Whiteboards are excellent tools for brainstorming with your team, prioritizing work, and exploring different launch plan scenarios. Add smart zones to your whiteboard to apply predefined edits to any Aha! record dragged into them. Then, when you are ready to move your plan from a whiteboard to real records in Aha! Roadmaps, you do not have to open each record individually to adjust the details.
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Overview
A smart zone is a special type of frame that applies the same edits to any Aha! record objects dragged into it. By dragging an Aha! record object into a smart zone, you can change the actual Aha! Roadmaps record data automatically — without the need to open and manually adjust the Aha! Roadmaps data.
Smart zones apply edits to whiteboard shapes that have been converted to actual Aha! records. They will not apply changes to any other type of whiteboard object.
To use a smart zone, make sure you either add existing records from the Shapes menu, export records from Aha! Roadmaps into your whiteboard as records, or convert shapes to Aha! records first.
You can create as many smart zones as you need, and a single smart zone can affect more than one record type at a time. Smart zones can even overlap — so a record dragging into the overlapping section will receive edits from both smart zones at once.
Anyone who has edit permissions to your whiteboard can create smart zones or drag Aha! records into (and out of) them, making these perfect zones for collaborative editing.
Create a smart zone
To create a smart zone:
Click the Frame button from your whiteboard's toolbar.
Click and drag to create a frame with your desired dimensions. You can always resize it later.
From the frame's toolbar, click Enable smart zone.
The frame is now a smart zone, and you can configure it.
Configure a smart zone
Smart zones apply the same edits to any Aha! record dragged into them. You can configure different changes for different record types, so that a single smart zone can perform multiple tasks.
To configure a smart zone:
From a smart zone, click on the smart zone icon on your whiteboard. The right sidebar will open.
Click the smart zone's Name to rename it. You might choose a name that suggests what the smart zone will do, such as Add to PI, Move to backlog, or Mark high priority.
Choose a Record type from the dropdown.
Once you choose a record type, you will see a list of standard fields that the smart zone can affect, such as status, assignee, and location. Use the dropdowns to choose the field values that you want every Aha! record type to have once they are dragged into the smart zone.
Click Add record type to add and configure additional record types, if you want to.
At the top of the sidebar, click Refresh to apply your configuration to any records already in the smart zone.
At the bottom of the sidebar, click Disable smart zone to convert the smart zone back to a frame. Disabling the smart zone will not revert changes made to Aha! records within it.
Congratulations! Your smart zone is now ready to use. Drag Aha! record objects into it to automatically apply changes. The objects do not have to stay there, either. Drag them out again if you want to place them elsewhere in your whiteboard, such as on a roadmap or a template. Their metadata will not change unless you drag them into another smart zone.
Use cases
Need some inspiration? Use smart zones for any of these business needs, or come up with your own!
Add the brainstorming template to your whiteboard. At the end of the brainstorming session, convert the best ideas to Aha! records, and drag them into a smart zone that will add them to an "Up next" parking lot.
During strategic planning, create vertical smart zones for releases or initiatives, and horizontal smart zones for assignee.
During PI planning, apply the PI planning template to your whiteboard. Create smart zones for each team, and drag Aha! records into them to automatically add them to that team.
Export your features prioritization list from Aha! Roadmaps to a whiteboard as records. Then, drag these Aha! records into smart zones created for each team member to automatically assign them and add them to the next release.