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How to use a digital whiteboard in product management

Last updated: April 2025

How often do you use a whiteboard tool? If you are a product manager, a digital whiteboard is probably your go-to for activities such as brainstorming and sprint retrospectives. It is handy for thinking through concepts in a visual, nonlinear way. And it offers a central place for virtual collaboration (making digital whiteboards especially popular on remote and hybrid teams).

But what about the other jobs you have to do — feature prioritization or presenting your roadmap, for instance? Ever try a whiteboard?

You can use a digital whiteboard at any stage of product development. You rely on innovative thinking and cross-functional collaboration throughout the entire process of building a product, which whiteboard tools are excellent for. So it makes sense that they have a place in your workflows, from discovery to delivery (and we happen to have a few ideas on how to implement them).

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A whiteboard brainstorming a product's value proposition complete with comments from cross-functional teammates

Craft elements of your strategy and share everything with stakeholders in Aha! Whiteboards.

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Discover: Explore customer interview insights on a whiteboard

Product discovery is nebulous work. You test assumptions as you dig deep in conversations with customers — uncovering new problems to solve. Dedicated product discovery tools help you manage user interviews and extract these insights, while digital whiteboards offer a complementary way to visualize and analyze what you find.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product discovery:

Product team collaborates on a customer empathy map on a whiteboard.

Explore customer behavior, quotes, and needs with Aha! Whiteboards.

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Capture: Try a whiteboard to map out ideas

You gather, sort, and evaluate feedback from various sources to better understand how to add value for customers (this is called idea management). Exploring ideas on a whiteboard can help you see whether key themes emerge, and examine how customers currently interact with your product.

How to use a digital whiteboard to review customer feedback:

Did you know? If you use Aha! Roadmaps, you can gather customer feedback via an ideas portal and pull it straight into a whiteboard. (Aha! Roadmaps includes Aha! Ideas Essentials, Aha! Whiteboards Essentials, and Aha! Knowledge Essentials to provide a complete product management solution.)

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Explore: Brainstorm and refine product concepts with a whiteboard

Brainstorming is the obvious use case for whiteboards, right? But product managers can do more with whiteboard tools in this stage than you might realize — it is not all freewheeling sticky notes. You can also add structure and get feedback on the concepts you come up with in preparation for the next stage.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product ideation:

Brainstorm session on a whiteboard in Aha! software

Host a live brainstorming session with your product team in Aha! Whiteboards.

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Plan: Use a whiteboard to facilitate early-stage planning

Prioritizing what to build next is a key part of any product manager's role. Backlog management and feature scoring are effective, but a digital whiteboard can be helpful when you want to get more hands-on with your plans.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product plans:

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Showcase: Add your product roadmap to a digital whiteboard

Roadmaps and presentations — both are key assets when you need to showcase your plans. Could you add whiteboards to that list? We think so. Whiteboard tools offer a convenient way to share early versions of your plans before building out a robust, dynamic timeline.

How to use a digital whiteboard for roadmapping:

Related:

A roadmap created in Aha! Whiteboards with visible progress bars

Quickly highlight progress with a whiteboard version of your roadmap in Aha! Whiteboards.

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Build: Prep work for development with a whiteboard tool

Ready to build? Whiteboards are beneficial here too. After all, they provide a central, visual place to come together with the broader product team. Product managers can use digital whiteboards to connect with UX design and development teams as work gets underway.

How to use a digital whiteboard for cross-team development work:

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GUIDES ONLY - Confidence voting session on program board whiteboard

Use an online whiteboard for PI planning. With Aha! Whiteboards, confidence voting is built in.

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Document: Enhance articles with whiteboard visuals

New features mean new documentation. As you prepare to launch new enhancements to your product, you want to prepare customers for how they work and how to use them — visual aids can be a big help in doing so.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product documentation:

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Launch: Use whiteboards to share release plans

Lots of communication happens around any launch. As a product manager, it is part of your job to help the team deliver on time and inform cross-functional teams of what they need to know. Whiteboarding can be an easy way to be more effective during this stage.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product launches:

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Analyze: Reflect together with whiteboard templates

Post-launch, allow yourself a moment to celebrate and reflect on all you have accomplished. Bring your product team together on a digital whiteboard one more time to share feedback for the future.

How to use a digital whiteboard for product team analysis:

Aha! Whiteboards for product development

Incorporating a digital whiteboard into your daily work as a product manager is great. But we think it is even better if your whiteboard tool is designed purposefully for the job. That is why we built Aha! Whiteboards for product teams. You can visualize complex concepts, come together with stakeholders, craft beautiful wireframes, and even connect directly to your live roadmap. Curious to learn more? Check out the FAQs, watch the video below, and try it for yourself.

FAQs about Aha! Whiteboards

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