Aha! Develop | Whiteboards
Whiteboards are a critical tool for each stage of the product development lifecycle. They help you build out and refine concepts in a visual form ā an important first step in building lovable products. Create beautiful diagrams, journey maps and user flows, and collaborate with your team to develop and visualize new concepts. And when the time is right, convert whiteboard elements into actionable items on your product roadmap.
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Add a whiteboard
There are three different ways to create a blank whiteboard.
Add a personal whiteboard to your My work page the same way you would add a personal note.
Add a new whiteboard to your team notes. Keep whiteboards neatly organized in your nested notes hierarchy and add as many new whiteboards as you choose.
Map out a user flow for a new feature or illustrate phases of a new initiative with a flowchart by embedding a whiteboard in a note or in the description field of most Aha! records ā like initiatives, features, and requirements ā so you can add visual context to the work your team is doing.
Note: You cannot yet add a whiteboard to the description of an idea.
Create a new whiteboard
From your team or personal Notes, click + Create and select Whiteboard. Your new untitled whiteboard will open automatically. Update the name by editing its Title. The whiteboard will appear in your document hierarchy below the note you currently have selected. You can drag and drop it to change its location.
Create a copy of a whiteboard
To create a copy of a note, right click the note from the List view and select Copy note. A copy of the note will open and will appear in the List view below the the original note.
Embed a whiteboard in an Aha! Develop record
Add a whiteboard to an existing note or other Aha! Develop record from the text editor. While editing a note or record, click the + dropdown and select Whiteboard. The new whiteboard will appear one space below your cursor. Click inside the whiteboard or click the arrow icon in its top-right corner to expand the whiteboard window. Click the X in the top-right corner to close it and return to the note.
Navigate your whiteboard
The Aha! whiteboard provides infinite space to ideate, sketch, and diagram. As you add objects, your whiteboard will expand to provide even more space for you to use. You can navigate around your whiteboard and between any frames you add by using the navigation toolbar in the bottom-right corner.
Scroll around your whiteboard by selecting the Pan button or hit the Space bar.
Adjust the Zoom level with the plus and minus buttons or by pressing Ctrl and scrolling.
Navigate to a specific frame on your whiteboard by clicking the Zoom % and select a frame from the list in your frame navigation.
Scroll through frames quickly by using the Next frame and Previous frame options or by using the Space bar.
Use whiteboard templates
Your Aha! subscription includes a library of prebuilt whiteboard templates with a range of product uses. These purpose-built templates were designed to support every step of the product development lifecycle. Add as many templates to a whiteboard as you want and organize them with frames to keep your whiteboard neat and easy to navigate.
Add a template to your whiteboard
Select the Template icon on your toolbar. From here, you can use the search bar at the top to find a specific template or select a template category on the left. Click a template to see its description. Click Use template to add the template to your whiteboard.
10Ps marketing matrix
Define the essential elements of your go-to-market strategy.
Useful for: ā Strategy
How to use the 10Ps marketing matrix template:
Capture the fundamentals
Build out the matrix
Assemble your team
Plan and share
2x2 prioritization matrix
Identify the most valuable projects to work on next with a 2x2 prioritization matrix.
Useful for: ā Research ā Strategy ā Planning
How to use the 2x2 prioritization matrix:
Create sticky notes to represent each upcoming project
Place sticky notes in the appropriate matrix section
Share findings with your team
Brainstorming session
Quickly capture ideas, group them into themes, and identify solutions to any problem.
Useful for: ā Ideation ā Meetings
How to use the brainstorming session template:
Define the problem
Create sticky notes for each idea
Assign a color to each person
Organize your ideas into themes
Create sticky notes for solutions
Use š to vote on the best ideas
Business model
Align on how your company creates value by answering fundamental questions.
Useful for: ā Strategy
How to use this template:
Research the market
Build out components
Customize your template
Get to work
Customer journey map
Collaborate with your team to identify improvements across the customer journey.
Useful for: ā Research
How to use the customer journey map:
Discuss each step of the customer journey row by row
Complete Actions for all steps before moving on to Touchpoints
Use sticky notes to capture data in each section
Identify solutions that will improve each step
Use š to vote on the best ideas and solutions
Share findings with your team
Kanban
Track tasks by status to stay on top of work in progress.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use the kanban template:
Visualize your workflow
Limit WIP
Visualize roadblocks
Share with your team
Lean canvas
Take a problem-focused approach to making an actionable business plan.
Useful for: ā Strategy
How to use this template:
Solve the problem
Position your product
Optimize workflows
Mind map
Diagram each component of your customer experiences.
Useful for: ā Brainstorming
How to use the mind map:
Choose a central topic for your mind map to focus on
Break out related thoughts by adding branches
Click on one thought and select the blue dot to connect it to a new thought
Porter's 5 forces
Analyze the market and competitive landscape as you plan for the future of the business.
Useful for: ā Strategy
How to use this template:
Conduct market research
Evaluate the competition
Apply your learnings
Product roadmap
Communicate your product vision and put product plans into action.
Useful for: ā Planning ā Strategy
How to use the product roadmap:
Identify strategic initiatives
Identify key epics
Identify core features
Set a timeline
Use the Aha! Roadmaps roadmapping guide for inspiration.
Pros and cons list
Be confident in your choices by weighing the positives and negatives.
Useful for: ā Research
How to use the pros and cons table:
Outline each choice with a name and brief description
List pros and cons on individual sticky notes
Summarize and share your recommendation
SAFe PI board
Align on team goals, foster collaboration, and boost productivity. Facilitate your PI planning meeting and coordinate the delivery of your upcoming increment.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use the SAFe PI board template:
Prepare for PI planning
Share your PI board
Create a high-level plan
Finalize the details
SAFe PI planning
Use these four program increment (PI) planning templates to coordinate delivery across multiple agile teams.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use this template:
Plan your program increment
Organize sprints by team
Assess program risks
Conduct a planning retrospective
SAFe PI retrospective
Reflect on your PI planning session and take actionable steps to improve.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use the SAFe PI retrospective template:
Share the whiteboard
Reflect on proceedings
Apply your learnings
SAFe ROAM board
Categorize the risks in your SAFe program by resolved, owned, accepted, and mitigated work items.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use the SAFe ROAM board template:
Identify the risks
Categorize and prioritize
Mitigate and update
SAFe team sprint planning
Help each team in the agile release train create a sprint plan so they can effectively deliver the PI on time.
Useful for: ā Planning
How to use the SAFe team sprint planning template:
Outline the work
Create a sprint plan
Commit and regroup
Segment profile
Define each group of customers, the market value of serving them, and a plan for your approach.
Useful for: ā Strategy
How to use the Segment profile template:
Define the segment
Research the potential
Outline your approach
Sprint retrospective
Reflect on completed work as a team and identify ways to improve.
Useful for: ā Meetings
How to use the sprint retrospective template:
Reflect on the previous sprint
Assign a color to each person
Use sticky notes to share input
Use š to vote on others' notes
Discuss as a team
Identify and assign action items
Sticky note pack
Jot your ideas down on sticky notes.
Useful for: ā Ideation ā Design
How to use the sticky note pack:
Add your thoughts to a sticky note
Place the sticky note anywhere you need to point out relevant details
SWOT analysis
Identify what you do well, what you can improve, and how you compare.
Useful for: ā Research
How to use the SWOT analysis:
Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
Use š to vote on the most important items
User story map
Virtually map out a user journey, and break it into prioritized user stories.
Useful for: ā Ideation ā Planning
How to use the user story map:
Frame the problem
Understand the product's users
Map activities and user stories
Flow and prioritize
Plan sprints and releases
Organize your whiteboard
Use frames
You can keep your whiteboard tidy by adding frames. Use frames to organize your diagrams, templates, and other objects. Add frames and build diagrams within them or draw a frame around an area to group items together.
From your toolbar, select the frame icon and draw your frame. Then rename your frame by editing its Title field. The label you enter here will be used for the frame navigation in the lower right corner of your whiteboard.
Note: Your frame will be named by default as "Frame" plus a number, with the first frame being "Frame 1" and so on. Frames will appear in your navigation in the order that they were added to your whiteboard.
Share a whiteboard
Invite new collaborators to your whiteboard with a shareable link. Once your recipients click the link, they will see your whiteboard in their own Aha! account, where they can view your work and, if they have the appropriate permissions, collaborate with you in real time. If they do not have an Aha! account, they will be prompted to sign up for a free Aha! Create account ā so they can view notes and whiteboards and create and share documents in a digital notebook of their own.
Anyone can share a personal whiteboard that they have created. Owners or Contributors can also share team whiteboards ā but Viewers and Reviewers cannot share team notes.
To share a whiteboard:
Open the whiteboard and click the Share button in the upper right corner.
Click Get shareable link.
Share the link.
From the same Share menu, you can also choose whether anyone with the link can View only or Edit the whiteboard.
The shareable link will expire six days after it is first generated. If you want to share your whiteboard with someone else after the link is expired, you will need to generate a new link. You can disable the link whenever you choose. If you disable the link, anyone who has the link but has not yet accepted access to the whiteboard will not be able to access it.
You can change a viewer's permissions to Edit or View only access by clicking next to their initials in the People who have access section of the Share menu. You can remove access to your whiteboard for any viewer by hovering over their initials and clicking the trash icon that appears.
Viewing and editing permissions
You can change someone's permissions to Edit or View only access by clicking next to their initials in the People who have access section of the Share menu. You can remove access to your whiteboard for any viewer by hovering over their initials and clicking the trash icon that appears.
Note: Aha! user permissions will always supersede the Edit permissions you set for a whiteboard. For example, users with viewer and reviewer permissions will be able to access a team whiteboard even if you do not share it when them. But they will not be able to edit team whiteboards, even if you give them permission to edit from the Share menu.
Accept a whiteboard
Your colleague will provide you with a link when they want to share a whiteboard with you. Click the link to open the invitation to view the document. You can then select an option to View the document or Ignore the document.
Note: If you do not have an Aha! account, you can sign up for a free Aha! Create account to view it. You will be prompted to log in or sign up if you choose to View the document.
When you choose to view a document, where the document opens depends on whether the whiteboard shared with you is a personal whiteboard or a team whiteboard. Shared personal whiteboards will appear in the Shared with me section of the List view in your personal notes on the My work page, and the person who shared the document with you has control of your viewing and editing access for the document. Shared team whiteboards will open within the team in which they are located, but your account permissions and team access will determine your viewing and editing access.
To see who has access to a shared whiteboard and will potentially see any edits you make, click the Shared icon at the top of the document next to its title.
Note: Accessing a shared document via a free Aha! Create account counts towards your document limit.
Configure sharing settings
Account administrators can navigate to Settings Account Security and single sign-on and uncheck the box next to Enable document sharing at any time to turn off link sharing for documents. Doing so will turn off all link sharing in the account for notes and whiteboards. Any links that were generated prior to disabling this setting will stop working, and both personal and team notes and whiteboards will no longer be shareable with users outside of your Aha! account.
When document sharing is enabled, anyone in your Aha! account can share a personal whiteboard that they have created. Owners and Contributors can share team whiteboards. Viewers and Reviewers cannot share whiteboards located in a team.
Export a whiteboard as an image
You can export any whiteboard you have access to as an image for use in email, Slack, or other tools. Right click into an empty area of your whiteboard and select Export to SVG or Export to PNG to download a whiteboard as an image.
Collaborate with your team
Whiteboards are built for collaboration. Your team can navigate, edit, and add new details to your whiteboard at the same time. This makes your whiteboard a great place to gather remotely for collaboration sessions. Use one of our prebuilt templates for a team meeting or brainstorming session. Vote on your next move as a team using the stamp emoji. Build out concepts visually together in real-time on collaborative flowcharts and diagrams.
Note: Users will need Contributor permissions to edit team whiteboards. Users with Viewer and Reviewer permissions will be able to view whiteboards, but they will not be able to edit them. You can set editing permission by individual for personal whiteboards.
To share a whiteboard with someone else, send them the whiteboardās URL. They will be able to see any whiteboard that belongs to a workspace or team they have permission to access.
When multiple users are editing a whiteboard simultaneously, you will see an avatar for each user as they navigate the whiteboard.
Convert a whiteboard object to an Aha! record
Creative tools like whiteboards are great for sparking inspiration. In fact, that is how many product teams use them. The next brilliant idea may stem from a collaborative session, a weekly team meeting, or a personal whiteboard. Put that idea into action by promoting items on your whiteboard to work on your product roadmap immediately ā then go back later and add in important details.
On your whiteboard, an object that has been converted to a record will display a link icon in its lower left corner. Clicking the link will open the record's drawer view, where you can edit and update the record's details.
Convert to features
Use the More options button or right-click on a shape, sticky note, or text box and select Convert to feature.
Select a Release. You can select any release in any workspace or workspace line that you have access to.
Edit the feature's Name.
Click Create feature.
You will find your newly created feature record in release and workspace you selected. You will find a link to the whiteboard where the feature originated from its Related tab.
Convert to epics
Use the More options button or right-click on a shape, sticky note, or text box and select Convert to epic.
Select a Release. You can select any release in any workspace or workspace line that you have access to.
Edit the epic's Name.
Click Create epic.
You will find your newly created epic in the release and workspace you selected. You will find a link to the whiteboard where the epic originated in its Related tab.