Rename ‘Feature Request’ to ‘Feedback’
As product managers, we want to avoid the ‘build trap’ (remember Melissa Perri’s book?) and focus on outcomes rather than outputs. I find more excitement and joy in creating outcomes and help both customers and business than chasing backlog items like a hamster in a wheel. A good way to break out of the loop is to change your perspective. If you rename feature requests to feedback, many things will change, and here’s why:
This story is motivated by a vivid discussion that got recently initiated on LinkedIn by Andrea Saez:
She says, you should not call feature requests feature requests anymore, but ‘feedback’ and treat them like any other feedback you get from anyone, using your product. I think there is a lot of potential and energy in this little sentence and I tend to completely agree with her.
Let’s drill down a little bit:
What are feature requests?
If you google the words ‘feature request’ the first pages are full of results that point you to forms from companies like VMWare, Adobe GFI, Pinterest, Google, and other companies, that would like to hear your ideas and wishes. The forms are sometimes more sometimes less deterring, asking you to enter many things about yourself before you come to the point where you may file your idea or wish.
