Introducing Productboard’s Azure DevOps integration with 2-way sync

Productboard launched our Azure DevOps integration with 2-way sync, supporting even more development teams using Microsoft’s software delivery system. Product managers can push features and critical context from Productboard to Azure DevOps so developers can build great products. 

Product managers and developers work on two different but essential halves of a whole: product discovery and product development. One discovers the right problems to work on, and the latter builds the right solutions to those problems. But often, product managers jump back and forth between siloed information in different tools, which wastes time or shoehorn these two processes into one tool which does not fit their needs. 

The easy-to-use integration connects product discovery and development. Product managers can execute product discovery and planning in Productboard and push features directly into Azure DevOps as new work items (or link to existing work items!). They’ll see the latest work item status in Productboard, so it’s easy to stay on top of the team’s progress and the description and the title can be synchronized between both systems. Product teams can be more aligned, focused, and productive.

Better together: A dedicated product management system complements existing development tools

Product managers today are tasked with duplicating content in multiple systems, which results in wasted time. Product Managers’ detailed and complex discovery work is often invisible to developers for delivery. Without understanding the “why” behind every feature, developers struggle with an extensive backlog not prioritized by strategic criteria. When a solution is based on assumptions instead of on data and true customer needs, teams waste time and products miss the mark.

With the Azure DevOps integration, product and development teams work harmoniously in solutions purpose-built for their work. Each owner lives in their preferred application: product managers in Productboard and developers in Azure DevOps. Product managers have their own home to understand high-level customer needs and prioritize and plan features aligning with company objectives. And when they’re ready to pass the torch to the development team, product managers can pass the context (Title, Description) of the prioritized features by pushing them from one tool to another, saving time and hassle. 

Plus, product managers supercharge their development counterparts through rich context on product decisions, providing the “why” behind every feature. Everyone’s life is now easier, and developers are more creative in building excellent customer-focused products based on true customer needs. When choosing to build our Azure DevOps integration, we even used our own customer feedback Portal to prioritize the right customer-focused feature (check it out and add your requests!).

“The right integrations matter. I want the teams to use the tool that is best for them, but for the product team, I want a single tool. Jira and Azure DevOps live here, and that’s really for the devs. For your product team, you have the tool that lives right in front of that, and that’s Productboard.” — Noah Singer

Noah Singer, head of product at 1-800 Contacts, uses the Azure DevOps integration with Productboard, product, and development teams:

• Save time by surfacing crucial information in both systems, so teams efficiently work in solutions purpose-built for their work for seamless product delivery
• Increase productivity, focus, and alignment by providing teams essential context about feature status and delivery 
• Drive cross-team visibility by enabling clear and consistent communication, so teams are up to date on the delivery status  

“With Productboard and Azure DevOps, it’s easier to keep track of development status. We empower development teams with customer context, making them really focused on the user while fueling the speed of our product team.” — Helmut Linde, product owner at World Vision

How the Azure DevOps integration works

Integration capabilities:

• Push features or sub-features from Productboard to Azure DevOps with the critical info (Title, Description, link back to the feature in Productboard)
• Link a Productboard feature or subfeature to an existing/related Azure DevOps work item
• Unlink a Productboard feature or subfeature from an Azure DevOps work item
• See the DevOps work item status right from within Productboard
• Synchronize the Title and Description between Productboard and Azure DevOps to share the same context between both systems (Productboard Feature Name <> Azure DevOps Work Item Title, Productboard Feature Description <> Azure DevOps Work Item Description)

Get the right products to market, faster

Get started now with Productboard and the Azure DevOps integration, available to Productboard customers on all plans. You can enable multiple instances and Azure DevOps Server 2018 and higher (on-premise) on the Productboard Enterprise plan. Workspace admins can enable the integration in Productboard workspace settings.

Are you an Azure DevOps user interested in Productboard? Sign up for a demo and see the integration in action for yourself.