After you've created ideas, you can collect votes on those ideas from your visitors, or segments of visitors, with idea tests to help you decide what to build next. Pendo internal users can also add votes to ideas for your customers. For more information, see Add votes to an idea, in this article.
Idea tests aren't the only way to validate ideas. You can also create, customize, and share an ideas portal, where you can present ideas to elicit feedback on them. For more information, see Engage users through an ideas portal.
Overview
After you've created product ideas, you can add votes to them and capture real responses from your target audience using idea tests.
An idea test can include up to three ideas. Ideas can be pain points, problems to solve, feature requests, or opportunity areas. If you pass revenue as metadata to Pendo, such as ARR, you can also link account revenue to votes to prioritize and evaluate the impact of the idea. For information on how to add revenue, see Configure account revenue.
End-user experience of an idea test
You can show visitors up to three specific ideas as part of an in-app idea test to gather visitor votes and priorities. If choosing a multi-page idea test, you can also collect comments.
An idea test is presented to your target visitors as an overlay in your application, similar to a standard Pendo guide. You can also choose whether to display the idea test site-wide or on a specific page in your application, and edit other details like the position of the idea test and whether it's anchored to a specific element in your UI.
An idea test can include up to three of your ideas. These ideas must already exist in the Ideas tab. For instructions, see Create and manage ideas.
There are two idea test layouts to choose from: single-page layout and multi-page layout. Both views invite the user to choose an Importance rating for each idea presented to them. These ratings are: Must Have, Nice to Have, or Not Interested. These ratings are mutually exclusive options for each idea and aren't editable. There's no ranking of ideas using these importance ratings. Users can rate some or all ideas presented to them, and can choose the same or different ratings for each one.
Choose a single-page layout if you want users to be able to compare and rate ideas on one page. With a single-page layout, the visitor can vote on each idea without having to navigate away from the list. The user can see more information about each idea by selecting the idea in the list and can then go back to the list to rate the idea alongside the others. The visitor chooses their importance ratings from radio buttons in each idea card, and then selects Submit at the bottom of the overlay to submit all their ratings together.
Choose a multi-page layout if you want to present users with more details about each idea before giving them the opportunity to rate the importance. With a multi-page layout, the visitor can see more information about each idea and vote on it by selecting Rate Idea at the bottom of each card. From here, the visitor can either go back to the list of ideas or can choose between the different Importance ratings. The visitor can optionally add a comment to explain their choice and then submit their rating for that idea.
Create idea tests
You can present up to three ideas to your target visitors, in-app, to gather feedback from them, including comments, votes, and priorities. Use idea tests to understand the demand for your product initiatives and to justify product investments.
To create a new test, go to Listen > Validate ideas and:
- Select Validate ideas in the top-right of the page. This opens the Create idea test form.
- Enter an Idea test name. This name is for your internal reference.
- Select which application you want to launch the test in.
- Choose the Guide theme you want to use, and then Next step in the bottom-right of the form.
- On the next screen, provide a Title and Description for the test. This is what your target customers see.
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Select up to three ideas you’d like to validate with your target customers from the Choose ideas dropdown menu.
- Choose a Layout type and then Next step in the bottom-right of the form. For information on the end-user experience of these options, see End-user experience of an idea test in this article.
- On the next screen, choose a segment from the Select segment dropdown menu, and then select Next step in the bottom-right of the form. If an appropriate segment doesn't yet exist, you can create a new one by selecting Custom segment.
- On the next screen, choose a start date and time for the test using the dropdown menus.
- To add an end date and time (optional), toggle on When should the idea test end? and choose a date and time using the dropdown menus.
- Select Save and exit in the bottom-right of the form. This takes you to the details page for the test, which is in Guides.
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Select Manage in my app to open the Visual Design Studio, where you can edit the styling, location, and behavior of the idea test. You have the same options available to you as a standard Pendo guide:
- Styling. Edit the theme, step name, dimensions, and accessibility options.
- Location. Edit the position and offset of the idea test, anchor the idea test to an element on the page, and choose whether the idea test appears site-wide or on a single page.
- Behavior. Add and edit the button actions of the idea test.
- Select Done in the bottom-right corner of the Visual Design Studio when you're finished editing.
- Close the Visual Design Studio and go back to your idea test's details page in Pendo.
- Use Preview in the idea test's details page to review the test in your application.
View idea tests
If not already open, you can find and open your tests from the Idea Tests tab of the Validate page, which you can find by going to Listen > Validate ideas. Here, you can see a list of existing tests and the following information about these tests depending on the columns you choose for the table.
- Test Name. The descriptive name given to the test.
- Test Status. Whether the test is in a Draft or Published state.
- Published. If published, how long ago the test was published.
- Ideas. The number of ideas included in the test.
- Results. A link to the results of the test.
- App. The application that the test relates to.
- Created Time. The date and time that the idea was originally created.
To customize columns, select the Manage Columns icon in the top-right corner of the list. In the window that opens, you can add, remove, and move columns in the table.
To see more details of the test, including who created it, when it was last updated, and its results, you can either:
- Select the name of the appropriate test under the Test Name column.
- Select View Results next to the appropriate test under the Results column.
Idea tests also live alongside guides in Pendo. You can open the appropriate test from the Guides Overview page as you would a normal guide.
Launch an idea test
If not already open, you can launch your tests from the Idea Tests tab of the Validate page, which you can find by going to Listen > Validate ideas. Find and open your test from the list and then launch the test as you would with any other guide. Set your target segment, scheduling, and conversion. When you’re ready, set the poll to Public to launch it to your target audience. For more information, see Creating a Guide.
Note: Although an Idea Test is a type of guide and can be found in the Guides page, alongside your other guides, you can view the results of your tests in the Validate page.
View test results
As with viewing and launching your tests, you can view results of your tests from both the Validate page and the Guides page. To view the detailed results of your test, find and open your test, and then:
- In the Guide Metrics tab, review the counts of views and clicks. Each idea in an ideas test results in three Polls in this tab. This means that there should be a poll for the idea itself, a poll for the importance rating, and a poll for any open-ended answers
- In the Responses tab, review the responses to your test.
To see open idea tests, select Sort By Guide Category in the top right of the Guides table and open the Idea Test dropdown. You can also add the Guide Category column to the table through the Manage Columns icon in the top-right corner of the Guides table.
View return on investment (ROI) for idea tests
The ROI tab in the Validate section of Listen helps you to understand the return on investment (ROI) as a result of using idea tests and the impact it's having on your organization. It shows you the following metrics when one or more idea tests have been published and when one or more votes have been received: engagement, time saved, number of ideas tests run, number of ideas tested, number of visitors voted, and number of comments received.
You can change the date range for these metrics using the dropdown menu at the top of the page.
Engagement and time saved
The first section, underneath the date range filter, summarizes the number of accounts engaged and the estimated time saved.
Accounts engaged shows the number of accounts with visitors that have voted on test ideas or provided comments. The number of visitors who voted and commented is likely to be more than the number of accounts shown under Accounts engaged.
Estimated time saved is calculated by multiplying the number of votes by 15 minutes. This is the total amount of time you’ve saved as a result of using idea tests instead of traditional methods of collecting this feedback from users. The 15 minutes per vote calculation is a conservative estimate that accounts for the time it would otherwise take to:
- Find the right customer to speak to.
- Email or phone the customer to engage them in the question.
- Collate the different votes together from the answers provided by customers.
Activity
The second section summarizes the actions taken in Validate.
Tests viewed shows number of idea tests that visitors have viewed.
Ideas tested shows the number of individual ideas included in idea tests. The number of ideas should be greater than the number of idea tests. The number of ideas can be up to three times greater because an idea test can include up to three ideas.
Votes collected shows the number of votes added to ideas as part of idea tests.
Comments received shows the number of comments that were posted in idea tests.