Opportunity
Reading time: 7 minutes
Last updated
Reading time: 7 minutes
Last updated
In short: Opportunities are dedicated objects that help your team capture and evaluate potential areas for product development. They highlight areas for improvement or innovation and can be aligned with your organization’s strategic goals. Each Opportunity includes the [Opportunity score] property to help prioritize based on potential impact. Each Team can use a dedicated module that provides various data layouts to manage and prioritize Opportunities.
Opportunities are a key part of the discovery stage in product development, where teams focus on identifying areas for growth, improvement, or problem-solving. They are often directly connected to Solutions, forming the foundation of the Opportunity Solution Tree approach. This method enables teams to visualize how opportunities and their potential solutions interconnect, driving informed decisions about product development.
Opportunities are dedicated objects in Timebook that help your team systematically capture and evaluate potential for product development. They are designed to highlight areas for improvement or innovation and can be aligned with your organization’s strategic goals.
The Opportunity object includes a unique property called the [Opportunity score], which helps you prioritize based on the potential impact. This score is calculated using two other properties: [Importance] and [Satisfaction]. By combining these values, the score highlights which areas may offer the greatest benefits, guiding teams toward high-impact opportunities within the discovery phase.
As a Team Admin or Owner, you must first enable Opportunities in your Team’s settings to enjoy Opportunity-related features and their dedicated module.
For more information, see Discovery settings in Team
Timebook has a dedicated module for managing Opportunities, offering multiple perspectives through different data layouts. The [Opportunities] module is designed to help teams identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential areas for growth, improvement, or innovation. In short, this module is your one place to manage all your Team’s Opportunities.
As a Team Owner or Admin, you can customize the [Opportunities] module in Team settings. You can create custom statuses or increase automatization by integrating with Git.
For more information, see Discovery settings in Team
As a Product Manager, you can use the [Opportunities] module to evaluate potential growth areas, track the status of Opportunities under consideration, and collaborate with stakeholders to refine them.
As a Team Member, you can use Opportunity objects to share ideas, contribute observations about user needs, and collaborate with your team to refine these Opportunities during the discovery phase.
The [Opportunities] module holds all the relevant discovery data for your Team, which you can customize using various layouts, filters, and grouping options. Additionally, you can save these customized views as public for all members to access or keep them private for your personal use.
We have dedicated articles that explain how to manage data views and layouts in several Timebook modules, including this one.
For more information, see Layouts & views
You can create Opportunities in the [Opportunities] module in any Team. You can also create them contextually in other places in Timebook, like within an OST. The process is nearly identical to the one explained below.
To create an Opportunity:
Click the [+] button at the top of the list of Opportunities. The button placement may vary depending on your chosen data layout.
Give your new Opportunity a meaningful name. At this stage, you can also:
Add a short description.
Define basic properties, such as Assignee, Priority, or Status.
Click [Create...] to save your changes. The new Opportunity is added to the list.
Open the Opportunity to edit its details and access all the available options and properties.
When editing an Opportunity, explore sections and tabs on its card to easily access all management options. See below for more information.
In Timebook, each Opportunity has its own card that displays all the options and properties you can use to manage it. In different layouts, you can also use cards to move your Opportunities around. For instance, you can drag and drop an Opportunity card to:
Mark the status and progress of the Opportunity in the Board layout.
Change the Opportunity’s position in the List layout.
After you open an Opportunity card, you can manage and navigate using the options in the top bar.
When you look at the left side of an Opportunity card, you’ll notice several sections. Each section has a specific purpose: to help you describe your work, categorize it, or add supporting resources. The [Solutions] section might be particularly important for you. Here, you can link your Opportunity to the next step in the discovery process: Solution objects.
Here’s an overview of the sections of an Opportunity card and their purpose:
Most of the sections presented above are not exclusive to Opportunity cards.
Cards of other object types in Timebook, such as Work Items or Tickets, have nearly identical designs.
When you look at the right side of an Opportunity card, you’ll notice several tabs. They allow you to further define your Opportunity, provide an update, and track changes over time.
Here’s an overview of the Work Item card tabs and their purpose:
Properties
You can use multiple fields in this tab to fine-tune, categorize, or track your Opportunity. You can start by changing Priority or Status, but the flexibility of our properties can handle even the most complex cases.
This tab features the [Linked Goals] section, allowing you to align your Opportunity with a specific Key Result of a Goal. This will help you connect your discovery process to broader objectives.
For more information on the options available in this tab, see our separate article dedicated to Properties
Comments
This tab allows Workplace members to communicate, share updates, and collaborate directly within the Opportunity. They can ask questions, provide updates, or offer feedback, making it a central hub for discovery-related communication. You can mention others using the @ symbol and notify specific people directly.
For more information, see Comments
Activity
This tab tracks all actions and changes made to this Opportunity, providing a detailed history of events. It displays them in chronological order, showing when changes were made and by whom. The information in this tab is generated automatically, usually including status updates, priority changes, reassignments, and comments.
We put all the tabs in a drawer, so you can hide them by clicking the [Collapse/Expand] button at the top of your Opportunity card.
