It's important to create a Product Feedback Policy (PFP) as soon as you start using Pendo Feedback. The PFP is a document that sets expectations and improves the customer experience by reassuring them that their feedback is valuable and being considered.
What should the policy cover?
The PFP governs and lays out the process you employ to gather and manage feedback. This ensures that everyone – team members and your customers – understands how to use Feedback, and how their requests are managed.
Your approach to Feedback
Explain the importance of feedback for your product and your organization. State what your intentions are and what you’ll be using the feedback for. Typically, the feedback you collect will be used to make decisions about your product based on the priorities of both team members and your customers.
The benefits of submitting requests
Highlight what your customers gain from providing feedback and what the results will be. The main benefit of Feedback is that customers are heard and have visibility on why certain decisions are made. This helps you improve your product, and to create a connection between your customers and your product development.
The general process you're adopting
Let people know how to submit feedback, what happens after feedback is submitted, and how often feedback is reviewed and by whom. Consider also including relevant help documentation in your PFP to show how Feedback works and how it’s used.
The way that people submit requests depends on how you integrate Pendo Feedback with your product. If using the in-app widget, for example, visitors submit feedback by selecting the button at the side of the screen. For information about the integration options, see Grant Feedback access to customers.
Next, lay out the general process. We recommend something like the following:
- New requests are set to Awaiting Feedback while we wait for other users to vote and comment on them.
- Our product team meets regularly (weekly/biweekly/monthly) to review the highest priorities from customers, team members, and prospects.
- If we decide to investigate or build a request, the status will be changed to Planned or Building, and we'll aim to give a timeframe of completion on our roadmap.
How people will be kept in the loop
Explain how people can track the status of feedback, and how people are told when their feature was released. Customers and team members who’ve submitted feedback or voted on a request are automatically notified when the status of that feature changes. They can see the status change on their Feedback dashboard and receive an email if you pass customer email address into Pendo. Mention that you'll try to give an explanation whenever a request is rejected in order to help them understand your reasoning.
Where should the policy be published?
We recommend publishing a full, in-depth version of your policy on your knowledge base. We also recommend linking to your policy when introducing your teams and your customers to Feedback. To increase engagement and awareness around Feedback, your customer-facing teams can also include a link to your feedback policy in their email signatures.
Importantly, link your policy in your Awaiting Feedback custom saved response in Feedback. For more information, see Request status updates.
Product Feedback Policy template
You can use the following template as the starting point for your own Product Feedback Policy.
Our approach to product feedback
Here at [NAME OF YOUR ORGANIZATION], we take product feedback very seriously.
We believe that listening to our customers, team members, and prospects – taking their ideas on board and bringing their voice into the projects we choose to invest in – is the best way to build a better product.
We use your feedback to identify the most important features, ideas, pain points, and opportunities, so that you can get more value from our product as efficiently as possible.
How to give us your product feedback
Submitting your feedback couldn't be simpler.
[DESCRIBE YOUR PROCESS HERE. Include images where appropriate. If you give customers access to Pendo Feedback, show an image of the link, button, Pendo Resource Center, or widget you have installed so they know what to look for.]
What happens to your product feedback
[Note: this workflow is if you allow your customers to access Pendo Feedback]
All new requests are set to the Awaiting Feedback status so that more people give us information and vote on requests. This allows us to gauge demand, gather use cases, and establish impact and value.
[Every quarter] our Product Teams hold a product feedback meeting. They discuss the highest priorities for our customers, team members, and prospects, and look at how requests align with our own product and company strategy.
As the team goes through the requests, they will update the status of each request in Pendo so that you immediately know the outcome.
If we decide to build a feature or make an improvement, the status will change to Planned or Building. It will be added to our product roadmap.
Our product feedback portal has the most up-to-date information about our products and what we’re building next. We will always provide an explanation as to the nature of the status update.
If you reach out directly to our Support or Customer Success teams, they'll be able to look up ideas for you, but they won't have any additional information or be able to provide an estimate for when your request will be reviewed.
FAQs
How long will it be before the product team reviews my idea?
Items will be reviewed by the product specialist on a [monthly basis]. We take the top requests and update the status where appropriate. Roadmapping meetings [occur quarterly]. Make sure your ideas are clear and concise so others can vote on and prioritize them. Remember to prioritize your own requests, too. That way, we will know if a particular request is important to you.
My request hasn't been reviewed yet and I submitted it 6+ months ago. What can I do?
If we haven't reviewed your item yet and it’s a high priority for you:
- Make sure it's at the top of your priority list.
- Make sure your request is clear. Tell us why you need it, what it’s stopping you from doing, and what the impact is. Please add these details in a comment on your idea.
Thank you for your feedback, understanding, and support as we work together to build the best products possible!