8. Experience Report!
• Rally’s own adoption of Rally Idea Manager (Oct’10- March’12)
• “Rally Ideas” is an idea site for Rally users (ideas.rallydev.com)
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9. “Rally Ideas” Idea Site!
• Continuous flow of
user input
• Announcements
• One source of
input for product
backlogs
10. One of Many Input Sources!
• Vision, strategy & roadmap!
• Customer on-site visits!
• Customer dialogs at events!
• Sales & support input!
• Customer development interviews!
• “Lean Startup for non-Startups” session at 11am!!
12. Gains for Product Managers!
• Central place for users’ ideas
• Feature design input
• “Vocal customers with unique needs”
• “Why” behind feature requests
• “Voice of the customer” to development
• Business value quantification
15. Gains for Users!
• You can hear me now! J
– Access to product managers for all users
• Stay informed on product plans
– what’s coming soon
– which ideas are being implemented
• Communicate with peers
– Am I the only one thinking it’s a good idea?
– Learn tips, workarounds & limitations
20. Fears of Adoption!
• Amount of ideas to triage
– Tip: Categorization limits amount to the pertinent SMEs
• What if our product plans change?
– Tip: Users value transparency over missed commitments!
• Users will expect all ideas to be implemented
– Tip: Clearly state the site goal
• We will have to implement the top voted ideas
– Tip: Be transparent why a top voted idea is not planned
21. Plan Ahead!
• Clearly communicate the site goal
– Internally
– Externally
• Define the site scope
– One site per product or many products in one site
– Reasonable number of idea categories
• Allocate adequate resources to keep site active
– Site owner (1/2 FTE)
– SMEs (4 days/month)
• Clearly communicate “rules of engagement” to SMEs
– Be honest
– Keep dialog open (“working on this idea next, after we release Y”)!
22. Minimize Maintenance!
• Assign clear SME ownership
– By product or product areas
• Select intuitive idea categories
– Not too many
– Meaningful to users
• Select maintainable idea statuses
– Avoid specific dates
– Reflect your delivery intent
• Guide users
– Search before posting a new idea
– One idea per post
– Collect WHY on the submission form