Canny 101

Canny's basic concepts and terminology β€” Start Here! πŸš€

Jacques Reulet avatar
Written by Jacques Reulet
Updated over a week ago

Welcome to Canny! πŸ˜ƒ
This article has all the basics you need to make sure you're well-versed in our product!

Timestamps:

  • Boards β€” 0:13

  • Board privacy/use cases β€” 0:20

  • Creating a post β€” 0:46

  • Adding a vote manually β€” 1:28

  • Comments, replies, and moderation β€” 1:44

  • Organizing and analyzing posts β€” 2:22

  • User segmentation β€” 3:34

  • Roadmapping/prioritization tool β€” 4:09

  • Development integrations (Jira, Github, etc.) β€” 5:07

  • Updating users on status changes β€” 5:18

  • Roadmap β€” 5:50

  • Changelog β€” 6:14

  • DAY ONE RECOMMENDATIONS β€” 6:38
    ​


Boards, Posts, Votes & Comments

To put it simply, boards contain posts. Posts contain comments and votes.

The graphic below illustrates the hierarchy:

To play around with a live example, feel free to check out our feedback portal at feedback.canny.io. Let us know if you have any ideas, of course! πŸ˜„

Boards:

A board can be set to public or private. Public means it's visible to anyone on the web. Private means access is restricted to certain people. Usually, public boards are used to gather feedback from users. Private boards are used to gather feedback from customers only, internal teammates, or select people. Learn more

Posts:

Anyone with access to a board can create a new post, whether a user or a fellow Canny admin. Below is what you see when creating a post (placeholders can be customized):

Every post can be assigned an owner in Canny. This way, there is accountability as to who is responsible for addressing specific feedback. Learn more

As a post's status is updated, users who voted on the post will be notified automatically via email. This way, users are always up to date on what matters most to them! Learn more

Votes

Canny allows your users to show support for a post with just one click! Each user gets one vote per post and vote totals are amassed in Canny, allowing you to easily sort and filter your most popular or relevant posts.Β 

Casting a vote will automatically enroll that user for updates related to that post. Votes can also be added manually. Learn more

Comments

Comments can be added to the post by anyone with access to that board. Canny also supports adding images for further clarity:Β 

As an admin, adding a top-level comment will notify all voters. You can also reply to another comment directly which will only notify the user who commented. Individual @mentions are also supported. This is perfect if you want to get a better understanding of a person's use case or expectations. Learn more

Posts can also be assigned tags and categories so your team can organize feedback and act on it more efficiently. (see below)


Tags, Categories, & User Segmentation

Each board can have its own tags and categories. These are managed in the Boards tab in your Canny settings. We also have a guide to Best Practices for Organizing Feedback.

Tags

Any post can be tagged by a canny admin. Tags are only visible internally. They are meant to help your team categorize and prioritize your feedback on the back-end. A post can have multiple tags applied to it. Learn moreΒ 

Categories

Categories are visible to end-users. Only one category can be applied to a post. Typically, categories represent the teams that will need to address the request or a particular section/feature of your app. Learn more

User Segmentation

Users can be grouped into segments on Canny. This function allows you to filter feedback by user groups. Perfect for helping prioritize feedback. Learn more


Roadmaps & Changelog

Roadmapping/prioritization tool

The roadmapping/prioritization tool lets your team pull Canny posts and decide what to work on next! Check out this quick video guide below or learn more:

End-user Roadmap

The end-user roadmap shows your users what's in the works and how far along things are. Changing the status of a post will automatically move it along the roadmap. Your users will know you're always hard at work! Β See our roadmap at feedback.canny.io or click here to learn more.

Changelog

The changelog is a page where all your updates are published. See ours at feedback.canny.io/changelog. This is a great link to share with any stakeholders in your company and it's always worth adding a link to your changelog in your newsletter. Learn more

We're so excited you've decided to try Canny out and we're confident you're going to love it! ❀️

Just start a chat if you have any questions. We are here to help! πŸ˜ƒ


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