An Incomplete Guide to Community Feedback

“Community is where ideas go to die.” — Actual quote from a former colleague.

This pains me so much. Haven’t you ever heard that 2 heads are better than 1? Isn’t the customer always right?** Don’t people just want to be heard?

**No, they aren’t but the sentiment to the suggestion that we should actually be. listening to customers — which I agree with.

While it’s definitely a challenge to do so, it IS possible to manage a successful Community Feedback program. But there are a ton of things to thinking about, so many that they likely aren’t all accounted for here, hence the Incomplete Guide.

First and foremost, you need buy-in and support from stakeholders. Full stop. Without it, you will end up back at paragraph one, with both internal and external users wondering what the heck is going on and why you started the program in the first place.

You’ll also need to establish expectations, again internally and externally. Ideally you stick with engagement best practices with a focus on transparency, collaboration and authenticity, but whatever you decide to do, you will absolutely need to set a level with your users. If you have messaged that this is the place to leave their feedback and they have an expectation that you will implement that feedback, then you likely have some work to do on your messaging or on your internal enablement side.

One common approach for gathering feedback is a collaborative forum to crowdsource idea from users. A concept best addressed by the 2004 book Wisdom of the Crowds by James Suwecki, suggests that the voices of many will help lead us to innovation. At a time when Steve Jobs was blazing new trails figuring out what customers wanted before they knew and relying on the (mis-attributed) Henry Ford quote “If you asked people what they wanted, they’d tell you a faster horse,” Suwecki was suggesting that if you ask ENOUGH people, you can get to innovation.

And, in some cases, this can be an effective means to develop innovative solutions. However, there are times when it’s not. Once a program shifts into a negative customer experience — users not getting acknowledgement, largely voted on ideas passed over, non-update updates from junior PMs, there becomes the question if it’s providing the value it set out to do.

But, this isn’t to say you can’t gather feedback or test out some various formats to find out what works with your organization and your Community. Here’s a few alternatives / variations /complimentary options for the common ‘ideas portal’ -

Community Feedback Board — Instead of diving headfirst into Product Feedback, you might want to start with a more focused area dedicated to feedback on the Community itself. This is likely to be less active, and allow you more time to set expectations, test out response mechanisms, and also potentially delight your users as you close the feedback loop and let them know you implemented one of their suggestions. It might not be the busiest area of your Community but it’s a great way to dip your toe in. The Anaplan Community has some good examples of the types of feedback you’re likely to see here AND it often helps identify some of your most active users as they request investments to improve their own experience.

Community Advisory Board — This is less about public facing ideation and more about bringing a group of people together to discuss the state of your Community and gather feedback on what’s working or challenges that may need to be addressed. I typically err on the side of enlisting your super users or most active users, in this initiatives. It can help keep the discussion more focused as the group often has a similar end goal, which is often to be able to better support and contribute to the Community.

Time-Bound Feedback Opportunities — In this iteration of an ideation exercise, instead of leaving it open to submit any ideas in perpetuity, you can do a few things.

Time-bound blue sky — allowing users to submit any idea at all during a specified period of time, perhaps aligning to the timing of your product roadmap planning

Time-bound Specific — where Product Manager may be looking for feedback on a specific idea they have, but will only open the space for 2 wks, and provide a pre-defined concept for ideation.

Private Beta Groups Or UX Research Groups — Looking for a small group of customers to share their feedback before you go GA with your latest release or product line? Leverage Community to find customers or invite key customers join Research Groups on Community where you can host a private group for them to share their feedback in an intimate but asynchronous fashion. Plus, you can export and analyze! The Dataiku Community has a stellar landing page for their program to promote member participation.

Polling — Think you know what you want to do, but just need a little bit of market validation? Draft a poll and share with your Community to gather their feedback in a structured manner. This saves customers from having to over exert themselves with a million details you may or may not use, but they still get to be part of the product management process.

The last thing I’ll say about feedback as well is that you need to make sure that your stakeholders are benefiting, and your program is meeting their needs. Find out what they need from the process, ask the right questions and figure out how to deliver insights to them in an efficient and optimized manner. Here’s a few ways you can do that:

Align to your Release schedule — One thing that Communities and customers often forget about is that product management is an entire process. There are many companies who have yet to reach a continuous release cycle and as a result, even if they see the best idea a customer has ever submitted, it may not be the right time for them to prioritize it, leaving the customer feeling unheard and the idea potentially lost when it comes time for roadmapping. Salesforce IdeaExchange spent a long time evolving their process and ultimately landed on something that worked them and better set expectations with customers:

Integrate with existing systems — This one tends to make Product teams very happy. If you’re able to integrate your idea submissions with their JIRA portal, they might just hug you. It’s an easy way for them to stay in their comfort zone but also get visibility to what’s happening on Community.

Insights Reporting — On a regular basis, share out actual insights around what’s happening in the feedback portal. And not just ‘lots of people want a blue button’ but rather what are the themes that may be emerging, and provide a thoughtful report to the broader organization. Customers are sharing their pain points, and it benefits everyone to understand what’s happening, even if we can’t fix it yet.

There’s lots of other ways to address common challenges in ideation — this is where it becomes so valuable to be able to think like a Product Manager yourself and dig down into what problem you’re really trying to solve for your stakeholders. It’s a tricky scale to balance, but it can be done well if you’re committed to strong collaboration with your customers and creating a positive overall experience.

What are some other ways that you’ve seen Community leveraged for innovation and feedback?