ApproveThis manages your Productboard Integration approvals.

Two Platforms, One Goal: Smarter Product Development

Productboard helps teams build better products by organizing customer insights and roadmaps. ApproveThis ensures decisions happen faster by automating approvals. Together, they create a closed-loop system where strategic planning meets operational efficiency. When connected through Zapier, these platforms eliminate manual handoffs between ideation and execution – a common bottleneck for product teams.

For product managers juggling competing priorities, this integration means feature requests get reviewed faster, budget approvals sync automatically with roadmaps, and stakeholder feedback becomes actionable without endless email threads. Engineering teams benefit from clearer prioritization, while executives gain real-time visibility into decision timelines.

Why This Integration Matters

Productboard excels at capturing market needs but wasn’t built to handle approval workflows. ApproveThis specializes in routing decisions but doesn’t manage product strategy. The Zapier integration bridges this gap:

• Reduced Context Switching: Teams stay in Productboard while ApproveThis handles approvals in the background
• Audit Trail: Every approved/denied request automatically updates Productboard with decision rationale

A medical device company used this integration to cut their regulatory review process from 14 days to 3. Product managers submitted compliance documentation through Productboard, which triggered approval workflows in ApproveThis. Legal reviewers denied requests directly via email (no Productboard license needed), with all feedback syncing back as Productboard notes.

Key Use Cases for Cross-Functional Teams

1. Feature Prioritization with Budget Controls

When a PM adds a new feature in Productboard, ApproveThis can:

• Route budget approval requests to finance
• Check resource availability against engineering capacity
• Auto-approve features under $5K using approval thresholds

Example: A fintech startup uses calculated fields to compare feature ROI against development costs. If the numbers align, ApproveThis automatically approves the request and updates Productboard’s roadmap start date.

2. Customer-Driven Development

Product teams often struggle to validate which customer requests deserve roadmap spots. With this integration:

• Sales teams submit client feature requests via Productboard
• ApproveThis routes them to product leads for vetting
• Approved ideas populate Productboard’s “In Discovery” column

Example: A B2B SaaS company reduced duplicate feature submissions by 60% by auto-rejecting requests already in Productboard’s backlog.

3. Compliance & Legal Reviews

Highly regulated industries benefit from automated compliance checks:

• New Productboard features trigger GDPR/legal reviews
• ApproveThis uses sequential approvals (legal → security → exec)
• Approval groups ensure quorum for critical decisions

Example: A healthtech company auto-escalates stalled approvals during approver vacations using vacation delegation, keeping audits on schedule.

Implementation Guide

Step 1: Connect via Zapier

Create a Zapier account (free tier works for testing). Connect Productboard and ApproveThis using their Zapier integrations. Need help? Follow Zapier’s ApproveThis guide.

Step 2: Map Your Triggers

For feature approvals:

• Trigger: New Productboard feature → Action: Create ApproveThis request
• Trigger: Approved request → Action: Update Productboard status

Step 3: Configure Escalations

Set approval thresholds in ApproveThis based on:

• Feature cost estimates from Productboard
• Strategic priority levels
• Compliance risk scores

Team-Specific Benefits

Product Managers

Stop chasing approvals. Set conditional rules so features meeting OKR criteria get fast-tracked. Use real-time dashboards to explain delays during stakeholder reviews.

Finance Teams

ApproveThis’ calculated fields auto-flag features exceeding budget. Require multi-department consensus for high-cost items while letting small expenses auto-approve.

External Partners

Agency designers and contract engineers can submit ideas via Productboard without seeing internal roadmaps. Approvers review via email without needing Productboard access.

Advanced Configuration Tips

Combine ApproveThis’ features for complex scenarios:

• Dynamic Routing: Route EU features to GDPR specialists, US features to local legal
• Time-Based Rules: Auto-deny requests submitted after Q3 planning lock
• Cross-App Analytics: Use approval times from ApproveThis to calculate Productboard’s “Idea to Ship” metric

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Don’t:

• Use single approver groups for compliance-critical features
• Forget to sync denied requests back to Productboard

Do:

• Leverage email approvals for external partners
• Set up escalation rules for holiday coverage

Getting Started

Start with one workflow – feature approvals work well. Use ApproveThis’ free tier to test integration before scaling. Book a custom demo to see enterprise-grade configurations.

Ready to accelerate product decisions? Create your free ApproveThis account and connect it to Productboard in under 15 minutes.