The problem with IDEA CENTER

[fritter63]

I think there is a serious problem how the idea center is being managed. From what I've seen so far, it works like this:

1) post an idea

2) wait for other forum users to vote the idea up

3) if you get enough votes (actually, I've never seen this happen), I guess F360 decides to implement.

4) don't get enough votes... it gets closed and discarded.

Mostly I see #4 happening.

Here's the thing. THIS AIN'T AMERICAN IDOL.

You don't have millions of viewers watching and waiting to vote for their favorites. In fact, I'm willing to bet that  a fairly small percentage of users actually read the idea center. I certainly don't look at it very often. If I do , I don't get much further than the first or last page. This means it's easy for ideas to get buried and then receive no votes.

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN:

The F360 team reviews every idea, and COMBINED with user votes, there should be user interface expert who is capable of deciding if an idea has merit and will MAKE F360 A BETTER PRODUCT. Then the idea should be prioritized and implemented.

So far, I haven't seen that happening.

Who wants to vote for this approach? 

[kb9ydn]

---

@fritter63 wrote:

I think there is a serious problem how the idea center is being managed. From what I've seen so far, it works like this:

1) post an idea

2) wait for other forum users to vote the idea up

3) if you get enough votes (actually, I've never seen this happen), I guess F360 decides to implement.

4) don't get enough votes... it gets closed and discarded.

Mostly I see #4 happening.

Here's the thing. THIS AIN'T AMERICAN IDOL.

You don't have millions of viewers watching and waiting to vote for their favorites. In fact, I'm willing to bet that  a fairly small percentage of users actually read the idea center. I certainly don't look at it very often. If I do , I don't get much further than the first or last page. This means it's easy for ideas to get buried and then receive no votes.

WHAT SHOULD HAPPEN:

The F360 team reviews every idea, and COMBINED with user votes, there should be user interface expert who is capable of deciding if an idea has merit and will MAKE F360 A BETTER PRODUCT. Then the idea should be prioritized and implemented.

So far, I haven't seen that happening.

Who wants to vote for this approach? 

---

I think what you describe above mostly is what happens now, except that there is a threshold of like 5 votes for an idea to be considered by development.  But even then I've seen ideas marked for future consideration with less than 5 votes so development is still looking at ideas with less than 5 votes (at least some anyway).

Part of the problem here is that there are SO MANY submitted ideas that it would take a considerable effort to go through every single one of them in detail.  So it's up to the users to perform the initial prioritization on submitted ideas (the voting).  If users care enough about specific features in the product, they should be searching through the ideastation to find idea submissions to vote on, or submit their own ideas.  And even once posted, it helps to gather support for submitted ideas by starting discussions about them in the main forum.  Yes, it's a lot of work, but that's what it takes to develop anything truly great.

C|

[brianrepp · Accepted solution]

@kb9ydn I think you captured it perfectly.

@fritter63   Good (and timely) discussion to have, thanks for the post.  I’ll start off with acknowledging that we need to do a better job communicating what ideas we’re reviewing, when, and what’s accepted/implemented.  The Product Management and UX teams meet at least twice a week reviewing ideas, however with the amount of great ideas coming in (plus the many other forms of product feedback we receive) it’s not sustainable to review every idea submitted, at least not while giving it the discussion it needs.  In that respect, our current process is simply not scalable, and we are in the midst of a revamp that will be communicated soon.

That said, the intent behind the launch of IdeaStation was to have a place where users could submit ideas and suggestions, in an organized fashion, and share with the broader community. When people discuss the concepts, we often see the idea evolve and iterate, a process that is invaluable.  As the community rallies behind an idea, it gives the Fusion team a sense of the level of interest, and how we should prioritize against other ideas.

The product management team uses many sources to set priority including, but not limited to:

• The forum - We interact with customers on a daily basis.
• IdeaStation - Regular meetings to review and discuss as a team.  
• Customer visits - A deeper understanding of how our users are using Fusion.
• Sales team - What potential customers are asking for.
• Evangelists - Work with current customers on a daily basis in the development of products.
• Metrics on usage - What features our customers using the most.

As you can see, there are multiple sources that go into our process of prioritizing for Fusion.  When an idea is archived it does not mean that we will not use this data, it is just not current priority.  We often search through the ideas to find similar concepts in the exploration to achieve an ideal workflow for our customers.  We appreciate every submission and the passion our users have for Fusion!

[bkgoodman]

I think the greater problem is - I've seen a few ideas (one in particular comes to mind) - that a lot of people want. A lot of people post SIMILAR ideas, and several people "like" each of those ideas. However, no single post really gets enough likes to be taken into serious priority or concideration. There are probably two reasons why:

1. People post without searching for existing same/similar idea(s).

2. Sometimes a single (core) idea might have several different takes, explanations or nuances, (validly) warranting different posts.

Just my 2c...

[brianrepp]

@bkgoodman I think on point #1 you're absolutely right.  I'm thinking perhaps if we change the submission form slightly, we could possibly encourage users to search before they post something new.  We have the ability (and routinely do) combine ideas if they're close enough in concept, which also combines votes, comments, etc.  BUT, it's not an easy task to keep up with finding all of the duplicates.  On your second point, I also agree - this actually becomes part of the challenge when also "accepting" an idea... sometimes we know we can't implement exactly as described for various reasons, and therefore have to hope we achieve the core of the idea, even though it might not be preciesly what was suggested.

[kb9ydn]

Just sort of thinking aloud here; I wonder if maybe the ideastation should be integrated more tightly with the main forum?  I'm imagining if you saw a post in one of the regular forums that looked like a good feature to add to Fusion, you could click a button to promote that post to an ideastation idea.  And maybe you could promote an entire thread too.  The thread would stay in the forum it started in but it would be flagged as an idea and also show up in the idea station.  And then similarly there should be a brain dead easy way to link an idea station post back to another forum post or thread.  I know you can put hyperlinks in any post but I think it should be even simpler and more visible than that.

I have no idea how any of this wold be implemented exactly, I just wanted to throw it out there for discussion.

C|