Do you have a great idea for PatronManager? Is there something you do frequently that's time-consuming or difficult? Have you seen something awesome in a different system and you'd like it added? Let us know!
Product Ideas are an opportunity for you to have a voice in the development of PatronManager. By sharing your ideas with us and upvoting ideas from other members of our community, you help make PatronManager stronger and better for everyone.
So how do you get started? And what makes a great product idea, anyway? Glad you asked! In this article, we'll go over:
- Where to find and suggest Ideas
- A tour of the Product Ideas page Idea
- How to suggest an Idea (and how to suggest an amazing one!)
- How Ideas become features in PatronManager
- Understanding the Idea Status
- Tips for suggesting an amazing Idea
- And some Frequently Asked Questions
Let's take a look!
First things first: are you in the Community?
Product Ideas exist in the PatronManager Client Community. If you're not yet logging in and taking part in the discussions there, head over to this article to get started!
Product Ideas in the Community: a guided tour
Now that you're in the Community, let's see what Product Ideas are all about.
On the Community Home page you'll see a list of Community Ideas that were delivered in the latest PatronManager release. From here you can click into the Release Notes to learn more.
You'll find a list of delivered Ideas on the Product Ideas page, searchable and grouped by release. Click into an Idea to learn more and find a direct link to the relevant Release Notes.
On the Product Ideas page, you'll see a list of top Ideas submitted by the PatronManager Community. View Ideas by category or status by changing the drop-down menus, and search for specific Ideas. Click into an Idea to view more detail and add your vote!
Here's what a Community Idea looks like:
- Product Idea Number: internal PatronManager reference number for the Idea
- Main and Secondary Category: filter categories for this Idea
- Status and Status Description: the current Status of the Idea, and a brief description of what that Status means (more on that later!)
- Goal: a brief summary of the Idea
- Vote: add your vote to an Idea by telling us how it would benefit your organization, specifically. If your organization has already voted for this Idea, you'll see that noted here.
Under My Organization's Ideas, you'll find a list of Ideas your organization has submitted recently. You can sort the list by status, search for specific Ideas, and click into an Idea for more detail.
Did you suggest an Idea a while back, and don't see it in the list here? Don't worry, we've got it! Those older suggestions are still part of our internal ranking process, they just pre-date the conversion that makes it possible to show them in the Community.
How to suggest an Idea
We'd love to hear from you! You can suggest an idea from the Product Ideas page in the Community.
Want some tips on writing up a great Idea? See below.
So how do you suggest an amazing Idea?
Here are some step-by-step tips for suggesting an Idea in the most productive way, so that we can build what you need, how you need it.
1. What do you want to see or do in PatronManager?
This is the headline of your Idea. Keep it goal-focused and clear.
Good Idea:
"I want to accept single and recurring donations on the same donation form."
- This is clear and concise.
Less-good Ideas:
"We don't like having two donation forms."
- This is a bit vague, and while it may identify something that isn't working well for you, it doesn't necessarily help us understand why, or how to make it better.
"I want to accept single and recurring donations on the same form and also accept stand-alone donations through Portal."
- These are two different things - suggest two different Ideas instead!
2. Check for similar ideas
We have over 10,000 Ideas (and counting!) from clients, which is amazing! It does make it a little challenging to categorize them accurately, though. We keep our eyes open for Ideas that come up frequently, as these indicate problems faced by many of our clients, or improvements that would help lots of folks.
If an Idea similar to yours already exists, click on it and upvote! That helps move it to the top of our review pile so that we can evaluate it accurately, and understand how many PatronManager clients would benefit if we released the Idea.
3. How would this Idea help your organization?
This is the "Why" - the reason you want this change.
Keep it succinct, and help us understand a) the problem you're looking to solve, or b) the opportunity that would exist for your organization if this feature were delivered.
Good reason:
"With a single form, it would be easier to upsell a donor into making a recurring gift, and it would take our staff less time to update the form when we have a new fundraising drive."
- This clearly identifies both an opportunity (increasing recurring gifts) and an existing problem (extra staff time/effort to update two forms)
Less-good reasons:
"It would look better."
- While this may be true, it's highly subjective and a bit vague.
"Our development director says this is important."
- It's difficult for us to quantify this, or measure it against problems and opportunities experienced by other organizations.
"Donations are really important to our organization!"
- We completely understand -- but while that statement is true for many of our clients, it doesn't help us understand exactly how delivering this Idea would help the organization requesting it.
4. Any additional details?
This is a great place to provide more context to help us understand what you need and why, particularly if you have data on hand.
Impact:
"We have a new fundraising drive every month, so currently it takes our development admin four hours a month to update both donation forms. With one form, we'd cut that time in half."
-or-
"In our previous system, we had one form for single and recurring donations and about 35% of our online donors chose to make a recurring gift. Since switching to two separate forms, now only 20% of our donors make a recurring gift."
Opportunity:
"We currently embed a donation form on our livestreamed virtual events -- if that form could take both single and recurring gifts, we would be able to increase recurring donations from those viewers."
How do Ideas become features in PatronManager?
PatronManager develops new tools and features based on feedback from clients (you!), as well as changes and requirements in the industry and on the Salesforce platform.
We plan our development roadmap annually, and we use Agile Product Development methodology which means we continuously re-evaluate our roadmap and priorities. We're therefore unable to guarantee a feature's release date until it's almost completed - but it also means we can quickly shift to meet the most pressing needs and requirements of the industry.
When prioritizing (and re-prioritizing) features for development, we pay particular attention to the following considerations:
- What's the benefit/impact? Is this something that will save you time? Increase your revenue? Help you build more engagement? Something else?
- How important is it? For example, if the goal is to save time, how much time will it save? Something that would save you an hour once per year is less interesting than something that will save you an hour twice per week.
- What's the impact of waiting? Is this a time-sensitive need, and if so, can we deliver it in time? Are there industry or Salesforce requirements with deadlines involved? Will this feature still be relevant and useful in six months or three years?
- How many people or organizations will benefit from the change? We generally focus on features that will have the greatest impact for the largest number of clients.
- What other parts of PatronManager does this change involve? Some feature changes appear small but can have far-reaching impacts in PatronManager or to third-party integrations. Those kinds of changes can require additional development, testing, and documentation as a result.
- How much time/effort will it take to build this feature? Do we have the resources to deliver it to our standards and in a timely fashion? Does developing this feature mean delaying other features that may have greater impact? Should we deliver this feature all at once, or can we release it in phases?
- How much testing is required to release this feature? Does this change require extensive user testing or a beta phase? Is there a risk to essential areas of PatronManager, such as transaction processing? This factors into development time and effort.
There’s not always one clear path, but we use these questions to guide how we prioritize all the suggestions we receive.
What do Idea Statuses mean?
Product Ideas can move through the following Statuses as shown on this chart:
- Open: this feature idea has been received and is under review.
-
- Planned: we plan to deliver this feature in the future (timeline to be determined). Note: we review our roadmap regularly, so this can change.
- In Development: we are developing this feature as a part of an upcoming release.
- In Pilot/Beta: this feature is part of an early release program. Submit a case if you'd like to be involved!
- Released: this feature has been delivered! Check the Release Notes in the Help Tab for more info.
-
- Not Scheduled: this feature idea has been reviewed and is not currently on our roadmap. Note: we review our roadmap regularly, so this can change.
- Existing Solution: it's possible to accomplish this goal with existing PatronManager features.
- Duplicate: your organization has already recorded a request for this feature.
- Declined: this feature will not be developed. This may be because it does not align with our strategic vision or includes functionality outside the scope of PatronManager.
- Unusual Behavior: we've identified this as unusual behavior and the report has been escalated. There will be no further updates to this Idea.
FAQs
Good question! We plan our roadmap about a year out, and constantly re-evaluate to ensure that what we're building makes sense and will have the greatest impact for the greatest number of clients given available resources.
That process makes it impossible to give a timeline for every Idea we receive (remember, so far we've got over 9,000 of them). Check the Status of your Idea for updates!
The PatronManager Product team reviews all suggested Ideas, so we've got yours - don't worry! As you can see from the Product Idea Number, there have been over 9,000 Ideas submitted thus far, so listing them all would be a bit overwhelming. The Ideas you see on the Community Ideas page are the ones that come up most frequently, or that are under consideration for development due to other factors.
Get other organizations to vote it up! Post about your Idea in the relevant topic areas of the Client Community, link to the Community Idea for it (if one exists), and encourage other organizations to upvote (or suggest their own Ideas). You'll help raise awareness, and you might find some useful workarounds or related suggestions from your peers in the process!
Votes for an Idea help us quantify the number of organizations that would benefit from the proposed change, and the reasons (given as part of the upvoting process) help us understand the impact and opportunity for each organization.
Q: Does PatronManager automatically build whichever Idea has the most votes?
A: No, there are a number of factors that go into deciding which features get developed and when. Votes are part of the equation, though, and a great way to ensure an Idea is reviewed regularly for potential inclusion on the roadmap.
When an Idea moves to the "In Development" Status, that means our team has picked it up and started the work necessary to build it. That process takes time, though, and is subject to a variety of factors including the complexity of the work, Salesforce's release schedule, other work slated for the same release, and more.
In general, when an Idea is "In Development", it's likely to be released within about 1-3 months. That's always subject to change due to unforeseen circumstances, though, so keep an eye on the Status of your Idea for updates!
First visit the Idea to see if there are any special notes. Typically when a feature is in pilot or beta there will be a note on that page with more information.
If the pilot is open and your organization meets the requirements to join (or if you're not sure), go ahead and submit a support request to let us know you're interested!
That depends! While most updates are automatically applied to your PatronManager account when they're released, some features have to be manually enabled while others are only available on-demand.
Check the Release Notes (linked from the Idea's page) for more information, and if you're still not sure what's up, submit a support request.
This means the Idea has been reviewed by the PatronManager Product team, but is not currently on our roadmap for development.
This can always change, though. As previously mentioned, we plan our roadmap yearly and re-evaluate priorities constantly. If you want to ensure your Idea is reviewed regularly, encourage other organizations to vote it up!
This means the Idea has been reviewed by the PatronManager Product team and is on our roadmap for future development, though we don't have a specific timeline to offer yet.
In general, Ideas marked as "Planned" will move into the Development phase somewhere between 6-12 months from now, but this is always subject to change. As previously mentioned, we plan our roadmap yearly and re-evaluate priorities constantly. Keep an eye on the Status of the Idea for updates!
This Idea has been reviewed by the PatronManager Product team, and will not be developed. This may be because it does not align with our strategic vision or includes functionality outside the scope of PatronManager (for example, a suggestion to change something fundamental to Salesforce).
This means we've identified this as unusual behavior (meaning PatronManager appears not to be functioning as designed). The report has been escalated for investigation by our team, and is being handled separately from the Product Idea process. There will be no further changes to the Idea Status.
This means that your organization has previously recorded a suggestion for this Idea, and we've connected those records to each other for better tracking.
Q: Do duplicate Ideas count as additional votes?
A: No, but they sometimes include additional context, which we track on the original Idea. PatronManager counts votes by organization rather than user, to help us understand how many client organizations will benefit from a given change.
Good news -- that means it's possible to accomplish the stated goal with existing PatronManager features! Check out the Idea (or the related Community Idea) for more information on the solution that exists.
If the existing solution doesn't meet your organization's specific goal, suggest a new Idea and be sure to include context to help us understand how your needs differ from the solution that's available in PatronManager today.
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