{"id":3091,"date":"2021-04-07T11:00:25","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/?p=3091"},"modified":"2026-03-10T21:04:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T01:04:45","slug":"user-feedback-roadmapping-planning-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canny.io\/blog\/user-feedback-roadmapping-planning-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Canny to integrate user feedback into your roadmapping and planning meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roadmapping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sprint planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategy sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whatever your team calls them, planning meetings are a fact of life for any functional company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A productive planning meeting requires 3 key components:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Representatives for those who will be affected by the meeting\u2019s outcomes<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A clear decision that needs to be made<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Actionable steps going forward<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    But, even though these components make for a productive meeting, there’s still something missing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Everyone has a voice at meetings\u2014except your users<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Often, a planning meeting will include at least one representative from each of your company\u2019s relevant teams\u2014the product team, marketing, support, design, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    But in most cases, there is a critical voice missing\u2014the voice of your customers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    This makes zero sense. Presumably, you\u2019re building a product for<\/em> your customers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Now, it\u2019s obvious that you can\u2019t invite your entire user base to chime in every time you need to assign projects. Even if you could, many of them are going to say the same things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Plus, you\u2019d have to keep track of who\u2019s making which requests<\/a>\u2014is the request coming from freemium users, or people on a trial who just showed up? Or the long-term enterprise clients who genuinely matter to the company balance sheet?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But, the customer\u2019s voice needs to have representation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In most companies, this looks like a beleaguered support team armed with loosely connected tickets and conversations<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you hear phrases like, \u201cwe\u2019ve been hearing a lot of\u2026\u201d or \u201cI recently talked to one user who\u2026\u201d you know you\u2019re not dealing with hard data. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    These support anecdotes may be right, but unless they dig up their ticket history and slap the takeaways on a spreadsheet, they’re not especially helpful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Bring real user feedback into the room<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    You can\u2019t make informed decisions based on disjointed anecdotal data. That results in wasted engineering resources that may or may not be relevant to most of your users. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But you also can\u2019t just ignore your customers<\/a>. This can result in creating a product or feature that you <\/em>love, but that is lousy for your user base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Your customers need a proxy to be in the room on their behalf, accurately conveying their sentiments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This is where Canny comes in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Someone brings Canny up on a screen, and now suddenly, \u201cwhat do our users think?\u201d has an answer. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    You can see what requests are the most popular, read user comments, identify which users are requesting what, check how long a submission has been on the board. The data is there. It\u2019s immediate. No need to \u201ccircle back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When a request is submitted, you can ask users to clarify. Just add a comment and every voter will be notified that an admin has asked a question. In other words, you can start a one-to-many conversation with customers without needing to sort through a slew of emails, or send out a tedious survey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Decisions without guesswork<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    So what are the results of inviting Canny into your team meetings? Well, with the user\u2019s voice in the room, you can be confident that all stakeholders have had their say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    You can filter the feedback to see who\u2019s asking, what they\u2019re paying, how long they\u2019ve been around, and other key variables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    There’s a balance between building the product you want to develop and the product your users are asking for. You’ll have to use your development resources strategically, and you won’t build what your customers are asking for every time. You still get to decide what you build, but now you have actual data on what your customers want to help inform your decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When you use Canny, you know which requests will make the most significant impact on the bottom line. You can quickly tag and identify low-hanging fruit. You can also decide that a request just isn\u2019t in the cards. Just close it and explain your reasons. This way, current and future users can see that explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Making your meetings better by incorporating user feedback<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Having all this data at your fingertips also frees up other resources: <\/p>\n\n\n\n