Community Announcement – Updates to the Adobe Workfront Ideas Space

Hello Adobe Workfront Community,

Jon here. As many of you may have noticed, the Ideas space on the Community site saw a dramatic change last year following our switch over to the current Community platform. Many of these updates reflect platform enhancements that change how users vote for and view top ideas. Though some of these updates may not have been ideal, they were a necessary part of switching Community platforms to better align with the Experience League Communities. We understand that the Ideas board is an invaluable space for Workfront customers to interface directly with their peers and the Workfront Product Management team.

Over the past few weeks, I have been working closely with internal stakeholders to rethink how we can continue to make Workfront Community Ideas a meaningful public space for product suggestions and improvements.

The new updates aim to optimize how our Product team sifts through Community ideas moving forward, sets a simplified procedure for reviewing and implementing those ideas, and perhaps, most importantly, implements a process to review all “legacy” ideas, which we consider to be ideas that were submitted more than 2 years ago. Please see below for details:

Existing Ideas Cleanup

• To reduce Community bulk and improve ideas searchability for both employees and customers, ALL ideas more than two years old will be archived. moved to the “Archived” stage. This means that, while these ideas will be available to view as a historical record, internal stakeholders will no longer investigate or consider these product suggestions for Workfront implementation.
  • This includes the ~90 or so ideas in the “Investigating” or “Accepted” stages. Due to shifting priorities, many of the ideas in these stages are no longer aligned with the short- or long-term product roadmap. Please note that ideas in these two stages that are less than 2 years old (i.e. posted after August 2021) will be “reset” back to a “New” idea for further review.
• We understand that many older ideas have gained significant popularity in the past few years. Similarly, we recognize that many newly submitted ideas have older counterparts from years prior to 2021. Therefore, we’d like to offer a grace period of 3 months to give Community users the opportunity to submit “merge” requests for older ideas. If you see an idea more than two years old (~August 2021 at the time of this article) that is a subject for archival, please use the request form below to merge the older idea with a newer one. My recommendation is to find similar ideas posted in the last month or so. The more recent the idea you request to merge with, the greater the likelihood that our Product team will review it. Please note that merging ideas will merge the likes (votes) and comments, but not the page views. The form will remain open after the grace period for any future merge requests you may have.
• After the grace period is up, our Product team will undergo a Legacy Ideas Review process to review the top 6 ideas from every archiving year (submitted 2017-2020). No ideas in the “Archived”,” Accepted,” or “Delivered” stages will be considered in this review process. While our Product team does not have the bandwidth to review every legacy idea, we hope that this will at least address some of the burning ideas that have accumulated extreme popularity over the years. All ideas in this bucket must be moved to an actionable stage (anything but “New” or “Unspecified”).

**Significant adjustments have been made to how our team addresses ideas prior to August 2021. Please see the September 15th update below for detailed changes to the Legacy Ideas Review process.**

Future Ideas Review Process

Our objective was to set up a new system that adds accountability for ideas marked for implementation or follow-up. This process has been vetted thoroughly by our Product leadership team and ensures that the Community is regularly up to date with “in-development” product suggestions. Please see the below outline for details:

• Every 6 months, Product Managers will be provided with a list of ~20 ideas that received the highest amount of engagement for review. These ideas will be curated by the Community Manager and are based on standard engagement metrics such as the number of page views, likes, and comments. Product Managers are required to respond to all ideas selected by the Community Manager.
• To ensure that a fair spread of older and recently submitted ideas are addressed, those compiled by the Community Manager will be a mix of ideas submitted in the past year, and older ideas spanning up to 2 years from the bi-annual review date. This process allows for older ideas that still gain a lot of traction to be reviewed by Product teams.
• During this bi-annual review cycle, Product Managers will be required to follow up on ideas that have been moved out of the “New” status during a previous review cycle. This way, submitted ideas that are in "work-in-progress" stages (i.e. Needs Info, Investigating, Accepted) can be expected to receive an update at least twice per year. Please note that ideas in “Declined”, “Archived”, or “Delivered” will not be updated as they are considered complete.

We hope these improvements will help establish a stronger relationship between our Product teams and Workfront Community members such as yourself. As always, we value your suggestions to improve Workfront and are grateful for all the feedback you provide. With any big change, we expect that this process may change based on your feedback and Product Management outlook. Let us know in the comments section what you think, and we will respond as soon as possible!

**September 15 Edit - Elevating the Ideas Process with Your Feedback**

Thanks everyone for your feedback! After speaking with several of you, we have decided to make some adjustments to the above process. Please see the following details on what's been changed:

1. Streamlined Idea Merging: We have heard your feedback about our initial plan that customers would submit requests to merge legacy ideas, and we understand that this would likely be an inconvenience. Therefore, we are taking the initiative and handling idea merging internally, and you will no longer need to request merges for legacy ideas. Rest assured that any existing merge requests will still be implemented as part of our commitment to delivering on your suggestions. If you do happen to come across similar ideas that you wish to merge, you can still reach out to me at any time with your request.
2. Enhanced Idea Updates and Transparency: We are committed to keeping you informed about the status of your ideas. Moving forward, our new process will ensure that ideas are updated more frequently, not solely when they are accepted or rejected. In addition, our Product Managers will provide their reasoning as to why an idea did or did not make the cut. This increased transparency aims to provide you with a clearer understanding of our decision-making process.
3. Improved Categorization: To better organize and prioritize ideas, we are modifying our legacy review cycle. Instead of focusing solely on the top six ideas per archiving year (2017-2021), we will now prioritize the top ten ideas in each category across all of those same archiving years. This approach will allow us to address a broader range of your valuable suggestions. Ideas outside of these categories will be moved to the Archived section, where they will remain available for viewing and discussion. However, they will only be acted upon if they receive extraordinary engagement within a short time frame.
   
   The ten categories that will be considered for this initiative are:
   
   
   1. Reporting
   2. Forms/Fields
   3. Email/Notifications/Updates/Notes
   4. Project/Portfolio/Program Management
   5. Document & Proof Approvals/Proof Commenting
   6. Tasks/Issues/Requests/Task & Issue Approvals/Queues
   7. Time/Resource Management/Balancer/Planner/Calendars
   8. General User Interface
   9. User Management/Access & Permissions
   10. API/Fusion/Automation
       
       
4. Obsolete Ideas Cleanup: As part of our ongoing improvements, we will also be archiving any ideas that reference out-of-date features and functionality, such as Workfront Classic and Quicksilver (New Workfront Experience), to maintain a more streamlined and up-to-date environment.
5. Expanded Community Advisor Permissions: We are also offering Community Advisors and select Community members the ability to update idea statuses without Community Manager intervention. The objective here is to crowdsource some aspects of the ideas cleanup to highly experienced Workfront admins. Given that many Workfront experts already peruse the Ideas space on a semi-regular basis, granting them the ability to update and flag ideas will improve idea legitimacy and organization. Please note that this capability is optional and there are no obligations associated with it. The Community Manager will reach out to those who qualify within the next few days. Alternatively, if you feel like you are qualified to review and update idea statuses at your own discretion, please reach out to be privately and I'll review your qualifications.

We appreciate your continued collaboration and feedback, which drive our commitment to delivering the best possible solutions for you. If you have any questions or require further clarification regarding these changes, please do not hesitate to leave a comment below or send me a private message.

The updated Legacy Ideas Review process will kickstart a month from today, on Monday, October 16th. 

Thank you for being a valued part of our community.