The custom feature statuses used by Productboard's Productboard

This article relates to custom feature status values that you can use to group/filter features on the Features board and Roadmap.

Dual-track agile & product discovery

Prioritization is not a one-time decision, but a progression of ideas moving down what might be considered a prioritization pipeline. At each phase, certain criteria might be used to evaluate an idea based on the user needs it addresses, the business value it offers, or the effort required to bring it to life. Ideas that pass muster progress, while others may be put on pause or tossed out altogether.

The system of dual-track Agile speaks to this process and outlines how teams might divide their efforts into two tracks. At any time, certain feature ideas are being "discovered" or researched, while others that have progressed farther down the pipeline are being delivered.

One way to visualize this pipeline is by using custom feature statuses in Productboard. Customizing your features statuses helps you create Kanban-like boards that incorporate all the phases your  features progress through during your product prioritization, planning, and delivery process.

Here are the status values Productboard's product team uses in our internal workspace:

• New idea – The default status value for all new features. Many times these ideas are defined broadly and refined later (once the need is better understood) by updating feature names and descriptions.
• Discovery – A subset of new features that are promising candidates, as identified during our team's prioritization process. Features in this status are researched to ensure a deep understanding of the underlying need and the best possible solution to address that need.
• Design – Ideas that have been researched through discovery are now ready to go into a phase of solution design. Validating mockups and prototypes of possible solutions help us further understand the problem we're solving for.
• Backlog – Features that have been designed and are now waiting to be developed.
• Planned for delivery – Features that have been assigned to a team and will be worked on shortly.
• Delivery – Features currently being developed.
• Testing – Features that are being prepared for release.
• Announcement – Features that are ready to be included in a public-facing announcement or release notes. Smaller features may already be released straight to the platform by this phase. Larger features involve more coordination with marketing.
• Launched – Released features that have gone through the marketing & distribution checklist.
• Won't do - Features that the team has decided not to develop after going through Discovery.

Note: Team Productboard's prioritization process largely exists between the New idea / Discovery phases, and later, between the Backlog / Planned for delivery phases. The first step of prioritization is about deciding which ideas to invest into discovering. The second step is identifying which features (that have been discovered/designed) to deliver when.

See also

• Customize status values for features