We increased transparency and efficiency with Aha!

Harold Schuringa

Product Planner

We had a problem


It is no secret that product teams have not had many tools to choose from. This is especially true for tools that seek to link product planning with the features that engineering must build. In the past, we tracked development work in many different places: Google Spreadsheets, PowerPoint documents, PivotalTracker, etc. This made it impossible to maintain a cohesive view of everything. Projects constantly got lost. Spreadsheets and PowerPoints always needed updating. Feature prioritization was not nearly as concise as we needed it to be.

But the worst part was not having our features align with major company initiatives. Our product and engineering teams constantly asked, “Why are we doing this?” This lack of clarity can quickly spiral out of control — especially when that question starts to come from senior stakeholders as well.

Aha! as a solution

Aha! serves a full range of product management and development needs for us. The tool is an ideal Pivotal/Jira replacement that layers on essential, business-focused functionality. Thanks to Aha! we are able to use a single tool across our entire company for almost everything (even stuff outside of product, such as analytics).

Aha! provides an integrated view of everything we’re doing across products lines; helps us focus on core business goals and metrics; and breaks down cross-team communication barriers. It is something that you don’t even realize you need — until you try it.

This increases transparency and efficiency across our whole team. When your product team must use several tools to keep track of everyone’s work, there will be confusion and disorder. Even the most organized PMs cannot lead cohesively in these circumstances. Now that our entire product and engineering teams use Aha! there is so much less back-and-forth — and a lot more clarity.

Life is good

Before Aha! we had a loose way of approaching product development. This was not because our product and engineering teams were apathetic — it was because we had no clear way to keep both teams on track towards the same, shared goals.

Aha! provides a meta layer that most product management tools are missing: high-level product information, strategy, goals, and initiatives.

Aha! has provided a strong sense of unity for our whole team, including senior management. It has enabled us to become more structured in our approach to business, product strategy, and prioritization. Now, we can see how our daily tasks align with the big picture. That clarity is everything to us.