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Opportunity

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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.

What are 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.

This is what an Opportunity card looks like in the expanded view.

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 Opportunity settings

Managing Opportunities in a dedicated module

Timebook has a dedicated module for managing Opportunities, offering multiple perspectives through different data layouts. The [Opportunities] module is designed to help you identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential areas for growth, improvement, or innovation.

You can access Opportunity-related data in two ways:

  • From the Discovery section: Open the [Opportunities] module in the [Discovery] section of the Navigator to view all Opportunities across your entire Timebook Workplace.

  • From a specific Team: Open the [Opportunities] module within a Team to see only the Opportunities assigned to that Team, offering a more focused view.

Manage all Inisghts across your Workplace or focus on specific Team only.

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 Opportunity settings

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.

Opportunities you create, are assigned to, or watch appear in the My Work module, where you can view and manage all items relevant to you.

The [Opportunities] module holds all the relevant discovery data, 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

Creating an Opportunity

You can create Opportunities in several ways:

  • At the Team level: Use the [Opportunities] module within a specific Team.

  • From the Discovery section: Access the dedicated entry point in the [Discovery] section of the Navigator.

  • Contextually within Timebook: Create Opportunities directly from other areas, such as within an OST.

You can create new Opportunities directly in Timebook, but if you already have data in a .csv file, you can import it instead. During the import process, you can map columns from your file to Timebook properties to ensure your data is structured correctly.

For more information, see Importing data into Timebook

No matter where you begin, the creation process remains nearly identical to the steps outlined below:

This is how you create an Opportunity.

  1. Click the [+] button at the top of the list of Opportunities. The button placement may vary depending on your chosen data layout.

  2. 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.

  3. Click [Create...] to save your changes. The new Opportunity is added to the list.

  4. 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.

Opportunity cards

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.

The top bar of an Opportunity card gives you plenty of additional options.
Options available in the top bar

  1. [Navigation arrows] These arrows help you navigate between recently opened objects. Use the arrows to quickly return to the previous object and then move back to the original one. This is especially useful when navigating between linked objects or parent and sub-objects.

  2. [Parent object indicator] If your Opportunity has a defined parent object, we will show the parent’s type and name here. You can click the indicator to open the parent object’s card.

  3. [Item ID] This field shows the unique number of your Opportunity in Timebook. Click the ID field to copy it for future reference.

  4. The following options are available in the top-right corner of the card:

    • [Collapse/Expand] This button lets you show or hide the right-side drawer. The drawer contains all the properties of your Opportunity, such as Assignee, Status, Opportunity Score, and more. Expand the drawer to modify properties or collapse it to focus on the description or attachments.

    • [Copy link] Use this button to copy a link to your Opportunity for quick sharing with others.

    • [Watch] If you’re not the creator or assignee but still want to stay informed, you can watch an object to track changes. You can also assign others as watchers. Once you start watching, you’ll receive notifications about all important updates. All your watched objects are easily accessible in the [Watched] tab of My Work.

    • [...] Use this additional menu for more options. You can [Duplicate] your Opportunity to create an identical copy in the same location, [Link parent] to select a parent object for your Opportunity, or [Delete] it if it’s no longer needed.

Opportunity card: Sections

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.

You can collapse or expand Opportunity card sections to focus on what’s relevant.

Here’s an overview of the sections of an Opportunity card and their purpose:

Name

You can edit this field at any time to rename your Opportunity. Next to this field is a switch that lets you change the type of your Opportunity. Click the icon next to the name to select a different type.

Tags

This section allows you to categorize your Opportunity using tags. Tags help you find and identify objects in Timebook, as you can filter or group content by tags in various modules.

You can [Add tags] using the dedicated button or remove them by hovering over a tag and clicking [X]. For more information, see Tags

Description

This is where you provide more details about your Opportunity. Enter text here, or press “/” to access advanced options. Use them to format your description, link other Timebook elements, or insert embedded content from external sources.

These text-formatting options are similar to those available in Timebook Documents. For more information, see Blocks

Links & attachments

This section is where you can support an Opportunity with links to external resources or attachments, such as files or Timebook Documents. Click the [+] button and choose the type of resource you want to add. Next, provide the link and a brief description.

Each linked resource type is marked with a dedicated icon, so you can quickly distinguish Figma links from Loom links, for example.

Sub-Opportunities

In Timebook, you can create a hierarchy of Opportunities by adding sub-items. They represent discovery work that must be completed before the parent Opportunity is marked as done. Click the [+] button in this section to create sub-items, or use the [Link] button to browse and select existing objects to turn them into sub-items.

All sub-Opportunities are displayed in this section and grouped by the Teams they belong to. You can unlink these items from the main Opportunity by clicking the [...] icon and selecting [Unlink].

Solutions

Unlike other card sections available in other Timebook objects, the [Solutions] section is unique to Opportunities. Use this section to optimize the discovery process by connecting ideas for growth and improvement with potential solutions. Click the [+] button to create a Solution object linked to this Opportunity.

For more information on the role of Solutions in the discovery process, see Solution

Related

While [Sub-Opportunities] show the parent-child relationship, the [Related] section focuses on dependencies between your Opportunities and other Timebook objects. Click the [+] button in this section and use the dropdown menu to select the type of dependency, such as “Is blocked by,” “Supports,” or “Generated from.” Next, use the search bar to find and link an existing Timebook object.

Here, you can link your Opportunity to other object types; for example, you can create a link between an Opportunity and a Ticket.

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.

Opportunity card: Tabs

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.

Use the tabs on the right to make the most of the Opportunity card.

Here’s an overview of the Work Item card tabs and their purpose:

Tab name
How to use it

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.

For more information on the options available in this tab, see our separate article dedicated to Properties

This tab also features the [Linked outcomes] section, where you can connect your Opportunity to an outcome that serves as the root of an Opportunity Solution Tree (OST). OSTs help you visualize how Opportunities contribute to achieving planned product outcomes.

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.

Related articles

Opportunity settings

Solution

Opportunity Solution Tree

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