Easy to scan. Easy to understand. Tables are a powerful way to categorize and share important information. You can present content without overwhelming your audience. Our own team loves using tables to organize information. We thought they should be available for use in Aha! presentations too. I am sure you would agree.

Creativity runs in my family. I come from a long line of inventors, painters, and crafters. My parents always encouraged me to explore my artistic side. As a kid, I spent my weekends doing anything tactile and creative — painting, building Lego cities, and sewing my own clothing. My mom has made more than 100 quilts and I continue to embroider as a hobby to this day.

“Is the release on track and what features will ship with it?” Keeping others informed of new functionality is an important part of your everyday work. The features roadmap in Aha! helps you do exactly that. And with today’s update, you can show the progress of those releases and features as well.

Strategy, roadmaps, and reports — they all have something in common. Words. This is why we continue to invest in making the Aha! text editor an exceptional experience. Last year we launched our collaborative text editor so you can co-author content in real time with your teammates. And now we are improving how you provide clear and actionable feedback on their writing.

It only got me in trouble a few times. As a kid, I loved taking things apart — especially electronics — to try to understand the inner workings. I destroyed a few items along the way but always had the support of my parents. After I expressed an interest in computers, they bought me a Commodore VIC-20. This changed everything for me. Instead of disassembling it, I learned everything I could about how to program in BASIC and write assembly language.

We recently launched a new Aha! report builder. It helps you quickly choose a report layout and select the fields and filters you need to analyze your data. But you probably have to go back and adjust those filters once the report is created so you can focus on the most relevant information. It would be so much faster if you could do that directly on your report.

The entire Aha! team meets weekly. We get everyone together to share progress on initiatives and show off what is new. Since we are an entirely distributed company, we meet over video. And of course, we use Aha! presentations. I always love seeing each team’s updates — and the visual creativity. But until today, there was not a way to edit images to get the perfect look.

I love the challenge of a blank canvas. As a child, I spent hours drawing and painting. Later I learned to play guitar and drums, then started an indie music blog in my teens. I enjoyed writing and sharing concert reviews. The best part was interviewing musicians — delving into the discographies of my favorite songwriters, uncovering thematic connections, and asking them to share the origin stories behind their songs.

Our team at Aha! loves using tables to organize information. From standardizing meeting agendas to formatting feature descriptions, we often quickly create a table to capture and share content. But we wanted more styling options to visually highlight important details.

How do big things get built? This question has always fascinated me. My early interest in Legos morphed into an obsession with automobiles. I devoured every car magazine I could find and attended auto shows on weekends. I pursued this passion in college by studying mechanical engineering and interning in the automotive industry. And while I enjoyed the technical aspects of these internships, the work was mostly solitary.

Showing versus telling. There is a big difference between these two methods of communication. You can tell someone what you did and they may or may not understand the significance of what you accomplished. But when you can show them a visual representation, such as a report or roadmap, the impact is immediately apparent. 

Five bucks. That was my reward for drawing a cartoon that made my dad laugh. As a kid, a few dollars was plenty of motivation — do you know how many packs of Big League Chew you could buy? But the true prize was earning a deep chuckle. To do so, I had to figure out how to use my visual storytelling skills, awareness of context and timing, and understanding of my dad’s sense of humor to snag that gum money.

Some days it feels like you are mired in repetitive tasks. From checking that data is entered correctly to adding comments and to-dos, this work is critical to delivering quality work. But I bet you are like me and would like to gain that time back. How nice would it be to automate some of those tasks?