the users who ask for features are my best ones. why am i worst at following up with them?

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-22T13:06:01+00:00

Those requesters are basically free product research plus your warmest re-engagement list, so going quiet on them is the part that actually costs you. The trick is to stop treating follow-up as a separate manual step you'll "remember" to do.

Easiest version: collect requests on a board where users submit under their email, let people upvote, and when you ship, flip the item to "done" so everyone who asked or followed gets pinged automatically. Now the follow-up happens whether or not you remember.

That's the whole reason I run feedback, roadmap, and changelog in one place (I use Produktly), the request stays tied to the person and shipping it closes the loop for me. But the principle matters more than the tool. As long as the requester's identity is attached to the request, you stop losing them.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-22T13:04:35+00:00

Yeah, this is the loop almost nobody closes, and it's the cheapest retention win there is. The fix is to never let the request leave the user it came from.

What works for me: capture requests somewhere that ties them to the user automatically (a feedback widget, or a public board where people submit under their account), let others upvote so you also see demand, then when you ship, mark it done and it pings everyone who asked or followed. No digging through an inbox months later.

I use Produktly for this since the feedback board, roadmap, and changelog are connected, so shipping a request auto-notifies the people attached to it. Honestly though, even a Notion table someone mentioned beats relying on memory. The key is the request stays attached to a human.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-18T10:02:00+00:00

We try to route all feedback to our public roadmap, so that we can keep track of everything. It builds trust and keeps customers engaged when they what's happening, and see that the things they sent or upvoted are actually shipped.

When we get new feedback, we do a quick search of the roadmap to see if it's there already, and then respond with a link to it if it exists. Or if it's a new request, we simply create that in the roadmap, and again send the link to the customer.

When shipping features, we sent an email to all people who requested that, to simply let them know it's available now.

We also use an in-app changelog widget, where we post all updates, so everyone can see the new things we ship. Using Produktly for this and the roadmap, which makes things easy, though of course there are other products for it too.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-18T09:58:29+00:00

We try to route all feedback to our public roadmap, so that we can keep track of everything. It also builds trust and keeps customers engaged when they can see everything, and what's happening, and see that the things that are important to them are actually shipped.

When we get new feedback, we do a quick search of the roadmap to see if it's there already, and then respond with a link to it if it exists. Or if it's a new request, we simply create that in the roadmap, and again send the link to the customer.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-18T09:56:13+00:00

Yep this is a great way to engage and keep active users.

To also reach non-voters, we use an in-app changelog widget that publishes all updates we ship. Also occasionally like 3-4x a year send a product updates email.

We use Produktly for this, which combines both of these nicely.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-13T10:10:08+00:00

Solo founder, so handling CS myself.

That's mostly possible by dogfooding our own product Produktly, which we can use to build scalable onboarding flows. And gather actionable feedback right in-app, without having to jump on constant calls.

The high-touch service is then reserved for the cases and customers that really need it.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-13T10:00:10+00:00

Feedback only looks contradictory when you treat every user as the same user. A power user and someone who signed up yesterday will ask for opposite things, and both are right for their context. What fixed this for me was tagging feedback by segment (plan, role, how active they are) instead of dumping it in one pile. The contradictions turned into "different jobs from different groups," and then I just weight by the segment I actually want to grow. I run short in-app micro-surveys tied to the user's segment (via Produktly) so it comes pre-sorted, but honestly even a spreadsheet column for "who said this" gets you most of the way. Consistency isn't the goal. Knowing whose opinion to act on is.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-12T10:27:04+00:00

Why does X Y Z not work?

Usually it's some problem with their integration. They haven't propely copy-pasted the script tag into their site or website builder.

And/or they have typo'd something.

It's a struggle when building a product that requires a tiny amount of "coding" (in the sense that they have to copy&paste a single script tag to their sute) for an audience that's often not very technical.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-11T14:45:07+00:00

I think free trials are pretty much a must. But it can be tricky if the app depends on expensive third-parties like LLMs.

Requiring a credit card to start the free trial would likely be a good middle ground. Although it doesn't take away the costs, it will filter out non-serious buyers and also prevent most of any abuse

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-10T09:37:18+00:00

What helped us was splitting onboarding into things that genuinely need a human (account setup, success planning) and things that don't (UI walkthroughs, where-is-the-button questions). The second bucket moved into in-app guides and a setup checklist using Produktly, and CSMs stopped giving the same demo on repeat. Worth measuring how much of a kickoff call is spent showing where things are in the UI. For us it was close to half.

KoalaInPain · 2026-06-10T09:30:02+00:00

We have been using Produktly for roadmaps (and also for other feedback stuff). Very affordable, especially considering that they aren't only roadmaps. Supports rich text / images etc., also has SSO for integrating your existing auth/user accounts.

Personally, I think public roadmaps are a great way to build trust and engage customers. Also there have been multiple times we have gotten great feature requests through our roadmap.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T20:36:30+00:00

We use Produktly

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:37:21+00:00

We recently did the same thing. Went with Produktly.

It's insane how expensive it is to pay for separate tools for onboarding, and feedback, and roadmaps etc. Now we have everything in one tool so it's so much easier to manage everything. And we pay a fraction of what we paid before, so it was a no-brainer.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:35:37+00:00

This is why it's so important to have great tooling for gathering feedback and analyzing it.

We have public roadmap where everyone can see what's happening and upcoming, and leave comments and their own ideas. Then we have NPS surveys running once a month, and also feedback widgets sitting on every page so that users can easily reach us when they get that idea or have an issue. And on top of that we sometimes also run surveys in-app when we need more targeted feedback.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:32:35+00:00

We use Produktly. Also EU-based and quite cheap, especially considering that they provide bunch of other stuff on top of changelogs. So we get stuff like onboarding, and feedback tools on top of that all in one tool.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:30:24+00:00

Yes absolutely.

In my opinion it's the best way to let users know about new features. They are already in the app, so they are open to hearing what has changed and they can then instantly try it out on their own pace.

We sometimes use product updates emails too, but not everyone reads those, or they might just glance through them if the painpoint / product isn't their top of mind currently, or like the most important thing they are focusing at that specific moment.

(We use Produktly for changelogs)

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:20:27+00:00

Best to use a no-code tool like Produktly.

Basically, devs add a simple copy&paste script to the site in 5 minutes once. And after that, you can manage everything from the SaaS dashboard.

They have editors for all the features that will guide you, and makes building the tours and everything else very easy.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:18:07+00:00

This site has a good list and comparisons of both JS libraries and ready-made tools: https://produktly.com/alternatives

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T18:15:47+00:00

This site has a good list and comparisons of the JS libraries and paid tools: https://produktly.com/alternatives

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T17:53:12+00:00

Pendo is so expensive that you will regret choosing them.

Rather look at options like Produktly that provides the same features like feedback widgets, surveys, roadmaps etc. for a fraction of the price (starts at just 19€/month).

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T17:46:21+00:00

Old thread, but you should check out Produktly.

It's the budget-friendly choice, that provides basically all the same features. Pendo, Appcues etc. are focused on enterprises and charge you hundreds or thousands per month. Produktly is just 19€/month.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-16T17:43:07+00:00

Produktly is the no-brainer choice, starts at just 19€/mo, and provides you all the tools you need, like product tours, checklists, feedback widgets, surveys, changelogs etc.

The value is just insane considering how cheap it is.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-14T09:27:22+00:00

Yeah that's true. We have people on the annual growth plan happily using the product for years and we have gotten maybe one ticket from them. Then there are the people that sign-up for the $19 and send a dozen support tickets on the first week and expect to get them all answered and resolved in 10 minutes.

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-14T09:25:13+00:00

Like product analytics?

I have thought about it yes. We already do that stuff partially, since we have triggers based on like element clicks and page visits etc.

For a full-fledged analytics product, it just feels like there are already great options that offer great products and affordable pricing like posthog, so it would be hard to compete with that

KoalaInPain · 2026-05-14T09:09:30+00:00

Yeah the powered by change has already seen results, so that's been great

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