filter.
Click Update report.
Step 3. Convert the report to a column chart
After you have selected your data, you can convert the report to a column chart and customize the formatting.
On the report page, click theChart data button, and then click theCustomize view button.
In the Chart Editor window, click on the Charts tab.
Select Column, and then choose a layout.
Click OK.
If you want to:
Customize the data that displays on the column chart (such as title, axis labels, colors, or fonts), see " Create a chart."
Save using theViewsdrop-down menu and selecting Save view.
Add to an using theMore optionsbutton.
View ArticleCharts are useful for showing patterns in the data. Line, bar, and pie charts show two dimensions of data. When you need to see more information on a chart, consider using a bubble chart, which allows you to display as manyas four dimensions of data. In addition to the x and y-axis, the size of the bubble represents a third dimension and the color of the bubble can be used to represent a fourth dimension.
How it works
Bubble charts are an ideal way to display records in Aha!, such as ideas or features, weighted by their score values. With the bubble chart, you can create a matrix view that displays records with higher scores as larger bubbles and records with lower scores as smaller bubbles.
Creating a bubble chart starts from the Roadmaps > List page. This is where you select the data you wish to display in the chart and format it in a way that will automatically translate into a bubble chart.
In this example, a simple bubble chart is being created from ideas using the idea name, effort score, value score, idea status, and total idea score values.
The columns for your list report need to be in this order to transfer to the bubble chart correctly:
Variable Name
x-axis value
y-axis value
Color of the bubble
Size of the bubble
Idea 1
Effort score
Impact score
In Design
Total score
Idea 2
Effort score
Impact score
Ready to Develop
Total score
Choose your data columns and filters
From the Roadmaps > Listpage, click the Add data button on the upper left of the page. When adding data to any report, it is important to remember that all data displayed will be in relation to the primary record selected.
In the below example, ideas were selected as the primary record. The product and feature tables were added later. This is visualized by them being indented beneath the idea table. This means any product or feature data displayed would be displayed in relation to ideas. If you select to show feature names, for example, only features related to an idea would be displayed.
Aha! presentations
Add filters as necessary through theAdd filter button. A common filter when creating a bubble chart would be to filter by product name to ensure the data is from one specific product and also to potentially filter the score value. In this example, idea scores were filtered to only display ideas with a score greater than 1.
Organize and sort the data
After adding all of the data columns that you want to display to the list report, organize the columns so that they are in the correct order for translating into the bubble chart. You can reorder the columns by clicking on the column name and then dragging it left or right.
The required fixed order of your columns for then converting into a bubble chart should be the variable name, x-axis value, y-axis value, color of bubble value, and size of bubble value.
Convert to the bubble chart
After you have organized your data, click the Chart databutton to transition the data over to the Roadmaps > Chart. This will allow you to select the bubble chartandcustomize the formatting.
The size of your bubbles will be automatically generated based on the values in the fifth column of your Roadmaps > List page. You may customize the labels for your chart and the colors of the bubbles by selecting the Customize option.
With your bubble chart type selected and customizations completed, you can click OK, save the view, and share it with your team through .
View ArticleThe Roadmaps > Pivot view is an incredibly powerful tool for taking all of the data in Aha! and creating reports for in-depth analysis of your roadmap. Similar totheRoadmaps> List view, the pivot view allows you to manipulate data from the over 100 different data objects stored in Aha! and then organize it in a customizable pivot table.
How tocreate a pivot table
The easiest way to start with apivot table for the first time is to select from one of our available example reports. The example reports contain a full list of commonly used reports and give even experienced pivot table users a great starting point for creating their own custom report.
If you already have an idea of what you would like to analyze on the pivot table, follow these steps to create your own custom pivot table report from scratch.
Choose your data columns and filters
1. Click on Add report, which is located at the top left of the page, and select Create a custom pivot report. This will take you straight to a view where you can select the data you wish to include in your pivot. After you select your first record, future options of selectable data will change based on that first selection.Note: When you select a record type, Aha! will automatically create a column that includes the record's name. This ensures that you are putting together a table with valid data objects that can be pivoted against each other.
The first data selection also defines the relationship for future data added to your table. In the example below, feature record fields were added first and then related release record fields. You can see this because the releases option is indented under the features option.
This is very important because it means any release data visualized on the table will be in the context of features. If a release has no features, it will not be shown. For more details on how this works, please refer to the advanced document on understanding data selections.
publishing in a presentation
2. Once you have selected your first data object, you can chooseto place the data in the column, rows, or cells of your pivot table.
3. Add additional data andselect how the table should aggregate the data in the Cells field.
4. Quantify report rollupsthroughcalculations across rows and down columns with the Calculate option. Functions include sum value, average, minimum, and maximum, and the list of available functions will vary based on the data you select for the table.
5. Sort by row, column, or cellvalues in the report by clicking the Sort databutton. You cansort by every value in the pivot table. Drag and drop when multiple values are present to choose which sort should supersede the others.
6.Once you have the data, calculations, and sorting order you like, clickDone to create the report.
7. Add filters as necessary. The Add filter button will display filters that are available based on the data you selected when you constructed your pivot table.
A common choice is to filter by Release name if you wish to only display data for specific releases. Filters are searchable to allow you to find specific details without scrolling through long lists. By default, a Product nameor Workspace namefilter is automatically appliedbased on the workspace that you have selected in your hierarchy. You can addother data by modifying the filter.
7)After setting your filters, click the Update table button that appears to update what is displayed.
Customize the report
You can use your mouse to customize the column width of your pivot table by clicking on the border between columns and dragging to the width you prefer. For other customizations, use theCustomize viewbutton.
TheCustomize viewbutton provides options to customize thetheme, formatting, and color layout of the pivot table report.
Theme: The different themes change the visual layout of the table and enable different sets of colors to be used when colorizing data on the table.
Color by:This allows you to select which data objectsto color based on the data available in your table. You can then customize the colors based on the color palette available for your theme. Assigned colors for initiatives, goals, and workflow status will default to selected colors assigned during their set up.
Show row headers + Show column headers: Toggles the display of optional headings for your columns or rows. The headings will display what the data type is in the column or row fields of your pivot table.
Show cell headers: This shows cell headers and enables calculations total, average, minimum, maximum, count within individual cells on rows and columns.
Use swimlanes for first row headers:This option will place the heading for the first data object inRows as the header across the top of the data. This is useful if the table is too long and you wish to make it easier to read. You can also just move the column to the Column target.
Allow table cells to wrap:This wraps text to help limit the width of cells when displaying large amounts of information, such as the full descriptions of features.
Chart your data
After you have organized and customized your pivot report, select the Chart databutton to create beautiful visualizations and charts of the report that you have just created.
Savepivot views
To save the view,click theViews button on the upper right corner of the page and select Save view. When you save a view, you will have the option to name the saved view, choose who you wish to share your saved view with, and select if others can edit the view. Saved views are then accessible within theViews menu under theSaved views section.
Publish pivot tables
You should always save your list prior to . This ensures that you can access the pivot table and edit it in the future without having to also change what page is referenced in your presentation.
Once you are happy with your pivot table, you can share it with your internal or external stakeholders through an Aha! presentation or save it for future working sessions.To share your pivot table, simply click on theMore options buttonandadd the report to a new or existing presentation.
Exportpivot tables
In addition to presentations, users have four other options for exporting their pivot tables.
Export to Excel
Save as image
Save as PDF
To export the pivot table in any of these formats, simply click the More optionsbutton located on the upper right of the screen. The Export to Excel option is particularly powerful as it allows Aha! users to export the entire pivot table in Excelwithout losing any of the table formatting. This is perfect for when you need to combine information from multiple systems or use an advanced formula.
View ArticleTheRoadmaps > Listpage is your go-to tool for creating custom list reports in Aha! using any combination of over 100 different data objects. With the list report, you can add column headers for every data object, then filter and sort the data to present different perspectives on your Aha! environment.
Click any of the following links to skip ahead:
How tocreate a list report
Choose your data columns and filters
Customize your report
Chart your data
Update your data
Save list views
Share your list report
How tocreate a list report
The easiest way to start working with lists is to select from one of our example reports located on theRoadmaps > Listpage. To access the example reports, click the More optionsbutton, then select Related views. The list of example reports includes our most commonly used reports, which can be a great starting point for creating your owncustom report.
If you already have an idea of what you would like to report on, follow these steps to create your own custom report from scratch.
Navigate toRoadmaps > List.
ClickCreate a new report.
ClickCreate a custom list report.
Select yourPrimary record type. The Aha! record type you select here will determine the structure of the report. For example, if you selectIdeas, all other data in the report is added as related records to ideas.
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Choose your data columns and filters
Click on theAdd dataicon on the toolbar to add additional data columns to your report. The record name is automatically added for each level that's added to the report.
Add filters as necessary by clicking the Add filter icon on the toolbar. If you are looking to only display data for a specific workspace in your account, try setting up a filter with the option Filter by Workspace. Filters are searchable to allow you to find specific details without scrolling through long lists. You can also filter columns by blank (or not blank) values, or use advanced filters to apply logical strings to your filters.
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Customize your report
After adding all of the data columns to the list table that you want to display, you canreorganize the columns, sort the data within the columns, and rename the column headers.
To sort your data by a specific column, hover on the column header and click the More details button. Then, select from one of the sort options in the dropdown. You can also sort multiple columns by clicking theSort data icon in the top-left of the report. This will allow you to sort columns based on multiple values, such as alphabetically by record status and record name.
List reports can be customized further in the following ways:
To reorganize the columns, click on the column header and drag it to the desired location on your report.
To change the name of your column headers, select the text within the column header to begin editing the name.
To modify the width of a column, drag the edge of the column header to the desired size.
To add a column, delete a column, or add a calculation column, hover on the column header, choose the More details button, then select an action.
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Chart your data
After you have organized your data,navigate to Roadmaps > Chartsto create beautiful visualizations and charts from the report you just created.
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Update your data
You can make updates to your data directly in a list report by clicking the record name you wish to edit.The detail drawer will expandmaking it easy to edit a record in the context of your report. After making your changes, simplyrefresh the page to see your changes in the list report.
When you have more than a handful of records to update, it is better to bulk edit them.
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Save list views
To save your current view,click theViewsdropdownon the top right corner of the page and selectSave view. When you save a view, you will have the option to name it, choose who you wish to share your saved view with, and select if others can edit the view. The Views dropdown lets you access any view you have ever saved.
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Share your list report
With your list report completed, you can easily share it with your stakeholders by selecting one of theexport optionsunder theMore optionsbutton on the top right of the screen.
To fold your report into a presentation, selectAdd to presentation. In your presentation you can select the report's update frequency.
To invite people outside of your Aha! account to view your report, select Share as webpage.
To export your report for further analysis, selectExport to ExcelorExport to CSV. You can import from CSV to update data later.
For a static version of your report, selectSave as imageorSave as PDF.
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View ArticleTo make your life easier, Aha! generates related views for almost every view. These related views help youinstantly generate roadmaps, reports, and charts related to the data you are currently viewing right from the Views dropdown in Aha!
You can also get started quickly with example reports, available to you when you click Add report. These example reportsarea great way to start building a report, so you don't have to do it from scratch. There are hundreds of reports you can create with the data available to you, and it always starts with asking, "What question or request do Iwant to answer?"
For this article, we will use this example scenario. Let's pretend you want to seeeach product release with all the features with status, score, assignee, and remaining estimates.
In this case, you need a report that:
Includes feature assignee.
Includes featurestatus.
Includes feature score.
Shows how much work remains for each feature.
Is organized by product and release.
At its heart, the main data is all about features. Remember that for later. Next, you will determine which report type you want and how to add the data.
1. Determine the type of report you wish to create. For this scenario, the best fit is probably a list, pivot, or chart report.
If you know the specific report type you wish to create, start on that page. If you are not sure, we recommend starting with a list report. This will let you add the required columns and validate that you have the base data required to answer the posed question(s) for the report. As you work on building your report, the data columns that you are adding are simultaneously available across all three report types. This means that you can start with a list report and then click on Roadmaps > Pivotor Roadmaps > Chartto create a pivot report using the same data.
2. Select the base tablefor the report.
You determine that the report will ultimately contain data columns from the feature, release, and product tables. In referencing the data model, the feature table is the lowest-level table in the hierarchy, so that is where to start.
At this point, you can check theRelated views, or example list tables, to see if there is a good match to help get you started. To do this, click to Views dropdown and select Related views. Click the Add reportbutton on the top-left side of the page to see that there is an example called List table: Feature status let'sstart with that.
Save your views
3.Add additional data columns.
Four of the list report's standard columns Product name, Release name, Feature name, and Feature status give you four out of the seven data columns you need to fulfill the report request. The additional data columns required are Feature score, Feature assigned to and Feature remaining effort. These are all feature data columns so you find them in the feature table.
Click on the Add databutton in the top left of the report or the +button at the right side of the report's columns to display the Add data to report modal. From there,select the additional required columns, then click on the blue Save button.
Create a Pivot report using the same data
For senior level stakeholders, you want a morevisually appealing Pivot table view. Click on Roadmaps > Pivot to use the data columns from your List view. All that remains is making a few modifications as to which data columns to include and how to organize them.
1. Click on the Add databutton to modify the content and layout.
The Select Data window allows you to perform three primary functions:
Add new data columns to your report by clicking on the Add columns button.
Organize your data columns into pivot table columns, rows, and cells. Data columns placed in the Columns target are displayed across the top of the tableserving as column headers. Data columns placed in the Rows target are displayed on the left of the table serving as row headers. Data columns placed in the Cells targetare the values featured in the report grid.
Aggregate bydetermines how the cell data is aggregated.
2. Drag each data column to Rows, Columns or Cells to populate those targets.
Any remaining columns will not show in the pivot table report, but can be useful when customizing the report theme and colors.
3. Provide count summaries for assigned features per user, if desired, by choosing Summarize bythenCount under Calculate.
4. Click Done and your report appears.
With your report created, you can clickCustomize view to customize aspects of the report, such as coloring the records as displayed in the report below.
Sort on cell values
In both the List and Pivot views, you have the added benefit of being able to sort your data columns usingthe Sortbutton to sort on single or multiple cell values in either ascending or descending order. In list reports, use the column header to sort the data. In pivot reports, click Add data, then the appropriate sort button.
The primary sort for this report is on the feature status field and the secondary sort is by feature score.
Create a Custom roadmapusing the same data
The Custom roadmap view allows you to create a custom roadmapfor viewing deliverables on an intuitive timescale. Use it to create roadmapson any Aha! data objects that are time-based, such as initiatives, releases, features, and custom fields. Click on Roadmaps > Customto use the data columns from your listand pivot views as your starting point.
Customize the reporttheme and colors
Both Pivot and Timeline report views can be customized by clicking on the Customize viewbutton on the upper right side of the page.
Addfilters
To filter your list report by one of the data or calculation columns that you added earlier, click theMore options button on the column to filter by that column.
Otherwise, click on theAdd filter button to add filters for your report. This window is organized in a similar fashion to the Add datawindow. Filters make it easy to switch report content on the fly by changing products, releases, etc. andare searchable to allow you tofind specific detailswithout scrolling through long lists.
Save the view for re-use
to easily answercommonly asked questions, standardize roadmap communication and save yourself valuable time in the process.
View Article
