Most efficient feature-request system I've seen...

jebz · 24 Oct 2004, 11:02 PM

I'm a customer of both Fastmail and Dreamhost, a web hosting company. Dreamhost have the most efficient new-feature-request system I've seen.

Any customer can suggest new features. All features are added to a list of possible projects that Dreamhost can work upon. Then, each Dreamhost customer is allotted 50 credits to vote with.

Customers can spend 50 credits "voting" for the features they most want to see. Dreamhost specifies "credit costs" for different vote items, depending on how tricky/relevant the feature would be to implement.

As features are completed, your "credits" are returned to you, to vote for other features on the list.

Wondering if Fastmail would consider a similar system. It's really effective - FM can see at a glance, what features are being requested the most, by which levels of membership. Full and Enhanced levels of FM membership could even have more credits than, say, a Guest or Member account.

I realise it's a bit tricky to explain, but it's a fair, democratic system... wondering if Fastmail would consider something like this. More FM users would definitely be more likely to participate, too - this board is a great resource, but only visited by xx% of FM users. I'm sure a feature-voting system like this, integrated into FM, would work really well.

Any thoughts?

FMRocks · 25 Oct 2004, 02:55 AM

This is a similar (although by no means nearly the same) system as Mozilla uses for bugzilla reporting. You have 10 votes (I think) that you can use in any manner (10 votes for a single bug or 1 vote for 10 bugs) you wish and the developers use that information as one factor to decide which bugs should be fixed with greater urgency or which bugs are classified as blocking an upcoming release.

Just a thought. Btw, I think the system suggested above is quite good and may be something for FM to look at. Although, this depends on the traffic of new feature requests.

kalashnikov · 25 Oct 2004, 03:00 AM

This system is surely a good one to see what the people want. I think it would be a nice addition to FastMail.

fhapgood · 25 Oct 2004, 10:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kalashnikov
This system is surely a good one to see what the people want. I think it would be a nice addition to FastMail.

If I had fifty credits I'd spend them voting for just such a system.

jebz · 25 Oct 2004, 10:57 PM

Any official-FM thoughts? Would you feel this system would be worth the resources of building, or do you have a non-negotiableroadmap worked out for the near future of FM? (No sarcasm here! Just curious. Not every business is happy to have their project focus dictated to them).

Chipper · 26 Oct 2004, 03:58 AM

This site shows a unique way to give everyone $100 and they can "spend" it to "vote" -- the more complicated features cost more. (Just wanted to show yet another possibly way to give items different weights.

)

fhapgood · 26 Oct 2004, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Chipper
This site shows a unique way to give everyone $100 and they can "spend" it to "vote" -- the more complicated features cost more. (Just wanted to show yet another possibly way to give items different weights. )

This is of course crazy but I am so desperate to get a cross-folder search tool that I would back my votes with my own money!

XB77 · 27 Oct 2004, 07:41 AM

Forget getting free credits. Let's vote with real money. That would really give FM an indication of what is important enough for people to pay for. FM would simply agree to apply the extra funds to the selected project. FM would list the project options and their status (concept, design, programming, alpha, beta, etc.). Contributors would get nothing beyond furthering (by whatever amount they wanted) the project contributed to. I wouldn't expect huge contributions, but every little bit would be helpful and indicative of true interest. I've got $5 to spend on the AddressBook project, right now.

Many customers have already contributed much time and energy on programming and testing. Why not allow us to push things along on our favorite conerns with money votes. (For the record this is at least the third time that I have suggested this idea. If FM implemented this idea, they could easily point to customer demand, if anyone is afraid of looking like they are soliciting charitable contributions, or something.)

JRobert · 27 Oct 2004, 09:06 AM

These are novel schemes and easy to implement as a means of expressing interest. But I'd sure hate to be in charge of managing the time and resources to get anything done if the priorities were being driven by customer demand. And if people were voting with money instead of free "points" of some kind, they would likely feel - and reasonably so - that "their" project (at least if it were the cash leader) should be getting attention ahead of something else that might then be in progress. I could imagine lots of unfinished projects as the attention of the few developers was pulled hither and yon by customer demand.

-jeff-

fhapgood · 27 Oct 2004, 11:21 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by XB77
Forget getting free credits. Let's vote with real money.

I love the concept but as JRobert points out there are lots of hard parts hiding in the implementation.

But at least lets should set up a voting booth where we can vote on our favorite wish list item....

XB77 · 28 Oct 2004, 04:19 AM

Obviously FM would post a disclaimer that although money voted would be applied to the project voted for (eventually)--remember that FM would only list projects that it had already decided that it was interested in, there could be no assurance that the direction of the company would be changed drastically or resources would be switched from one project to the next after each $5 or whatever came in for one or another project. On the other hand, what better measure of market interest could FM's owners have than people actually contributing real money toward their pet improvements. My guess is that they would pay attention and the priority of various projects might well get rearranged, depending on the contribution trends. I doubt that the contributions would be enough to fully fund or even make that much of a dent in the total bill for anything, but it would be good market/research feedback.

Various voting polls have been done here. They don't seem to have much effect because no one knows how important these things are to people--how much they would pay for them (either through renewals, upgrades, or sign-ups). Talk is cheap. Also the people looking at this forum are a micro fraction of FM users and the ones voting for their favorite projects are a fraction of that.

**Sherry** · 28 Oct 2004, 05:12 AM

I really can't see this "pay" for features to work at all for two reasons. One is the fact that FM has a wide variety of users in different income categories. If only those with the ability to pay were to get the features they want, that would leave a large amount of unhappy customers out of the equation.

Secondly, I can just imagine the outcry (maybe even rage) if FM were to implement a small feature that would only take a few hours to do when the one voted for could involve weeks or even months to complete because it could require "big" code changes. I think those who paid would want FM to work on the big change to the exclusion of any small ones FM may want to implement.

This is just a guess but it could turn out that those who "paid" to have FM get a job done may treat FM as employees. I really don't think FM would want to be paid employees of their customers. At least not to that extent.

Sherry

XB77 · 29 Oct 2004, 06:08 AM

Sherry, your first point suggests that FM would take the money votes as their only or main method of setting priorities. I doubt it. It suggests that the big money customers would overwhelm the interest of the little guys. Why assume that their interests are different? Also, suppose that customer A has big money but isn't that interested in e-mail and customer B has limited resources but really wants some improvement implemented. I would guess that customer A will not contribute anything or possibly not even be aware that she could vote and that customer B might only contribute a dollar. And who knows what type of accounts they are signed up for?

As to your second point. I can't imagine any such rage, particularly if FM posts the list of eligible projects and gives some indication of their current status AND specifically states that contributions will be applied toward the projects EVENTUALLY, but unless the contributions fully fund the project (fat chance), no expectations as to how fast someone's $1 or $5 will speed things up should be raised. It would be explained that FM sees the dollar voting as a market research tool to help them understand relative user interest in the competing projects. Also if some small and easy to pick off improvement got implemented, I sincerely doubt that anyone would complain. Everyone (here) is keenly interested in any of the multitude of improvements being actually implemented, instead of the endless discussion that goes on here. FM would not be silly enough to lead anyone to expect that the current dollar leader gets all effort until the next project becomes dollar leader in the voting when all effort is switched to that. No one is silly enough to think that that is how to run a business.

As to the employee part, I would be shocked if the vote contributions added up to much more than token proportions of the cost of even small projects. People cry enough about the cost of their accounts and whether to upgrade, downgrade, etc. FM has plenty of folks here telling them how to run the business now. What I am saying is let them put their money where their mouths are.

WesDawg · 11 Nov 2004, 10:16 PM

Bugzilla is free isn't it? Maybe they could just use it? I know nothing about how it works though. I tried looking around its website and gave up. I'm not smart enough this early in the morning.

24 Oct 2004, 11:02 PM	#1
jebz Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 53	Most efficient feature-request system I've seen... I'm a customer of both Fastmail and Dreamhost, a web hosting company. Dreamhost have the most efficient new-feature-request system I've seen. Any customer can suggest new features. All features are added to a list of possible projects that Dreamhost can work upon. Then, each Dreamhost customer is allotted 50 credits to vote with. Customers can spend 50 credits "voting" for the features they most want to see. Dreamhost specifies "credit costs" for different vote items, depending on how tricky/relevant the feature would be to implement. As features are completed, your "credits" are returned to you, to vote for other features on the list. Wondering if Fastmail would consider a similar system. It's really effective - FM can see at a glance, what features are being requested the most, by which levels of membership. Full and Enhanced levels of FM membership could even have more credits than, say, a Guest or Member account. I realise it's a bit tricky to explain, but it's a fair, democratic system... wondering if Fastmail would consider something like this. More FM users would definitely be more likely to participate, too - this board is a great resource, but only visited by xx% of FM users. I'm sure a feature-voting system like this, integrated into FM, would work really well. Any thoughts?

27 Oct 2004, 07:41 AM	#8
XB77 Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	Why not use real money? Forget getting free credits. Let's vote with real money. That would really give FM an indication of what is important enough for people to pay for. FM would simply agree to apply the extra funds to the selected project. FM would list the project options and their status (concept, design, programming, alpha, beta, etc.). Contributors would get nothing beyond furthering (by whatever amount they wanted) the project contributed to. I wouldn't expect huge contributions, but every little bit would be helpful and indicative of true interest. I've got $5 to spend on the AddressBook project, right now. Many customers have already contributed much time and energy on programming and testing. Why not allow us to push things along on our favorite conerns with money votes. (For the record this is at least the third time that I have suggested this idea. If FM implemented this idea, they could easily point to customer demand, if anyone is afraid of looking like they are soliciting charitable contributions, or something.)

28 Oct 2004, 04:19 AM	#11
XB77 Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	Vote with real money Obviously FM would post a disclaimer that although money voted would be applied to the project voted for (eventually)--remember that FM would only list projects that it had already decided that it was interested in, there could be no assurance that the direction of the company would be changed drastically or resources would be switched from one project to the next after each $5 or whatever came in for one or another project. On the other hand, what better measure of market interest could FM's owners have than people actually contributing real money toward their pet improvements. My guess is that they would pay attention and the priority of various projects might well get rearranged, depending on the contribution trends. I doubt that the contributions would be enough to fully fund or even make that much of a dent in the total bill for anything, but it would be good market/research feedback. Various voting polls have been done here. They don't seem to have much effect because no one knows how important these things are to people--how much they would pay for them (either through renewals, upgrades, or sign-ups). Talk is cheap. Also the people looking at this forum are a micro fraction of FM users and the ones voting for their favorite projects are a fraction of that.

29 Oct 2004, 06:08 AM	#13
XB77 Essential Contributor Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Los Angeles Posts: 365	Let's put our money where our mouths are. Sherry, your first point suggests that FM would take the money votes as their only or main method of setting priorities. I doubt it. It suggests that the big money customers would overwhelm the interest of the little guys. Why assume that their interests are different? Also, suppose that customer A has big money but isn't that interested in e-mail and customer B has limited resources but really wants some improvement implemented. I would guess that customer A will not contribute anything or possibly not even be aware that she could vote and that customer B might only contribute a dollar. And who knows what type of accounts they are signed up for? As to your second point. I can't imagine any such rage, particularly if FM posts the list of eligible projects and gives some indication of their current status AND specifically states that contributions will be applied toward the projects EVENTUALLY, but unless the contributions fully fund the project (fat chance), no expectations as to how fast someone's $1 or $5 will speed things up should be raised. It would be explained that FM sees the dollar voting as a market research tool to help them understand relative user interest in the competing projects. Also if some small and easy to pick off improvement got implemented, I sincerely doubt that anyone would complain. Everyone (here) is keenly interested in any of the multitude of improvements being actually implemented, instead of the endless discussion that goes on here. FM would not be silly enough to lead anyone to expect that the current dollar leader gets all effort until the next project becomes dollar leader in the voting when all effort is switched to that. No one is silly enough to think that that is how to run a business. As to the employee part, I would be shocked if the vote contributions added up to much more than token proportions of the cost of even small projects. People cry enough about the cost of their accounts and whether to upgrade, downgrade, etc. FM has plenty of folks here telling them how to run the business now. What I am saying is let them put their money where their mouths are.

25 Oct 2004, 02:55 AM	#2
FMRocks The "e" in e-mail Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: FM does NOT refer to Fastmail (anymore). Posts: 4,034	This is a similar (although by no means nearly the same) system as Mozilla uses for bugzilla reporting. You have 10 votes (I think) that you can use in any manner (10 votes for a single bug or 1 vote for 10 bugs) you wish and the developers use that information as one factor to decide which bugs should be fixed with greater urgency or which bugs are classified as blocking an upcoming release. Just a thought. Btw, I think the system suggested above is quite good and may be something for FM to look at. Although, this depends on the traffic of new feature requests.

25 Oct 2004, 03:00 AM	#3
kalashnikov Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Nederland Posts: 31	This system is surely a good one to see what the people want. I think it would be a nice addition to FastMail.

25 Oct 2004, 10:57 PM	#5
jebz Member Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Sydney, Australia Posts: 53	Any official-FM thoughts? Would you feel this system would be worth the resources of building, or do you have a non-negotiableroadmap worked out for the near future of FM? (No sarcasm here! Just curious. Not every business is happy to have their project focus dictated to them).

26 Oct 2004, 03:58 AM	#6
Chipper Master of the @ Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Greenbelt, MD (USA) Posts: 1,278	This site shows a unique way to give everyone $100 and they can "spend" it to "vote" -- the more complicated features cost more. (Just wanted to show yet another possibly way to give items different weights. )

27 Oct 2004, 09:06 AM	#9
JRobert Master of the @ Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: New Hampshire, USA Posts: 1,561	These are novel schemes and easy to implement as a means of expressing interest. But I'd sure hate to be in charge of managing the time and resources to get anything done if the priorities were being driven by customer demand. And if people were voting with money instead of free "points" of some kind, they would likely feel - and reasonably so - that "their" project (at least if it were the cash leader) should be getting attention ahead of something else that might then be in progress. I could imagine lots of unfinished projects as the attention of the few developers was pulled hither and yon by customer demand. -jeff-

28 Oct 2004, 05:12 AM	#12
Sherry Moderator Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: USA Posts: 8,687	I really can't see this "pay" for features to work at all for two reasons. One is the fact that FM has a wide variety of users in different income categories. If only those with the ability to pay were to get the features they want, that would leave a large amount of unhappy customers out of the equation. Secondly, I can just imagine the outcry (maybe even rage) if FM were to implement a small feature that would only take a few hours to do when the one voted for could involve weeks or even months to complete because it could require "big" code changes. I think those who paid would want FM to work on the big change to the exclusion of any small ones FM may want to implement. This is just a guess but it could turn out that those who "paid" to have FM get a job done may treat FM as employees. I really don't think FM would want to be paid employees of their customers. At least not to that extent. Sherry

11 Nov 2004, 10:16 PM	#14
WesDawg Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Posts: 9	Bugzilla is free isn't it? Maybe they could just use it? I know nothing about how it works though. I tried looking around its website and gave up. I'm not smart enough this early in the morning.