Using UserVoice Beyond Product Feedback

UserVoice is built around a simple loop: people submit, others vote, someone acts, and everyone hears what happened. That loop works for far more than product requests. This guide gives you seven recipes, each with its setup, how it runs, and a status update you can copy.

Why the loop travels

Any time a group has more questions or ideas than time, and wants to know what happened to theirs, the same four steps apply.

All-hands questions

Employees submit questions before each all-hands and vote. Leaders answer the top questions live, and answer the rest in writing, so every question gets a response.

How it runs

1. Open the meeting's category a week ahead, and announce it in Slack.
2. Employees post questions and vote on others'. Merge duplicates as they come in.
3. The day before, take the top questions by votes into the agenda.
4. After the meeting, mark those Answered live, with a link to the recording.
5. An executive answers every remaining question, and marks it Answered in writing with the answer as the message.

Questions during big changes

A reorganization, an acquisition, an office move, or a benefits change raises the same questions over and over. Collect them in one place, answer the most-asked first, and publish the answers.

How it runs

1. Open the forum the day the change is announced, and link it from the announcement.
2. Assign an owner to each category, such as HR for benefits and leadership for teams.
3. Answer the most-voted questions first, and merge duplicates so each answer reaches everyone who asked.
4. When the answer isn't known yet, say so with Still deciding, and when you expect to know.
5. Collect the answers into an FAQ, and mark those questions Answered in the FAQ with a link.

An employee ideas program

Employees see problems and opportunities every day. Give them one place to suggest improvements to products, processes, and culture, and show that ideas get a real hearing.

How it runs

1. Launch with a clear scope: what kinds of ideas, and who reviews them.
2. Employees post ideas, vote, and rate how important each one is to them.
3. Each quarter, the panel reviews the top ideas by votes and importance.
4. Mark ideas you'll try as Piloting, and the ones you'll keep as Adopted. Thank the people behind them at the all-hands.
5. Explain every Not now. A reason keeps people suggesting.

Hackathon projects

Let the company choose what gets built. Teams pitch projects, colleagues vote, and the winners get built during the hackathon.

How it runs

1. Open the forum two weeks before the event. Each project idea is a post.
2. People vote, and comment to say they'd like to join a team.
3. When voting closes, mark the top projects Selected, and form teams from the comments.
4. After the event, mark each project Built, with a link to the demo.
5. Mark the rest Not selected this time, and invite them back next event.

Retrospectives

After a launch or a quarter, ask the team what to keep, change, or stop. Votes decide what you discuss, and status updates track what you do about it.

How it runs

1. Open the retro's category a few days before the meeting.
2. People post items with a Keep, Change, or Stop label, and vote on others'.
3. In the meeting, start with the most-voted items.
4. Mark items you'll act on as Action item, with an owner in the message.
5. Mark them Done when they're done, so the next retro starts from progress.

Help-center requests

Customers know which articles are missing. Let them ask and vote, write the most-requested first, and close each request with a link to the article.

How it runs

1. Add a “Request an article” link to your help center's header and to every article's footer.
2. Customers post requests and vote. Merge duplicates as they come in.
3. The docs team writes the most-requested articles first.
4. Mark each request Published, with the article's link in the message.
5. Update older requests when a new article covers them.

Event and training topics

Before you build an agenda, ask the people who'll attend. Customers vote on webinar, conference, and training topics, and hear when their topic is scheduled.

How it runs

1. Open topic suggestions a month before the agenda is due.
2. Customers suggest topics, vote, and rate how important each is to them.
3. Build the agenda from the top topics, and mark them Selected.
4. When a session is booked, mark it Scheduled, with the date and the sign-up link.
5. Afterward, mark it Recorded, with a link to the recording.

Running several at once

Most recipes need only one forum each, so you can run several side by side.

• Give every forum an owner, and put its rhythm on their calendar.
• Agree on status names that work for every forum on the same instance.
• Start with one recipe, run it for a cycle, and add the next once it works.