Complex workflows can be hard to follow, especially when steps, handoffs, and decision points live across multiple documents. A simple process diagram on a whiteboard brings everything into view — steps, handoffs, and decisions — so the path forward is clear. In this article, you will learn how to embed a whiteboard in a note, add standardized shapes and labeled arrows, and show decision branches clearly. The result is a readable process diagram you can share with the team for fast feedback and ongoing updates.
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Identify the need
Let's say we are onboarding new teammates to the product team at Fredwin Cycling, a fictitious fitness app. They need a clear view of how work moves through our process so they can begin contributing quickly and confidently. Our workflow is documented in workspace notes in Aha! Roadmaps. Adding a simple diagram will make the sequence and handoffs easier to grasp.
To meet this need, we will embed a whiteboard in our documentation and build a process diagram using standard shapes so each step is easy to follow.
The whiteboard's Shapes menu includes symbols aligned to the International Organization for Standardization flowchart standards for data, programs, and systems.
Embed a whiteboard
We will add the diagram to our existing documentation by embedding a whiteboard directly in a note. If you are following along:
Open the note where you want to add the whiteboard.
Click to place your cursor where you want the diagram to go. Then, open the More menu (+) and select Embed a whiteboard.
Select New whiteboard. The new whiteboard will appear in the note exactly where you placed it.
Build a diagram
With our whiteboard now embedded in our note, we can begin building our diagram:
Double-click the whiteboard to open it.
Select the Frame tool and draw a frame on the whiteboard. Then, select the label in the upper-left of the frame and add a label to it. This keeps the whiteboard tidy as you add content. We will label the frame “Fredwin Cycling process: Feedback to engineering handoff" to describe the process shown in the diagram.
Open the Shapes menu and add your first shape. Double-click in the center of the shape to label it with the step it represents. Use a shape's toolbar to customize its color and border.
Click the blue dot to the right of a selected shape to add an additional shape connected by an arrow. Use the new shape's toolbar to select a shape that represents the next step in your process and customize its style.
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Depending on your process, you might need to show branches for a decision point. In this example, the decision is stakeholder sign-off. If stakeholders approve, we can continue to the next step. If they do not, we loop back to earlier steps and repeat the work as needed.
Use a diamond shape for the decision and label outgoing arrows to make each path clear.
Add an additional arrow to show the second decision branch. Select an arrow and choose Label from its toolbar, then type the label. We will label our arrows "Yes" and "No" for our decision branch outcomes. For the "No" path, you can add an optional second label that names the steps to repeat.
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We want the arrows on our diagram to be more prominent, so we will experiment with arrow weight for one of the diagram's arrows until we find a style we like. To save time, we can now copy the arrow style and paste it to the rest of the arrows in the diagram:
Select the arrow, then right-click and select Copy style.
Deselect the arrow. Then, hold the shift key while selecting all the other arrows in the diagram. Right-click and select Paste style to update the format on the remaining arrows.
Share with stakeholders
Our process diagram is now complete! Let's share it with our teammates to see if they have feedback. Because the diagram is embedded in a note, we will share the entire note:
Click Share in the note's upper right.
Click Copy link.
Share the link.
If your teammates have feedback on the diagram, they can add inline comments directly to the whiteboard.
If you get stuck, please reach out to our Customer Success team. It is made up entirely of product experts and responds fast.