Setting Up A Microsoft Teams Integration

• Availability
  • Plan: All plans
  • On a legacy plan? Click here for more info
• Roles and Permissions

  • Admin/Editor role to create in ProdPad, must have permissions to add OAuth Apps to Teams

ProdPad’s MS Teams Integration makes it simple to connect ProdPad with MS Teams, providing a seamless way to add and manage Ideas and Feedback across both platforms!

With this integration, you can:

• Post Ideas and Feedback created in ProdPad to your chosen Teams channel, using Adaptive Cards for a clean and interactive experience.
• Send Ideas and Feedback from MS Teams channels directly into ProdPad. You can create more than one Microsoft Teams integration, however, you cannot post Ideas and Feedback from different integrations to the same Teams channels.
• Sync comments between ProdPad and MS Teams, ensuring any conversation about Ideas and Feedback stays up-to-date in both platforms. Any comments made in Teams will sync to ProdPad and vice versa!
• Vote on Ideas and Feedback within MS Teams if enabled, giving your team quick and easy ways to contribute.
• Submit new Ideas and Feedback straight from the Teams command box, making it easier to collaborate without switching tools.
• Receive direct notifications in private bot channels when you’re mentioned in ProdPad comments that aren’t synced with Teams, so you’ll never miss a thing.
• Use @ mentions to interact with the bot in public channels, or message the bot directly for help and instructions.
• Automatically create new users in ProdPad if they don’t exist when sending Ideas or Feedback.

Setting up the MS Teams integration is can be done by following the below steps: 

Creating the MS Teams Integration

To start with, log in to your MS Teams account, click the Apps button on the bottom left-hand side of the side nav, and search for ProdPad. Next, add the ProdPad app to MS Teams. 

Once you've added ProdPad to MS Teams, click on the ProdPad App and select the "Add to a team" option from the drop-down menu. 

From here, select the team or channel you'd like to add ProdPad to. The selections you make here will influence what you see during the mapping stage of the integration setup in ProdPad. One you've finished adding your selections, click the Set up a bot button to complete this part of the process. 

Next, switch over to your ProdPad account and click Settings on the left-hand side of the side nav followed by Integrations. From here, click the Gallery tab and choose the MS Teams option.

Next, give your integration a name and press Connect. 

If you aren't already logged into MS Teams, you will be prompted to enter your credentials. Once you're logged into MS Teams, you’ll be requested to allow ProdPad access to your MS Teams account. Once you have read through the requested permissions, tick the " Consent on behalf of your organization" box and click Accept. 

You can now choose which team you’d like to receive ProdPad notifications. Simply select your team, then press Next to continue.

In the next step, you’ll select the channels in MS Teams where your Ideas and Feedback will be posted. Keep in mind that these channels must be standard channels, not shared ones. We do not recommend mapping Ideas and Feedback to more than one channel each to avoid possible conflicts. You can also choose to enable the “Sync MS Teams users to ProdPad” option. When turned on, MS Teams users who engage with an Idea or Feedback card will automatically be added to your ProdPad account as Reviewers. Once you’ve completed the mapping setup, simply click Activate to finalize the integration!

Send new Ideas and Feedback into MS Teams

Once your integration is set up and activated, you can start sending new Ideas and Feedback to the channels you mapped during the integration setup. To do this for Ideas, simply navigate to the Ideas section in ProdPad and create a new Idea. Once created, an Adaptive Card with the Idea details will be automatically posted in the mapped MS Teams channel.

The card will include:

• The Idea ID and Idea Title, with the title acting as a direct link to the Idea in ProdPad.
• The Idea details displayed as plain text.
• Any Products, Tags, and Personas you’ve added to the Idea, which will also be displayed on the card.
• If voting is enabled in your ProdPad account, MS Teams members will be able to vote on the Idea using the “Like”, “Unsure”, and “Dislike” options shown on the Adaptive Card.

If you’ve mapped a Feedback channel during the integration setup, you can start sending new Feedback into MS Teams. To do this, simply  navigate to the Feedback section in ProdPad and create new Feedback by clicking the “Add feedback” button. Once the Feedback is created, an Adaptive Card will automatically be posted to the mapped channel in MS Teams. The Adaptive Card will include:

• The Feedback title, which links directly to the Feedback in ProdPad.
• The Contact name, which links directly to the associated contact in ProdPad.
• The Feedback details displayed as plain text.

If you’ve added any Products, Tags, Personas, or the Feedback Source to the Feedback, these will also appear on the Adaptive Card. Additionally, if voting is enabled, the Adaptive Card will display buttons for “Like,” “Unsure,” and “Dislike” to gather input from team members in MS Teams. If you create the Feedback from an existing Idea in ProdPad, the linked Idea will also be displayed on the Adaptive Card.

Commenting on sent Ideas and Feedback

When an Idea or Feedback is pushed from ProdPad to Teams, comments and @ mentions stay in sync across both platforms. Here’s how it works:

Commenting on an Idea or Feedback card in teams:

• When a user comments on an Idea or Feedback card in Teams, their comment will instantly sync and appear on the linked Idea or Feedback in ProdPad. You can also reply to the comment in ProdPad, keeping the conversation going across both platforms. (Note: if you comment on the Idea or Feedback in ProdPad first, it won’t appear in MS Teams. To start a conversation that syncs between both platforms, you’ll need to comment in MS Teams first, then you can continue the discussion by replying in ProdPad). 

• @ Mentions will be synced between Teams and ProdPad, ensuring consistent notifications across both platforms.

Receiving and Replying to @ Mentions from ProdPad:

• When you create a comment in ProdPad with an @ mention to a user who is registered in both ProdPad and Teams with the same email address, that user will receive the @ mention in their private bot channel in Teams.
• If the Teams user replies to the message in their private bot channel, the reply will be added to ProdPad as a response to the original comment.

This ensures that conversations and @ mentions flow smoothly between ProdPad and Teams without missing any context, and helps keep all discussions about Ideas and Feedback up to date.

Creating New Ideas and Feedback from MS Teams

You can easily create a new Idea or Feedback from within MS Teams by using one of the following options:

• The command box
• Message
• New Post

Channel command box

To initiate the command box, either click the search box at the top of the Teams window, or hold Ctrl+Opt+E, and then enter '/prodpad' to see the command options.

Channel message

To see the commands on a message click the '...' button on the top right of the message

From Start a Post

Click the '+' button 

and select ProdPad

Using any of these methods will reveal options for Settings, Submit New Feedback, and Submit New Idea. Choosing Submit New Idea or Submit Feedback will trigger a modal pre-populated with the message content. Just finish adding the info you need, and its good to go to ProdPad!

Creating a new user in ProdPad

If the “Sync Users” option is enabled during the integration setup, any MS Teams user who interacts with the bot, whether by using the help command, commenting on a pushed resource, or creating an Idea or Feedback, will automatically be created as a new user in ProdPad. These users will be assigned the Reviewer role.

Updating App Settings

To update the app settings in MS Teams, use one of the following contexts: command box, compose, or message. Then, select the “Settings” command. This will open a modal where you can adjust your app settings.

• ProdPad Admin users can update both Integration settings and Profile settings.
• ProdPad Editor and Reviewer users can only update their Profile settings.