Onboarding your organization to ProductCentral

What is ProductCentral?

Airtable ProductCentral (PC) unifies your entire product development process, from strategy to delivery. Learn more about ProductCentral on our solutions page.

How do I request access to ProductCentral for my organization?

• Existing Business or Enterprise Scale customers - Contact your AE or CSM to discuss adding the ProductCentral solution for your organization.

• New Airtable customers - Use this form to contact our Sales team. Note that Free or Team plan customers cannot request ProductCentral.

Setting up ProductCentral for your organization

As a user with Owner or Creator permissions in your organization’s ProductCentral instance you can access a “Settings” page where they can configure ProductCentral (“PC”) to reflect your organization’s needs and terminology. In the sections below, we’ll breakdown each of the settings modules and help connect each module back to the PC application that you are customizing.

NOTE

The settings discussed in this article may appear differently than the settings that you see when onboarding your organization to ProductCentral or adjusting these settings at a later point in time. In those cases, try to think of the steps discussed below conceptually and customize the settings for your organization based on those concepts.

Goals

In the “Goals” section of your organization's PC settings, you will be customizing the standard OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework in your underlying base to fit your organization’s taxonomy. You will also decide which field(s) will be shown on an interface page that displays key results. Finally, you’ll optionally enable an automation that will send key result update reminders to users who own one or more projects that need a key result update.

1. Choose naming conventions:

   1. Choose the name for your “Objectives” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Objective” record will be known in that table.

   2. Choose the name for your “Key results” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Key result” record will be known in that table.

2. Add, delete, or modify the options shown in a single select field that will track key result health. You can also modify the colors of these options. These settings will alter a default executive dashboard interface page by filtering records based on the status of the goals for your team.

   1. Set which single select option represents that the key results for a project have not started yet.

   2. Set which single select option(s) should be considered active. If you choose to enable automated notifications in the last portion of the goals settings, then users with projects that have key results that match any of these health statuses will receive an update reminder.

   3. Set which single select option(s) should be considered on track.

   4. Set which single select option(s) represent projects at risk of not meeting their key result goals.

   5. Set which single select option(s) represent projects that are currently not meeting their key result goals.

3. Choose which field(s) to show on the “Key result” page of the interface page that end users will see.

4. Optionally, enable a “Key result update reminder” notification for project DRIs

   1. Set a timing frequency by clicking into the box below the “Frequency” setting.

   2. Click the box below “Notification type” to choose how/where the notification will sent. There are 5 potential methods: Send email (native), Gmail: Send email, Outlook: Send email, Slack: Send a message, or Microsoft Teams: Send a message

   3. Next, click Set up message. The steps here will vary depending on the communication method you picked above.

   4. Click Preview to see a preview of the automation’s message output.

5. When you are finished configuring or updating these settings be sure to click Save. You can also click Cancel at any time to discard any changes to the Goals settings that you have made.

Directory

The “Directory” represents the people who work at your organization. There is a default “People” table included and already connected on the backend. However, you may want to replace the default people table with an existing table elsewhere in your organization’s instance. In this case, you can leverage Airtable Sync to bring that data into your ProductCentral instance. If you want to use the default People table, then you can skip this portion of the onboarding process, otherwise, follow these steps:

1. From the Settings page, click the ProductCentral ⌄ option and then click View data.

2. This will take you to the base layer of your organization’s ProductCentral instance.

3. Next, consult the steps outlined in this support article.

   1. The steps there go through the process of enabling a syncable view of data in the source, connecting it to the destination (in this case, you’ll return to your ProductCentral base to add the new synced table), as well as other important understandings related to the Airtable Sync feature.

   2. To fully leverage PC’s capabilities you will want to connect a table that contains a name field, email field, user field, and an attachment field that contains a profile picture for each person in your organization.

4. Once you’ve synced the table to PC, return to the PC Settings -> Directory page.

5. Click Select a table.

6. Next, you will map the name field, email field, user field, and an attachment field that contains a profile picture from the synced table so that the correct fields are connected to PC.

7. Finally, be sure to click Save.

Feedback

The “Feedback” section of your PC settings is used to set up the schema by which your team intends to organize customer feedback. There are 4 default tables included with PC related to managing feedback. The “Feedback” table represents individual, line item feedback from your customers. The “Products” table represents the individual products that your team is managing. The third table is “Themes” representing the different buckets of feedback. The “Products” and “Themes” tables allow end users to view feedback in organized groupings. There is also a “Customers” table representing the various organizations and/or individuals who might provide feedback for your products.

NOTE

You may choose to substitute the “Feedback” and “Customers” tables with synced tables managed elsewhere in your organization’s Airtable instance. This process is covered in step 4 below, but to set yourself up for success you should follow a similar process to the one covered in the Directory section in order to sync the data in your base before proceeding.

1. Choose naming conventions

   1. Choose the name for your “Products” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Product” record will be known in that table.

   2. Choose the name for your “Themes” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Theme” record will be known in that table.

2. Set the various select options across the tables connected to feedback.

   1. Click the dropdown below “Status options for themes” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different statuses related to your themes. By default there are 3 statuses: Existing capability, Feature gap, or Other.

   2. Click the dropdown below “Status options for feedback” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different statuses related to your feedback review. By default there are 3 statuses: Needs review, Active, or Closed.

   3. Click the dropdown below “Status option to indicate feedback state before they are reviewed” and select the option that best suits your organization’s needs.

   4. Click the dropdown below “Status options to indicate feedback being actively worked on” and select the option that best suits your organization’s needs.

   5. Click the dropdown below “Status options to indicate feedback that is closed out” and select the option that best suits your organization’s needs.

   6. Click the dropdown below “Types of feedback to track” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different types of feedback your organization wants to track. By default there are 5 types: Bug report, Complaint, Praise, Idea, or Question.

3. Optionally turn on AI matching related to product feedback. We highly recommend turning this feature on as it will save hours of work by end users in many cases. To do so, you will set one or more fields that will help give the AI context in order to automatically link records based upon the following relationships:

   1. Matching feedback to products

   2. Matching feedback to themes

   3. Matching products and themes to feedback

4. Optionally substitute a synced table for the “Feedback” and/or “Customer” tables. As a reminder, you’ll want to consult the steps outlined in this support article to sync those external tables into your PC instance.

   1. Below “Synced feedback table (optional)” click the Select a table option. You will then want to set up the following field mappings: subject field, notes field, submitter name field, submitter email field, feedback type field, screenshots (attachment) field, submitted time field, and channel field. By default the channel field will be a form where feedback is gathered, but you may choose to eventually gather feedback from other sources in the future.

   2. Below “Synced customer table (optional)” click the Select a table option. You will then want to set up the following field mappings: customer name field, customer type (select) field, and customer value field.

5. Finally, be sure to click Save.

Projects

The “Projects” section of your PC settings allows you to reflect your Product team’s taxonomy and processes in PC. You will set up an automated notification that will remind Project DRIs to submit an update for any projects they own. You also will set up the various select options that will track project stages, health,  and more.

1. Optionally set up project update reminder notifications.

2. Choose naming conventions

   1. Choose the name for your “Projects” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Project” record will be known in that table.

3. Set the project health status options

   1. Click the dropdown below “Project health options” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different statuses related to an individual project. By default there are 7 statuses: Not started, On track, At risk, Off track, Completed, Paused, and Cancelled.

4. Set the project phase options

   1. Click the dropdown below “Project phases” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different phases related to an individual project. By default there are 6 statuses: Definition, Design, Engineering, Internal QA, Limited release, and Generally available.

5. Set the project state options

   1. Click the dropdown below “Project state” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different states related to an individual project. By default there are 8 statuses: Parking lot, Under consideration, Backlog, Planned, Active, Paused, Cancelled, and Released.

   2. Under “States to indicate backlog” select one or more of the states that show that the project is not currently active.

   3. Under “States to indicate active projects” select one or more states that are considered active. This is important because the project states selected here will determine whether a project receives the automatic notifications you configured in step 1 above.

6. Choose which field(s) to show on the “Roadmaps” section of the interface page that end users will see.

   1. Under “Update fields to show on the Projects page” select one or more fields that will show up on…

7. Set the types of documents that a project can have. These options will reflect in a “Project documents” table in your PC instance where end users will add and tag the various documentation related to the projects they are working on.

   1. Click the dropdown below “Types of documents a project can have” to add, delete, modify, and set colors for the different document types that can be added to an attachment field in a record in the “Project documents” table and linked with an individual project. By default there are 8 statuses: Parking lot, Under consideration, Backlog, Planned, Active, Paused, Cancelled, and Released.

8. Finally, be sure to click Save.

Development

Setting up the “Development” portion of the settings will allow you to customize the way that your organization’s PC instance structures the various “Tasks” and “Epics” that must be completed in order for your product launches to come to fruition. You will configure the various naming conventions that match your organization’s taxonomy as well as the various fields that will help connect your tasks and epics together to effectively track every aspect of your product development process. If your organization uses Jira Cloud to track tasks externally, then you will also be able to configure a synced connection from Jira to Airtable.

NOTE

You may choose to substitute the “Tasks” and “Epics” tables with synced tables managed elsewhere in your organization’s Airtable instance. This process is covered in step 4 below, but to set yourself up for success you should follow a similar process to the one covered in the Directory section in order to sync the data in your base before proceeding.

1. Choose naming conventions:

   1. Choose the name for your “Tasks” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Task” record will be known in that table.

   2. Choose the name for your “Epics” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Epic” record will be known in that table.

2. By default, Airtable includes an “Tasks” table in PC. However, you may want to substitute a synced table for the default “Tasks” table by clicking the Tasks dropdown below the “Synced tasks table (optional)” section. You will then set up the following field mappings:

   1. Parent task ID field - This field helps to create a hierarchical relationship between subtasks and a “parent” task.

   2. Parent epics ID field - In some cases, epics and task may share the some ID field, but you can set this up to point to another ID field if that makes more sense for your organization.

   3. Task assignee field - The field you pick should either represent a name or email address of an individual DRI. It also may depend on whether you substituted a table in the Directory section above.

   4. Task assignee field format - Choose whether the field you connected contains a name or an email address.

   5. Task status field - Pick a field (typically a single select field) that represents the status of each line item task.

   6. Status options to indicate completed tasks - Pick one or more options that represent a task that is finished.

   7. Task status options to exclude from progress tracking -

   8. Task size field - By default this is a number field that sizes tasks from 1 (smallest) to 10 (largest). You might also consider adding a single select field or rating field to accomplish something similar for your organization.

   9. Task priority field - By default, this is a single select field where priority is assigned to each task. By default there are 3 priority levels (P0, P1, and P2), but you can modify these in your PC base by navigating to the “Tasks” table and editing the options for the “Priority” field.

   10. Task title field - The title of the field. Usually this should be a single line text field.

   11. Task description field - Typically, this is a long text field that stores a description of the task in your base.

   12. Task external link field - This should be a URL field or a single line text field with URLs stored in it. This is helpful when tasks may also be tracked in an external project tracking program.

3. By default, Airtable includes an “Epics” table in PC. However, you may want to substitute a synced table for the default “Epics” table by clicking the Epics dropdown below the “Synced tasks table (optional)” section. You will then set up the following field mappings:

   1. Epic title field - A single line text field that will be the title for each epic record stored in Airtable.

   2. Epic description field - A long text field containing a description of each epic.

   3. Epic external link field - If your organization tracks epics in another place, then you can choose a URL field that will allow end users to access that surface with a click.

4. If your organization tracks development externally, in Jira Cloud, then you can connect the information tracked there by leveraging Airtable’s Sync feature. To set this up:

   1. Click the None dropdown below the “Tasks external source” section.

   2. Select Jira Cloud.

   3. Click Select account. If you haven’t already connected an account previously, then you will click Manage connected accounts and go through the process covered here. Once you’ve connected an account (or connected a new account) be sure the correct account is selected.

   4. Next, select a Jira site.

   5. Then, select a Jira project.

   6. Continue with set up as it relates to your organization. More about how the Jira Cloud sync integration works is available here.

5. Finally, be sure to click Save.

Launch

The “Launch” module in your organization’s PC settings allows you to customize the naming conventions related to the product release portion of your product development cycle. Here, you will configure settings and dependencies related to the framework of your “Marketing launches” and “Product releases.”

1. Choose naming conventions:

   1. Choose the name for your “Marketing launches” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Launch” record will be known in that table.

   2. Choose the name for your “Product releases” table.

      1. Choose the term by which each “Release” record will be known in that table.

2. Set up various field options

   1. Under “Status options for launches”

      1. By default, the options are Planned, Scheduled, and Released. Modify these based on your organization’s launch statuses.

   2. Under “Size options for launches”

      1. By default, the options are Small, Medium, Large, and Extra large. Modify these based on your organization’s launch sizes.

   3. Under “Status options for releases”

      1. By default, the options are Planned, Scheduled, and Release. Modify these based on your organization’s release statuses.

   4. Under “Visibility levels of projects upon release”

      1. By default, the options are Internal and Public. Modify these based on your organization’s different potential visibility types.

   5. Under “User impact levels of projects upon release”

      1. By default, the option are Small, Medium, and Large. This helps reflect the breadth of the project being released and may require further customization for your organization’s needs.

3. Set up a launch tasks template

   1. Under “Tasks that must be completed for a project before any release”

   2. This setting represents recurring tasks that should always be completed before a project release.

   3. These items will appear as a linked record to a “Release checklist items” table for each Project.