If your team’s using Pendo to track user feedback and feature requests, you’ve probably noticed it’s easy to collect a mountain of opinions—and even easier to get buried by them. This guide is for product managers, UX leads, and anyone tired of spreadsheets and endless Slack threads. Let’s make sure feedback turns into action, not just noise.
1. Get Your Basics Right: Set Up Pendo for Feedback
First things first: if you haven’t already, set up Pendo with the Feedback module. This isn’t a “set and forget” tool. You need a plan, or you’ll end up with a feature request graveyard.
What works: - Start small. Enable Feedback for a single product or a pilot team first. - Decide up front: Will users submit ideas, or just vote/comment? Too much freedom = chaos. - Set clear categories. Think in terms of “Navigation,” “Reporting,” “Integrations,” etc. Don’t go wild—5-7 categories is plenty.
What doesn’t: - Letting everyone submit anything, anytime, with no review. You’ll drown. - Overcomplicating categories. If you have more than 10, you’re trying too hard.
Pro tip: Map out who inside your company will actually read and respond to submissions. If it’s nobody, you’re not ready.
2. Make It Easy for Users to Give Useful Feedback
If you want actionable feedback, you need to make it painless and guide users a bit.
How to do this: - Use in-app prompts at the right moments—after key actions or when users seem stuck. - Keep submission forms short. Ask for three things: what’s the problem, what’s their idea, how urgent is it? - Add example requests or a quick FAQ to show what “good” feedback looks like.
What works: - Gating feedback behind login—so you know who’s asking. - Encouraging screenshots or quick videos (Pendo supports attachments).
What doesn’t: - Long forms. The more you ask, the fewer people will bother. - Email-only feedback. It’ll get lost and never make it to Pendo.
3. Set Up a Triage Process (and Actually Stick to It)
Collecting feedback is easy. Doing something with it is the hard part. You need an internal workflow so requests don’t rot.
Here’s a simple process: 1. Triage new requests weekly. Assign someone to scan, merge duplicates, and tag. 2. Prioritize. Use Pendo’s voting and popularity signals, but don’t treat upvotes as gospel—sometimes your loudest users aren’t your best customers. 3. Close the loop. Mark requests as “planned,” “not planned,” or “shipped.” Even a “not now” response is better than silence.
What works: - Regular review meetings (30 mins, max) with product and support. - Automating notifications so nothing sits untouched.
What doesn’t: - Letting requests pile up for months. Users notice—and they stop bothering. - Blindly following vote counts. Popular doesn’t always mean valuable.
Pro tip: Set expectations with users. Tell them how often you review feedback and what happens next.
4. Tag, Merge, and Organize—But Don’t Overdo It
Organization matters, but don’t turn your feedback database into its own full-time job.
Key tips: - Merge obvious duplicates immediately. Too many similar requests = clutter. - Use tags sparingly. Stick to things like “bug,” “UI,” “integration,” not every feature in your product. - Archive old or irrelevant requests every quarter. If nobody’s commented in a year, let it go.
What works: - Tagging requests by customer type (“enterprise,” “SMB”) if it helps you prioritize. - Linking feedback to product areas or roadmap themes.
What doesn’t: - Creating custom fields for every possible filter. You’ll never use half of them. - Keeping every request forever. The world moves on.
5. Use Feedback Data—Don’t Just Collect It
Feedback’s worthless if it never influences what you build. Here’s how to actually use this stuff:
- Spot trends. Use Pendo’s reports to see what keeps coming up. If 50 people ask for the same thing, pay attention.
- Contextualize. Mix qualitative requests with quantitative data—like feature usage. If people say they want a feature but never use related ones, be skeptical.
- Share insights. Don’t hoard feedback. Summarize and share top requests with engineering, design, and execs. Keep it brief.
What works: - Pairing feedback with churn data or NPS scores to see which requests really move the needle. - Referencing user quotes in roadmap discussions (“Here’s what our customers actually said…”).
What doesn’t: - Building features just because they’re requested. Dig deeper—ask why users want it. - Ignoring feedback you don’t like. Sometimes the truth hurts.
6. Communicate Back—Even When the Answer’s “No”
Nobody expects every request to get built. But people do expect a response.
Best practices: - Use Pendo’s built-in status updates (“Under Consideration,” “Planned,” “Not Planned”). - Write real updates—not vague PR speak. A quick “This isn’t on our roadmap because…” beats silence. - Thank users for their input—even if you have to say no.
What works: - Public changelogs showing what’s shipped from feedback. - Personal follow-up for high-value customers (even a quick DM is appreciated).
What doesn’t: - Only replying when you have good news. - Generic “Thanks, we’ll consider it!” responses. Be specific, or don’t bother.
7. Ignore the Hype—Avoid Common Traps
Pendo’s a solid tool, but it’s not magic. Here’s what to skip:
- Don’t expect AI or auto-categorization to do your job. Manual review always beats bots for context.
- Don’t treat feedback as a feature voting contest. It’s input—not a binding contract.
- Don’t turn feedback into a project management system. Use it to fuel your roadmap, not replace Jira or Trello.
Pro tip: Sometimes the best feedback is what users don’t say. Watch for drop-offs or workarounds—they tell their own story.
Keep It Simple, Iterate, Repeat
Tracking feedback and feature requests in Pendo isn’t rocket science—but it does take discipline. Start small, keep your process light, and don’t let the perfect get in the way of the useful. The real value comes from acting on what you learn, not from building the prettiest dashboard.
You won’t get it perfect on the first try. That’s fine. Tweak, adapt, and keep moving. The only real mistake is ignoring what your users are telling you.