BETA: Getting started with Productboard’s Initiatives

Note: This feature is currently available for invited participants in our private beta.

We are introducing the Initiatives item in Productboard. Initiatives connect strategy to tactical execution and help prioritize work. This new item in Productboard enables product teams with a holistic view of how the team's efforts contribute to the overall goals of the organization and help get alignment with stakeholders by providing the right level of transparency into their team’s work.

We also introduce two new boards, the Timeline and the Prioritization boards. Since Initiatives provide the right level of granularity for your stakeholders, you can share the new Timeline board with them showing Initiatives in time. And with the new Prioritization board, you can easily visualize and manage the connection between Initiatives and Objectives, so the team can connect the dots between their work and the high-level strategy.

Note: At this stage, Initiatives are only available on the new Prioritization and Timeline boards, and it’s not displayed on the Features board and Roadmap. Our goal is to improve the Prioritization and Timeline boards further so they will support every functionality of the Features board and Roadmap.

In this article:

• Creating a new Initiative
• Archiving Initiatives
• Creating a new Timeline board for Initiatives
• Creating a new Prioritization board for Initiatives
• Advanced Filtering
• FAQ's

Creating a new Initiative

Let’s get started with creating a new Initiative!

1. Select Initiatives from the left panel’s Data section.

   

2. Click the Create button and edit the new Initiative’s name and description on the sidebar.

   

3. Click the Timeframe field on the sidebar to set a high-level or specific timeframe for the Initiative.
   

4. Click the avatar on the bottom left corner of the sidebar to change the owner of the Initiative.

   

5. Click the dropdown menu on the bottom right corner of the sidebar to set the status of the Initiative.

   

6. You can assign multiple Features and Objectives to the Initiative with the plus button next to their section.
   

Archiving Initiatives

If you don’t need an Initiative anymore, you can archive it.

1. Click the Context menu () next to the Initiative’s name on the sidebar.

   

2. Select Archive.

3. If you accidentally archived an Initiative, you can always Unarchive it with a link on the Initiative’s panel or from the context menu.

   

Creating a new Timeline board for Initiatives

You can display Initiatives in time and dig into the relationship to their features on the new Timeline board. While you see the full picture and how it’s affecting other Initiative’s timelines, you can adjust the Initiative’s timeframe and drag and drop them on the board.

1. Click on the plus button (+) on the left panel next to a Teamspace or your Personal space, or Folders within either.

   

2. Select the Timeline board menu item and all Initiatives that have a timeframe get auto-populated to the roadmap.

   

3. Rename your board by clicking on the board’s name or clicking the context menu in the top right corner and selecting the Rename option.

   

4. Add new initiatives to the board by clicking on the plus button on the board’s empty places. Those can be already existing Initiatives without timeframe or you can even create new ones from there.

   Note: if you add an item on a filtered board and that item gets filtered out, it will disappear from the board, and an “Initiative has been created but filtered out” alert will appear. You either have to change the filters or the item’s field.

   

5. Drag and drop items on the board or adjust their length to modify the timeframe.

6. Visualize Features on the Timeline board by clicking on the item dropdown and toggling Features on.

   

7. Click on the arrow icon on the Initiative to collapse or expand initiatives with underlying features.

8. Click on the context menu () on the Initiative and select the Add feature menu item to add new features or existing ones.

   Note: if the features don’t match the board filters, an alert gets displayed - you either have to change the filters or the feature field.

   

Creating a new Prioritization board for Initiatives

You can display a list of Initiatives and their Features on the new Prioritization board and adjust their relationships to Objectives through the board’s columns.

1. Click on the plus button (+) on the left panel next to a Teamspace or your Personal space or Folders within either.

   

2. Select the Prioritization board menu item and Productboard creates a new pre-populated Prioritization board with Initiatives.

   

3. Visualize Features on the Prioritization board by clicking on the item picker and toggling Features on.

   

4. Click on the plus button (+) on the Initiative to add new features or existing ones.

   Note: if the features don’t match the board filters, an alert gets displayed - you either have to change the filters or the feature field.

   

5. Click on the button on the top of the grid’s header to add new columns to the board.

   

6. Select the Default fields item if you would like to add the Timeframe or Owner column.

   

   

7. Select the Objectives item if you would like to add Objectives columns.

   

8. Click in the Objective column’s cell to add and remove Objectives to Initiatives and Features.

9. Click the Create initiative button at the bottom of the list to create a new Initiative inline.

   

Note: if you add an item on a filtered board and that item gets filtered out, it will disappear from the board, and an “Initiative has been created but filtered out” alert will appear. You either have to change the filters or the item’s field.

Advanced Filtering

When you create a new Prioritization or Timeline board, Productboard pre-populates it with Initiatives and you don’t have to add them to the board individually. However, if you have a lot of Initiatives, the board can be overwhelming. That’s where the advanced filtering can help.

How to use new filters

The Initiative filter has status, owner, and timeframe capabilities.

1. Click on the Filter icon () on the header of the board.

2. Click on the Add filter button.

3. Set up the condition you want to filter for.

4. Click on the Add filter button again and combine more filtering conditions.

   

5. Click on the AND logical operator and switch it to OR between the conditions.

   

Filter by entity connections

Our filtering capability helps you narrow down results that you care about.

1. Choose what entity types you want to visualize in the Main item type and Show more items selection.

   

2. Then, use filters to narrow down your data set.

   

This is how the filter will narrow down your dataset:

• First, the filter applies to the Main item type (see image 1 below). In case the entity in the filter differs from the Main item type, it will still return results if there is a direct entity connection (see image 2 below).
• Then, if you’ve selected to display Show more items, it will show all the linked items (see image 1 below).
• And if the entity in the filter matches the one in Show more items, it will only display items that meet the filter's criteria (see image 2 below).

Image 1

Image 2

FAQ's

What are the limitations of the closed beta release?

• At this stage, Initiatives are only available on the new boards and cannot be displayed on the Features board and Roadmap.
• The newly created Timeline or Prioritization board is shared with everyone in the Teamspaces.
• Contributors cannot filter the views, they can only display which filters are applied.
• Each change to the Timeline or Prioritization board filter definition or item selection overwrites the board for everyone.
• Features and objective sidebars on the new boards don’t support all the fields that are available in the existing experience (e.g. Teams).
• If you make changes in the sidebar, you need to refresh the page. Similarly, the changes from other users are propagated to the board upon refresh.
• The new Prioritization and Timeline boards don’t support grouping.
• The Timeline board only supports flat list visualization of linked items.
• The Timeline board doesn’t support card attributes.
• The column support is limited on the Prioritization board compared to the Features board.
• The Objectives column can only add Features to Objectives, but cannot assign values (Must have, Should have, Nice to have).
• Drag and drop is not available on the Prioritization Board.
• The Prioritization board doesn’t support the matrix view.
• Jira or other developer integrations are not yet supported.
• Audit logs are not available for Initiatives but supported for the other Entities.

Can an initiative be linked to multiple objectives?

Yes, Initiatives can be in multiple objectives. Features can also be in multiple initiatives or objectives.