Aha! Whiteboards | Getting started
Spark innovation with your own visual space. Aha! Whiteboards is purpose-built for product teams with the innovative functionality enterprise-level teams need to build beautiful whiteboards, ideate with stakeholders, and make confident prioritization decisions. Create as many workspaces as you need for different teams, and rely on robust user permissions to give people the right access. Then, choose from nearly 100 expert-crafted whiteboard templates — or create your own — to spur collaboration and creativity.
If you are just getting started, welcome! Use this article for a quick tour of the product, and please contact Customer Success if you have any questions. We do not have any salespeople here, just product experts who respond super fast.
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Start with templates
Your whiteboard is a blank canvas for all of your designs and ideas. Our expert templates have the most common use cases for whiteboards covered. Use them to jump-start your creativity, save time, and look great in the process.
Each template includes relevant best practices and a pre-filled example, and you can always modify them to fit your own needs. With the Aha! Whiteboards Advanced plan, you can also create your own custom templates and share them across teams.
Find the perfect template for any stage of the product development lifecycle:
I want to ... | Try these templates |
Brainstorm new ideas | Create a brainstorming session and invite stakeholders. Color-coordinated sticky note packs are at the ready to capture every idea. |
Use strategic models | Start with a SWOT analysis and gather your team to participate. Add more strategic models to your whiteboard to expand your analysis. |
Collaborate on roadmaps | Choose from seven different roadmap templates. Define your plans, then invite stakeholders and guests to incorporate their perspectives. |
Run Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) ceremonies | Stay SAFe® with four whiteboard templates: Collaborate in real time or asynchronously and create a culture of continuous improvement. |
Diagram processes | Visualize workflows, processes, or data flows — so everyone can align around the same diagram. |
Build sophisticated whiteboards
Your whiteboard is an infinite canvas to capture your thoughts. Gather information from anywhere — your website, a spreadsheet, or meeting notes. Format it exactly the way you want using a comprehensive set of whiteboard tools, including text boxes, shapes, sticky notes, connectors, and tables. Then, move into Aha! Whiteboards Advanced plan functionality with wireframes and custom templates.
I want to ... | Try this |
Move ideas from a spreadsheet onto a whiteboard so I can prioritize them | Paste any text into your whiteboard, and it will appear as multiple sticky notes. Drag them to sort — and add comments and emoji reactions to provide more context. Use the 2x2 prioritization matrix to make prioritization simpler! |
Apply my brand colors | Select everything on the whiteboard, then use the Filter button to adjust only particular shapes or objects with the same color. |
Create user interface wireframes | Make mockups in minutes (available on the Aha! Whiteboards Advanced plan) with a selection of wireframing templates and components. |
Invite unlimited guests
Innovative perspectives come from anywhere. So welcome everyone to review and refine your thoughts — invite unlimited guests at no additional cost. Tailor permissions to the level of interaction you need and collaborate asynchronously or in real time.
I want to ... | Try this |
Share a whiteboard internally | Send team members with reviewer permissions a link to your whiteboard. Choose whether you want them to be able to Edit or just View it. |
Invite external guests | Invite guests via email or through a shared link. Invite as many as you need, and configure their reviewer permissions in bulk or individually. |
Share a secure webpage | Drive business alignment by sharing your whiteboard as a view-only webpage with anyone who needs to be kept up to date. |
Gain stakeholder alignment
Stakeholder alignment drives your team's success — from sharing market insights to defining critical cross-functional capabilities. Gather everyone around the same visual space, then work together to capture feedback and move forward. Stakeholders can adjust plans with you through real-time collaborative editing. They can also leave feedback through inline comments and sticky notes.
I want to ... | Try this |
Define the stakeholder landscape | Use the stakeholder map and stakeholder analysis templates to define who needs to be involved (and at what stage). |
Edit with everyone | Whiteboards support collaborative editing — so people with edit access can work together in real time. |
Annotate and react | Use sticky notes to add your own ideas, and react to them with emojis. Annotation shapes put edits in context. |
Comment and vote | Inline comments create the chance for threaded conversations about specific aspects of your whiteboard. Balance quantitative with qualitative feedback with votes (available on the Aha! Whiteboards Advanced plan). |
Present my plans | Enable presentation mode and turn your frames into presentation slides. |
Work with Aha! Roadmaps
Aha! Whiteboards helps jump-start your planning process. When you are ready to implement your plans, add Aha! Roadmaps to your account and convert whiteboard objects to actual records on your roadmap. All Aha! Roadmaps accounts include essential whiteboarding functionality. While you brainstorm, iterate, and commit, you can flow seamlessly between whiteboards and your roadmap — and back again.
I want to ... | Try this |
Move from concept to committed work | Convert whiteboard objects to Aha! records like initiatives and features — no manual entry required. |
Import list and pivot reports | Whiteboard work items using actual data from your Aha! Roadmaps account. Export records from list and pivot reports into a whiteboard, then click on them to open the records' drawer views to edit data directly from your whiteboard. |
Update roadmap data from a whiteboard | Aha! Roadmaps records you import into a whiteboard are the real thing. Make edits (either one at a time or in bulk) and those changes will be reflected in your product roadmap. |
Align on development priorities | Add features on a whiteboard as records, then place them on a 2x2 prioritization matrix template. Stakeholders can vote or comment, and you can move forward confidently. |
Highlight dependencies between work items | Show dependency lines between Aha! Roadmaps records, then update the style to better highlight critical relationships among records. |