Product Feedback FAQs

[FitbitCommunity]

 Product Feedback FAQs:

1. What is the Community Product Feedback Board?
2. Why is Fitbit collecting community feedback and suggestions?
3. How do I post a new Product Feedback, vote or subscribe to updates?
4. What’s the difference between New, Hot and Top Suggestions?
5. What does an ideal posting for a Product Feedback look like?
6. What does each status mean?
7. What happens with Community Product Feedback? Do you read them?
8. Do Product Feedback end up in Fitbit products?
9. How does Fitbit decide what Product Feedback are released?
10. Why don’t you update Product Feedback more often or with more detail?
11. What are your development timelines?
12. I see Product Feedback with thousands of votes and nothing seems to have happened?
13. I disagree with Fitbit’s decision around a Product Feedback Status.
14. A Product Feedback was released on a new tracker, and I want it on an older device.
15. Why are some devices no longer for sale?
16. Have you removed my Product Feedback?

1. What is the Community Product Feedback Board?

The Fitbit Community Product Feedback board is a place where registered community members can share feedback directly with Fitbit. It’s an online place where members can discuss, suggest and vote for feedback, and see what other community members think.

2. Why is Fitbit collecting community feedback suggestions?

Because your voice is important to us! Your feedback allows us to engage with you and helps us make better prioritization decisions so we deliver better products. Fitbit values collaboration and recognizes you - our community - as key participants.

3. How do I post a new Product Feedback, vote or subscribe to updates?

To post new Product Feedback:

1. Go to the Product Feedback board here
2. In the top right, click the blue button that reads 'Share Feedback'.
3. The first time you submit a suggestion, you'll need to opt into our Product Feedback Policy.
4. Clearly explain your idea following instructions on '7: What does an ideal posting for Product Feedback look like'.
5. Choose the most relevant label.
6. When you're ready to publish, click 'Post'.

To vote:

click on the thumbs up icon. If, at any point in the future, you change your mind, you have the option of revoking your votes. Note that you can't vote on comments made by other users, just the original idea.

To comment:

Scroll to the bottom of the page until you see the comment box.

To subscribe:

• Navigate to the Product Feedback or board you want to follow and click on 'Options' to the top left.
• Select 'Subscribe' from the drop-down menu.
• This will notify you of new comments and changes to the Product Feedback 

 

4. What’s the difference between 'Hot', 'Top', and 'New' ideas?

• The Hot Ideas tab displays Ideas with recent activity.
• The New Ideas tab displays the most recent additions to the board.
• Top Ideas tab are the most popular feedback among the community (a mix of recent and highly active).

5. What does an ideal posting for Product Feedback look like?

• Clear subject - it’s succinct, clear, and accurately summarizes your request.
• One suggestion per post - if you have multiple suggestions, please write multiple posts so we can be clear about updates/status.
• Unique - if a similar suggestion has already been published, please vote and comment on that idea instead of publishing a duplicate
• Accurate label - add the one most relevant label per suggestion.
• Elaborate - explain your idea fully and clearly e.g., avoid generalities like ‘more customization’, and instead detail exactly what customizations and functionality you’re interested in having on your device or in the app.

6. What does each status mean?

Request Status:

• New: a new request! Vote and comment if you like it
• Reviewed by moderator: Your suggestion has been read by a Fitbit moderator; popular suggestions will have been shared internally at Fitbit
• Third Party App: This suggestion has been made available on smartwatches by a third party developer and can be found in the Fitbit App Gallery.
• Under consideration: We think this is a good idea and are discussing how we could move this forward
• Existing: This functionality already exists
• Released: This idea was released in a Fitbit product
• Not currently planned: This idea is not currently on our development roadmap
• Existing feature: This is already existing functionality
• Archived: This request didn’t pick up momentum or is no longer applicable 

 

7. What happens with Community Product Feedback? Do you read them?

We do our best to read every community post but are unable to comment on them all because of the sheer scale and discussion within the community. We receive thousands of community posts each week and because our community is so passionate about all things health and fitness, we know that other community members will weigh in!

Product Feedback is read by a moderator who may:

• Merge the request (if it is a duplicate) into the relevant conversation, so that we can consolidate the discussion and get an accurate number of votes.
• Clarify the title, so users can better understand what it’s about.
• Check that the selected label makes sense.
• Update the status:
  • As ‘Existing’ if the functionality is already available.
  • Archive the request if it has not had votes in over a year. (see: 17. Have you removed my Product Feedback?)
  • As ‘Released’ if the Product Feedback has been developed already.
  • As ‘Not currently planned’ if we don’t currently have plans to develop this suggestion (see 10: how does Fitbit decide what Product Feedback gets released).

The Community Team will also monitor:

• Which requests got the most traffic, which had the most votes, and which had the most comments. This information is reported, circulated, and discussed internally on a monthly basis.
• Monthly reports are shared with our Product Specialists who focus their expertise on certain trackers and products, so they know what the community wants and what is being discussed.
  
  

8. Does Product Feedback end up in Fitbit products?

Some of our favorite features have been championed by our community, including Reminders to Move, water resistance and apps such as music and weather. You can view more feedback which has been labelled as released here.

9. How does Fitbit decide what Product Feedback are released?

This is a complicated question, but the following factors will influence what gets prioritized for future development:

• How many other community members agree! This will primarily be the number of votes, comments and traction a requested feature has gained within the community.
• Scale of impact. With a wide variety of products and tens of millions of customers across the globe, a feature that will make a handful - or even one customer - very happy, may not be an optimal allocation of resources.
• Scale of demand. It might seem like a lot of members want a Feature to be developed but it’s useful to bear scale in mind here. For example, we have over 500,000 (as of summer 2017) registered community members, so an idea with 500 votes actually represents a small percentage of our community and an even smaller subset of the total global Fitbit user population. That isn’t to say that these voices aren’t important, see more in the paragraph below.
• How the Product Feedback might be distributed. For example, if the suggestion is a new app for the Fitbit App Gallery, that may be simpler to develop than a global firmware update for a device.
• How much resource the Product Feedback will require to deliver. Fitbit is a global company and the leading wearables brand, and our resources need to be carefully allocated across many teams and locales.
• If the Product Feedback is for a specific product. Each device has a ‘lifecycle’ as technology advances and as customer requirements change. Although we support all of our devices, they may not receive the latest features or software updates indefinitely. This means we may stop releasing new firmware updates or developing new features for certain products. See 12: What are timelines for development? And 16. Why are some devices no longer for sale?
• How the Product Feedback aligns with organizational priorities. We value what the community are interested in, and we need to balance this with all the research and assessment that our internal teams do around market opportunities and areas for development. We are looking at market trends several years ahead, so will not always be able to invest in all the areas that our community want us to explore. This does involve making some tough decisions, but for Fitbit to remain at the cutting edge of health and technology, this is what we’re committed to.

When a Product Feedback status is changed to ‘Not currently planned’, that doesn’t mean the votes and discussions aren’t important, especially when those few hundred users are very passionate about a feature and propose a compelling argument that would benefit our global community. The cost of developing that suggestion may not be impactful enough to justify investment, especially weighing that against all the other thousands of Product Feedback posts.

We aim to integrate community feedback into next generation devices when it's not plausible to release said feature on a currently released device. For example, we may have changed the status of Product Feedback for Flex to ‘not currently planned,’ but it might have been released on Flex 2.

Our engineers are constantly coming up with new and exciting features for current and future devices, and these features may be similar to various Product Feedback subsequently received from our users. Product Feedback characterized as "Under Consideration" or otherwise, may have already been independently conceived of and internally evaluated by Fitbit.

10. Why don’t you update Product Feedback more often or with more detail?

The volume of suggestions can make it challenging to respond to every Product Feedback as quickly as we’d like. Additionally, some of the reasoning behind our decision-making may be proprietary which means we can’t always share the full picture with you, but we aim to share what we can.

We hope you understand that we take community opinions incredibly seriously, and that your ideas truly are a source of abundant and fruitful internal discussions around how we advance our product and service offerings.

12. What are your development timelines?

The development cycle varies based on whether it’s for software, hardware, web application, etc. During the early phase of development, a significant amount of research and planning is performed, in advance of any feature release.

Integrating new hardware features after a device has been released to the public can be a challenge, however, we usually release a series of firmware updates with new features or bug fixes as software is always in development.

13. I see Product Feedback with thousands of votes and nothing seems to have happened?

It takes time to move suggestions through discussion with relevant teams and potentially onto our product development roadmap. Our development cycle for new products varies based on a number of factors and usually includes an internal planning period, which is why sometimes new features may not appear as quickly as you would like.

In terms of votes translating to features or products, please read 9. How does Fitbit decide what suggestions get released? and 11. What are timelines for development.

If you feel really strongly about a suggestion in particular, please see 13. I disagree with Fitbit’s decision around Product Feedback Status.

13. I disagree with Fitbit’s decision around a Product Feedback Status.

We’re sorry that you disagree with the decision. Please know that all Product Feedback are considered and need to be weighed against multiple decisions and company priorities, which you can learn more about in 9. How does Fitbit decide what suggestions gets developed?.

14. A Product Feedback was released on a new tracker, and I want it on an older device.

Fitbit is constantly striving to improve our products and services, which means we're always innovating and creating new devices with additional capabilities, technology and features. These new capabilities may not be something we're able to release on our previous models. We use community feedback and learnings from existing products, to build and develop new ones. We value all of our customers and strive to ensure we have a range of product offerings in terms of capability, pricing, and design.

15. Why are some devices no longer for sale?

As we introduce new products, we occasionally make changes to our product line to keep you on track with the most up-to-date health and fitness tracking tools. As a result, we no longer sell some devices (such as Ultra, Flex, Charge HR), but we encourage you to take a look at our latest models to find a device that’s right for you. Take our quiz on http://www.fitbit.com/compare  to see which device meets your needs best.

16. Do you archive Product Feedback?

We regularly archive suggestions that have had less than 5 votes and are over 6 months old, as this usually means they weren’t widely popular with other community members. We also periodically archive suggestions for devices that are no longer for sale (such as Ultra, Flex, Charge HR). This helps us keep the Product Feedback board organized with the most popular ideas and helps make them easy to find and process. If you posted a suggestion and it’s no longer there, it will likely have been archived.