Recently there were some questions about how many ideas we typically get and how many of them get into the product. Well I ran the numbers for the last 6 years and found the following:
About 40% of all Ideas have made it into the product so far.
The trend is heavily influenced by year, since for more recent ideas, there has not yet been a release to include them. Many recent ideas look to be addressed in the 6.6 release, tentatively due at the end of 08.
Also, direct idea submissions from customers (shown above) represents about half the total ideas sent in. If you add in the “indirect” submissions, the stats stay similar at about a 40% adoption rate over time.
In terms of Categories of ALL Ideas (adopted or not), you get the following:
It would be really nice to know whether an idea I, or in fact any users, have submitted is being considered for the next version.
Then we would not keep wondering if you guys are picking them up.
Perhaps a next release ‘roadmap’ would be one way to solve this. This could indicate what ideas are being pulled in and would give the person who submitted a bit of a personal pat on the back for thinking of it.
We do plan to be more proactive about the road map with customers. Currently, I go over the road map at the user groups and in some other settings (e.g. WebEx conferences, upon request), though generally these tend to be at a higher level of scope and vision than some of the “line item” requests.
I think the forum can be a nice compliment for the more imminent releases, where we need to get into “line item” type discussions and feedback where you can look at an example and comment on it. I hope to post some “previews” of 6.6 over the summer to get feedback of that sort.
There were lots of ideas in the queue around usability and publishing that should be covered by 6.6.
Currently, I go over the road map at the user groups
Now that Percussion are winding down the UK/Europe office, are we likely to get any future user groups over here? Most of us would never get funding to travel to the states so what are the plans to keep us informed?
[QUOTE=cara-m;6594]Now that Percussion are winding down the UK/Europe office, are we likely to get any future user groups over here? Most of us would never get funding to travel to the states so what are the plans to keep us informed?
Cara[/QUOTE]
To clarify, Percussion is not “winding down the UK office” but going to a partner driven sales model in the UK. Technical support, for example, remains.
Our goal has always been to have user groups run by users - that way you get to set the timing, agenda and so forth. Ideally, our role would be to assist with content, presenters, and so forth. I’ll be going up to a Toronto area User Group meeting this month - one they set up on their own.
We recognize in some areas that we need to continue to take a more active role to foster them, and we will continue to do that in all regions where it is required. Specifically we do plan to help drive the next user group meeting in the UK, probably mid to late Q2. Given our channel strategy, we hope to involve partners in this area as well.