Getting familiar with Productboard's default fields

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Welcome to our guide on navigating Productboard’s default fields! In the dynamic realm of product management, mastering the art of organizing and understanding your data is paramount. Productboard's default fields are the foundation upon which your product-related information is structured.

Whether you're a seasoned product manager or just starting your journey, understanding these fields and their best practices can significantly enhance your workflow efficiency.

In this article:

Relevant to both new and legacy boards

Customer Importance Score / User Impact Score 

The Customer Importance Score quantifies the potential impact of a product idea or feature by evaluating the number of users it will benefit or affect, and weighted by how important it is to them. It provides a numerical representation of the idea's relevance and significance to users, helping product managers prioritize initiatives that align with customer needs and preferences.

The higher the Customer Importance Score, the more substantial the positive effect the idea can have on the user base, guiding teams in making data-driven decisions to enhance user satisfaction and product success.

Note: Customer Importance Score used to be known as User Impact Score, and still appears as such on older board types. The two are functionally identical.

For more information, see Use the Customer Importance Score to surface your top-requested features.

Opportunity Value

Relevant to Legacy boards only

Prioritize with Opportunity value. Understand the impact associated with features. Import opportunities from Salesforce to enable the "Opportunity value" column.

With the Opportunity value column toggled on, you will be able to answer questions like:

  • What is the $$$ opportunity value behind individual feature ideas?
  • How much revenue have we lost due to a specific product gap?
  • What are the feature candidates which are contributing the most to lost opportunities?

For more information, see How to import Salesforce opportunities to Productboard as notes.

Effort

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Effort field quantifies the resources, time, and complexity of implementing a specific product idea or feature. It allows teams to assess the feasibility of an idea and make informed decisions based on the effort required for execution. Product managers can prioritize tasks effectively by assigning effort estimates, and balancing high-impact ideas with manageable workloads.

This field aids in resource allocation, ensuring that teams focus on initiatives that align with their capacity and expertise, leading to efficient project planning and successful product development.

For more information, see How does the Effort Field work?

Timeframe

The Timeframe field lets teams specify the planned duration or deadline for implementing a product idea or feature. It helps set clear project timelines, allowing teams to prioritize tasks and plan their work efficiently. Product managers can align development efforts with business goals and customer expectations by assigning specific timeframes to ideas.

This field provides a structured approach to product management, ensuring that tasks are completed within the desired timeframe and facilitating timely product launches, updates, and enhancements, enhancing overall productivity and customer satisfaction.

Health

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Health field assesses the current state or progress of a product idea or feature. It provides a quick snapshot of its status, indicating whether it's on track, at risk, or needs attention. Teams can use this field to gauge the overall health of their projects, identify potential bottlenecks, and prioritize tasks accordingly.

By regularly updating the Health field, product managers can ensure that projects are continuously monitored, and necessary actions are taken to maintain or improve their status. This helps in proactive issue resolution, efficient resource allocation, and successful project outcomes.

For more information, see Providing health updates for your features

Owner

The Owner field designates a specific team member who is responsible for overseeing and driving the progress of a particular product idea or feature. This field helps establish clear accountability within the team, ensuring that every aspect of the idea's development is managed efficiently. The owner takes charge of communication, decision-making, and coordination, streamlining the workflow and ensuring that tasks are completed in a timely manner.

By assigning owners to ideas, Productboard facilitates effective collaboration, encourages an ownership mentality, and enhances overall team productivity and project management.

Hierarchy

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Hierarchy field allows users to establish a structured relationship between different product ideas, features, or subfeatures. It enables teams to define parent-child connections, outlining how smaller tasks contribute to larger projects. This field is invaluable for organizing complex product structures, breaking them down into manageable components, and understanding their interdependencies.

By using the Hierarchy field, teams can visualize the big picture while managing the details effectively. It aids in clear project planning, facilitates better communication among team members, and enhances overall project efficiency and clarity.

Portals

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Portals field refers to a feature that allows users to create customized portal cards for features or spaces tailored for specific stakeholders, such as customers, internal teams, or partners. These portal cards serve as dedicated platforms where stakeholders can view, provide feedback, and engage with the product-related information relevant to them.

For instance, customers can access product updates, FAQs, and submit feature requests through a customer portal. Internal teams might collaborate on product development details within a separate portal.

Organizations can use the Portals field to enhance stakeholder engagement, gather valuable insights, and maintain transparent communication channels. It ensures that different groups can access the information they need, fostering collaboration, improving customer satisfaction, and streamlining product management processes.

For more information, see Use the Portal to share your plans and collect feedback at scale.

Teams

The Teams field allows users to categorize and assign specific product ideas, features, or tasks to different teams within an organization. By utilizing this field, teams can clearly define which department or group is responsible for implementing or overseeing a particular item.

This categorization streamlines communication, ensuring the right team members are involved in relevant discussions and decision-making processes. It fosters collaboration by creating a structured approach to team assignments, enabling efficient delegation of tasks, and facilitating teamwork.

Additionally, it enhances accountability, as team ownership and responsibilities are clearly defined, leading to improved coordination, productivity, and successful project outcomes.

For more information, see Enable advanced team collaboration.

Dependencies

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Dependencies field allows users to specify relationships between different product ideas, features, or subfeatures. This field is crucial for indicating dependencies, such as one task relying on the completion of another before it can begin.

By utilizing this feature, teams can visualize the order in which tasks should be tackled, ensuring that prerequisites are met before moving forward. It aids in effective project planning, preventing bottlenecks, and smooth workflow transitions.

Identifying dependencies in Productboard fosters clarity, enabling teams to make informed decisions and prioritize work based on the interconnections between tasks, optimizing productivity and project timelines.

For more information, see Track feature dependencies to mitigate risks.

Reach

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Reach field quantifies the potential impact of a product idea by assessing the number of users or customers it can benefit. It provides a numerical representation of the idea's relevance and significance, guiding product managers in prioritizing features that align with a larger user base.

By understanding the reach of an idea, teams can focus on initiatives that cater to a broader audience, ensuring that resources are allocated to projects that have the most significant impact on user satisfaction and business growth.

This field facilitates data-driven decision-making, allowing teams to create products that resonate with a wide audience, enhance user experience, and drive overall product success.

For more information, see Use the RICE score formula to decide what to build next.

Impact

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Impact field quantifies the potential effect of a specific product idea or feature on the organization, customers, or business objectives. It provides a numerical representation of the idea's significance, helping product managers prioritize initiatives that align with strategic goals.

By understanding the impact of an idea, teams can allocate resources and efforts effectively, focusing on high-impact features that drive customer satisfaction, revenue, or other key performance indicators. This field facilitates data-driven decision-making, ensuring that product development efforts are directed toward projects that can make a substantial difference.

It aids in aligning the product roadmap with the overall business strategy, enhancing the chances of creating successful and meaningful products for the company and its users.

For more information, see Use the RICE score formula to decide what to build next.

Confidence

Relevant to Legacy boards only

The Confidence field measures the certainty level associated with a specific product idea or feature. It allows teams to express their confidence in the accuracy of the information provided, the feasibility of implementation, or the relevance to user needs.

By assigning a confidence rating, product managers can prioritize ideas with higher certainty, ensuring that decisions are based on well-founded data and insights. This field is invaluable for teams to focus on ideas that are well-researched, validated, and aligned with the overall product strategy.

It aids in risk assessment, enabling teams to identify and address potential challenges early in development, leading to more successful outcomes and a streamlined product roadmap.

For more information, see Use the RICE score formula to decide what to build next.

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