Jira Align ideation and product discovery
Asked by Mauro Sousa:

We currently use Jira Align, and we struggle to adopt its ideation functionality due to its primitive nature, lack of flexibility and functionality. Product discovery seems to address some of these challenges. However, as it only integrates with Jira Software, and Product Managers in our org mostly work off Jira Align, it does not seem to be a good fit for us.

Anyone aware of plans to expand Product Discovery (and potentially replace the ideation module within Align) and integrate it with Align? It seems strange for Atlassian to have the same competition functionality in different products.


Answers:
author: Irina_Bel_Stiltsoft_
body: Hi [@Mauro Sousa](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4852032)

I would advise trying the[Customer Case for Jira](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1212531/customer-case-jira-support-feedback?hosting=cloud&tab=overview) and create a public portal for collecting feedback from customers (or from employees) for Jira Product Discovery project. Every idea created on the portal goes automatically into it. You can also create a private portal with email domain or specific email restrictions. We're on the way to implementing the same functionality as in other projects that Customer Case forums can be integrated with (Work Management, JSM, Software).


author: Mike Dupuy
body: Hey Mauro, great question!

If your organization is currently using Jira Align for ideation, then that may be the best way to proceed. Jira Product Discovery is geared for product managers that currently don't have a space to track and manage their product ideas, and provides them with the ability to connect their ideas with the work being done in Jira Software. Are you able to share the challenges that you're currently experiencing with Jira Align Ideation so I can pass them on to our product team? Copying [@Jake Comito](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4492715) from our Jira Align PM team here as well

comments: author: Mauro Sousa
body: hi Mike, thanks for reaching out. I have discussed it with Natalia sometime back. Here are some of the points we struggle with in the order of pain:  
* rudimentary reporting; the only way to enhance it is through enterprise insights, but teams don't want it b/c they need an "operational dashboard" where they can take quick actions within the tool. For example, it's not possible to:
  * filter by out of box attributes
  * filter by fields created using custom forms
  * get visibility about aging of ideas (for assessment prioritization)
  * generate metrics based on submitter, category, aging, etc.
* ability to define workflow and states
* Notifications (individuals and/or groups)
* Questionnaire based ideation portal selection capability - this might be a stretch but the goal is make the life easier of users to direct them to the right portal they should be submitting ideas against (we now have too many).

A couple of teams are experimenting with Product Discovery, and they are much happier with its functionality.


author: Rashmin Bhagat
body: This is pretty interesting. So is Atlassian positioning the products as JA + JSW doesn't need JPD? I would be surprised if that is the case as Ideation in JA is a very barebones module for Product Managers and no wonder they are not inclined to using it. I was more so hoping that it is a JPD-\>JA-\>JSW flow for Product -\> Programme -\> Engineering from planning perspective and the reverse flow for execution. And hence even I had the same question as to will JPD integrate with JA at some point?


author: Rohan Swami
body: hi [@Mauro Sousa](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4852032) these are tools aimed at difference audiences. While Product Discovery is aimed at discovery/product teams, Align is aimed at executives. We don't have plans in the short term to build more integration features across these products.

comments: author: Mauro Sousa
body: Rohan, thanks for your reply.

Align has never been positioned to us as an aim exclusively to executives, but as a powerful tool for Portfolio and Product Management.

From the help within Ideation:

"The Ideation module offers the ability to solicit ideas or change requests from external sources (registered users, but without Jira Align licenses), or internal partners (with Jira Align licenses). "

<br />

"The public, external portal is a lightweight extension of the internal idea process that enables a **Product Manager** to gather suggestions from the appropriately authorized end users."

They do seem to have the same audience and similar vision.


author: Sarah Green
body: Following because I would like to know the answer to your last question. I couldn't tell you what the difference is between Align and JPD - we have both, but PMs have **zero** desire to use Align.