How filters work

Jake Sawyer

Updated September 14, 2026 10:00

When you create a new grid, timeline, or columns board, Productboard pre-populates it with your selected main item type and you don’t have to add items to the board individually.

There are a few filters built into all newly-created boards — archived items are usually hidden by default, and timelines won't show items that don't have a timeframe set. This is to prevent brand new boards from being over-cluttered from the start.

However, if you have a lot of items, boards can wind up being overwhelming anyway. Using filters can help you narrow down your dataset into something much more navigable.

Adding filters to a board

Note: Only makers and contributors can add filters to boards. Viewers can’t change or apply filters.

To add filters to a board:

Use one of two methods to create a new filter: in the board's header, click Add filter; or click Board controls > Add filter. (If you've just created a new board, Board controls will open automatically.)
Select the filter you are looking for.
Select the filtering value from the dropdown and click Done.
You can add more filters if you like. When you are happy with your filters, click Apply to see the filtered board.

Managing grid filters from column headers

If you're working on a grid board, you can manage column-specific filters by clicking ••• More actions at the top of any data column. From this location, you can only set filters for the data type carried in that column. Any filters you set here will also appear in the board's header and Board controls.

Key filter elements

Working with filters involves a number of elements. Here are definitions of those elements.

Target: The item type(s) this filter will act upon.
Condition: A data type related to the target. Your options here will change depending on the target.
Parameters: The scope of the filter (is any of, is none of...).
Values: Select what you want the filter to apply to. Your options here will change depending on the condition.
Logical operator: If you have more than one filter, click this to change the relationships between your filters from AND to OR. (You must choose AND or OR; you cannot combine them on the same board.)
Add filter: Add another filter to the board.
Apply filters: Your board won't change until you click Apply.

Simple vs advanced filters

There are two types of filters you can add to a board.

Simple filters automatically target all eligible item types on the board. They cover most common filtering needs.

Note: When a simple filter matches an item, its parent items also appear on the board, even if those parents don't match the filter themselves.
Advanced filters target a single item type you specify. They're more precise than simple filters.

Item type eligibility based on field association

Filters won't apply to item types where a condition references a field that isn't associated with that item type.

Example A: Your board has releases and features on it. You simple-filter it by Owner > is any of > Linda. Releases and features can both have owners assigned to them, so your board will now only show releases and features which are owned by Linda.

Example B: Your board has releases and features on it. You simple-filter it by Teams > is any of > Team 1. Your board will filter out features assigned to Team 2 and Team 3, but your releases will remain unfiltered because releases aren't eligible to have teams assigned to them.

Filter behaviors

A filter will behave in one of three ways depending on the relationship between its target, its condition, and the structure of the board it’s being applied to.

Direct filtering

When the target and the condition both refer to the same item type, that item type will be filtered according to the condition.

For example:

The target and the condition both refer to the Feature item type, so this will filter out any features which aren’t owned by Linda.

Connection filtering

You can have the target and the condition refer to different item types, as long as those item types are connected—that is, they belong to the same category. One item type can belong to multiple categories. Here they are:

Product category items are products, components, features, and subfeatures.
Objective category items are objectives, key results, initiatives, features, and subfeatures.
Release category items are release groups, releases, initiatives, features, and subfeatures.

For example:

Remember, a filter always acts upon its target, not its condition. In this case. the target is ‘Products’ and the condition refers to features. They're different item types but they both belong to the product category. This filter will only show products that have at least one subordinate feature assigned to the ‘Released’ status.

Group filtering

This one needs some extra context. On the Board controls sidebar, you use the Items section to define the board’s main item and, optionally, any underlying items:

Depending on the board type, you might also scroll down to the Columns or Groups section and add some column items or group items (AKA swimlanes).

Group filtering is when your filter’s target is a column or group item, instead of a main or underlying item (as with direct or connection filtering).

Imagine we took the settings above and added the following filters:

Filter 1 is an example of group filtering, because the target (the “Now-next-later” release group item) is a column item. This means that the board generated by these settings would have one column — whichever release in the Now-next-later release group we specify as the value of that filter.

Filter 2 might seem like a group filter as well, since it refers to the group item called “Teams”. However, you’ll notice that while Filter 2’s condition refers to "Team," its target is actually “Features”, which makes it a direct filter, not a group filter. This board will only show a single swimlane called “Product Data” (plus the "Not assigned" swimlane, unless you hide it manually).

What’s important to note about Filter 2 is that it isn’t acting on the swimlanes of the board as defined by the group item, “Teams”; rather it’s acting on the features displayed on the board, using the Team field of each feature to determine which ones should be visible.

Hiding empty items

Sometimes your filters will leave empty items on your board. For example, say you have a board that displays initiatives and features (Figure A), and you want to filter it so it only shows initiatives that have features which are 'In progress' (yellow squares). You apply a filter (Figure B), but the result (Figure C) isn't what you want; two initiatives ("Display Initiatives as a main item on the Grid" and "PM Entity Archive") are still visible, despite their nested features being removed by the filter.

Note: Items specified by filters will always be displayed, even if you're hiding empty items. For example, say you have Hide empty items checked and you add a filter to the board so it only shows features with the 'In Progress' status. Features with that status will still be displayed on the board, even if they're empty.

To hide those empty initiatives (or any items which have no valid subordinates according to your filters):

Click Board controls at the top of the board.
Under Items, check the box labeled Hide empty items.

Note: The ability to hide empty items is available with both simple and advanced filters.

Filter transitivity

When filtering for a target item type that can be directly or indirectly related to the condition item type, all directly- and indirectly-related targets are present in the result. This is called transitivity, and it applies to both simple and advanced filters.

To clarify the terms here:

Two items are considered directly related when one is the parent of the other.
Two items are considered indirectly related if you can trace parentage from one to the other through one or more intermediate items (think about grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on).

Example: Say you filter a grid to only show features which are related to a specific objective, like so:

The result will show all of the following:

Children (direct): Features which are directly related to the specified objective.

Grandchildren (indirect): Features which are children of objectives which are, in turn, children of the specified objective.

Great-grandchildren (indirect): Features which are children of initiatives which are themselves grandchildren of the specified objective.

Other transitivity situations include:

Filtering subfeatures by a release will return not only the directly connected subfeatures but also any subfeatures which are indirectly connected to the release via features or initiatives.
Filtering features by a product will return not only the directly connected features but also any features that are only connected to a child component of that product.

Note: This rule applies even if the parent entity type is not on the board. So a flat list of features filtered by a release will return the same features as if initiatives and features were shown on the board and filtered by the release.

Example filtering scenarios

These examples demonstrate various simple and advanced filter setups. Every example is applied to the same base dataset, and each example shows the results of the filters both with and without the Hide empty items setting enabled.

Base dataset

Example 1

Simple filtering with a filtering criterion that can be applied to 2 entity types with and without Hide empty items.

Hide empty items: False

Hide empty items: True

Example 2

Advanced filtering with 2 filtering criteria applied to 2 different entity types and connected with the AND logical operator with and without Hide empty items.

Hide empty: False

Hide empty: True

Example 3

Advanced filtering with 2 filtering criteria applied to 2 different entity types and connected with the OR logical operator with and without Hide empty items.