How to manage feature requests from users for a SaaS app

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Feedback provides an important signal for SaaS (software-as-a-service) UX. Providing insight into how people use your product. Let's dive into methods to gather feedback, manage features, and improve your customer experience.

Why feature requests matter

Building a feature for your app costs time & resources. Knowing what your users want and need is vital. Having more information helps the feature concept, design, and build phases.

What are the benefits of collecting feature ideas

Software analytics shows us how people use our products. Customer feedback paints a clearer picture. Showing us how people wish they could use our product. Gathering SaaS app ideas from users can help product development teams:

• Understand users better

• Identify strategic product improvements

• Keep customers engaged and happy

How to understand your user's pain points

Gather user motivation and context when you collect customer feedback. People ask for product improvements to achieve a certain outcome. Knowing user motivations helps develop better user experiences.

Lead with your customer's request reason. The feature may highlight one way to achieve the user's desired outcome. We want to collect user feedback that our team members can understand easily. Gather information that helps your team easily understand the feature and motivation behind it.

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How to gather user feedback

Create a feature requests system to collect feedback. Identify user-friendly ways to collect user requests. Some methods include:

• In-App Feedback: Think about making it convenient for existing users to provide feedback directly in the application. Create a form where users can submit information in your app.

• Email Requests: Create a separate customer support email to gather requests. Prompt your audience to provide important details about their asks.

• Community Forums: Create a space for your users to engage and advise each other. Provide a category for feature requests to get feedback from viewers.

• Social Media: Check out different social and professional platforms for customer feedback. Consider joining groups that include your target audience for more insights.

Think about storing requests in project management tools. Reference these requests when you plan upcoming work. Consider using a user feedback tool.

How to update users about request updates

Keep users engaged by updating the status of their requests. Foster open communication and future feedback with open communication.

1. Acknowledge: Record the feature request and show users where.

2. Update: Let users know feature request statuses change.

3. Manage expectations: Clearly state what is in scope and not.

4. Explain decisions: Whether you're implementing a feature or not, tell users why.

What is a user feedback tool

Gather SaaS product requests in a software tool. Reference user requests when planning what's next. Feedback tools collect, manage, and analyze feedback.

Why implement a customer feedback tool?

• Collect user requests

• Identify ways to improve UX

• Measure customer satisfaction

• Rank feature requests

• Engage with users and build stronger relationships

What features are common with software feedback tools?

• Feedback forms and surveys

• In-app widgets to capture customer requests

• User Forums & Discussion boards

• Ticket (Task) Management Systems

What is the best way to analyze and rank requests

Schedule time every couple of weeks to gather and sort feedback. Group requests based on similar themes. We recommend starting with the following:

• User Segment: Tie this to a user or plan type. Understand who this feature will benefit and how.

• Customer Lifecycle: What part of the customer journey will this impact? Will it help you close deals, engage users, keep them, or share to potential customers.

• Product Area: Identify what part of the product this feature impacts. Create areas that are clear to your team.

How to categorize feature requests

Consider publishing statuses for feature requests. Let people vote and comment on similar requests. Foster customer-centric feedback in a single place. This can help remove duplicate requests, and provide community updates.

• Open request - The idea is pending further action.

• Under review - The product team is evaluating the request.

• Planned - The feature is going to be developed.

• In Progress - The idea is currently in development.

• Complete - The feature request has shipped to users.

• Closed/Will not do - Indicates that the feature is no longer applicable.

How to evaluate feature requests

Set a framework to measure feature ideas. Aim to understand how features impact users and your business. Understand the details below to start, and adjust to fit the company's needs.

• Consider the product vision - Understand how a feature aligns with the product vision. Identify whether it helps the organization achieve its goals. Consider if this is the most valuable thing to work on at this time. If not, document what would make it more important for future reference.

• Target audience - Identify how many of your users the feature impacts. Analyze the benefit of focusing on this feature against other possible ideas.

• Identify the user segment - Learn what segments of your audience benefit from the feature. Understand what this effort unlocks for your customer base.

• Business Goals - Determine what part of the customer lifecycle journey features address. Will they impact subscriptions, user engagement, client retention, or referrals? Align projects with short-term business goals they benefit.

What is the RICE method

Intercom, a platform, introduced the RICE framework. Helping product managers decide what to work on first. Claiming the order of development is just as important as the roadmap itself. RICE measures Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort of an idea.

How many users will this feature reach

Measure how many users the feature will reach in a specific period. For example: How many users will this feature impact in the next quarter? Reach highlights who benefits from a feature. Helping teams align business goals with new feature development.

Examples from Intercom

• Project 1: 500 customers reach this point in the signup funnel each month, and 30% choose this option. Calculate reach with this equation: 500 × 30% × 3 = 450 customers per quarter.

• Project 2: Every customer who uses this feature each quarter will see this change. The reach is 2,000 customers per quarter.

• Project 3: This change will have a one-time effect on 800 existing customers, with no ongoing effect. The reach is 800 customers per quarter.

How will the feature impact our business goals

Tie the feature to a specific business goal. Identify how much this feature would impact the goal. This figure is less precise in RICE, providing a best guess. Identify the impact and tie it to one of the numbers below:

• Minimal = .25

• Low = .5

• Medium = 1

• High = 2

• Massive = 3

Examples from Intercom

• Project 1: For each customer who sees it, this will have a huge impact, score is 3.

• Project 2: This will have a lesser impact for each customer, score is 1.

• Project 3: This is somewhere in-between the previous projects, score is 2.

How certain are the reach and impact metrics

Create a confidence score for your reach and impact estimates. Use a multiple choice range to make things simple.

• High Confidence = 100%

• Medium Confidence = 80%

• Low Confidence = 50%

Examples from Intercom

• Project 1: We have quantitative metrics for reach, user research for impact, and an engineering estimate for effort. This project gets a 100% confidence score.

• Project 2: I have data to support the reach and effort, but I’m unsure about the impact. This project gets an 80% confidence score.

• Project 3: The reach and impact may be lower than estimated, and the effort may be higher. This project gets a 50% confidence score.

How much work is the feature request

Effort is the amount of time a project takes to complete. Account for product management, design, and engineering.

Examples from Intercom

• Project 1: This will take about a week of planning, 1-2 weeks of design, and 2-4 weeks of engineering time. The effort score is 2 person-months.

• Project 2: This project will take several weeks of planning. A significant amount of design time, and at least two months of one engineer’s time. The effort score is 4 person-months.

• Project 3: This only requires a week of planning, no new design, and a few weeks of engineering time. The effort score is 1 person-month.

How to calculate the RICE score

Multiply the Reach, Impact, and Confidence Score, then divide that number by the effort score. This will give a number value to each project. Intercom offers this spreadsheet as a great resource. Copy the file and assess your feature requests.

Wrapping up

Managing feature requests helps SaaS product success and user satisfaction. Creating a process to gather, analyze, and rank user feedback helps align business goals and user needs.

Remember these key takeaways:

1. Create user-friendly channels for collecting feedback

2. Use a centralized system or tool to organize and manage feature requests effectively.

3. Analyze requests using frameworks like RICE (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) to prioritize development efforts objectively.

4. Maintain open communication with users throughout the process, from acknowledging their requests to explaining your decisions.

5. Refine your feature request management process based on results and user engagement.

6. Balance user requests with your product vision and innovation to ensure long-term success.

Embracing user feedback and feature requests cultivates a community of engaged users who feel heard and valued. This approach can lead to increased user satisfaction, improved retention rates, and ultimately, a more successful SaaS application.

Remember, managing feature requests is an ongoing process. Stay flexible, keep learning from your users, and don't be afraid to adjust your strategies as your product and user base evolve. Use these guidelines to turn user feedback into a powerful tool to grow your SaaS app.