Collecting feature requests without a public voting board
Public boards suit some products and backfire on others. How to collect, group and count requests privately, and still tell people what you shipped.
Short answer: let people ask from inside your product, group requests about the same need, and count who is asking. Reply privately when something ships. You get the signal of a voting board without public pressure, competitors reading your roadmap, or customers seeing a pile of unanswered ideas.
Public board or private requests?
| Public voting board | Private requests | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sees requests | Everyone | Your team |
| Good for | Large communities, open roadmaps | B2B, client work, early products |
| Risk | Old ideas with many votes and no answer | You must close the loop yourself |
| Effort for the person asking | Visit the board, sign in, vote | Write a line where they are |
A simple private process
- 1
Ask in the product
A Request option in the Feedback window, on the screen the request is about.
- 2
Group by need
Check the underlying need before grouping. “Export to CSV” may mean exporting a report, while “download my data” may mean an account data export.
- 3
Count and weigh
How many people, which customers, how often.
- 4
Tell them when it ships
A personal reply turns a request into loyalty.
Bopmigo groups requests about the same thing automatically and shows how many people asked, so you can prioritize without a public board.