How Gleap Manages Feature Requests: A Smarter Approach

Managing feature requests is often a double-edged sword for SaaS businesses. On the one hand, they’re an essential source of insights from users. On the other hand, if not managed well, you can quickly find yourself buried under a flood of requests, many of which overlap or aren’t aligned with your goals. At Gleap, we’ve developed a streamlined process to ensure we’re listening to users while staying focused on impactful development. Here’s how we do it.

Collecting and Organizing Feature Requests

It all starts with Gleap’s feature request form. This form is embedded directly into our widget, making it easy for users to submit ideas while they’re already engaging with our product. Once a user submits a request, our AI bot, Kai, steps in to streamline the process further.

Before a new request is added to our system, Kai automatically suggests similar existing feature requests within the widget. This way, users can simply upvote an existing idea rather than creating duplicates. Not only does this save our team from manually consolidating requests, but it also ensures the most popular ideas naturally rise to the top.

Avoiding Featuritis

While it’s great to see users care deeply about your product and actively submit feature requests, there’s a risk of falling into the trap of featuritis. This happens when a product becomes overloaded with features, ultimately diminishing its usability and clarity. At Gleap, we’re careful to balance user requests with maintaining a simple, effective product. If you’d like to learn more about avoiding featuritis, check out our startup journey post on the topic.

Prioritization: From Ideas to Roadmap

After a feature request is submitted or upvoted, it lands in the ideas column of our internal roadmap. This column is private, visible only to our team. This privacy allows us the space to thoroughly evaluate and discuss ideas before committing to anything.

To make decisions, we rely on a custom-built metric that weighs several factors:

• User Upvotes: Reflecting user interest.
• Added Revenue Potential: Assessing the feature’s ability to attract or retain paying customers.
• Cost of Effort: Estimating the resources and time required for development.

By considering all these aspects, we ensure that our roadmap aligns with both user needs and business objectives.

Public Roadmap: Transparency and Engagement

Once a feature clears this evaluation phase, it’s moved to the public roadmap, where users can see what’s coming up and continue to vote on upcoming features. Additionally, users have the ability to comment on features, providing valuable context and insights that go beyond simple upvotes. For an example, you can visit our public roadmap here. This transparency builds trust with our users and allows us to keep engaging them throughout the development process.

Notifying Users of Progress

Here’s where it gets exciting for users. Everyone who upvotes a feature is automatically subscribed to updates for that request. As soon as there’s progress—whether the feature moves to development or goes live—these users are notified simultaneously. This keeps them in the loop and creates a strong feedback loop, turning them into advocates for the feature they championed.

A System That Works for Everyone

By combining Gleap’s feature request form, Kai’s smart suggestions, and a thoughtful prioritization process, we’ve created a system that ensures we’re always working on the features that matter most. At the same time, we avoid the pitfalls of disorganization and user frustration.

This approach not only keeps our development team focused but also strengthens our relationship with our users by making them an active part of the process. If you’re looking to manage feature requests more effectively, Gleap is here to help you get started!