User feature voting - do you do it? If so, how?
I'm building a web platform and I'm not far from releasing it. It's a very basic version for now and I'll need to somehow figure out what my users will be interested in adding or modifying the most. I therefore thought about adding a page where they'd be able to vote on the priority of features/bugs. Then I realized that this is pretty much a problem of every online platform. And being a software engineer I could easily write a website that would allow only your existing users (no login required) to vote on features and issues they think are most important.
So what I was curious to hear from you guys is how do you gauge which part of your software your users care most about? Do you rely on some sort of voting systems? I know there are already platforms for this but in all honesty I am a bit busy and didn't have time to research it properly. Plus I prefer to hear from people who actually use such systems. What are pros and cons?
If you're not using them, would you consider using what I was thinking of building?
I think ideascale is pretty good. I mean tesla, mcdonalds use it. But I think its flawed. I had a similar idea and I am trying to bootstrap it. I prefer to incentivize users if they suggest a feature and we choose to adopt it.
I have not heard of ideascale and I like your approach with incentivizing users for the feedback. I think that lack of incentive is the main reason people don't like to leave feedback in general.
Hey, @jake_db.
I hope you don't mind me saying that I think you are building a solution in search of a problem.
The good news is that there's definitely a market for these kinds of products. Canny is a good example. But I would encourage you to start from first principles and consider what the problems are before you continue building anything else.
It all depends on your goals, of course. If you're building the platform for coding practice, then cool. But if you're wanting to sell a product and start a business, you're likely wasting effort.
Your questions are a good start, but ideally they would be directed more specifically at people you know to have the problems you are hoping to solve. Talking to current competitors' customers is a good place to find where there may be gaps in the market. I know you're busy, but by not understanding your potential customers, your product is at risk of not being useful to people.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
This isn't something I've decided to start building. I just thought of a problem I envision having soon and then thought that maybe others need something similar. This post was my first (perhaps not the best) attempt at gauging if others experience this and if that's an issue for anyone. I thought IH was a good place as there are a lot of people here building websites. So, in short I was trying to get the answer for the question you are proposing I ask.