Collect feature requests from public threads

The feature requests that reach your inbox come from your most patient customers, while everyone else posts in public, addressed to nobody, where you never see it. Watching those posts gives you roadmap input from people who gave up on asking. Oetzi finds them across seven platforms and drafts a reply for approval.

What does a public feature request sound like?

Rarely like a request. On Reddit: "is there a way to export this, or do people copy paste every month". On X: "the tool we use is great except it still cannot do X". On Hacker News: "we would have used them but there is no way to handle X, so we built our own".

The third is the expensive kind: a request and a lost customer in one sentence, never sent to anybody. It is often about a competitor, which makes it a switching signal too.

How do I describe the feature request signal in one sentence?

Point it at the gap, not at your brand. Something like "people asking whether our product or a competitor can do X, or describing a workaround because it cannot". That becomes native searches per platform plus a scoring rubric, and seven days backfill immediately. Run one signal for your product and one per close competitor, since requests aimed at a competitor tell you what to build and come with a person who wants it.

How does the who-is-talking tag sort requests?

Every match is tagged buyer, current customer, feature request, or competitor user, and scored 0 to 100 with the reason written out. Filter on the feature request tag, and read the score to see who is blocked and who is wishing. A high-scoring request from a current customer is a churn warning in a different hat, and churn signals covers the overlap. A high-scoring one from a competitor user would switch for something you may already ship.

What do I do with a feature request match?

If you already have the feature, say so in the thread with a link to the doc. That is the best reply of your week, because the question was public and the answer stays visible. Two variants are drafted in your voice, and nothing posts without approval. If you do not have it, say what is true and do not promise a date.

Then tag the person and let the count build. Three people asking the same thing in a month beats one loud customer, and the written reason gives you a quote for the issue.

What does collecting feature requests cost in credits?

Reading is free: the inbox, translation, voice, edits, publishing. A sweep of one signal across every platform is 2 credits and refunds when nothing qualifies, so a request signal swept three times a week is about 24 credits against the 100 included with the $49 plan. Two signals, yours and a competitor's, is about 48. Social listening covers how one sentence becomes searches everywhere.

Questions

How do I collect feature requests from public threads?

Describe the gap in one sentence rather than alerting on your brand name, because most of these posts never name you. Matches arrive tagged buyer, current customer, feature request, or competitor user, with a 0 to 100 intent score and the reason written out. Keep a separate signal per competitor to catch requests aimed at them.

What do I say when we do not have the feature?

Say that, plainly, without a date. A short reply that confirms the gap, explains what people do instead today, and thanks them for the detail reads better than silence and better than a promise you miss. Drafts come in two variants in your voice and wait for approval, so the wording is yours before anything posts.

Are public requests better roadmap input than support tickets?

They are different input, not better. Tickets come from customers patient enough to file them. Public posts come from everyone else, including people who evaluated you, hit the gap, and left without a word. Reading both tells you whether a request is one account's preference or a blocker that costs you buyers every month.