Getting started with Productboard teamspaces

Whether your organization consists of 50 people or 5000, chances are it’s made up of various teams, all working on their products, tasks, projects, and goals.

With all that data living side by side in the shared workspace, you need a clear path to the content you use daily. Product leaders have to make sure everyone on their team is on track and can find what they need to get work done.

Teamspaces enable you to organize your entire product organization in one workspace. With teamspaces, everyone has easy access to all the information that’s relevant to their work and can customize the Productboard main menu to reflect their role and priorities.

In this article: 

• Joining teamspaces
  • Teamspace types
• Creating teamspaces
• Editing teamspaces
• Organizing boards within teamspaces
  • Creating new boards and folders
  • Moving boards and folders
  • Teamspace hubs
  • Board shortcuts
• Leaving, archiving, and deleting teamspaces
• See also:

Joining teamspaces

Every Productboard workspace has a default teamspace which all new members are added to automatically upon activation. This default teamspace is usually called "General" (unless someone's changed its name).  

You'll also get added to a teamspace automatically if you're on a team that gets added to a teamspace.

To join a teamspace manually:

1. In the Main menu, under Home, hover over the Teamspaces section header and click All Teamspaces.
   
   
   
   
2. You'll see a list of teamspaces. Click the Join button on a teamspace to join it. If it's an Open teamspace, you can click on its name to open its hub and look at its boards to help you decide if you should join.
   
   
   

Teamspace types

Most teamspaces are Open, meaning you can see them and look at their boards even if you haven't joined them.

Closed teamspaces are visible to you, but you can't view their boards until your request to join is approved by the teamspace's owner or you're invited to join by that owner.

Private teamspaces are completely hidden—you can't tell they exist unless you create one yourself or you get an invite to join one. 

Note: Generally, only grids, timelines, columns boards, and documents can be placed in Closed or Private teamspaces. Features boards and roadmaps cannot be created in or moved to a Closed or Private teamspace. 

See New board sharing: Teamspace types and member access levels for details.

Creating teamspaces

Note: Customers on the Starter and Essentials plan can create 1 teamspace, Pro plan customers can create 3, and there are unlimited teamspaces available on Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans. 

Admins and makers can create teamspaces. To do so: 

1. In the Main menu, under Home, hover over the Teamspaces section header and click Create a new teamspace. 
   
   
   
   
2. Give your teamspace a name and description, and change the color of the teamspace icon if you like.
3. Choose the teamspace type, if applicable.
4. Click Next.
   
   
   
   
5. Add members or entire teams of members to the teamspace. (You can always add them later by editing the teamspace's settings.)
6. Click Create. 
   
   
   

Restricting teamspace creation to admins

As an admin, you may want to keep your workspace tidy by keeping your makers from creating unnecessary teamspaces. 

To restrict teamspace creation:

1. As an admin, from the bottom of the Main menu, click Settings.
2. Under the Teamspaces section, toggle on Teamspace creation for admins only.
   
   

Editing teamspace settings

To edit a teamspace's settings:

1. In the Main menu, under Home, hover over over a teamspace and click ••• More actions.
   
   
   
   
2. Select Teamspace settings to edit the teamspace's name, icon, or description. 
3. Select Teamspace members to add other users to the teamspace or adjust their member access level.

Admins have full access to edit all existing teamspaces. They can rename teamspaces (including the default teamspace), update their descriptions, archive active teamspaces, and delete archived teamspaces.

Makers will only be able to edit a teamspace if they are also that teamspace's owner. A maker is automatically made the owner of any teamspace they create. Admins can also assign or reassign teamspace ownership as needed.

Organizing boards within teamspaces

If you have multiple product teams, your Productboard workspace may contain hundreds of boards. You can organize your boards into a hierarchy using folders. Folders will help users navigate information within a teamspace and find what they need. Folders are also helpful for grouping boards together by theme or topic.

Creating new boards and folders

1. Hover over a teamspace or folder.
2. Click the + Create a new board or folder button to the right of the teamspace or folder title.
   
   
   
   
3. From the dropdown, select Folder or the type of board you want to create.
4. Give the board or folder a name.

Note: Some boards inherit access permissions from their parent teamspace. See New board sharing: Teamspace types and member access levels for details.

Moving boards and folders

You can move boards within a teamspace or between teamspaces. You can do this individually by dragging a board and dropping it into the desired teamspace or folder. You can also use the Move to option available from the board's ••• More actions menu.

Moving multiple boards at once

You can move multiple boards at once by moving the entire folder to which they belong. If a folder contains a board that isn't shared with you, it may restrict your ability to move that folder.

Teamspace hubs

Click directly on a teamspace or folder to open its hub page. From here, you can explore its boards, product associations, teamspace-specific settings, and membership. You can even share a direct link (••• More actions > Copy link) to help your colleagues find it.

If you have the right permissions, you can create new boards or folders from within a hub using the Create button. Admins can also access and edit teamspace settings from the Settings submenu. 

Consider the following when looking to make the most out of hubs:

• Onboarding simplified: Lead your new team members to a central hub where they can view all relevant boards, ensuring a smooth transition into the team.
• Cross-team visibility: Explore workspaces across teams without joining them, providing context and understanding of company-wide projects.
• Effortless sharing: Promote resource accessibility by sharing links to entire folders full of boards.
• Efficient navigation: Breadcrumbs have been introduced for seamless navigation through the system's hierarchy. You can easily track your current location and access respective pages for each item in the path.
• Direct access: Navigate to a teamspace hub directly from the All teamspaces page by clicking on an individual teamspace card.

Board shortcuts

Board shortcuts allow you to access the same board from multiple places in your teamspace hierarchy.

Creating a board shortcut:

1. Open the ••• More actions menu of any board.
2. Click Add shortcut to.
   
   
   
   
3. Choose the teamspace or folder where the new shortcut should be located. You can only select from teamspaces you've joined. 
4. Click Add.
   
   

Accessing boards through shortcuts: When you click on a shortcut, the linked board will open as if you'd accessed it from its original location. You can identify whether you're using a shortcut or the original board by looking at the icon—an arrow in the bottom right corner means it's a shortcut.

Adding shortcuts to multiple teamspaces: You can add the same board to multiple locations by following the process above.

Managing existing shortcuts: You can move or delete a shortcut from its ••• More actions menu.

Note: If you find you're creating a lot of shortcuts for one board because many people need to access it, consider deleting those shortcuts and moving the board itself to a more publicly accessible teamspace like General. This can help keep your teamspaces clutter-free.

Leaving, archiving, and deleting teamspaces

Leaving a teamspace

To leave a teamspace: 

1. In the Main menu, under Home, hover over the Teamspaces section header and click All Teamspaces.
2. Find the teamspace you want to leave and click Leave.
3. The teamspace will be removed from your main menu list.
   

Alternatively, you can select Leave from the teamspace's ••• More actions menu.

Note: Teamspace owners will have to transfer ownership of the teamspace before leaving the teamspace. If you were added to a teamspace as part of a team, you won't be able to leave the teamspace.

Archiving a teamspace

Archived teamspaces will be removed from the main menu for all users. Boards that are located within an archived teamspace will still be available via search or direct link.

Note: The default teamspace can't be archived. 

Admins and teamspace owners can archive a teamspace like so: 

1. In the Main menu, under Home, hover over the Teamspaces section header and click All Teamspaces.
2. Hover over the teamspace you want to archive and open the More actions menu.
3. Click Archive.
   
   

To restore archived teamspaces from the All teamspaces page:

1. Click the Archived button to reveal all archived teamspaces.
   
   
   
   
2. Each archived teamspace has an Archived button. When you hover over it, it changes to Unarchive. Click that.
   
   

Deleting a teamspace

A teamspace must be archived before it can be deleted. Admins and teamspace owners can delete an archived teamspace like so:

1. From the All teamspaces page, in the Archived section, open the ••• More actions menu of any teamspace.
2. Choose the Delete option.
   
   

See also:

• Navigating Productboard
• Hubs for teamspaces and folders
• Productboard teamspaces best practices
• Teamspace types and member access levels