Introduction to Jira Product Discovery Demo Q&A Recap

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Hi all! 

Thanks to all of you who have joined our ongoing, bi-weekly Introduction to Jira Product Discovery demo! We’ve received so many great questions that we'll start to recap in this post after each demo.

As new questions come through, we’ll continue updating this post so be sure to follow it for updates. If you have more questions around Jira Product Discovery, comment below and we’ll get to them as soon as we can.

And lastly, if you’ve missed a demo or want to attend one in the future: register here for demos with live chat Q&A with our team, or watch the recording on-demand.

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General product questions

Start here. This is a great starting point for all things Jira Product Discovery.

• Is there a quick and easy way to export data from an existing product management tool to JPD? 
  • Yes, refer to our documentation here for instructions on how to export data to JPD.
• If you delete an idea, will all tasks under the idea get deleted? 
  • Tasks in JPD are just action items in the idea description, so if you delete the idea then the description will be deleted as well. We recommend archiving ideas instead.
• Is it possible to bulk update multiple JPD issues? 
  • You can make bulk updates by using a CSV file.
• With various teams using different JPD Projects, is there a way to have consistent idea templates and field values across multiple projects? Can Ideas from one project be viewed in a different project? 
  • At this time there isn't a way to collaborate across multiple JPD projects (we are looking into it!). Within a project, use idea templates to standardize how you collect information.
• Is there any way to link directly to an idea intake form or will the contributor have to manually click the "Create" button each time?
  • At this time, a contributor will have to click on "Create" to submit an idea. To provide a direct way to submit feedback, we recommend integrating with Jira Service Management. See Demo: Using a JSM queue to gather feedback
• Can individual comments from a Jira Service Management ticket serve as JPD 'insights'?
  • Yes, add the link to the comment to your JPD idea, or use the Chrome extension to highlight the text and add it as an insight.
• Are most users using multiple JPD projects, one for each "product"? Is it possible to consolidate roadmaps across more than one project? 
  • JPD was designed to work best when one team uses an individual project. But it's possible to use a single project to share between teams/products, especially if there's a high level of collaboration between teams. It's currently not possible to view a consolidated roadmap across multiple projects (but we're looking into it!) Demo: using a single project for multiple products and teams.
• Can you filter ideas by different teams or tagged to multiple teams?
  • Yes, you can create a custom field labeled Team and use team names for your field values to associate with each idea. See Demo: using a single project for multiple products and teams
• Is it easy to add insights from other software to ideas? 
  • Yes, simply paste a link or use the Chrome extension to grab data and feedback from anywhere across the web! 
• Can you create filters or projects to segment out ideas? For example, I would like to have teams vote on several ideas within a specific project, and have them only view the project relevant to them.
  • Yes, you can either create multiple projects within JPD and keep ideas confined to their specific project, or you can keep all ideas within one project and filter using custom fields. In this scenario, use a custom field labeled "Project" with project names for your field values to associate with each idea, then create a view filtering for each project name. At this time Contributors will be able to see all views within a project, but soon we'll have a new Stakeholder role which can see only views shared with them.
• Can I create a department level project for all stakeholders to submit ideas and then have those ideas show in team-specific view for them to prioritize?
  • Yes. In your All ideas view, add a custom field for Team with team names as the values. In your intake form, make fields mandatory so stakeholders choose a team to associate their idea with. Then, create views filtered by team name with a custom checkbox field labeled "triage" to help teams triage the idea.
• Is there a way to create an "ideas inbox" to prevent our idea backlog from getting flooded?
  • You could have a specific project to keep ideas intake separate. Or you can set up a custom checkbox field called ‘triaged’ in your intake view. Add this triaged field as a filter into your other views so that ideas from other stakeholders only show when you have checked the triage box. See Demo: Configuring the idea creation form

• Are there plans to add a hierarchy to show parent and child relationships (i.e. when working with opportunity solution trees)?

  • This is not yet available, but on our roadmap! In the meantime you can use the flexible fields and views system to do this. Here is an example: Demo: grouping solutions by opportunities. And here's a recording for how to reproduce this configuration.

• Can I capture insights that come in via email or forward them to an email address to get auto-added to our project?

  • Currently, the best way to capture insights via email is to use the Chrome extension to highlight parts of the email you wish to add as an insight.

• Can I create a public roadmap for customers / non-employees to vote on features?
  • At this time you cannot create a public roadmap for customers to upvote features.

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Managing fields

• Is there a way to produce a dynamic score in JPD?
  • Create custom fields with your own formula to have JPD dynamically produce metrics for criteria you care about. For example, for the RICE method, create 4 custom fields (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), and a 5th custom field for the "RICE score" using a custom formula (RICE score = (R*I*C)/E).
• How do you separate ideas for different customers into the same project?
  • The best way to organize ideas by customers, is to create a custom field labeled "Customers" or "Key customers", and input customer names for your  field values. 
• Can you differentiate idea types during the discovery process with different issue types (e.g. product ideas vs project ideas)? 
  • To differentiate ideas, create custom fields to describe which idea is type 1 vs type 2. Then create different views to share with stakeholders by filtering for the relevant idea type.

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Managing views

• Can you create a standard board view and then duplicate it for multiple products?
  • To create views for specific products, first make sure you've created a custom field with values for each product name. When you create a board view, filter by your "Product" field to only show ideas associated with a specific product. To copy the board, hover next to the name and select "Save as new board". Note, at this time you are not able to duplicate/copy JPD projects.
• For the timeline view, when will dates be available in weeks?
  • We know this is a highly requested feature and something we are looking into!
• How would you recommend setting up Problems and Solutions so that they can be differentiated in views and linked?
  • Create a custom field labeled "Type" with values "Problem" and "Solution" to identify each idea. Then create your views by filtering to only show ideas where Type = "problems" or "solutions". See Demo: grouping solutions by opportunities and a recording for how to reproduce this configuration.
• Can I share different customizations of the same view with different users? (e.g. I want my roadmap to show dates for some people and effort for others)
  • At this time, you can't share the same view with different customizations for different users. We recommend creating different views to share with different users (eg Leadership view vs. Engineering view). To do this, click the "Column" button in the upper left of your board view, and select which field you want to organize ideas by.
    
• Can you define a sprint schedule and show that in a timeline view?
  • JPD is best used to communicate high-level timeframes for your roadmap. We recommend using Jira Software to create sprints to breakdown work for the ideas your are committed to building.

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Roles & sharing

General guidance on setting Jira Product Discovery up for your users including roles, billing, and sharing:

Read this if you're a site administrator and just added JPD Free or Standard 

The different types of users: Creators, contributors, and stakeholders

Adding contributors and creators to a JPD project

• Can I choose what fields a contributor can edit? (i.e. I want the contributor to create ideas but not change the effort field)
  • Contributors are not able to edit ideas, fields, and views. See documentation on contributor roles for more details.
• Can a user add comments or notes on behalf of a stakeholder?
  • Comments or notes can be added as an insight by adding a link to the note (eg from Slack), or by using the Chrome extension to highlight the text.
• Are role assignments (creator and contributor) per project or product-wide?

  • Creators and contributors are counted per site of Jira Product Discovery. The roles of creator and contributor determine general access to the product. Here's a video that explains this in more detail.

• Can Contributors see Jira software issues in the 'Delivery' tab when they don't have a Jira Software license?
  • No, Contributors will not be able to see Jira Software issues linked to ideas if they do not have a Jira Software license.
• When will the new Stakeholders role be available?
  • Stakeholders role is in progress, and we've recently opened up very early access. We'll be sharing more on timelines soon! 
• If I'm not an admin, can my admin start a free trial and make me a creator to test it out?
  • Yes! You can be added as a JPD creator, but please note that you will consume a JPD license. See how to manage product access for details.

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Jira Product Discovery + Jira Software/Advanced Roadmaps

General guidance on the relationship between Jira Product Discovery, Jira Software, and Advanced Roadmap.

• How should I think Jira Product Discovery vs. Advanced Roadmaps in Jira Software? Can I link the two together?

  • The best way to think about the two are:

    • Jira Product Discovery is here to help you with Discovery

    • Jira Software is here to help you with Delivery

    Or put another way Jira Product Discovery helps you decide what to work on. Jira Software is where the work actually happens.

    Advanced Roadmaps within Jira Software is used for planning sequencing, dependencies, and constraints for delivery work, or the ideas you’ve committed to.

    While you can’t link dependencies in Advanced Roadmap to ideas in Jira Product Discovery (yet), you can link your JPD ideas to individual delivery tickets/issues/epics to view progress of ideas to delivery.

• Is there a way to convert ideas to Jira issues, such as an epic, and view them in the same place? 
  • Yes, click into an idea and click on the delivery tab to create or add Jira Software epics and issues to your idea. You can view all connected epics and issues, and their progress, from within Jira Product Discovery.
• What is the difference between an idea and an epic?

  • Ideas are the unit of work in JPD, while epics/tasks are the units of work in Jira Software. Ideas can be problems, opportunities, and solutions you could work on (many of which you may never do anything with). Once you've decided which ideas to prioritize and commit to, you would create a corresponding epic(s) for how you want to breakdown and tackle the actual work.

    To give a real example:

    • You might prioritise ideas in JPD and decide that building an automation feature is the ‘idea’ with the most potential ROI

    • You create an epic in Jira Software to build the automation feature

    • The epic will be made up of tasks and sub-tasks. Much of this will remain in the backlog which you can then move over as suits your needs.

• How you would identify a product backlog item from information stored in JPD, and turn that into a Jira epic/issue?
  • Identifying ideas for your backlog depend on how you choose to prioritize them. It could be based on a method like RICE, or an Impact vs Effort score. Once you've decided which ideas to commit to, follow the steps here to link those ideas to Jira Software epics and issues.
• Can I connect a JPD idea to an existing Jira Software epic/issue?
  • You can connect an idea/discovery ticket to an epic, an issue ticket, or any other issue type. Simply select the Software project and search for the epic/issue.
• Can you inherit values from a Jira Software Project (e.g values for "Team")?
  • Not at this time, but we are working on how you can leverage Jira Software fields in Jira Product Discovery.
• Is it possible to link an idea in Jira Product Discovery to multiple Jira Software projects/boards?
  • Yes, you can link an idea to multiple epics or issues, across multiple projects in Jira Software - but only to one Jira Software site.
• Can we bulk import issues from Jira Software or Jira Software Data Center to Jira Product Discovery?
  • Yes, you can import issues from Jira Software Data Center using a CSV file.
• Can you show dependencies across ideas in a roadmap view? How about showing dependencies across Epics/Discovery Tickets?
  • At this time we are unable to do dependency mapping, but you can link ideas to each other. You can also use Advanced Roadmaps in Jira Software Premium to show dependencies to work that you have committed to.

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Jira Product Discovery & Jira Service Management / Confluence / Jira Align / Atlas

• Can you link ideas with issues created in another queue? (i.e. customer support queue in a Jira Service Management project)
  • Yes, see Demo: Set up a Jira Service Management queue to receive feedback from customers and internal teams
• How do you create OKRs/goals in Jira Product Discovery and link them to ideas?
  • You can define goals as a separate custom field in Jira Product Discovery, and associate each idea with a different, or multiple company goals. Then create views or roadmaps that show the progress of your ideas against these goals. You can also integrate with Atlassian’s tool built for goal-tracking, Atlas. JPD is testing an integration that will allow you to track your ideas as part of these goals. Ask for early access here.

• How does Jira Product Discovery fit with Jira Align?

  • Both tools can be used within the same organization:

    • Jira Product Discovery was built specifically for prioritization and roadmapping at the team or product level.

    • Jira Align is an integrated agile-at-scale solution that lets you strategically plan (enterprise agile planning, dependency management, and value engineering) at the organization, or teams of teams, level.

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Billing and licensing

• Do contributors need to have a paid license to an Atlassian product and are not just a free user?
  • Correct, contributors must have a paid license to any Atlassian Cloud product, but do not need to have a paid license to Jira Product Discovery
• How does licensing work if I want to add JPD to my sandbox? Are we limited to 3 creators before we start paying for it?
  • At this time, Jira Product Discovery is only available on a Free or Standard plan, meaning it does not offer a Sandbox, which is a Premium plan  feature. Sandboxes are only available with Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence, Bitbucket Premium.
• Is licensing offered per JPD project or for the full product? 
  • Licensing is available per Jira Product Discovery site. Each site can have multiple projects.

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Jira Product Discovery integrations

View our list of integrations here. To suggest new integrations directly to our product team, submit via the “Give feedback” in product.

• Is there an integration between Jira Product Discovery ideas and Microsoft Teams Slack?

  • Yes, Jira Product Discovery does integrate with Microsoft Teams and Slack to connect projects or add ideas and insights.

•  Does Jira Product Discovery integrate with a tool like Salesforce to connect account data?
  • Jira Product Discovery does have an integration with Salesforce that allows you to import data from selected fields and use it as fields in Jira Product Discovery for purposes of prioritization. Learn more here.
• Is there any way to sync ideas with a Monday.com board?
  • At this time, we do not have an integration with Monday.com
• Do you have a Hubspot integration so ideas can be created from a Hubspot ticket to triage?
  • At this time we don't not have a Hubspot integration but please request one using the in-product "Give feedback" button

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Jira Product Discovery vs competitors

• Is this tool similar to Craft.io?
  • While both tools cater to the product management audience, Jira Product Discovery's strengths are its simplicity and focus on prioritization and roadmapping capabilities, as well as it's native integration with Jira Software to connect ideas to delivery work.
• We are actively considering Aha paired with Jira Software for engineering. How does Product Discovery compare with Aha!
  • Jira Product Discovery focuses on a simple UI and core prioritization and roadmapping features to enable PMs to do their job effectively, without the noise of endless customizations. It's flexible to adapt to the way your product team works best, and its native integration with Jira Software means ideas and delivery work are seamlessly connected and always up to date. It also includes all features at $10/per creator/month, making it affordable for product teams of all sizes.

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Product management practices

This post will have more resources over time, bookmark!

• Are there best practices for idea workflows?
  • Stay tuned for a webinar covering product management practices with JPD towards the end of October!
• Is the Effort field a "gut feeling" from the PM or is it expected that engineering did a study first? 
  • You can choose criteria in a way that works best for your team. A 'gut feeling' input means not having to spend too much time developing ideas and asking engineering to contribute to prioritization later. You can also set aside time with your triad or wider team to quantify and define effort while submitting ideas, or ahead of time.
• What is the recommended process to inform the engineering team that an idea is "ready to go"?
  • We always recommend a process that will work best for your team. Ideally, once you have a list of ideas with fields for criteria your wider team/triad care about, bring in your engineering leads to help with the prioritization process and create buy-in. Eng leads can contribute to the effort required, insights, and other constraints that impact which ideas the team will commit to building. Setting up a prioritization and alignment is the best way to ensure engineering is bought in, and ready to take the ideas to their Jira Software backlog.

[Andy Gladstone]

I needed this today and it came in handy. Thanks for the publish @Kesha Thill.