What Are Feature Requests? The Complete Guide for SaaS

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A feature request is a suggestion from customers for a new capability or improvement in your product. 💡

Feature requests allow users to express how they use your product and what they need for a better experience. They create an essential communication channel between product owners and users.

Customers can submit feature requests through different channels, including feedback forms, emails, and customer support chats.

In this guide we'll cover what feature requests are, how to write good ones, and the best ways to collect, prioritize, and close the loop with users. 👇

Key takeaways:

• A feature request is any user-submitted suggestion to add new functionality or improve an existing one. The best ones state the feature, describe the problem it solves, and include a real use case.
• Requests fall into five practical buckets: bug reports, product improvements, brand-new functionality, UI / usability tweaks, and integration / interoperability asks.
• A feature request is not the same as user feedback. Feedback is the broad category, any opinion or signal. A feature request is a specific, directional ask that tells you what to build.
• Collect requests through public feedback portals, in-app widgets, public roadmaps, customer support chats, and email, then pull them all into one place so nothing gets lost.
• Prioritize by combining vote count, customer revenue or segment, and a value-effort or RICE framework. Saying no transparently is part of the process.
• Featurebase✨ brings feedback collection, voting boards, public roadmaps, prioritization, and changelogs into one platform so feature requests stop living in scattered inboxes.

What types of feature requests are there?

Feature requests come in different forms, each highlighting a specific need from your users. Here's a simple breakdown of the three main types:

1. Product improvement requests: These are suggestions aimed at enhancing your product's existing features. Users might ask for tweaks to improve usability, performance, or accessibility. Essentially, these requests focus on improving the current functionalities.
2. New feature requests: These are ideas for entirely new functionalities, with customers pointing out what's missing. These suggestions can open up new possibilities for your product. Building these features can significantly increase your product's value and appeal, but should be considered carefully.
3. Bug Reports: While not always framed as traditional feature requests, bug reports are (even more) crucial. They inform you about broken parts of your product that disrupt the user experience. There's often a blurry line between bugs and features, making it hard to differentiate between the two.
4. UI and usability changes: Smaller asks to modify the visual layout, fix confusing copy, change button placement, or rework a flow that's needlessly hard. Easy to dismiss, but UI requests often unblock real adoption issues.
5. Integration and interoperability requests: Asks to connect your product with the rest of a customer's stack: CRMs, project management tools, support platforms, data warehouses. These usually come from your highest-value accounts and can be the difference between expansion and churn.

Understanding and categorizing feature requests into different types allows you to prioritize them more effectively.

Feature request vs. user feedback

These two terms get used interchangeably, but they're not the same thing.

User feedback is the broad category. It covers any comment, opinion, complaint, or signal your users send your way about the product, from "I love the new dashboard" to "your onboarding is confusing" to NPS scores.

A feature request is a specific type of feedback that proposes a concrete change: a new capability, an improvement to an existing one, or an integration you don't yet support. Feature requests are directional. They tell you what to build, not just how a user feels.

Every feature request is feedback, but not every piece of feedback is a feature request. That distinction matters when you're choosing tools and processes. A generic user feedback tool might capture comments well, but a feature request system needs voting, deduplication, and a way to connect ideas to your roadmap.

Why are feature requests important?

Product feature requests are super valuable for every startup.

First and most importantly, collecting feature requests saves you from all the guesswork of building new features. They help you get a clear clue of what to build next, ensuring your efforts are always aligned with your customer's actual needs.

They're the key to user-centric development. User feedback allows you to tailor updates and new features to meet their needs, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty.

By encouraging and listening to feature requests, you create a sense of community among your users. When customers see their ideas are being considered and implemented, they feel valued and become more invested in your product.

This engagement transforms users into passionate advocates, extending product-led growth through word-of-mouth. We've experienced this firsthand ourselves with Featurebase.

Learn more about the benefits of collecting feature requests →

How to write a good feature request

A vague request ("make filters better") burns a developer's time on clarifying questions. A good one gets actioned faster because it answers the questions a product manager would have asked anyway.

Whether you're submitting a request as a customer or writing one internally on behalf of a customer who emailed you, here's what a useful request looks like in practice:

• State the feature clearly: One sentence describing what the change is. "Add a CSV export option to the reports page." Not "improve reporting."
• Describe the underlying problem: What's the actual user pain this solves? "I need to share weekly numbers with my CEO who doesn't have a login, so I'm screenshotting tables into Google Docs." The problem is what your team will weigh against other requests.
• Suggest how it might work: A rough sketch of the behaviour you'd expect. "Button on the reports page, downloads the current filtered view as CSV." This isn't a spec, just enough context that an engineer or designer doesn't start from zero.
• Include a real use case or scenario: Walk through one concrete example. "Every Friday I run the weekly active users report, then I need to send it to three stakeholders by Monday morning." Use cases beat hypotheticals.
• Add context about who's asking: Their plan tier, role, company size, and what they're trying to accomplish. This helps you weigh requests by impact later.

What to include in a feature request form

If you're building the form your customers submit through, the canonical fields are: the requester's name and contact, the feature name and description, the underlying problem, the suggested behaviour, the use case, and a priority level. What frustrates submitters most is being asked for too much detail up front, so keep the form short. You can always ask follow-up questions on requests worth pursuing.

For a richer breakdown with examples you can copy, see our feature request template.

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5 best ways to collect feature requests

Collecting and managing product feature requests is actually incredibly easy with the proper tools. Here's an overview of the three most popular ways of capturing customer ideas:

1. Public feedback portals

Public feedback portals are like product forums, where users can submit their feedback, view your roadmap, receive product updates, and more.

These portals allow users to vote on each others' ideas, helping you prioritize which features are in most demand based on the number of votes.

Public portals are a great way to create a community around your product and showcase transparency, as users can see what others are suggesting and how the company responds.

With Featurebase you can create customizable public feedback portals in minutes to level up your feature request tracking.

2. Feedback widgets

The advantage of in-app feedback widgets is that they provide a frictionless experience for your users when submitting feedback.

They don't have to visit yet another website and can do it all directly from your product or website.

It also provides a unique opportunity to capture bug reports right where they happen. Featurebase, for example, offers a screenshot-reporting tool that allows users to highlight problematic areas of the website.

In-app widgets can also be used to capture different user satisfaction metrics, like NPS scores and others.

3. Public roadmaps

Sharing your public product roadmap is not only a good keeping users up to date about what's coming, but also a powerful way to collect feature requests.

The roadmap's format shows your customers that you're already working on other's feature requests, encouraging them to submit their own as well.

4. Customer support chats

Customer support chats provide a quick, real-time way to collect feature requests during a user's interaction with your product.

Support chats can quickly highlight urgent bugs or widely requested features, helping prioritize development efforts effectively.

But the best part is that many feedback tools, like Featurebase, offer integrations with customer support tools like Intercom. This enables you to easily push requests into your voting boards, so you still have all ideas in one place for a better overview.

5. Emails

Feedback emails are one of the most primitive yet easiest ways to collect feature requests.

It requires no set-up effort, and you can easily gather feedback. However, the downside is that often the requests tend to get lost and forgotten. You also get many duplicate requests because users won't see what others have already suggested.

And most importantly, it's difficult to keep everyone in mind to effectively close the feedback loop. Fortunately there are tons of feature request tracking tools to solve this.

Best practices for collecting feature requests

Use feedback portals and widgets

By using feedback portals and widgets, you can collect all of the customer feedback in one place.

In addition to that, users will automatically see already existing posts, which helps reduce duplicate requests.

Having a single source of truth for all feedback makes it easier to get an overview. It also lets users see what's already been requested, enabling them to vote and comment on these ideas as well.

The advantage of designated feedback widgets is that you can customize them to your liking. For example, if you want to collect users' operation systems with each submission, you can make this field mandatory.

Avoid the feature fallacy trap

It's easy to think more features equal a better product, but not all requests should be implemented.

You have to always consider the alignment of each request with your general product vision and its potential impact on user experience.

Also, not all feedback is created equal. Use voting tools to prioritize feedback based on its frequency, impact, and the value it brings to your customer base.

Filling everyone's wishes leads to a cluttered interface and confused users. Focus on quality and relevance, not just trying to satisfy everyone.

Close the feedback loop

After collecting feature requests, it's essential to close the feedback loop with your users.

Let them know what actions you're taking based on their suggestions, whether implementing a requested feature, considering it for the future, or explaining why it won't be added.

This transparency shows users that you value their input and take it seriously, ultimately encouraging continued engagement and feedback.

Many feedback tools offer automated email notifications and changelogs for release notes to help with that.

How to prioritize feature requests effectively?

Okay, you've collected a lot of feature requests. Now, it's time to start implementing them in a way that makes sense and brings the biggest value.

Here's a systematic way to prioritize feature requests effectively:

1. Gather everything in one place

First, create a centralized location where all feature requests are collected.

Using feature tracking tools like Featurebase automatically solves this. However, you could also use an Excel sheet to collect all requests in a single place, which can take time.

The aim is to have a comprehensive view of all the suggestions, making it easier to manage, analyze, and decide on them.

2. Let users have their say

If you're using voting boards, you've likely already got some popular posts with more votes than others. Start by looking at them - skim the comments and try to understand the intended use case of the feature idea.

It's good to consider features that are most requested by the majority of your customers, as you can rarely go wrong with them.

Still, you should always keep in mind your overall product vision. Also, it can be that a request from a couple of large enterprise clients matters more. 👇

3. Segment by customer data

Not all users contribute the same value to your wallet.

In addition to looking at the votes, break down the feature requests based on relevant customer data—like subscription level, usage frequency, or market segment.

This approach helps you identify which features are most desired by your most important customers, allowing you to prioritize accordingly.

Many feedback management tools like Featurebase, allow you to automatically sync your user data like revenue with their feature requests, so you'll always see the monetary value behind each idea.

4. Use a prioritization framework

Start using a prioritization framework to assess and rank the feature requests.

There are many feature prioritization frameworks, with value/effort and RICE being some of the most popular ones.

These frameworks help you rank features based on various factors, such as their potential benefits to users, the effort required to implement them, and their overall impact on your product.

By using these frameworks, especially with a visualization matrix, product managers can get a much better clue of what to prioritize and what to potentially avoid.

5. Saying "No" to feature requests (bonus)

Acknowledging that you can't implement every feature request is crucial. Saying "no" is a necessary part of prioritization.

The sad reality is that some features will never be built. This can be a hard blow for customers who have suggested them.

However, acknowledging that you can't implement every feature request is crucial. Saying "no" is a necessary part of prioritization.

When you do turn down a request, be transparent and explain why. Offer alternatives if possible, and thank them for their input. This ensures users feel heard, even when their suggestions aren't implemented, fostering a positive community around your product.

Featurebase - the all-in-one feedback platform

Featurebase is a modern feedback & support platform that helps product teams collect feature requests, prioritize ideas, build roadmaps, and announce product updates - all in one place. It's loved by thousands of product teams from companies like Lovable, Raycast, and n8n. 💫

Top features:

• Feedback forum – Public feedback forum where users can submit ideas and vote on features helping you know what customers want
• In-app widgets – Embed feedback, changelog, and help center widgets directly in your product
• Prioritize by revenue – Link feedback with customer revenue, company size, and much more to better understand the impact of ideas
• AI feedback categorization - Automatically group large volumes of feedback into product areas, projects, or themes with AI.
• Automated email updates – Automatically notify users when their requested features are implemented
• Roadmaps – Create internal & public product roadmaps to keep users informed and build engagement
• Product updates – Publish release notes with a changelog page, in-app widget, and emails
• Surveys (NPS, CSAT, etc) – Create targeted surveys to ask users anything and measure customer satisfaction.
• Automatic AI translations – Automatically translate all feedback and comments to your customers / teammates native languages
• Integrations – Connects with Slack, Linear, Jira, HubSpot, and more

Pricing: Free plan available with unlimited feedback collection. Paid plans start at $29/seat/mo.

Instead of having 4+ different tools, Featurebase enables you to replace all your customer-facing tools by bringing your feedback collection, product updates, support, and help center together in one place to help you build products your users love.

Conclusion

Feature requests are vital for SaaS product development, offering direct insights into your users' needs and wants.

By effectively collecting, categorizing, and prioritizing these requests, you can align your product's evolution with your customers' expectations, fostering satisfaction and loyalty.

Featurebase is a modern feedback tool that helps you track feature requests with public voting boards and in-app widgets, prioritize ideas using customer revenue, and close the loop with users via roadmaps, changelogs, and automated emails.

It comes with a Free plan that allows unlimited feature requests. You can automatically migrate over from any existing tools in seconds, so there's no downside to trying it. 👇

✨ Start collecting & managing feedback with Featurebase for free →

FAQs

What is a feature request?

A feature request is a user-submitted suggestion to add new functionality, improve an existing capability, or integrate with another tool. It's a specific, directional form of product feedback. The user is telling you what to build, not just how they feel about the current experience. Requests can come from customers, internal teammates, or prospects during demos.

How do you write a good feature request?

A good feature request answers four questions in order: what is the feature, what problem does it solve, how might it work, and what's a real use case where you'd use it. Lead with one sentence stating the change ("add CSV export to the reports page"), then describe the underlying problem in the user's own words, sketch the expected behaviour at a high level, and walk through one concrete scenario. Skip the spec. Leave room for the product team to fill in the details.

What's the difference between a bug and a feature request?

A bug is when the product fails to behave as documented or as it previously did, meaning something is broken. A feature request is a deliberate ask for behaviour the product doesn't currently support. The line gets fuzzy when behaviour was never documented either way: if special characters were never supported, that's a feature request, but if they used to work and now don't, that's a bug. When in doubt, ask the user what they expected to happen and compare it to what the docs (and the previous version) said.

How do you prioritize feature requests?

Combine three signals: vote count (how many users want it), customer value (revenue, segment, plan tier of the upvoters), and a value-effort framework like RICE or a 2x2 matrix. Filter against your product vision so you're not chasing requests that pull you off-course. Tools like Featurebase link upvoters to their revenue automatically, so you see the monetary impact of each idea next to the vote count instead of having to merge spreadsheets manually.

How do you say no to a feature request?

Acknowledge the request, explain the reasoning briefly, and offer an alternative when one exists, like a workaround, a related feature that solves the underlying problem, or a future timeline. Honesty beats silence. Customers respect a clear "not now, here's why" far more than a vague "we'll consider it" that never materializes.

What should a feature request template include?

A useful template captures six things: the requester's contact, the feature name and short description, the underlying problem the feature solves, the suggested behaviour, a real use case, and a priority level. Keep it short. Long forms suppress submissions, and you can always follow up with clarifying questions on the requests worth pursuing.