Product Areas (fromerly Groups) in pendo Feedback provide you with the context needed for viewing, processing, and prioritizing relevant Feedback requests. You can add one Product Area to each request in Pendo Feedback to help you sort and filter your Feedback requests in your app.
Product Areas refer to tangible areas or features in your app, used as categories that help you organize your Pendo Feedback requests. If you have a multi-app subscription, you can also filter by App. For information on multi-app subscriptions and their use, see Multi-app subscriptions.
Note: To ensure Feedback is categorized appropriately, a Product Area can only be assigned to a single app. Engage doesn’t associate Product Areas with an app. If you want your Engage Product Areas to appear in Feedback, you must manually associate them with an app.
Product Areas with Pendo Feedback [Runtime: 2:56]
Roles and permissions
Product Areas can be assigned to requests by internal Feedback users when a request is made, or updated manually when processing Feedback requests. You can also allow visitors in your app to assign Product Areas to their requests and to filter requests in their dashboard, allowing them to more easily find and vote on requests.
If you don't want Product Areas to be visible to visitors in your app, you can set the visibility to Team Only. This restricts Product Area functionality to internal Pendo Feedback users only. If you select Team & Visitors, Product Areas will be visible to both internal teams and visitors in your app. Product Areas that can be seen by both team users and visitors display the eye icon () in the Product Areas dropdown menu when submitting or editing a request.
Beyond the ability to assign Product Areas and to filter requests by Product Areas, the following restrictions apply:
- You must be a Feedback Administrator to create and modify Product Areas.
- You must be a Feedback Administrator or Manager to assign Product Areas.
- You must be a Feedback Administrator, Manager or Contributor to assign Product Areas to new requests.
For information on each of these roles, see Default Roles in the Manage Team: Roles and Permissions in Feedback article.
Best practices for Product Areas in Feedback
Product Areas in Feedback refer to app-specific locations, used for grouping requests by what part of the application they relate to. We recommend setting Product Areas early, and creating team guidelines for what these Product Areas are and how they should be used. Keep your list of Product Areas short and well-defined.
Use broad names that match core, tangible areas of your product for Product Areas. Product Areas that are too specific can’t accommodate changes that may occur in your app as your product evolves.
Unlike Pendo Engage (Insights and Guidance), Product Areas in Feedback are tied to only one app and don’t automatically map one-to-one with Engage Product Areas. Depending on how you use Engage, you can choose to create Feedback Product Area names that map onto Product Areas in Pendo Engage for a more integrated user experience.
If you want to add additional keywords, phrases, or categories to your requests, you can use tags. Tags are highly flexible, and can be as specific or broad as needed for your organization’s workflow, including associating terms with metadata in Engage. Unlike Product Areas, tags aren't visible to your visitors. For more information on tagging, see Tagging in Feedback.
View Product Areas in Feedback
To view a list of all existing Product Areas, select Settings > Product Settings > Product Areas from the left-side menu. If you're also an Engage customer, this shows your Product Areas for both Pendo Feedback and Pendo Engage.
View requests by App and Product Area
You can view requests by App and Product Area in using the Global Filter at the top of the Dashboard, Reports page, and Releases page in Pendo Feedback to narrow down your requests to the relevant Product Areas. For more information, see Filter feedback by App and Product Area in this article.
If you're also an Engage (Insights and Guidance) customer, you can also view Feedback Product Areas:
- In Product > Product Areas. For more information, see View Product Area data in Pendo Engage in this article.
- In the Product Requests by Product Area widget in the Dashboard. For more information, see View requests by Product Area in the Dashboard in this article.
Filter feedback by App and Product Area
You can filter all Pendo Feedback requests by App and Product Area using the Global Filter at the top of the UI. Filter selections are "sticky" and remain active if you navigate to other pages.
To filter Feedback by Product Area:
1. Select the Global Filter at the top of the table.
2. Enter a search term for the Product Area you're looking for.
3. Select the Product Area you want to see.
If you want to see all requests without an assigned Product Area, either for all Apps or individual Apps, select No Product Area.
View Product Area data in Pendo Engage
If you're also an Engage customer, you can view Feedback requests assigned to a Product Area in Pendo Engage:
1. Navigate to Insights and Guidance > Product > Product Areas.
2. Select the Product Area you're interested in.
3. Select the Feedback tab under the name of your Product area.
4. Select a request to view its details.
New Feedback requests update in Pendo Engage every 15 minutes.
Note: This is only visible with a subscription to Pendo Engage. Customers who have Feedback only can't use this feature.
View requests by Product Area in the Dashboard.
You can add a widget to your Engage (Insights and Guidance) dashboard to display requests associated with each Product Area:
1. Navigate to Insights and Guidance > Dashboard.
2. Select + Add Widget in the top-right corner of your dashboard.
3. Scroll through the widget catalog to find and select Product Requests by Product Area or type Product Areas in the search tool.
4. Add a widget Name and choose which App you want the widget to present data for.
5. Select Save to add the widget to your dashboard.
This displays product requests associated with each Product Area. The larger the treemap box, the more requests for that Product Area.
Create a Product Area
You must be a Feedback Administrator to create a Product Area in Pendo Feedback. For more information, see Manage Team: Roles and Permissions in Feedback.
To create a Product Area in Feedback:
1. Navigate to the Pendo Feedback and select Settings > Product Settings > Product Areas from the left-side menu.
2. From this page, open the Product Areas management list by selecting the Create/Edit in Pendo Settings link in the top-right corner.
3. Select + Create Product Area in the top-right corner of the page.
4. Enter the following information in the Create Product Area form and then Create Product Area when you're done:
- A meaningful display name for the Product Area.
- The color you want to assign to the Product Area.
- If on a multi-app subscription, the App that the Product Area belongs to.
- The visibility of the Product Area.
The Product Areas you create here appear in the Product Area dropdown when a user creates a request and when an internal user opens a request to look at the details.
You can also make Engage (Insights and Guidance) Product Areas available in Feedback.
1. In Pendo Feedback, select Settings > Product Settings > Product Areas from the left-side menu.
2. Open the Product Areas management list by selecting the Create/Edit in Pendo Settings link in the top right corner.
3. Hover over the Product Area you want to edit and select the edit icon.
4. Choose an App from the dropdown menu. A Product Area can only be assigned to a single App in Feedback.
Assign a Product Area to a request
Users can assign Product Areas to a request while submitting a request or editing a request. This is optional. If a request doesn’t have a Product Area assigned to it, you can add one to the request later.
Visitors have the same workflow as internal users when assigning Product Areas to requests. Visitors can only see Product Areas when you set their visibility to Team & Visitors. Product Areas that are visible to your visitors are indicated in the dropdown menu with the icon.
1. If you have a multi-app subscription, select the App that your Product Area belongs to from the dropdown menu.
2. Select the Product Area from the dropdown menu of available Product Areas in your App.
3. If there are other apps impacted by your request, select Add another Product Area.
4. Save the request by selecting Suggest in a new request or Save Changes while editing an existing request.
Note: Even though Product Areas can be assigned to multiple apps in Engage (Insights and Guidance), Product Areas can only be assigned to a single app in Feedback requests. If you have a multi-app subscription, you can instead add a Product Area for every web app in the subscription.
Edit or delete a Product Area
You must be a Feedback Administrator to modify Product Areas. For more information on permissions, see Manage Team: Roles and Permissions in Feedback.
To edit a Product Area:
1. In Feedback, select Settings > Product Settings > Product Areas from the left-side menu.
2. Open the Product Areas management list by selecting the Create/Edit in Pendo Settings link in the top right corner.
3. Hover over the Product Area you want to edit and select the edit icon.
4. In the Edit Product Area modal that appears, make changes to the Product Area, and then select Edit Product Area to save your changes.
You can also delete the Product Area from this modal. Alternatively, hover the Product Area you want to delete in the Product Areas management list and select the trash icon.
You can only delete a Product Area if it isn't being used by other items, such as existing requests, or by Engage. If you attempt to delete a Product Area that has requests assigned to it in Pendo Feedback, or that has Features, Pages, Track Events, or Guides assigned to it in Engage, you will be presented with a message that tells you can't delete the Product Area and the number of items that use it.
Receive notification emails based on Apps and Product areas.
Internal users can choose to receive notification emails when a new request is created, or when a comment is made on requests that belong to specific Apps or Product Areas. This is helpful if your product team members work on specific applications or areas.
Each team user has control over their email settings. To receive emails based on Apps and Product Areas, team users must:
- Log into Pendo Feedback and select the blue profile icon in the top-right of the page.
- Select Email settings from the left-side menu.
- Select which Apps and Product Areas to subscribe to.
For more information, see Notification emails in Feedback.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Product Areas need to be the same in Feedback and Engage (Insights and Guidance)?
Yes because Product Areas are created and managed in global Pendo settings. However, they are only visible in Feedback when assigned to an App. This means that if you don't want them to show in Feedback, you can leave them unassigned in Pendo Engage. You can't undo the assigning once it's done. You can also set the visibility to Team Only if you don't want your visitors to see the Product Area in Feedback.
Is it possible to make the Product Area a required field when an end user fills out the form?
We don't currently offer the ability to make Product Area a required input in the request form.
Can my Visitors see requests that are assigned to Product Areas that are not visible to them?
Yes. Only the Product Area will be invisible to visitors. The requests categorized under these Product Areas will be visible, unless they are set to private.