Public visibility, tracking, and voting on feature requests
Charles Barbour
Superstar
Right now if I submit a feature request by contacting my CSM or Panopto Support, I have no way of knowing if I'm the first person to ask for it or if there have already been 400 other requests.
If I request it that way it also never shows up here for additional feedback. Similarly, I just submitted a request for Remote Recorder Improvements in the Mobile App here, but I'm not sure if that counts as an official feature request or not?
These requests should all be publicly viewable. This would reduce the number of duplicate (or very similar/overlapping) requests as well as reducing duplication of your tracking efforts.
You could also let people vote on them to help determine where Panopto should be spending development time.
Gradescope's Roadmap on Trello is a great example of how this can be done well. It also shows how many things they have implemented based on customer feedback.
Also, any way we can get numbered and bulleted lists here in the forums?
Comments
I totally agree with the log of feature requests, though I personally think this would be fine as an "admin" area of this forum or even just a verified login. I totally get that they might not want to publish their whole roadmap for anyone and everyone to see.
I will also add that it is totally fine if roadmaps and priorities change. A lot of the pushback I've had with Panopto and other vendors on publishing roadmaps and such is that they don't want to push a date on something that might not land. For me, I would much rather know that something is 4th in line behind these 3 high-priority features or that a feature has been identified as a change we'd like to see, but it doesn't have priority right now. It doesn't even really need to have dates, I'd just like to know what is being addressed and what is not.
If it isn't going to be an option to put this list somewhere, maybe a quarterly Zoom call would be more appropriate to go over current priorities and goals.
I maintain a chunky list of the features I'd like to see and it would be awesome to see a similar list from Panopto on the features you'd like to build.
@Charles Barbour For the question on lists, there should be a little paragraph marker available to the left of the line you're currently using. If you click on that you can select the line style you want, establish a list, or add other formatting options:
@Michael Espey Wow! I had no idea. Thanks! Odd that it doesn't show up when text is highlighted and the usual keyboard shortcuts for bulleted/numbered lists don't work.
And yes, I don't often care nearly as much about dates as I do about where they sit in order of priority. If stuff gets dropped down the list of other things I also wanted, I get it. If new things are continually getting added and shipped that aren't nearly as useful, at a certain point it's no longer acceptable.
And when something like improvements in bulk scheduling of Remote Recorders (which has been promised for the past 4 years still isn't even on the roadmap), I want to not only see it added to the damn roadmap, I also want to see a release date chiseled in stone.
@Charles Barbour , yes I often wonder what the status of requests I make while working on a support case ticket or chat support. I forget the case numbers, or lose track of them.
It’s important that many and all voices be heard, but in a more organized way.
I also agree, @Michael Espey , that the features on the roadmap do not need to be public (However, they could be a deal breaker for potential customers).
Panopto already has a solution in place, the Features Request page - https://community.panopto.com/categories/feature-requests - Panopto just has to make sure that all requests made via chat or case support tickets are added to this page — for people to vote, to avoid dupplication, and to track.
Also, the Features Requests already has a filter option. (Image below: sorry, using iPad to insert image, but don’t have option to resize).
I do recommend follow-up notes by Panopto on the status of requests. Perhaps a chart: request / workaround / on the roadmap / completed.
There have been many times when a feature request was added or our name was added to an existing FR.
Unless we keep asking about the status of it, we never know if it grows in popularity or whether other clients agree. Sometimes we see our FRs have turned up in releases which is great but no communication happened at any point after "we'll add it as a feature request".
I think @Elba Rios hit the nail on the head... the Feature Requests page (https://community.panopto.com/categories/feature-requests) should be the place where Panopto places all requests made via chat or case support tickets so that all clients benefit. The lack of transparency, double handling on our part and limited communication make it much harder than it needs to be - for all parties.