How to submit a great feature request (aka Tableau Idea)
For all it’s quirks, I remain a fan of the Tableau Ideas forum. It’s a place where anyone can submit a feature request, and engage directly with employees at Tableau connected to those features. Does that mean there are thousands of Ideas floating around? Well, yes. But it’s not as difficult as you’d think to make your voice heard. Here are my tips for cutting through the noise.
Ditch the double work
With over 11k Ideas submitted, there’s a non zero chance you’re not the only one with your Idea. Before submitting, take a moment to search. Since the search can be…fiddly at best, I find it works best to search one word at a time — think of what keywords someone might use to find your idea, and plug those in.
If someone else has already submitted your idea, don’t forget to upvote and/leave a comment why you think it should be prioritized.
Title like a journalist
The subject field allows you 80 characters. Use them to your advantage! When others see your title, you want them to take that next step of either upvoting from the front page, or clicking in to read more and add their comments. Use actionable language that describes what problem you’re solving.
Here are two examples of Ideas I’ve submitted that I think have not so great and great titles.
Not Great: “Forums: Update the Tableau Ideas “Ideas Viz” — this was one of my first Ideas submitted. And I have to admit, I don’t find the title that compelling. What does Update mean? What problem do I want solved? Is the viz broken? Does the data need to be refreshed? It’s nearly impossible to tell what I want from the title — which makes it harder for me to convince others why they should vote.
Better: Forums: Idea Submission Confirmation should come from Tableau [RELEASED] -now this is an Idea that tells you exactly what’s going on. There’s clearly a problem — confirmation for Ideas isn’t coming from Tableau. And my proposed solution is also hinted at in the title — when someone submits an Idea, it should come from Tableau. Now, this isn’t the most complicated Idea, but I believe an effective title helps your Idea get noticed (and in this case, released!)
Explain the pain
With over 11k ideas submitted, it’s not enough to have a catchy title. When I’m reading Ideas, especially feature requests for parts of the product I don’t use/aren’t as familiar with, I find myself asking, so what?
Once you’ve stated your idea/explained your problem, make sure to articulate what’s at stake if your idea isn’t implemented. To go back to one of the previous ideas, “Idea Submission Confirmation should come from Tableau”, what was at stake? Gmail was marking those emails as potentially spam — not good for the end user or Tableau.
A picture tells a thousand words
No one is more familiar with your Idea than you are. But the people casting votes and the product folks looking at your Idea may not be able to picture your pain point or solution as easily. If you can, include screenshots, diagrams, or mockups of either your problem or solution. Being clear about the problem and expected resolution drives better discussion.
Rally your cheerleading squad
Last year I did a little analysis on the Ideas already in the Forums at that time. I was shocked to find that most open Ideas had less than 6 votes. If you were a product team, would you prioritize an idea that had less than 10 people saying they want it?
Once you submit an Idea, let people know! Share it internally so your colleagues can vote, share it on socials, and encourage folks to comment. I found that when I shared Ideas on socials, they received an average of 4 more votes each (with one Idea gaining 44 new votes!)
Last note — there’s no Idea too small.
It’s easy to complain on the internet when things don’t work the way I want — I know I’ve done this plenty. But shouting into the void doesn’t lead to any change. Yes, I believe the forums can feel overwhelming, but my experience has been that people do monitor it, and a few of my Ideas have been released, even features I thought would be too small to bother with. But they did solve real pain points, so now I encourage anyone who has an Idea (or frustration) to submit it so that the dev team can prioritize it against other features for development. So next time you wish Tableau worked differently, submit an Idea to the forums! (And don’t forget to share with your online networks after).
