Rob Grady

Building on my recent post on Bugs vs. Features, one of the core reasons that features and bugs get confused is a missing feature request process. A good process that incorporates four simple steps can help streamline the feature request process and often calm emotions. CEPA (Capture, Evaluate, Prioritize and Assign) provides a framework to manage feature requests fairly and effectively. Today, I will cover the letter ‘C’.
‘Fairly and effectively’ is increasingly important in managing feature requests as the number of stakeholders grow. All stakeholders (internal and external) have their own priorities and as an organization grows, it can become emotional. Without a fair way to evaluate requests, the loudest stakeholder may get their requests prioritized which may not be in the best interest of the business. CEPA can provide a simple method for helping to restore sanity can be a very emotional process.

‘C’ is ‘Capture’
Capturing a ‘feature request’ or idea is the first step of the CEPA process as well as your sanity. Here’s a common hallway exchange between Joe (Salesperson) and Marilyn (Product Manager):
Joe (enthusiastically), “Hey Marilyn, I had a great idea for the website!”
Marilyn (fake smile): “Hi Joe, great, what do you have?”
Joe (hands waving frantically): “Well if we put pictures of all the sales people on the home page, our customers would know who we are and could relate to us better. You could even put the mouse over our heads and we could say our phone numbers to call”
Marilyn (trying to look interested and trying to figure out how to get back to her office): “We really have a pretty big backlog of feature requests but that is something we could look into next year”
Joe (name dropping):”Well I talked to the CEO and he thinks it’s a great idea!”
Marilyn (wondering if the CEO was talking about his lunch instead of this idea): “Well I will look into it.”
Joe (disheartened):”Ok, let me know when I can expect to get my picture taken”
While the request may seem frivolous, Joe doesn’t feel that he’s been heard and is resentful. Marilyn doesn’t know what to do with Joe’s request since it appears at face value to be ‘worthless’ so she blows it off and thinks he’s an idiot. As anyone who has brainstormed knows, it may not be the original idea but an offshoot that provides the insight, value, or opportunity. While Joe’s idea seems frivolous perhaps what he’s really saying is “We need to connect with our customers on a more personal level to increase customer retention” which under further examination could be a hole in the current strategy. Unfortunately this scenario is very common as is the challenge of managing executive requests.
Many executives generate a million ideas per minute and with that volume one or two (or a million) make some money. Unfortunately as brilliant as they can be, execs can suffer from ‘executive amnesia’ whereby they forget the ideas they have imparted to you on the way in from the parking lot 6 months ago. until your most stressful day of the year and ask you why their brilliant idea hasn’t been rolled out. Whether a salesperson or executive, a formalized capture process is the first step in getting the idea to execution.
A formalized Capture process can help by:

• Providing idea generators (Executives, Salespeople, etc) a place to put their ideas and feel they have been heard
• Capturing ideas that may have value later but could be forgotten
• Providing a filter for frivolous ideas
• Saving your bacon

Start your process with a standardized form (Online/Offline/Whatever) to capture the idea with some basics. Any idea worth implementing should be able to be captured in writing with a few basic parameters such as:

• Business impact
• Time sensitivity
• Paragraph description

While there a number of parameters you can put on a form, it will depend on your organization and product and audience. The form not only provides ‘idea generators’ a way to capture their ideas but also provides a way to gate the ideas as well. With our previous example, if Joes (Salesperson) feels strongly about his idea, then he can fill out the form and submit it for consideration. If he doesn’t (Lazy, forgetful, etc), he can’t complain that he hasn’t been heard since he never entered the process by submitting the idea. It’s important that idea generators are required to take some action such as filling out the form to gate the good from the garbage.
Here’s a revised hallway exchange between Joe (Salesperson) and Marilyn (Product Manager) with a formalized capture process:
Joe (enthusiastically), “Hey Marilyn, I had a great idea for the website!”
Marilyn: “Hi Joe, great, what do you have?”
Joe (hands waving frantically): “Well if we put pictures of all the sales people on the home page, our customers would know who we are and could relate to us better. You could even put the mouse over our heads and we could say our phone numbers to call”
Marilyn (trying to look interested and trying to figure out how to get back to her office): “Wow that sounds like it may have some potential, fill out the feature request form on the intranet so we can get it considered in our next roadmap review session”
Joe (name dropping):”Well I talked to the CEO and he thinks it’s a great idea!”
Marilyn (wondering if the CEO was talking about his lunch instead of this idea): “Well it sure sounds interesting, make sure you submit it so it doesn‚Äôt get lost and we can review it with the CEO‚Äù
Joe (enthusiastically): “Ok, thanks!”
In this scenario, while the people may not change their thoughts or perceptions, it provides a simple method to manage feature requests and emotions.
Where do the requests go?
Last but not least, you need a ‘parking lot’ to place the requests prior to (and possibly after) Evaluation. The parking lot is the centralized repository for all ideas prior to assignment to the roadmap, implementation or death. It may be an Access database, Excel spreadsheet, or online application but the parking lot should be easy to update, easy to access and provide an intuitive way to sort and categorize.
While I’ve covered a lot here, the important thing to remember is while every organization is different a formalized process can help manage the flow of ideas and the emotion. In the next piece, I will cover the evaluation process.