Get started with your new account

Where to go

What to do

Best practices

Account settings

Settings ⚙️ -> Account

Account settings apply to your entire Aha! account. But individual workspaces can choose which settings they want to apply to them.

• Build out your workspace hierarchy. This defines your Aha! account structure.

• Customize your ideas workflow.

• Customize your record layouts.

Workspaces are where ideas will be stored, managed, and prioritized. Think intentionally about how you want to define workspaces in your Aha! account. If you have multiple products, note that you can create multiple portals in the same workspace if you want to manage all ideas in one view. Or you can create multiple workspaces for different teams.

If you are at all unsure, reach out to Customer Success for a hierarchy review.

Import data

Settings ⚙️ -> Workspace -> Import

Bring in your data. You can import records through a simple CSV import.

• Import from CSV. If you are tracking customer feedback in a spreadsheet, now is the perfect time to get it inside your Aha! account. You can import ideas, votes, contacts, and to-dos. If you are getting started with the Aha! Ideas Advanced plan, you can also import organizations.

You do not have to bring in everything in one import right away. Try a few small imports to make sure you are pulling in everything you need — then bring in the rest.

Integrations

Settings ⚙️ -> Account

Settings ⚙️ -> Workspace

Integrate with Zendesk or Salesforce so internal teams can engage with ideas in the tool where they work the most.

• Integrate your Aha! account with the external tools you rely on.

Consider what tools you use across your organization and what type of information you store within them. If the same data would be useful inside your Aha! account, we may have an integration to get everything in sync.

Aha! Ideas has access to more than 15 integrations.

What to do

Best practices

Step 1

If you have not yet created a new ideas portal, there is no better time than now. Click Add ideas portal and follow the prompts to get started. If you have already created an ideas portal, you can skip this step.

• Navigate to Ideas -> Overview -> Add ideas portal.

• Create ideas portal.

You can add any number of ideas portals. Think through your stakeholders and who you need to capture feedback from. Make it as easy as possible for them to leave you feedback by using a single ideas portal for teams to remember.

There are scenarios where separate portals may better suit your needs. For example, you may need to capture feedback from a specific group of customers or for a specific set of products.

Step 2

Your portal settings overview is where you will set the most basic configurations for your ideas portal — such as its title, subdomain, and which workspace it is connected to.

• Navigate to Portal settings -> Overview -> General.

• Add a title to your portal.

• Choose a subdomain for your portal.

• Select a workspace.

Choose a title and subdomain that will be easy for your portal visitors to remember and that reflects your brand.

Step 3

How do you want portal visitors to engage with you, and what do you want them to see when they visit your portal? Now it is time to select a portal type.

• Navigate to Portal settings -> Overview -> Type.

• Select a submission type.

• Select to make your portal Private or Public.

• Configure idea visibility.

Consider who you want to engage with and how you want them to engage with you. If you want your customers to be able to access your portal and see and vote on others' ideas, a public portal might be right for you. If you want your portal to be accessible to a set of users that you determine, then a private portal is a better choice. If your main goal is to gather feedback that you do not want to be visible to your community, consider a submission-only portal.

Now is also a good time to consider if multiple ideas portals will better fit your business needs.

Step 4

Set up categories to organize your ideas into groups. Categories can help with organizing and categorizing ideas to make it easier for product managers to see which ideas they are responsible for reviewing.

• Navigate to Portal settings -> Layout -> Categories -> Edit in Aha! settings.

• Add categories to your Aha! workspace settings.

Consider how you may want to sort your ideas when reviewing them. Many product teams use categories that reflect different aspects of their product.

Step 5

Make your ideas portal reflect your brand — so your portal visitors know they are in the right place.

• Navigate to Portal settings -> Branding.

• Select a brand color.

• Add a logo.

Try to select an exact match to your brand color. Your design team should be able to provide you with the hex code for your brand's color palette. It is also helpful to use an appropriately sized and cropped logo image to ensure it appears clearly in your portal.

Step 6

With your portal customized to fit your brand, you can now enable it to start capturing feedback!

• Navigate to Portal settings -> Overview -> Enable ideas portal.

• Enable your ideas portal.

Where to go

What to do

Best practices

Ideas portal idea layouts

Portal settings -> Layout -> Forms -> Edit layout

You have two idea layouts you can customize — one for submitting ideas through your portal and one for submitting ideas within the application itself.

• Update your Ideas portal - Idea view layout.

• Update your Create Ideas portal - Idea (pop-up) layout.

When a portal visitor views someone else's idea, what would you like them to be able to see? Customize your Ideas portal - Idea view layout to include any field that you want to be visible to portal users.

Consider what details you want to gather when someone submits an idea. Then add fields to gather that information to the Ideas portal-Idea (pop-up) layout. These fields will appear when a portal user submits an idea.

Internal idea layouts

Settings ⚙️ -> Account -> Custom layouts -> Ideas

Add the fields that you want to appear on each idea when creating or viewing it within your Aha! account.

• Update your idea view layout.

• Update your Create idea (pop-up) layout.

Idea status workflows

Portal settings -> Layout -> Status

Your idea workflow is the set of statuses and transitions that an idea may move through during its lifecycle. Set a default workflow or customize your workflow to suit your organization's needs.

• Set up your desired workflow.

You want to create a workflow that represents the key statuses and decision points in your process for reviewing ideas.

• Flexible workflows are best for idea workflows that do not follow the same steps in the same order every time.

• Fixed workflows are best for idea workflows that need to be consistent.

Where to go

What to do

Best practices

Ideas portal

Take a look at your portal. Does it accurately reflect your brand?

• Check your brand colors.

• Ensure the logo image is clear.

Ideas portal

Ideas portal -> +Add a new idea

What will it be like for your portal visitors when they submit an idea? Find out by trying it out for yourself.

• Submit a new idea through your ideas portal.

When you are adding your idea, take note of the categories you have added. Is anything missing? Could they use better organization? If you have subcategories, consider if you should implement a hierarchy in your categories.

Ideas — Overview

Ideas -> Overview -> New ideas

There is a section on the right of your ideas overview where new ideas will populate. Select the idea you just submitted to view its details.

• Find new ideas.

• Open an idea to view its details.

When you view an idea's details, consider what data you would like to see here — and what data you will want to report on. You can add custom fields to the idea's layout so you can capture all the details you need.

Ideas — Overview

Ideas -> Overview

Drill into the built-in status reporting that shows on your overview page. At the top of the page, you will see a breakdown of all ideas in your portal by Status. Click Needs review to see a list of your most recently added ideas.

• Drill into status reporting.

Review each idea that Needs review. Enter scores for ideas to estimate their potential value, add comments or important details and change an idea's status when you are ready to move it to the next step in our idea workflow.

Reports — List report

Reports -> List report

Create a list report of ideas. This is an easy and common way to review new ideas. Use filters and add columns to populate the report with the details you want to see.

• Create a list report.

• Add a filter.

• Add a column.

• Sort your report by one of your columns.

Ideas — Prioritization

Ideas -> Prioritization

Create a prioritization view. Filter your ideas by status, category, or even both — then move them into the prioritization view to score and rank into priority order.

• Create a prioritization view.

Consider your current product strategy. What goals are you trying to meet? You may be able to filter for ideas that align with these goals — by category, for example — so you can prioritize a list of ideas that will bring value in immediate future.