How to create an opportunity

Overview

This guide covers the different ways to create an opportunity in TheyDo — from the Opportunities library, directly on a journey, from an insight, from a goal, or using AI.

Before you start

• You need opportunity edit permission to create opportunities. If the opportunity database is locked in your workspace, creation is disabled.

From the Opportunities library

Use this approach when you're doing top-down planning or want to capture an opportunity before placing it on a journey.

1. Go to Opportunities in the left navigation.
2. Click + Opportunity in the header.
3. The opportunity is created with the title "New opportunity" and your workspace's default status (Open).
4. It opens in the side panel — add a description, type, owner, tags, and any other details.

Changes save automatically.

From a journey map

This is the most common path. Use it when you spot a problem at a specific step in the experience.

1. Open a journey.
2. Find the Opportunities lane on the canvas. If it's not visible, add an Opportunities building block lane.
3. Click an empty cell in the lane at the relevant step.
4. Type a title and press Enter.

This creates the opportunity and places it on that journey step in one action. It's also automatically added to the Opportunities library.

To link an existing opportunity instead of creating a new one, select it from the search panel that appears when you click the cell.

From an insight

Use this when you've identified a finding and want to immediately frame it as an opportunity.

1. Open an insight.
2. Go to its Opportunities tab.
3. Click Create new to create a new opportunity linked to that insight.

From a goal

1. Open a goal.
2. In the tree view, use the add menu to create a new opportunity linked to that goal.

By pasting from external tools

You can paste sticky notes from Figma, Miro, or Mural directly into an Opportunities lane on a journey. TheyDo recognizes the format and batch-creates opportunities from the pasted content.

Using AI

If a journey step has insights in an Insights lane, you can generate opportunity suggestions automatically.

1. Open the journey and find the step with insights.
2. Click the Reveal opportunities button (sparkle icon) on the Opportunities lane cell for that step.

The AI analyzes the linked insights and generates opportunity suggestions, including initial Customer Value and Business Value scores.

What gets set at creation

When you create an opportunity, only the title and your workspace's default status are set automatically. Everything else — description, type, owner, prioritization scores, tags, categories, linked insights, solutions, goals, image, external links, and attachments — is configured afterward in the side panel.

Tip: When naming a new opportunity, similar existing opportunities may surface to help prevent duplicates.

Add context after creating

Once created, enrich the opportunity by adding:

• Linked insights (via the Insights tab) — the research evidence behind the need
• Linked solutions (via the Solutions tab) — what your team is doing to address it
• Linked goals (via the Goals tab) — the strategic priorities this connects to
• Child opportunities (via the Opportunities tab) — to break a broad theme into more specific problems

Tips

• Link insights to every opportunity so stakeholders can see the evidence behind it.
• You can create a parent opportunity from multiple existing ones by selecting them in the library and choosing Add parent from the bulk edit bar.
• Opening an opportunity from the library shows it in a side panel. Click Go to page in the panel header for more editing space.
• Aim for around 5–8 opportunities per journey to keep prioritization manageable.