Top 9 New Aha! Software Features Launched in Q2 2023
Editor's note: Aha! Notebooks has been split into Aha! Knowledge and Aha! Whiteboards.
Exceptional teams deliver results. When work gets complex and obstacles emerge, you find ways to reduce friction, encourage communication, and serve your customers better. Commitment like this is what motivates us to keep enhancing Aha! software — so we can help you work smarter and be happier.
Over the past few months we introduced important functionality to help product teams streamline ideation, improve workflows, and manage complex delivery plans.
Driving efficiency across the product development process was a major theme in Q2. We introduced AI functionality across our suite of products to simplify document creation — empowering you to generate high-quality content like product descriptions, positioning briefs, and customer interview notes in minutes. We also delivered a highly-requested enhancement to our powerful automation functionality in the Aha! Roadmaps Enterprise+ plan with the ability to make rules conditional.
Of course collaboration is an essential part of the product development process as well — which is why we focused on making it even easier to share your plans and work with others. We introduced two new add-on plans to provide a powerful way to give colleagues access to notes and whiteboards in selected workspaces in your Aha! Roadmaps account. This gives them the ability to view, edit, and create documents. (It also means you can consolidate standalone notes and whiteboard applications to save costs).
These are just some of the top highlights from last quarter. From introducing a fresh new look for custom roadmaps to simplifying dependency management, driving greater ideas portal engagement, and upgrading the Aha! text editor — we continue to help you deliver on your courageous plans.
Now let's take a look at the highlights from last quarter by product — and remember that your Aha! Roadmaps account includes all the functionality from Aha! Notebooks and Aha! Ideas Essentials.
New in Aha! Roadmaps
Our latest updates in Aha! Roadmaps help you expertly manage complex product plans — so you can deliver successful releases on time and with less chaos.
View dependencies in roadmaps and reports
It can be tough to stay on top of everything it takes to release new features — especially if you rely on other teams. That is why we added a new "Record links" field to reports. Now you can include more details about dependent work in your reports and custom roadmaps — like status, assignee, and risks. This gives you one convenient way to monitor all of the work required for a successful release.
Automate tasks with greater precision
We enhanced the way automation rules work in Aha! software — so you can free up even more of your time to focus on high-value work. You can now add up to 10 conditions to each rule to specify the exact criteria that needs to be met for an action to happen — like notifying teammates when a release date changes, but only if the release status is "Scheduled" or "In development."
Automations are available to customers on the Enterprise+ plan.
Manage delivery risks for SAFe® teams
Use Aha! Roadmaps and Aha! Develop together to track delivery risks at scale. New program increment and sprint planning risk alerts help organizations that follow the Scaled Agile Framework quickly surface issues — so you can keep your plans on track.
New in Aha! Ideas
We made a number of enhancements to ideas portals to help you drive user engagement, give internal teams more visibility into proxy votes, and consolidate feedback captured in ServiceNow.
Send portal users a weekly summary email
Send a recap of the latest ideas portal activity straight to your customers and encourage them to provide their own feedback. New weekly summary emails include individual portal user stats and recent ideas and comments. Customers can discover new ideas submitted by others and add their own votes and comments. Collecting more feedback will help you understand what customers really need.
Customers can personalize the email they receive in their portal profile settings.
View all the proxy votes for an idea
Give your teammates in sales and support complete proxy voting visibility — so you can capture the valuable feedback they share on behalf of customers without duplicating requests. Private portal users can now view all the proxy votes for an idea to see what feedback has already been shared. They can also filter all proxy votes by a specific customer to get a clear picture of their needs.
Integrate with ServiceNow
You asked, we integrated. You can now automatically send requests captured in ServiceNow to Aha! software as ideas. ServiceNow provides triggers and actions built on the Aha! API and a flow designer — so you can integrate internal feedback into your planning process.
New in Aha! Notebooks
We delivered some major updates to our digital notebook for product builders — including a brand new home screen, the ability to track tasks, a new template library, and improved text editing and whiteboard capabilities.
Stay super organized
The new home screen in Aha! Notebooks makes it easy to see everything you are working on in one view. Quickly access recent notes, whiteboards, to-dos, and more than 50 guided templates — so you can quickly get to work. Dedicated pages for documents and to-dos help you find what you need faster.
Set a date on your note and to-dos so you can quickly find what you need each day.
Create compelling documents
Over the past few months, we made some significant upgrades to the Aha! text editor. We introduced a new built-in AI writing assistant to augment your thinking and streamline document creation. We also added awesome new formatting tools — including font styles and sizes, line height options, and a color picker — to style your writing exactly the way you want.
Use a sample prompt to draft specific types of content with the picklist in the top right — choose from an announcement, newsletter, or release note.
Design captivating whiteboards
Whiteboards are a powerful way to showcase early-stage plans and collaborate with others. We introduced a ton of new whiteboard templates for business planning, competitor analysis, persona development, and more. We also added a new clip tool to whiteboards so you can quickly modify existing designs to clearly communicate the desired experience.
Use the clip tool to cut out or repurpose sections of images to swiftly adjust designs, screenshots, and mockups.
Find out what you can accomplish when ideas and information flow effortlessly across your organization.
If you have not already, take some time to explore all of the new functionality available in your account. And stay tuned for more. We launch new features every week across our suite of products. And be sure to subscribe to our monthly newsletter where we recap the latest product updates and share top content for product builders.
Start a free trial today
These new features are now available to Aha! customers. Our suite of product development tools works seamlessly together to help teams turn raw concepts into valuable new capabilities — for customers and the business. Set strategy, crowdsource ideas, spark creativity, prioritize features, share roadmaps, manage releases, and plan development.
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