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Session Notes:
Can You Hear Me Now?
Catherine Connor, Rally, PdM / PO, Boulder, Colo, Catherine@rallydev.com
was sales engineer at Rational, Evangelist for RequisitePro at Rational, P.O. at Borland
Ideation
UserVoice: short-term use: PCamp
long-term use: Rally, BrightIdea
Verizon, Dell, Starbucks have sites up to hear from users
ask users to input ideas, give them oppty to get status, just to know you're reading them
Rally Idea Manager (Oct '10 - March '12)
crowd-sourcing
log in, see all users' ideas, vote on them
2 sites
one for 15-20 strategic customers
one for the rest
some companies also have an internal site for sales and support to enter ideas
Rally uses SalesForce
plusses for Rally
central place for users' ideas
feature design input
"vocal customers with unique needs"
"why" behind feature requests
"voice of the customer" to development
business value quantification - 259 votes for top idea
plusses for users
access to PdMs for all users
stay informed on product plans, what's coming, which ideas are being implemented
communicate w peers - learn tips, workarounds, limitations - but not as much as hoped for - it is about building a community
challenges
cost: administration overhead
SMEs coaching
users enter dupe ideas - "suggestion box" syndrome
managing duplicate ideas
marketing the site
6-month roadmap
11.56% of ideas have been released
fears of adoption
# of ideas / tip: categorization
what if product plans change? tip: users value transparency over missed commitments
users will expect all ideas to be implemented / tip: clearly state the site goal
we will have to implement the top voted ideas / tip: be transparent why a top voted idea is not a 'go'
tips
clearly communicate the site goal: internally, externally
define the site scope: one site per product or many products in one site, reasonable # of idea categories
allocate adequate resources to keep site active: site owner (1/2 FTE), SMEs (4 days/mo)
clearly communicate "rules of engagement" to SMEs: be honest, keep dialog open ("working on this after that")