Using Idea and Feedback States (Unsorted, Backlog & Archived)
Within Ideas and Feedback, there are three different states - Unsorted, Backlog and Archived to help you keep on top of a manageable product backlog. Here are the key differences and how you can use them effectively.
This guide covers the difference between:
The aim of the different Idea states
Utilizing the different states for Ideas, alongside your Workflow, helps you to manage new Ideas and take them through discovery, validation, scoping and delivery.
Unsorted Ideas
Unsorted is where all new ideas land. It essentially acts as your Unread Inbox, and this is where a product person starts their triage process. Unsorted is where you decide if an Idea is relevant to your product, and belongs in the Backlog, or whether it should be Archived. Ideas can stay in Unsorted while you are asking questions of the person who added it, or adding scope. It can stay here until you are happy that you have all the information to act/make a decision on it. That's when you should move it to another state. If you move an Unsorted Idea into a new Workflow stage, it will automatically be moved to your Backlog.
Ideas in Unsorted have a green banner at the top, so you can easily distinguish them.
If you're having trouble deciding where the idea belongs, try using the comments to bring your team into the conversation.
Backlog Ideas
Your Backlog is a list of everything you could do to improve and add value to your product. An Idea should be moved into the Backlog once they have been through the process set out above as an Unsorted item. Ideas in the Backlog are ones you will be actively working on through discovery and validation before potentially delivering them. Once an Idea is in your Backlog, you can move it through your Workflow, taking it through your product process. Find out how to spec out and validate your Ideas in ProdPad in Idea Scoping.
Archived Ideas
Archived can be used as a catch-all bucket for any idea that is not actively being worked on. This could include Ideas that have potential but don't align with your current priorities, or Ideas that have been completed and need to be moved out of your Backlog. Archived Ideas have a dark purple banner at the top.
You can use tags or comments to add context to why an Idea has been achieved. Ideas can always be moved out of archived as you gather more evidence or your priorities change so don’t be afraid to use this space as a holding pen to keep your backlog nice and tidy!
When searching ProdPad, you can flip the toggle in the search bar to include or exclude Archived content.
The aim of the different Feedback states
Utilizing the different states, allows you to manage the (hopefully) large amount of feedback that you get directly from customers or via internal stakeholders (e.g. Sales, Support, Success) as you triage and add to any relevant ideas to assist validation and prioritization.
Unsorted Feedback
Unsorted is where all new feedback comes in, from whichever source you integrate with ProdPad. You can bring feedback into ProdPad from multiple places, including via custom integrations, our API, or through a ProdPad customer feedback portal. Unsorted is where you can review all new feedback and decide what to do next. You can also begin to link it with Ideas. Feedback can stay here until you are happy that you have all the information you need to decide if it is relevant and belongs in the feedback Backlog, or should be Archived for later.
All Unsorted feedback has a green banner.
Backlog Feedback
Feedback is moved into the Backlog once you have made an initial assessment, and decided it's something you want to actively review. This is also the state where you can use DotBot to spot connections between Ideas and Feedback.
Archived Feedback
If the feedback isn't related to current priorities, then it can be moved to Archived until it is ready. You can use tags as an extra level to manage the idea e.g. area of functionality, theme etc, to make it easy to find again later, alongside the product and persona attributes. You can move the Feedback to the Backlog state once you are ready for it, so don't be afraid to use the Archived state as a holding pen!
