Document boards are designed to help you create, manage, and share essential documentation within Productboard instead of having to go to an external tool like Notion, Google Docs, or Confluence.
Document boards behave like other boards in that they live in teamspaces and are integrated with your workspace and product hierarchy, meaning you're able to embed items like features and insights in-line during a discussion or tag teammates in a comment to get their attention.
In this article:
- Creating new documents
- Editing documents
- Sharing documents
- Managing documents
- Document use cases and capabilities
- See also
Creating new documents
You can create a new document in the same two ways you can create most other types of boards.
From the main menu (on the left)
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Hover over a teamspace name and click + Create a new board or folder.
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Choose Document from the dropdown.
From a teamspace hub
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Click on a teamspace name to open its hub.
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Click Create in the top right corner.
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Choose Document from the dropdown.
Editing documents
All documents are called "Untitled document" when they're created. You can edit the title directly within the document or from the document's header at the top of the screen.
Blocks
Documents are based on blocks. Editing a block is like editing any text field—just click and type. An empty block looks like this:
Formatting blocks
At any time while editing a block, press / forward slash to open the Command menu. Selecting an option here will either change your current block's formatting or start a new block depending on your selection.
This menu includes headings, horizontal rules, tables, quotes, code blocks, to-dos, and lists (toggle, bullet, and numbered).
Highlight any text to reveal a contextual formatting bar, which allows you to apply basic formatting like italics, font color, or hyperlinks. You can also change the format of the block from here, or leave a comment in the right-hand margin.
Managing blocks
When you hover over a block, you'll see its handle appear in the left margin. You can click and drag the handle to move the block around in your document.
You can also click on the handle to access more block options like duplicate, change to (which lets you change an existing block's formatting as above), and delete.
Comments
Highlight a piece of text and select Comment from the formatting bar. You can then write a message related to your selection. When you press Enter/Return, your message will appear in the right-hand margin of your document for others to see.
You can click on a comment to reply to it. If you're the one who made the comment, you can click ••• More actions to edit it or delete the whole thread, or click Resolve to hide the comment from view.
Mentioning people or items
When you type "@" into a block or comment, the mention menu appears. As you continue to type, the mention menu will search for related elements related to your input. Hit enter to select the top option or click one of the other options to confirm the mention.
- If you mention a person, they'll receive a notification.
- If you mention a team, every member of that team will be notified in the app and by email.
- If you mention an item of a supported type, that item will appear in-line. When you click on an in-line item, its detail sidebar will open, allowing you to inspect the item without leaving the document. Supported item types are:
- Features
- Objectives
- Key results
- Initiatives
- Customers
- Users
- Topics
- Segments
- Releases
- If you mention a board, a link to that board will be placed in-line. Clicking the link will take you to that board.
When you paste a link to a given entity into a document, you can select Paste as link or Paste as preview. Supported external link types for preview include Miro, Figma, Figjam, Mural, Loom, and Youtube.
Note: You can only mention products (and their underlying hierarchy items) which are associated with the same teamspace that your document lives in. If you need to mention a product that is not associated with the right teamspace, you can move your document to a different teamspace or associate the product with this teamspace.
Sharing documents
Documents inherit teamspace permissions. For example, if you create a document in the General teamspace, all makers and contributors who are members of the General teamspace will be able to access the document.
Generally, makers and admins can create, edit, delete, and comment on documents, while contributors and viewers can only comment on existing documents.
See New board sharing: Teamspace types and member access levels for details.
Managing documents
Hover over a document in the main menu and click ••• More actions (or click the same button in the top right corner after opening the board) to move, duplicate, or rename the board. From here, you can also copy a link to it for easy internal sharing, pin it to your Favorites section, or access its version history and restore previous versions if necessary.
Document use cases and capabilities
Collaborative documents are very flexible. Here are the most common product-related use cases:
Document your strategic direction in a centralized location where you can link to specific objectives and initiatives, and key results ensuring that every team member understands the strategy and their role in achieving it. This transparency fosters alignment and drives collective action towards common goals.
Supportive capabilities:
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Mentions of products, objectives, initiatives, and key results
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Mentions of boards
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Inline comments
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Toggles and tables
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Version history
Manage product discovery process effectively by documenting ideas, insights, and customer feedback in one accessible place. By centralizing discovery documents, your team can easily revisit customer inputs and insights, helping to inform better product decisions.
Supportive capabilities:
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Preview specific insights
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Mention items in your product hierarchy (components, features, subfeatures)
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Inline comments
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Toggles and tables
Craft comprehensive release notes that outline new roadmap milestones and feature updates. By keeping these documents within Productboard, you ensure that all stakeholders have immediate access to the latest updates, helping them stay informed about the product's evolution and new capabilities.
Supportive capabilities:
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Mention items in your product hierarchy (components, features, subfeatures)
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Inline comments
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Insert images
Evaluate product performance post-release. Document and analyze objectives, key results, and analytics in a single, cohesive document. This centralized approach ensures that evaluations are thorough and accessible, enabling your team to learn from each release and refine future strategies.
Supportive capabilities:
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Inline comments
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Mention items in your product hierarchy (components, features, subfeatures)
Plan and execute product launches using to create detailed timelines, checklists, and messaging strategies. Pull in insights from across Productboard to ensure that your messaging resonates with target audiences and aligns with user expectations. This comprehensive documentation aids in coordinating launch activities, ensuring that every team is synchronized and prepared for a successful launch.
Supportive capabilities:
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Task lists
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Preview specific insights
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Mention items in your product hierarchy (components, features, subfeatures)
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Inline comments
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Toggles and tables
Comments
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