Feature voting: How to make it work (+ 5 best tools)
Discover why your organisation needs feature voting, best practices, pitfalls to avoid, considerations for choosing a tool, and much more.
Making Great Software
Why so many bugs?
Why do products used by millions of people have so many bugs?
A major cause is lack of care.
What can you and I do to keep the bugs out of our software?
Stop adding new features to your SaaS! Why and what to do instead
Not adding new features to your SaaS product sounds counterintuitive.
But adding new features means making trade-offs. Your product may get better in some ways…but it’ll definitely suffer in others.
How to avoid creating “death of a thousand cuts” software | 5-minute video
You know that software you regularly use, but it is just so painful? The rough edges, the weird messages, the unexpected behaviour?
No-one sets out to make software like this. But it happens – all too often.
In this video, I share six things you can do to avoid your product becoming a painful experience. Follow these, and your customers won’t have to endure a “death of a thousand cuts” user experience.
Making a B2B SaaS? Don’t innovate – 99% of the time | 5-minute video
We all like to claim our software product is full of innovations to make our users’ lives better.
In reality, your software should actually be the opposite. It should not be full of innovations. On the contrary, it should work just like everybody’s else software, say 99% of the time.
How to get and manage feedback from beta testers
Our tips on getting and managing feedback from beta testers. We look at when you should ask for feedback, which tools will help you gather and manage feedback, and when you should iterate based on feedback.
Turn a good product into a great product with usability testing | 5-minute video
Usability testing turns a good product into a great product.
We did some formal usability testing in the early days of Feature Upvote. This turned out to be one of the most valuable things we did in our early days.
In this video I share some tips for doing usability testing with almost no budget, no special equipment, no special training, and no special labs.
How SaaS teams really prioritize features?
In theory, we use sophisticated frameworks to choose what to build next.
In reality, many product teams are using these somewhat less-sophisticated approaches. Not you of course, and not us. Oh no, just those other dysfunctional product teams!
Harsh lessons in dealing with customer feature requests | 5-minute video
Make a great product, seek and listen to customer feedback, and use the feedback to make your product even better. Simple right?
The reality is much harsher.
In this video I share the harsh lessons I’ve learnt in dealing with customer feature requests in my 20+ years of creating software.
Feedback boards: what are they and how to use them?
Learn how to set up and use feedback boards to collect suggestions from customers, employees, and beta testers.
Create an online idea board with Feature Upvote
Learn how to create and use an idea board. Discover tips to maximize the board’s engagement. Optimize the moderation process.
Working out what to include in your MVP – and what to leave out
Learn the technique our founder Steve used to trim away non-essential features from Feature Upvote’s MVP back when he started the company.
How to announce new features in your SaaS product
We researched how leading SaaS companies like Figma and Slack announce new features and compiled our findings in this list. Use these examples to inspire your next release and drive feature adoption.
Product strategy framework: 4 steps to create a winning strategy
Product strategy coach and consultant Nacho Bassino shares his 4-step framework for creating a winning product strategy.
Bug vs feature: What’s the difference and which to prioritise?
Fixing bugs or adding new features? Here’s why we think software teams should always fix bugs first—and how to get your devs on board.
Feature request tracking: 3 strategies to do it better
Feature requests scattered across channels? Use these 3 strategies for tracking and managing feature requests effortlessly.
5 steps to successful user onboarding for product managers
User onboarding is a system that helps your customers start receiving value from your product. Your customer will never get to experience your fantastic product without the right system to get them there.
Conducting customer interviews
A straightforward way for product teams to interview customers – and gain better product insights.
By Liz Painter
SaaS onboarding: self-service or a sales-driven approach?
Here at Feature Upvote, this is a question that’s intrigued us for some time. Should you make your SaaS self-service? So your customers can clearly see your pricing on your website and easily try out your product for free?
How to get useful user feedback (4 simple tips)
Getting useful user feedback helps you build better products. But how can you do this in a quick and simple way? Particularly if you don’t have the budget for testing labs and a big customer support team?
5 communities to help product managers
We love reading newsletters and blogs, but there’s nothing quite like belonging to a community to make you feel better about yourself and your job! There’s other people out there, like you, who can help you and who you, in turn, can help right back.
Best Slack Apps & Integrations for Product Managers
We’ve brought together a list of all the best Slack apps and integrations, as suggested by product managers. We have apps and integrations for collaboration and productivity, roadmapping and feedback, fun and friendship, and more.
How to get product suggestions from all your team (remote and in person)
In this article I look at 5 ways you can get manageable product suggestions from your team in a way that leaves you feeling calm, informed, and ready to nail that roadmap.
Does your SaaS really need new features?
The pressure to release new features for your software product can be considerable, particularly considering you’re probably deploying changes to your site daily, if not hourly. However, in this article we look at what you might do instead, with better results for your company.
Which feature requests should inform your product roadmap?
You have lots of feature requests for your product. How do you know which should be added to your roadmap? And which should be ignored? Here are some tips.
How to say no to a feature request
Do you get a lot of customer feature requests? Some are great, but many aren’t. You need to say no in a way that doesn’t upset your customers. Here are 5 tips.
Jira tips & integrations for product managers
If you’re a product manager using Jira then this article is for you. We look at using Jira across multiple teams, collecting feedback, adding roadmaps, avoiding complexity, managing issues and integrations.
Bug fixes or new product features?
As a software product manager, how should your team prioritise between bug fixes and adding new product features? Back in 2000, Joel Spolsky created the Joel Test, a 12-step list to better code. We’ll start here.