Designers are part of the product team, and Productboard is built to support the design side of shipping, not just the PM side. Spark, Productboard's AI agent, adds real-time spec collaboration and structured feedback to what Productboard already did for design work.
This article covers how designers get the most out of Productboard. It applies whether you're new to the platform or already collaborating with your PM inside it.
Note: Every workspace has access to Spark, but activation is up to your admins. Anything described below that references Spark requires it to be enabled on your workspace. See Activating Spark in your workspace for details.
In this article:
- Co-editing specs instead of waiting for a handoff
- Turning a spec into a clickable prototype
- Processing feedback without waiting on your PM
- Recruiting customers for research
- Tracking design system feedback
- See also
Co-editing specs instead of waiting for a handoff
Every initiative, feature, and subfeature has a Specification tab, which is a real-time collaborative editor. Your PM drafts and refines the spec there, often with Spark. You can open it while your PM is still writing and see their changes as they happen.
Use inline comments to weigh in on acceptance criteria or flag a design question directly on the section it applies to. You don't have to wait for a formal handoff meeting.
For the full walkthrough of writing, editing, and collaborating on specs, see Write product specifications with Spark.
Turning a spec into a clickable prototype
Your workspace may have a coding agent connected to Spark through MCP, such as Claude Cowork, Claude Code, or Cursor. If so, you can point it at a spec and ask it to build a clickable prototype. A working prototype is often easier to react to than a written spec.
This doesn't replace your design tools. It's a fast way to get a rough, testable version of an idea in front of stakeholders before investing in high-fidelity design.
For setup steps, see Connect a coding agent to Spark via MCP.
Processing feedback without waiting on your PM
Talk to your PM about becoming a contributor on feedback for the areas you own. Ask them to set up an insights automation so matching feedback lands directly in your queue. That way, you're not relying on someone to forward it to you.
If Spark is enabled on your workspace, feedback is already grouped into themes and findings before you look at it. You're triaging structured patterns instead of a raw inbox.
For more information, see Turn customer feedback into actionable insights, faster and at scale and Use insights automations to create triage rules. For the Spark-specific workflow, see Customer feedback management in Spark.
Recruiting customers for research
Use the Companies and Users boards to build a list of interview candidates without digging through spreadsheets. When you're working on a feature, review the feedback linked to it. Each item traces back to a real customer, so it doubles as a starting list for discovery or validation interviews.
Segment candidates by employee size, persona, plan, or whether they're a power user, using the filters on the board.
For more information, see Companies and Users boards: View and understand customer context. To filter by behavioral data, see the Mixpanel and Amplitude integrations.
Tracking design system feedback
Feedback on specific components, legibility, contrast, or in-app text can be linked directly to the part of your hierarchy that represents your design system. The FigJam integration makes it easier to route what comes out of a collaborative session back into that structure.
For more information, see Productboard and FigJam integration.