Planning complex work often means jumping between whiteboards, backlogs, and reports. It is hard to keep everyone focused when the details that matter live somewhere else. You can solve this by bringing real records into the same space where you brainstorm and plan. Add Aha! records directly to your whiteboard, then move and group them as you refine your plans. This helps you see priorities, dependencies, and ownership clearly — and keep discussions grounded in accurate, up‑to‑date data.
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When you add records to your whiteboard, anyone with viewing access to your whiteboard will be able to see the records' names. Only whiteboard users with access to the workspace(s) where the records are located will be able to open the records and view their data.
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Ways to add records to a whiteboard
Search and add records
Search for and add records in your Aha! account on your whiteboard.
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Access the Shapes menu from the whiteboard toolbar, find the Roadmaps section, and select Existing.
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In the Search modal, use the search bar to find the record(s) you are looking for. You can search by a record's Title and Description.
All record types that meet the search terms will appear in your search results.
Hover over a record to reveal its + icon. Click it to select it. Selected records will populate in a column to the right.
Once you have selected all the records you want to add to your whiteboard, click Add records.
After adding your records, each of them will show as a record card that displays the record's type and Title, Assignee, and Product value score fields.
If you want to show additional details on record cards, you can customize your record card layout.
Add from a report
The quickest way to add multiple records to your whiteboards at once is to export a list report, pivot report, prioritization view, Gantt chart, user story map, or roadmap that includes the records you want to add. You can add features, epics, ideas, initiatives, and key results as records. When you export a Gantt view, strategic roadmap, features roadmap, or custom roadmap to your whiteboard, releases, release phases, and milestones will also be added as records. Other records in your report will export to your whiteboard as text.
To export your report, click the Export menu. Under Add to, select Whiteboard as records.
The Add to whiteboard modal will open. Choose Existing whiteboard and select a whiteboard from the dropdown to add the records to a whiteboard that already exists in your workspace or personal documents. Choose Create new whiteboard and select a workspace to open the records in a new whiteboard (or select None to open the new whiteboard in your personal documents). Then, click Add to whiteboard.
The new or existing whiteboard you selected in the previous step will open with all records from your list report.
Once you export the records to your whiteboard, you can move them around freely. Click a record's name to open its drawer view. Each record will display its record type icon, record ID, name, assignee (if applicable), and product value score. An ideas record will also display its number of votes. Each record's border color will reflect its status.
If you would like to view a live report on your whiteboard and do not need to move around individual records, you can embed a live report instead.
Add with a link
You can add individual records to your whiteboard in seconds. Just copy a record's URL and paste it onto your whiteboard, or drag and drop it onto your whiteboard from another window. The record will be added automatically.
You can also add all the records on a roadmap or report to your whiteboard by adding a link. Paste the report's link onto your whiteboard and select Import as records to import its records.
If you would prefer to view a record as a shape or sticky note, select the record and click the Shape icon on the record's toolbar and choose the shape you want to use.
Work with related records and dependencies
Import related records
Import related records to your whiteboard to automatically add parent records, child records, and dependencies. This makes it easy to see how work connects and share that view with stakeholders.
After you add a record to your whiteboard, you can add related records with a few clicks:
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Click the record, open the More options button, and select Import related records. Then, select one of the following options:
Parents: Imports all parent records in the record's hierarchy (this is a great way to see how the record relates to the highest level of your product strategy)
Children: Imports all child records in the record's hierarchy
Dependencies: Imports all records linked to the original record with a dependency relationship
Related: Imports all related records linked on the record's Related tab into your whiteboard
When you import related records, they appear connected by a line on your whiteboard. If there is a dependency or related link, the line displays the relationship type.
Records linked with a parent or child relationship appear in a hierarchy. The highest-level records are at the top, and the lowest-level records are at the bottom.
Visualize dependencies between records
It is useful to have records on your whiteboard for activities like PI planning, quarterly planning, and launch planning. You can move records freely and reference them easily. You can even view dependencies between records to make planning more efficient.
You can create a dependency between two records on your whiteboard. Connect the two records with a line and use the Create dependency option in the connector's toolbar.
Right-click on a blank space on your whiteboard canvas or click your whiteboard's More options button. Then, select Show dependency lines.
A connector will appear that shows you the relationship between records that are linked in Aha! Roadmaps. The following relationship types will appear on your whiteboard:
Depends on / Is a dependency of
Impacts / Is impacted by
Blocks / Is blocked by
You can edit the connector's color, style, weight, labels, and path. To refresh dependency lines, right-click again and select Refresh dependency lines.
You can move dependency lines anywhere you like, but doing so will not change a record's relationship to another record. You will need to open a record's drawer view to do that.
Edit records from your whiteboard
Double-click a record's name to open its drawer view to edit it from your whiteboard.
To bulk edit records, select multiple records by pressing Shift and clicking the desired records. When the bulk edit toolbar appears, click the More options button and select Bulk edit. The bulk edit modal (the same one you use for bulk editing in list reports) will open. Edit the fields you want to apply to all selected records and click Apply.
Control what you see on record cards
Customize record cards
You can customize Aha! record cards on your whiteboard to display the information that is most important to you. Select a record and click the card layout icon in its toolbar to open the record card editor. From here, you can change a card's background, add and rearrange fields, and organize record cards the way you want to see them.
Click the gear ⚙️ dropdown to choose whether the Card highlight should highlight the record's status in the Background or just the Sidebar (this leaves the background white).
To customize the card layout:
Find the fields you want to add to the card layout. If you have a lot of available fields, use the Search modal at the top of the tab to find the one you need. You can also collapse Standard fields or Custom fields to show only one type of field.
Drag and drop fields onto a card to add them. Click the X beside a field to remove it.
You can drop fields next to others on the same row or beneath the bottom row of fields to create a new row on the layout.
Add a Divider line anywhere on the card layout to better organize key data.
Click Reset to default to revert your changes to the default layout, Cancel to exit the modal, or Save to save your work.
Show live field values on your whiteboard
Add individual Aha! fields to your whiteboard as live shapes when you want to call attention to a single detail (such as status, assignee, due date, or custom field) without adding the full record card.
Live fields stay in sync with the underlying record. When the record updates in Aha! the value on your whiteboard updates as well.
Add a live field
Use the Live field shape to add a single field from any Aha! record to your whiteboard.
Open your whiteboard and select Shapes from the toolbar.
In the Roadmaps section, select Live field.
Search for the record you want to use. You can search by a record's title and description.
Select your record, then choose the field you want to display. You can use standard or custom fields.
Click Add to place the live field on your whiteboard.
A shape appears on the canvas showing the current field value. If the field is empty, the shape shows a placeholder instead of a blank cell.
Control how a live field looks
You can adjust the appearance of a live field to match the rest of your whiteboard.
Select the live field on your whiteboard to access its toolbar.
Open the Options menu and toggle the Field name or Record ID labels on or off. When the labels are off, the shape looks like regular text.
Use the formatting controls to change the font, size, color, text alignment, border, and background — just as you would for other text shapes on your whiteboard. These changes do not break the live connection to the underlying record.
You cannot edit the text inside a live field to overwrite the value that comes from the record. To change the value, edit the record itself in your account.
Use live fields in presentations
Whiteboards that contain live fields work well in presentations. When you add a whiteboard with live fields to a presentation:
Each live field continues to display the current value from its source record.
When the underlying records change, the presentation reflects the updated values the next time it loads the whiteboard.
This helps you share slides that stay accurate over time without re-exporting data from reports.