The inbox is where all input comes in. If you've juggled with sheets and docs to do this before, it will be a breath of fresh air.
Input can be internal (from colleagues) and external from customers. As a PM you probably process input multiple times a week or even per day. That's what you'll use the inbox for too, but this time not only everything is in one place, but by processing it in ProductNerd you will also instantly uncover what parts of your app to focus on.
Step 1 is to get input into your inbox. We have many integrations available (and more coming!) to get input into your inbox. Go to Integrations in your dashboard to get started.
Many integrations are very quick to setup. It can be as easy as just sharing a link with your colleagues!
Next to integrations you can always add input manually by clicking the 'Add' button in the inbox.
Whenever feedback comes in, this is what you'll typically do:
If you come from another PM tool that you used before you'll notice that we've kept things very simple. That is by design: input should be processed quickly and efficiently.
If you already see that an input item is a bug or can be archived from the list view, just drag and drop it (like it's hot) onto the blocks on the right.
An input item can have 3 'states'. We don't use that term in the app, but we use it here for clarity.
When an input item comes in, you can mark it as processed, as a bug, or you can archive it.
This is what you'll use most often. A processed item is input that is interesting because it's feedback, a feature request or an idea. Processed items show up in the Structure view to discover insights that you'll then base product decisions on.
Bugs have a separate workflow. This is intentional, because as you've read above, processed items are the input that you want to focus on for developing new products and features.
By marking an item as a bug, it will show up in the Bugs view. From there you can work with your team to go over which bugs are important and which can be archived.
Bugs will also be listed separately in the Structure view so you can see, on a component level, where the most bugs show up.
When you archive an input item what you really say is: this is not important and I don't want to see it again.
Archived inputs, even when you've marked them as processed or bug, will not show up anywhere. Not in the structure view, not on a customer when you've connected one and not on a feature. The only place where you can find these is under the Archive tab in the Inbox.
When you've setup your components they will be displayed on each input item.
Click on a component to select it. If a component has sub-components they will show up once the main component is selected.
By selecting components and then saving the input, ProductNerd will keep track of everything on a component level. This will enable you to discover insights in the Structure view.
You can also connect input to a customer. You always connect to one customer, so it's wise to make sure that input is always about one customer.
By doing this, ProductNerd keeps track of what input belongs to which customer and we have lots more coming soon!
Both of these will be used to show you what to focus on in the Structure view.
We've intentionally kept this very simple: no 5 different scales or methodologies: just indicate how important it is and how the customer feels.