Help Product Managers Prioritize Ideas
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Describe how IdeaExchange prioritization bridges idea voting and the Salesforce product release process.
- Describe how IdeaExchange ideas are put on the prioritization list.
- Prioritize IdeaExchange ideas as part of building the product roadmap.
- Find the results of the most recent prioritization cycle.
So... How Does My Idea Get Developed?
The IdeaExchange has existed for well over a decade and has captured more than 85,000 ideas. However, they can’t all become product features. So how do product managers decide which ones to develop?
Since the IdeaExchange was created, product managers have been monitoring ideas to see which ones gain popularity and which ones naturally align with the strategic direction of Salesforce products. That hasn’t changed. Ideas that may not have yet risen to the top are still spotted by product managers and incorporated into product roadmaps.
But now there’s another way for ideas to make it on to the roadmap. Three times a year, IdeaExchange Prioritization occurs, which bridges the always-on idea posting and voting with the product release process. Introduced in late 2018, Prioritization is a process by which product managers review top ideas for their categories, identify ideas to put on the prioritization list, and then ask the community to indicate which ideas on the list are most important.
Check out this video to learn more about how to share feedback and ideas on the IdeaExchange.
The Prioritization List
Around the time a Salesforce release comes out, engineers start developing features for the upcoming release. At the same time, the product managers huddle up with their teams to start planning for the release after the upcoming release. As they’re patting their heads and rubbing their bellies (just kidding), the product managers review the top ideas for their categories. A product manager considers each posted idea to determine whether the team can begin working on it in the next development cycle.
If the product manager decides that the team can begin working on the idea in the next development cycle, the idea goes on the prioritization list. This doesn’t mean that they’ll finish developing the idea within the next development cycle. It means that they have enough capacity to begin working on it. For each idea that goes on the prioritization list, a product manager updates the idea to:
- Change the status to Up for Prioritization
- Set the Effort Level: High, Medium, or Low. Not all ideas are equal. Some may require multiple teams and several development cycles to complete.
- Add a Feature Description: The product manager’s summary of what they plan to build and how it addresses the spirit of the idea.
- Set the Estimated Availability: Although prioritization occurs very early in the release process, the product team estimates when the feature could be generally available in the product if the feature is prioritized and developed.
If the product manager decides that the team cannot begin working on the idea in the next development cycle, the idea is not added to the prioritization list. Maybe the idea is dependent on something from another team and it won’t be ready. Perhaps the idea, despite being popular, conflicts with policies related to the number one Salesforce value: Trust. Or maybe the idea just doesn’t align with the strategic direction of the product.
Product managers generally comment on ideas they review during the prioritization huddle, whether or not the idea makes it onto the prioritization list.
Top ideas to be considered in the future remain Open, and include an explanation of why they’re not being considered now. They may be tagged as Open - Not Planned if there is no plan to reconsider. Ideas that will never be considered are updated to Closed - Never. It sounds harsh, but many community members told us that they want to know when product management decides not to pursue an idea. Product managers understand that many of you rely on transparency about what Salesforce is and is not building so that you can plan your own roadmaps accordingly.
After the list is double checked, it’s published and the community can start prioritizing!
Action Time: Applying Your 100 Coins to Your Favorite Ideas
When the list is ready and the prioritization cycle is open, it’s time to prioritize. We give every member of the Trailblazer Community a virtual 100-coin allowance (sorry, the coins have no monetary value), and you allocate those coins to the ideas on the list that you want to see developed. You can put all 100 coins towards one idea or spread them across multiple ideas. The more coins you put towards an idea, the stronger you signal that you want to see that idea make it into the product.
The prioritization list displays the name, description, category, effort, coins, and estimated availability of each prioritized idea.
The prioritization cycle usually lasts 2 weeks. At the end, the coins from all community members are tallied and the results are published on the IdeaExchange site. Product managers use the list, ordered from most coins to least, as an input into release planning.
Checking in on Jose’s Idea
Jose’s idea has gained a lot of traction within the community. As one of the top upvoted Sales Cloud ideas, it was reviewed by the Sales Cloud product manager, Wanda, during the prioritization huddle. She determined that the team could start working on it in the next development cycle. The team could also start working on a top Sales Cloud idea about dragging a calendar entry to another time.
Given all the work that the team is doing to make beta features from the last release generally available in upcoming releases, Wanda knows that the team can only work on one idea in the next development cycle. She needs help figuring out which one the community would like most. She puts both on the prioritization list, but before handing the list over to the community to prioritize, she reads through the comments on Jose’s idea.
Community members commented on Jose’s idea. Many comments included use cases for instantly recognizing achievements other than moving an opportunity to Closed - Won status. Wanda decides that the customer should be able to configure recognition for other milestones as well. She updates the description of the idea on the prioritization list to reflect this flexibility.
Will Jose have reason to celebrate his idea about celebrations? Keep reading to find out.