Grids are boards that excel at prioritization. They're similar to spreadsheets in that they involve rows and columns of data, but grids are specifically designed to help you visualize and manage the connections between your objectives, initiatives, and features so that you can prioritize your work according to your strategic plans.
In this article:
Creating a new grid
- From the Home submenu, hover on a teamspace or folder and click the + Create a new board or folder button which appears next to it. Select Grid from the menu.
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In Board controls, under Items, click Add items to choose the main item type of your grid. Your options here may differ by plan. Select:
- Objectives for high-level strategic planning.
- Initiatives to connect tactical execution to high-level strategy.
- Products or Components to focus on your product hierarchy.
- Features for tactical planning.
- Releases to plan horizons or milestones.
- (Optional) Select other item types to visualize under the main item type by clicking + Add items beneath the main item.
- Select filters if you want, then click Apply.
- Any items that match your selections and filters will be automatically populated on the board.
- You can rename your board at any time by clicking on the board’s name at the top of the screen or by clicking ••• More actions and selecting the Rename option.
Configuring a grid
Once you have chosen the items you would like to interact with, you may now apply additional configuration to the grid. This includes adding filters, the column selection and sorting.
Adding filters
Each board has its own filters, which you can set from the dedicated Filter button in the board's header, from the ••• More actions button at the top of any data column, or from the Board controls menu. See Simple filters to learn more about how these filters work.
Grouping items together
You can group items on a grid board to organize and analyze your work from different perspectives.
To set up groups:
- Open your Grid board.
- Select Board controls > Add grouping.
- Choose one or two attributes to group by.
Note: You can add up to two levels of grouping (for example, Status > Team).
You can drag and drop items within a group to change their order, or drag and drop between groups to change which group an item belongs to. If you drop an item into a secondary grouping level, its fields will update for both primary and secondary groups.
Items without a field value corresponding to any chosen group will appear in the Not assigned group at the end of the list.
Adding columns
You can add columns to a grid to better visualize and edit item data. To do so:
- Click the Add columns button in the board header to open the column sidebar, where you can choose from Default fields or other types of elements.
- Select an element type and switch the toggles beside any element you wish to display as a column. You can also search for a specific element using the Search field at the top of the sidebar.
- You can edit the data in a column by clicking on it. For example, you can click the circle in an objective column's cell to associate that row's item with that objective.
- To change the order of the columns, hover on the column header and click and drag it to a new position.
- To change the column width, hover over the dividing line between the column headers and drag left or right.
Consolidated columns
Some elements allow you to visualize all assigned values in a single column. This allows you to save space on your board without losing the ability to assign field values to items.
The elements which allow consolidated columns are:
- Releases
- Objectives
- Initiatives
To add a consolidated column:
- Click the Add columns button in the board header to open the column sidebar.
- Select one of the eligible elements listed previously.
- Click the toggle beside Assigned [element] to add the consolidated column to your board.
You can click on a cell in a consolidated column to add or remove elements from that row's item. For example, with the consolidated release column, you can add several releases at once without having to add each release as a separate column.
You can remove assigned values by clicking the cell, then clicking the Remove button that appears when you hover over a value in the cell.
Sorting columns
You can sort your grids according to certain data column types to better suit the board's workflow. Not all data column types can be used to sort.
To sort by the data in a grid column:
- Click the ••• More actions button in the column's header to access sorting options.
- You can apply an ascending or descending sort.
Sorting is applied on each level of the items in the board. In the below example, you can see that Initiatives are sorted by Impact first and then each of their features are sorted by Impact.
Adding items to a grid
There are two ways to add items to a grid, depending on whether you're adding a main item or an underlying item.
Main items
Click the + Create button at the bottom of the list to create a new main item inline.
Note: If a newly-added item doesn’t match your board’s filters, it will immediately disappear and you’ll see an alert pop up with options.
Underlying items
Hover on an item and click + Add item to create new underlying items.
Searching items on a grid
The search bar always lives in the top right corner. To search:
- Click on the search bar.
- Type in a keyword related to the name of an item.
- Click Search or press Enter/Return on your keyboard.
Results will be displayed below the search bar, separated by whether the results appear on the current board or not. In either case, you can click on an item from this dropdown menu to open that item's Details sidebar.
Tip: You can wrap your search terms in "double quotes" to search for exact phrases instead of individual keywords.