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Requesting Product Enhancements

We are always excited to hear about product enhancements or suggestions. The collective wisdom of our customers is an important source of knowledge, ideas, and experience. To provide the most value to the widest possible audience, we have to carefully manage enhancement and feature requests, ensuring we give each request consideration, not only on its own merit, but in the context of the whole product, its strategic roadmap, and our customer community.

Every customer-originated enhancement or feature request starts with a discussion. Sometimes, simple enhancement requests are self-evident; for example, a request like “would it be possible to add a keyboard shortcut to invoke the print command” would hardly require a discussion at all. However, in practice, enhancement requests are rarely that straightforward and tend to be nuanced in some way. Each customer’s use of Hornbill is different, because each customer’s organization has unique ways of working and using Hornbill to support that work. Hornbill’s products are very customizable, so for the most part, tailoring can be done by a customer to meet their specific needs without product changes being required.

For the avoidance of any doubt, any discussion that leads to an enhancement request would lead to a clear and well documented (in the discussion) definition of what the requirement is, almost certainly summarized by one of Hornbill’s product teams clarifying what has been understood as the requirement. This is what would constitute a discussion with a clear outcome that leads to a product enhancement request.

It might be that a particular part of our solution is not customizable at all, or not customizable enough to meet a specific need. Or it might be that there is a function that does not even exist, which could be added to make the product more useful/valuable to a customer to help a specific use case. In our experience, customers will generally (and rightly) think about solving problems or improving efficiency/workflows in the context of their own organization, and more often than not, what makes sense in one context, does not always make sense in another context.

In order for us to clearly understand what is being asked for, this often means getting a more thorough understanding of how a customer’s specific scenario applies to the request, and then, once we understand that requirement fully, and the value such a change would add, Hornbill’s product teams then need to consider that change in the context of our strategic roadmap, overall use case, and the generally understood landscape of how our product is used more widely by our customers.

When asking for a product enhancement, it’s important not to be prescriptive in your request, but rather, help us understand the business use case. For example, if you ask for a widget X or function Y, that may well be meaningful and obvious to your own use case and meet a specific need you have, but we will likely not understand that more broadly, and so it’s unlikely we can progress that request into an accepted feature request. We will always seek to understand the business value, so if the business requirement (i.e. what you are trying to achieve and what business outcome you expect from the product change) is not apparent in the foundation of what you are asking for, then it is difficult to assess the request against our Criteria For inclusion and therefore may not be answered.

When asking for an enhancement, please make sure you first express the enhancement in terms of business need and business outcome. You can also include a suggestion as to specifically what you might change to achieve that. Doing this helps us better understand the need, and opens the possibility that we might be able to suggest an alternative or even better way to achieve the same outcome.

How we manage feature requests received from customers or partners

Apart from exceptional circumstances where it would be inappropriate to do so (e.g. if there are security concerns or real commercial sensitivity for a specific organization), we ONLY accept feature requests via our Hornbill Community. Any other channels such as emails, conversations with account managers, product feedback forms, logging requests with support, all might raise some level of awareness but none of these channels are ever likely to lead to an enhancement being added to Hornbill. If you would like to see a change to the product, the starting point is to raise it on the forums. It is not uncommon for a customer to ask their account exec for enhancements, but we always ask that the question be posed in the forums. This is because we do not track internal requests for features that have not been committed to a roadmap. In fact, we purposefully do not just log one-liner enhancement requests, because doing so creates a huge list of requests that nobody understands, and that essentially ends up as a big undeliverable backlog.

Instead, we take each and every enhancement request as a discussion. This affords us a number of things.

  • Our forums are connected to our internal workspaces. If you ask a question on, for example, the Hornbill ESP Platform forum, your post will be relayed to an internal Hornbill workspace and all developers, product stakeholders, Support, consultants, and others will see the question you have asked.
  • With your question posted on the forums, we now have a direct communication channel between you and our internal product folks, as well as anyone in Hornbill that needs clarification or has suggestions or other feedback.
  • ith your question posted on the forums, all other customers who have interest in what you are asking about will also see your question. They may have other ideas or contributions, or they may even offer support for the thing you are asking for.
  • Because we relay these questions into our internal workspaces, there is a very good chance this will trigger some internal conversations, and will almost always trigger some kind of response back on the forum. This could be a request for more information, or a better understanding of what is being asked for. It might include one or more suggestions as to how you can achieve the outcome you want in an alternative way, or it could even be a flat No, we would not add that.

Sometimes though, you should keep in mind that you may not get any response from Hornbill. We do not offer SLA commitments on enhancement requests. But despite that, if you feel something should be added to the product, you should ask anyway. Even if you do not see a response, you are raising awareness of your requirement or suggestion, and that will be seen by our engineers and product teams. Sometimes ideas and suggestions are really good, but the timing for inclusion is off. It can be as simple as that.

We will always do our best to respond to every request, but we are not perfect, and things can get missed. When this happens, please feel free to bump it every now and then if you have not seen any response in a couple of weeks or more.

Things you can do to improve the chances of getting your feature request included

There are things you can do to improve the chances of getting a response, and even get your requested feature included in the product.

Timing. For example, if we are doing a lot of, say, email-related changes, and you ask for something email-related, the email system is currently top-of-mind with the developers, so your ask might naturally just drop into that.

Specificity. The more specific you are, and the easier your request is to get into the head space of the product people/developers at Hornbill, the more likely your request will make it through. We are all busy people, and as we mentioned before, it can be a lot of work/time mentally to translate a requirement for a customer-specific scenario into a viable piece of code. So if the nature of your ask is very specific and self-evident, then it’s likely to be easily understood by our developers. When the ask does not need translating by a business analyst, so long as it meets the other criteria in our Criteria for inclusion then this is likely to be included.

Generalized. The more generalized the function — the more it will deliver against the Customer Value/Impact for customers in general — the higher the likelihood for inclusion. Conversely, if your requirement is highly specific to your organization, but you can meet that need by asking for a more generalized customization capability that would help your specific need, and if that more generalized customization capability would be generally useful to customers overall, then that would help move things forward.

Strategic alignment. We are generally moving toward our strategic product goals, primarily driven by the competitive landscape within which we operate and the aspirations we have in the marketplace. Anything you ask for that is aligned with those goals is more likely to make it into the product.

Work with us. At the heart of our mission is a simple truth: our success is intertwined with yours. When it comes to product improvements, we are committed to understanding your needs deeply and accurately, ensuring that any product updates or enhancements we consider are perfectly aligned with what you require and our products’ strategic goals. We believe in the power of collaboration; your insights into your business challenges are invaluable to us. After all, you’re the experts in your field, and by sharing your expertise, you help us refine and improve our solutions. We think of enhancement requests as a partnership, and we invite you to join us in a collaborative process. The better we understand your needs — through clear communication and engagement — the more effectively we can work together toward implementing solutions that truly meet your requirements. Our engineering and product teams are ready to consider any requirements, but this journey requires mutual effort and understanding of our process. Remember, every step we take toward enhancing our product is driven by a desire to add more value to your business. We’re not just looking for feedback; we’re seeking to learn from your experience, and to innovate and evolve in ways that support your success. Engaging with us, sharing your insights, and being open to the collaborative process not only helps us meet your needs more effectively, but also ensures that we continue to deliver solutions that empower you and your business. Let’s work together to create something exceptional.

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