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Does anyone use a user feedback forum?

I've got an app that has a lot of user feedback with many users having shared ideas. I am wondering if anyone has used any tools that make user feedback more into a forum where users can upvote/comment on features they find important, and then I can respond/accept/deny implementing that feature or discuss with everyone on the thread of what it could look like.

And if accepted go to a backlog/in progress/completed list for all users to see. Anyone know anything similar to that?

  1. 4

    Canny has been mentioned already and is exactly what you are looking for, but can be expensive once if you are just starting out. There are cheaper alternatives such as Sleekplan or Nolt.

    Personally, I am not a fan of public upvote boards, as it often just leads to users upvoting features they 'would like' but 'not need' – and can lead you astray on what you should focus on.

    With my startup Supernotes, we have a public changelog which mentions what we are currently working on as well as demonstrating a fast development cycle. We collect new features / feedback through our Discourse forum or Intercom, and plug it into a Notion table and rank it accordingly so we have more control and a clearer focus / vision moving forward.

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      Awesome. Thank you for the options. I am starting with Sleekplan to see how it goes. I totally get the upvote what they want instead of what they need. But its my job to follow up on the highly upvoted things to figure that out.

      1. 0

        Hi @Grendorf, Marco here from Sleekplan. Nice to see that you want to try out Sleekplan 🙌.

        I think from the basic concept it is exactly what you described above. With Sleekplan you are able to track feature requests, share and discuss feedback with your users, create a roadmap, and keep a changelog. Mainly Sleekplan is based on an integrated widget, but you can also use a standalone solution with your own domain.

        I do also understand what @tobeagram mentioned, that's why we have integrated some sort of scoring (impact). The score is not only based on up- and downvotes but also on some more meaningful metrics like user weighting, the effort for implementation. You don't come around the 'would like' but 'not need' thing, but you get much more meaningful results.

        If you have any questions or need some help, let me know :)

        1. 1

          Awesome. I'm excited to give it a try, it looks like the right fit!

          My biggest concern about your system was that when I used your own service on your site, it was very difficult to see how I would be able to add my own topic. The + at the top is extremely low contrast, so it took a good amount of searching to see how users would be able to add comments. I was convinced I would have to create an account for a good 30 seconds.

          I also didn't quite understand the free plan limits for 20 suggestions. Is that total or active?

          1. 1

            Great! Thanks for the feedback. I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna handle this. Maybe I'll display the whole button as text instantly or highlight the (+) icon in some way. Suggestions are welcome :)

            There shouldn't be a limit on suggestions. All plans come with an unlimited amount of suggestions (only the tracked users are limited, but they are reset to 0 every 30 days)

            1. 1

              I really liked the Acute Button. If you click their chat and then scroll down to suggestions, they've got a nice button easy to see and add a new suggestion.

              But I prefer your Feedback first instead of chat first interface.

    2. 1

      This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

  2. 3

    We use Acute and love it. Doesn't require users to create a new account like Canny so users actually use it. Plus the founder is on IH (👋 @perseaalexandra)

  3. 1

    Sounds like what we do at ProdCamp.com

  4. 1

    Most of the good choices were mentioned above, I'll just add ProdCamp.com to the list.

    It gives all the same functionalities that mentioned vendors provide, plus, it allows working with unstructured feedback.
    If you get a feedback email from a customer, you keep that gold and refer to it when working on an improvement.

  5. 1

    We recently launched our own feedback product Embarkable.io with an emphasis on quality over quantity feedback.

    We utilize the public feedback board with 'likes' but also ask 2 simple questions. We do not show the vote counts, but are able to rank based on the results from the likes and questions.

    The result is prioritization and ranking without the pitfalls of pure up-votes.

  6. 1

    Actually, there's a big variety of such feedback forum tools. Most popular probably are UserVoice, Canny, Aha!, Nolt, and others. You can even find open-source free options like Fider, or get free pans if you have a limited amount of feedback (like Frill, Sleekplan, etc.)

    Our team also uses a feedback forum to organize and manage feature requests from customers, keep the changelog and publish a public product development roadmap. We developed it back in 2012 as on-premise alternative to UserVoice https://www.useresponse.com/uservoice-alternative . And further built-up tons of features, so that now it's available in SaaS and On-Premise, and from a feedback forum it has grown into a functional Customer Support Suite.

    Recently we totally updated the UI of the forum, and as you have already checked some tools, it would be great if you could share your feedback on our feedback forum software too - https://www.useresponse.com/customer-feedback-software

  7. 1

    sounds like github issues

    1. 1

      yeah! But for non technical people!

  8. 1

    I think Canny is exactly what you are looking for. I've used it and definitely recommend it!

  9. 1

    Hi @Grendorf,
    I went through your requirement mentioned above.
    I didn't stumble upon any tool like that.
    Have you tried finding a tool like that on product hunt, feedmyapp or betalist/betapage? May be it could be available there.

    btw, I'm currently working on feature request /feedback management tool. Its not basically like forum based that you mentioned.
    But its like: your users will be able to submit a new feature request/ upvote or comment existing one right from the feedback widget.

    If you're interested in using a product like this, I would love to offer the product for free in exchange of your valuable feedback, thanks :)

    1. 2

      I did find something. Uservoice, but it looks like they are targeting enterprise.

      With your tool, when someone is adding a new request, does it search the old requests to find if someone else has already posted something similar? And if found can they add an extra details as well as upvote?

      1. 1

        There will be no auto search option for checking the existing feature request.
        But what your users can do is:
        There will be a search bar where users can search existing feature requests by name & upvote exiting feature request.
        As an admin, you can modify the details from dashboard.

        Product is in very early stage now.
        Would you be interested to use this product? I would love get your email :)

        1. 1

          Hey Nitin! Thanks for the offer and the help. For now, someone else mentioned an option that is pretty close to what I want so I'm going to try that first.

          If it doesn't work out, I'll be in touch.

          1. 1

            Ok great! Thanks Jeremy :)

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