How To Submit Feature Requests That Actually Help
Ryan Gor
Feb 4, 2025
Source: UseResponse
We all know that when building digital products, feedback is extremely valuable.
The Lean Methodology often talks about shipping MVPs, listening to feedback, and iterating. The issue is that the average user isn’t trained on how to provide feedback in a way that makes it easy for the receiving Product Manager to understand the problem, prioritize it, and get it actually worked on. This can be frustrating on both sides - users don’t get their ideas worked on, and Product Manager's aren’t getting enough information to be incentivized or prioritize the idea, and all it took was a bit more information when providing a feature request.
I’m sure you’ve come across feedback forms in many products you have used and love. Here’s an example of a tiny box from Fathom, a growing AI meeting notetaker.
Fathom's feature request form
Spotify has a more built out feedback system, built around their community. It’s a forum where you can see if your idea was already submitted and you can upvote ideas, which reduces duplicates, and adds more data to ideas.
Shopify's feature request form
Canny takes this idea further, building out a full product for a feedback system that any company can add.
As Product Manager's, we review these ideas all the time. They often come in as “I want a way to listen to all of an artist’s songs”. Sometimes new Product Managers don’t know the whole system too, so they understand the idea, but not how painful the problem is, how frequently it occurs, and what workarounds are at disposal to the user. They need extra steps to chase that information down.
As a user, it only takes a few more seconds to make your idea more likely to be worked on. Imagine being the receiving Product Manager, pitching the idea internally. Here are some aspects that would be extremely helpful.
What you are trying to achieve with this feature
I want X, so that I can do Y, so that I can do Z…
This is the classic why you need this feature. You are uncovering the core problem. For B2B Products, it might even be how it is impacting your bottom line. Sometimes, a Product Manager is just guessing what this is, so by including this, you are giving way more insight, and even letting the Product Manager empathize with your situation. They spend a few more seconds in your shoes.
Workarounds
A Product Manager may dismiss an idea because they believe there are workarounds. As a user, you have to show why that workaround is not sufficiently solving your problem.
Here are some improved examples of feature ideas:
Spotify feature request
For Spotify, I am saying why I want this feature. It’s going to let me discover more artists and songs. This is in the best interest of Spotify, I helped connect the dots, and the PM has an easier time prioritizing this idea. I also mention why the workaround, the “This is Artist” playlist, fails, if the PM didn’t know about this.
Fathom feature request
For Fathom, I am explaining that easier skipping will save me time if I am reviewing an entire video. It is up to Fathom’s PM to decide maybe they don’t want to do this, because they’re focusing on showing highlights which reduces this need. But I showed them I have a use case of reviewing an entire video, that perhaps they didn’t know about or know it was that frequent.
Submit More Feedback
We hope to nudge feedback submissions in this direction for the whole system to run more smoothly. This will result in higher quality products with a bit of extra time and thought.
Thoughts?
Submitted a feature request recently that you can't wait until it's built?
What did you write in the request itself?
Anything we missed?
Who Am I?
Hi, I'm Ryan 👋
I'm a Technical Product Leader that has built and scaled products that have positively impacted millions of lives.
I run Rigoris Digital, where we help high growth companies navigate Product Strategy, UX/UI Design and Development.
Learn more about us here.