We’re making changes to your customer feedback experience and need your help

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

You’ve told us you’re frustrated because we’re often not communicating well enough, responding to conversations or comment, or keeping you up-to-date with product release changes or roadmaps.

We receive lots of feedback from you here in Community and also across our other communications channels such as Support, JAC and through social media. Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback. We really value your inputs - and one of the pieces of feedback we’ve heard loud and clear is that it’s difficult to know where to send your feedback to make yourself heard.

Making feedback work for everyone requires collaboration, vision, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible. We know things need to change and to do this we need your help.

Tell us more about:

• How do you feel about the way Atlassian manages your feedback?

• What are your thoughts and ideas on how Atlassian could better work with you to improve products?

• Can you share an example of when your feedback was heard and you felt listened to by a company (Atlassian or otherwise)?

Next steps

We’ll be actively monitoring activity on this post and gathering feedback until 23 June and will provide an update on the progress of this stream of work.

We're looking forward to the discussion, The Customer Feedback Experience Team

[Zoe Green]

Hi @John Funk , @Darin Klein , @Russell Zera  , @LarryBrock We loved your input in @anu's AMA and would love to hear more from you about how Atlassian manages feedback. Anything you might like to share here?

[John Funk]

Hi Caroline and Zoe,

Thank you for the intentional reach out on this. I have been praying and thinking through the appropriate response, and I guess my comments are more about how Atlassian handles the support process than the actual feedback management. If you handle support in a great manner, the feedback management kind of takes care of itself to a large degree.

Having said that, here are my thoughts.

Atlassian has an internal method of handling requests and making decisions on what items/features/improvements, etc. are rolled out and in what order. Obviously, each product has a roadmap. And Atlassian shares that philosophy quite freely. The problem is that the philosophy is very vague to end users, even if Atlassian feels it’s very detailed to you. Saying that there are numerous sources of requests and things to take into consideration when deciding which items to do might feel like you have your bases covered. But what the end user hears is “we can’t really give you objective answers to what we do when and you’re not really privy to that decision making, nor do you really have much influence there.” I know that is not your intent, but for me, that’s how it comes across.

To delve into that a little more as an example, there is the JAC. You receive and post hundreds if not thousands of suggestions/feature requests/bugs/defects, etc. But then it’s communicated out something to the effect of “but that’s only one source and one thing we consider when deciding what we are going to do.” But to the end user, the JAC is main avenue for requesting changes and improvements. Atlassian might have many other sources and method to their madness, but this is the single most tangible thing a user feels that he/she can do to influence what work gets done. And I don’t think I am far off, if at all, about that being the end user’s mentality.

So when items in the JAC get ignored – some for years and some for hundreds of votes – the end user gets extremely frustrated. I use the word ignore on purpose because that’s how the end user feels. Again, probably not the Atlassian intent, but that’s how it comes across. The users post additional comments fueling anger and descension . Which breeds more of the same. And few times, if ever, does anyone from Atlassian respond to the thread. See my links to just a handful of those types of issues in the other thread/post.

To step away from the negative for a minute, Matt Tse has probably done the best at feedback with his updates and responses to comments in https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-73180 for the New Navigation. He didn’t always have great news for some of what the people wanted, but he always addressed them and provided updates along the way. John McKiernan and the good folks with Automation for Jira have done the same. Just the fact that I know these people’s names tell you that they are good with feedback. Jason Wong has done a very good job with Next-gen information as well, though he is a little bit slower to respond to posts.

Now all of those are big initiatives and need that focus and communication. But it’s the on-going day-to-day bugs and requests that seem to get left behind in the wake of the large projects. And little or no feedback happens on those items.

As I have often heard, “don’t just complain without providing some recommendations/solutions”. So, here are some of mine. Please take them as such – suggestions, not demands. 😊

1. Take the JAC more seriously and let it provide a larger impact on the roadmaps for each product.
2. Although there are thousands of open items in the JAC, start with top 10 highest votes and make a decision on them. NOW. Like within the week. Then provide effective communication as to the decision and provide a reasonable time-frame for completion if the item is to be done. You may decide you are not going to do a request with 1,500 votes and that won’t be popular, but let the people know! You will dogged and maybe even cussed for your decision – but hey, that’s happening already if you read the threads. Make a decision and communicate often as you move forward with a fix. If you decide it’s a No, then communicate clearly the decision and close it to comments after a period.
3. Then every week for however long it takes, clear out 10 per week until you get to requests that are below X number of votes. Maybe that’s 100 votes. Maybe 50. Maybe 500 (but I hope not!  😊 ). Each time, giving good feedback.
4. Then, maybe simultaneously or combined somehow, do the same for the oldest of the tickets. Do the top ten oldest open ones first. Make decisions and move on. Then whittle down the list each week.
5. Each product manager should do periodic AMAs or Webinars with a chance for the user to ask questions and provide feedback. Do that in an open arena where EVERY user feels they can participate and be heard. Don’t get me wrong – I REALLY enjoy having access to Atlassian personnel as a Community Leader. It’s a FANTASTIC perk!! But the masses need that occasionally as well. If they don’t participate, fine – that’s on them. But you have given the opportunity. There’s none better at that than the Automation For Jira team.

There might be more things later that come to mind. But if you just did those I can’t even imagine the impact and goodwill you would create.

Thanks for listening! Thanks for the opportunity to voice concerns!! If I missed the mark, let me know – it’s okay.  😊  To be honest, I have sometimes responded in frustration in the past myself, and I apologize sincerely for those times. I had to do such an apology to John McKiernan in an email shortly after I first met him. But he was gracious and kind and forgiving.

I look forward to comments from others and their feedback as well. Thanks one more time for all that you do to support us and for an already great product that you provide!

[Andrew Mainland]

Maybe take a look at the community posts and take a stab at some of the bug reported there? I've posted two now. The first was broken in 2015 the second just a few days ago. Perhaps 5 years later I can look back on this post and wonder why we ever stayed with you guys.

[John Funk]

@Andrew Mainland  - Can you share links to the two bugs your reported?

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

Wow! Thank you, @John Funk ! That is an incredibly thought-provoking response. Thank you for taking the time to tell us!

You’re highly engaged in both JAC and Community. I’d love to know what you believe makes JAC the more tangible avenue for requesting feedback and changes, versus Community?

You’re absolutely right when you mention Atlassian needs to get better at sharing decisions, especially those that may be unpopular. I’d love to know what in your opinion is a good way to deliver bad news such as the decision that we won’t be going ahead with a popular suggestion?

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

We’d love to hear from others in the Community too. Is your experience similar to John’s?

[Andrew Mainland]

The point of this thread is to change atlassian's attitude toward the customer. Not this customer.

However:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Confluence-questions/Site-completely-broken-with-CORS-rejected-issues-in-firefox/qaq-p/1410649?utm_source=atlcomm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=kudos_answer&utm_content=topic

[John Funk]

No, I do not see that being the point of the thread at all. Atlassian actually created the thread to receive feedback. Thank you for sharing one of the posts. 

[Andrew Mainland]

The other bug was a  dashboard widget that doesn't work. I think perhaps you folks have deleted it. I no longer see it. so +1 there

[John Funk]

Personally, I don't think that Community posts are very quantifiable as to the real demand/need for a feature. You certainly don't want 1,000 posts on the same subject. And as a user myself, I am not going to post another comment that says the same as whatever some (maybe several) people have already said. But I will click on a vote button in a heartbeat if it's something I need or would like to have. 

It might be a little bit of human nature maybe also. Many (Most?) of us are trained in countries that we should vote - for people, amendments, referendums, etc. It's a way for our voice to be heard. Only a tiny fraction of people who vote ever attend rallies or townhalls or write a politician. I think that caries over to the Community as well. 

So you don't want a small number or loud/noisy people running what should be done. Community Posts, small group product surveys, webinars, etc. are excellent means to receive feedback. But to me, they will always be overshadowed by the ability of the masses to vote. That's just my preference. I know several product managers that approach that differently. 

Most companies do not provide a direct medium to vote on their products like Atlassian has done with JAC. So definitely kudos for that. But I don't know that I really see that any differently from companies sending out surveys or taking polls. All of those (like JAC) should help you narrow your focus to what customers want in general. Then deep dive with groups to further define that and do POCs, trials, etc. 

But I have also seen MANY product managers start with an idea they have and then gather focus groups to to simply validate what they want. Even if that takes dozens of attempts until someone says "I like that". Then they say "SEE! The people want it!" 

That's a lot of rambling. But imagine if you let people vote, and they said "We want THIS candidate!" And then the government said, "Well, that's nice, but we did a focus group and we think this other person is better for you." That's basically the message that is being sent about JAC in my view. And I think all of the angry comments on issues in the JAC confirm that. 

I sure wish other leaders would chime in here - one way or the other! It won't hurt my feelings, but Atlassian needs to hear from someone other than me! :-)

[Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_]

Hi Caroline,

@John Funk did an absolutely incredible job of summing up how many of us feel about Atlassian's prioritization of the road map. 

I've been a Jira administrator since 2008 and was actually part of very early interviews on how to craft Jira Service Desk.

In the early days I was thrilled to be able to go into JAC, enter my vote and think that it counted and that it would get addressed.  I was also thrilled when it seemed that some of my JSD ideas were getting implemented.

But the illusion wore off 5 years ago.  I have had numerous focus calls with JSD, Jira product but I feel they go nowhere.  No matter how many times I say a highly voted JAC feature would be critical to us and many, many others, it seems to fall on deaf ears.

Instead we get another reformat of the screens, another "lipstick on the pig" release.  I'm pretty sure I've NEVER seen a JAC request that says redesign the UI, or move this field to the top and this one to the side OR make the colors pretty or the status blocked. 

I sometimes get the feeling that the development team just like to do "pretty work" and are allowed to supported by an inflated UI design team. 

I have no idea who the product team is talking to that are getting priortizations that supersede the highly voted JAC list.   I'd be really interested to know. 

I would like to hear a breakdown from a product leader on how they make their decisions for the roadmap.  I have asked and they have said that JAC was only 1 part, but then were vague about the other sources. 

I agree with John, trolling the community is not the place to get the roadmap ideas.  I really, really think JAC needs to play the main role in setting the roadmap.  And if there are other ideas that the product managers are picking up, then log them into JAC. See how many votes they get.  Bet they won't get nearly as many. 

@John Funk all your other ideas are great too.  WOnder if anyone is going to listen?

Susan

[Jack Brickey]

So finally jumping in here. Let me start by seconding much of what John and Susan have already conveyed but let me add my own voice here.

With that said...

First, it is worth noting that I have been involved in quite a few sessions w/ PM and research groups as well as a session with MCB and a couple of the POs. For this I am truly grateful and for the most part I feel that my voice is heard. The one key thing that is missing for me is closure. That small but oh so critical part of communication that does so much to finalize the feedback. "Hey you asked for xxx and here it is" or "We looked into this issue but it isn't aligned w/ our strategy." Often I do see something that was released that has me thinking "OK that seems to be aligned w/ my feedback.", but that is working on assumptions.

Solutions?

IMO, the concept of JAC is sound but the execution is fundamentally flawed. The concept of voting and watching is fundamental to Jira and how it fits into product management. Yet it seems to be failing right on its own front porch. Atlassian has evolved JAC attempting to improve how it is used and how it conveys where things stand with an issue, e.g. clear workflow statuses. However, there are so many old issues that it is hard to see the forest for the trees. It seems to me that too much is let in the back door. There should be an initial Triage/Assessment status and the PMs must be accountable for immediately (<=5d) assessing if it should even be considered "at this time". Maybe a year from now another request comes in and it makes sense but not today. This would keep down the noise and hopefully allow Atlassian to actively engage in the ones that are important to the business. Let me acknowledge that while I love the idea of transparency on suggestions and bugs I have never been apart of a company where this worked well. So in the end, if it isn't working and it can't be made to work then remove it. Don't let it simply sit there as an empty promise.

What I would like to see is more working group sessions with key Community leaders, POs and PMs with specific agendas. Maybe even discussing some of the JAC issues specifically focused on key issues. Of course if this is done then there must be followup and closure on all open issues.

I hope there is something in here that is helpful. I love Atlassian products and want them to continue to improve.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

/me draws a very deep breath.  Then releases most of it as "What John said, and the supporting stuff from Susan and Jack".

About five years ago, there was an Atlassian blog on how features, bugs, stories and the rest were drawn into the products.  This was a great thing because it explained how Atlassian were thinking about it all at the time, but it also failed because it pretty much confirmed that most customers only really had the route of JAC, which was at the bottom of the list of channels.

JAC is heavily flawed - mostly because it looks unloved and ignored.  In fact, Atlassian ignoring JAC could easily be the main reason people regularly post that they feel ignored and voiceless - when that question comes up, a lot of the time, the answer is "Raise it or vote on it in JAC" and because Atlassian ignore it, it feels utterly useless. 

I think the best answer here is "pay a lot more attention to JAC".  It could be a great way to get feedback.

• Sure, the voting system is a bit primitive, but it's a damn sight better than "post a rant in Community/other-forum and get a load of +1 type comments that will never be read because they're text, pointless noise, hard to code for reporting and easily gamed".  Or "raise a support request and hope Atlassian has some other big client that wants it fixed", or, or, or, or.
• Sure, it needs a lot of housekeeping and clean-up, and then curation in the future if it's the way to go
• Sure, it's an example of how not to "dogfood", but that could be changed

So, what I would do:

• Fix JAC
• Increase the promotion of JAC as the route to get stuff done
• Fix JAC
• Put JAC near or at the top of the list of things to do, not the (apparent) bottom
• Fix JAC
• See if we can modify community so that it can suggest JAC issues or docs that may be related, and highlight it when an answerer points to it
• Fix JAC
• Have a look at voting in Jira, it's very primitive.  Personally, as an unimaginitive techhy, I'd look at weighting - as a $10 subscriber, I would perfectly understand that a person voting as a representative of a 50,000 user organisation would have a bit more weight than me.  But then I'd start to get clever and count votes on older requests over newer ones.  And you really really need to be able to merge issues with their votes, and...
• Fix JAC
• Make it part of a Product Owner's job to update JAC regularly.  If nothing else, maybe every one of them should be required to explain why the top three voted open issues for their product is not in the current sprint every time it is not.  And absolutely give a detailed reason when anything with more than (say) 10 votes is closed with "won't do/fix".

And the ranty/shouty but TLDR bit:

1. Do what JAC says your customers want
2. or close it with a decent explanation of why you're not going to do it
3. or close it and explain why it clashes with your roadmap for the product

[Mirek]

The worst thing that was done to JAC was the activity of suddenly cloning tickets for Cloud offering including date created, comments, votes, etc, .. !!

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-63150

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-63150

So all the feedback that "I want a feature caled XYZ" that had hundred of votes and for server customers suddenly was cloned automatically as a need for Cloud (even that cloud needs were at the beginning a much different and we are no longer able to just track progress on "XYZ feature" as a thing that would be implemented in Jira (no matter which offering).

On the JAC ticket there should be simple information that this exist for Cloud not Server but we should track this somehow in one ticker or in a totally different view that is clean and easy to read.

Now to be honest it is a mess.. Another "bad" example of handling feedback is this:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-5783

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-5783

The customer/business need is to "Make field required only for one state transition".. People want this for Server (ticket created in 2005 when Cloud do not exist yet!).. Ticket get cloned with comments, votes etc. .. later in 2016 on Cloud it gets implemented as a native feature in Jira when the 3rd party plugin is not longer FREE .. Server customers get at the end information "to use paid extension - Jira Suite Utilities" event that same plugin existed also for Jira Cloud, so the decision to not implement this should be the same for both platforms.. It should be aligned.

Instead we get an update almost in 2018 (so after it was implemented for Cloud as native feature)

We belive Suite Utilities for Jira deliveres great value to our customers and the plugin has proven to do it's job well. This is why we currently have no plans to implements JSU's finctionalities in the core product.

In addition the "server" ticket automatically get Resolved with "Won't Fix", so people not longer even have hope that this feature would be implemented for Server.. What is funny the Cloud tickets still remains open!.. This is some kind of ridiculous way of handing "the need for XYZ feature". 

The Atlassian value is Do not *** the customer, but after that they are actually angry that a ticket for server exist from 2005.. then Cloud come in to the stage and it gets implemented after a year when plugin is no longer free.. and for Server you can go ahead and buy a third party extension and we cannot do anything about that..

So of course we can discus here HOW we can improve the way of gathering feedback, but I think that someone first need to learn how customers feel when they actually take an effort and give that feedback or really want something..

How someone would feel if he voted on this ticket 10-15 years ago hoping that it would be someday implemented and in 2017 (hoping even harder since feature is available on Cloud already) Instead they get a punch with a message go an buy a plugin..

And that is why the last comment (on the server tickets is like that):

This is a basic part of TFS bug tracker functionality since 2005. It's even supported in Jira Cloud! Why do SERVER users have to pay extra for it? It should be part of the base feature package. Please re-open.

And of course nobody would respond to this single questions/feedback. This is what definitively need to be improved..

Of course Community is a good way of gathering feedback also but many times at the end if the need is technical and a feature is not implemented we refer to JAC and ask to vote and watch.. If JAC would not be a good source of information and official communication with customers then we all would get lost in all those offerings guessing what is currently implemented, where and when it would be implemented. People keep asking for that "update" all the time...

[Russell Zera]

1. How do you feel about the way Atlassian manages your feedback?
1. So I feel like I've been incredibly fortunate in that, throughout my career working with Atlassian products, I've seen countless occurrences of amazing outreach from Atlassian not only to myself, but also to many of my colleagues. Sure, there have been some occurrences where my feedback may have felt like it has fallen on deaf ears, but I also have to take into account the sheer magnitude of feedback and users that Atlassian hears from and put that all in perspective.
2. I think some of the challenge of "felt like it has fallen on deaf ears" could relate to feedback filing. What do I mean by this?
   Well, sometimes I will come across something and I'm immediately motivated to log it in JAC. Well first thing I will do is see if that issue has been logged before, and 90% of the time, it has! So I find the ticket (Let's use ticket https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-1973 as an example), I click on "vote for this issue", I add my specific ask or additional support or voice to the "comments" and boom... Submit and my contribution to the Atlassian Society has been completed, right? Then I take a moment and look at the ticket a little closer and see that the issue has been open since 2003, last updated (in the description) in 2017 by Dave saying basically "sorry ain't gonna happen", but then changed status in 2019 from "Open" status to "Gathering Interest" status, but no other context added in the description for why. My recommendation would be to have some sort of mechanism where a ticket can be given "new life" but parsed from previous iterations. This system I liken to Agile teams that use an issue type like "Epic" as a never-ending "bucket" to categorize work. Issues should have clear entrance and exit criteria. If a decision was made in 2017 not to support it... the ticket should have been closed at that point in time and never re-opened again. If people submit fresh requests for it, they can be handled in that matter, as fresh requests. Otherwise your backlog becomes so incredibly cluttered and weed-ridden, that there is no way for your customers to clearly understand what your priorities are or what you're actually interested in working on. If you regularly weed your backlog and give that clarity, then customers are more likely to provide meaningful feedback on the issues that are TRULY "Gathering Feedback" instead of losing transparency in the "noise". If I look in the tool and see that you have 39,417 issues actively in "Gathering Interest", then I immediately see that as a failure in the "No Bullshit" value, as Gathering Interest is that type of status when you have that many issues in it, especially when 13,610 of those issues have not had an update in greater than 1 year. Less is more :-)
2. What are your thoughts and ideas on how Atlassian could better work with you to improve products?
1. Highlight your wins more... Seriously! I have heard (and shared) so many experiences of amazing customer service by Atlassian with real users. So many research sessions and outreach efforts to get more insight from customers on how their product has fallen short, could be better and more intuitive, or even just to highlight what exactly someone loved when they gave feedback that something rocked! Unfortunately it goes entirely to the realm of "word-of-mouth". I can tell you that I (and many I speak with) would be willing to sign whatever waiver to authorize Atlassian to share information or testimonials from that session with the world in a way to show how Atlassian is addressing customer concerns and feedback. Having metrics like a "Percent of customer feedback implemented", or "number if customer-driven requests shipped this month" would be amazing to see plastered all over your site and forums. Honestly, that's the first thing I would expect to see when I go to jira.atlassian.com or community.atlassian.com is statistics that show the pulse of your business, customer engagement.
2. More live-chat functionality... Yeah this is a costly idea but different people have different brains and different needs. Some may think submitting a JAC ticket or posting on a community forum is fantastic (I love community for sure!), but others may just need a helping hand. Many companies use tools like Intercom where you can interface using chat protocols. Sometimes that can be an AI that can help steer, other times it could be a real person. The point is, some people are apprehensive about putting their name on something like the way it can be on a JAC ticket or a Community post. Sometimes they just need a mechanism that allows them to troubleshoot a little more organic and covert. Yeah phone support is brutally expensive and not possible, but I think some sort of chat functionality would be solid (or even adding something like a Slack component for community-to-community support where someone is just looking to see "you have 45 experts currently active" and you can go safely into a private chat to hash out a request under the agreement that, if the solution is unique and helpful for the greater community, either yourself or the expert(s) that help you can at least post the knowledge nugget on community in the threads. I can say that I would probably use this DAILY (both to troubleshoot, and as a community member, to support others).
   
   
3. Can you share an example of when your feedback was heard and you felt listened to by a company (Atlassian or otherwise)?
1. Most definitely. This happens a lot! The session with  referenced in this OP is one such example, but Summit is nothing but amazing ways of feeling heard, Community Events and Community posts, Countless customer research sessions I have taken part in, times Atlassians have reached out in response to a post or something I have shared, I could go on and on. I don't think me feeling listened to by Atlassian is the challenge.
2. My challenge I think is seeing how OTHERS are listened to by Atlassian (as mentioned above). Atlassian makes me feel special as a customer, I won't shy from that. Sometimes though, I don't know if others feel that same way. I wish there was some easy magic bullet that I could point to that I could say to others "all you have to do is X like this and they'll reach out for more info", or quickly at-a-glance look and see that Atlassian has directly address 452 customer raised tickets this month, or 21 tickets this week that had amassed 2,150 watchers or likes in JAC. That's the "miss" for me presently.

In summary and to give a TL/DR: I'm a huge supporter of Atlassian's customer orientation. I think they are doing amazing work and really addressing many of the needs of their customers. There are times I twitch at certain things in the product that seem like they should have been addressed years ago that seem simple, but overall, their entire suite of products are where they are for a reason. They have dwarfed their competition over the years for a reason. That reason is that their product aligns better with the needs of their customer better than any other solution out there, some people may have just lost sight of that. When you're a customer of Atlassian products as long as I have been, you experienced unimaginable growth and ground-breaking achievements at Atlassian overtook their competition. Now that they are so far on top, it's really challenging to feel as upward of a trajectory, but they're still crushing it. Keep it going and let the whole world know!

Thanks for taking the time to read all this, hopefully it's helpful :-)

[Russell Zera]

And sorry for delay in getting this to you, I had some technical difficulties trying to post this yesterday and it didn't work for me till today.

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

Thanks @John Funk , we definitely don't see your responses as "rambling" :) and we highly appreciate the time you spend on this thread. I can assure you that we (the team) is reading each word enthusiastically.

When you say:

Most companies do not provide a direct medium to vote on their products like Atlassian has done with JAC. So definitely kudos for that. But I don't know that I really see that any differently from companies sending out surveys or taking polls. 

Could you please elaborate a bit on this? What does make it the same or different?

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

Hey @Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_ thank you very much for your response. I can assure you that we are listening. We hear the frustration and our goal with this conversation is to understand where it is coming from and what you would like to see happening differently to change this sentiment. 

When you say:

I would like to hear a breakdown from a product leader on how they make their decisions for the roadmap.  I have asked and they have said that JAC was only 1 part, but then were vague about the other sources. 

We’d love to know a bit more about why this would be important to you, Susan? 🙂

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

Thanks Jack! 

What I would like to see is more working group sessions with key Community leaders, POs and PMs with specific agendas. Maybe even discussing some of the JAC issues specifically focused on key issues. Of course if this is done then there must be followup and closure on all open issues.

What is about the working groups that feel valuable to you? We’d love to know more so we could share the value to the broader Community and Atlassian user base.

[Danielle Imbesi]

Thanks @Russell Zera 💙 that you’re thinking of how to make these things visible to other users who might not have the same level of contact with Atlassian that you have. There are a lot of fantastic ideas in there. Which one do you think would have the biggest impact for all users?

[Caroline Maillols [Mah-yols]]

@Mirek  completely agree that JAC is causing a lot of pain right now. It’s great to understand the issues you currently have.

Looking towards the future, how do you see us working together to innovate and improve Atlassian products? Is fixing JAC the silver bullet? Or will it take more?

[Danielle Imbesi]

 😆 Ditto Ditto Ditto  @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-  
I’m interested in why you feel like customers only real option to help shape Atlassian products is through JAC. Was it that blog article that gave you that impression? Or is it from your own experience?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Since I've been an Atlassian user, I was consistently asked to use JAC to report everything.  Since that blog 5-6 years ago explained all the routes customers had at the time, it pretty much said "JAC is the only one available to most".  Atlassian have gone through phases of monitoring community and raising things drawn from it, but the route there was for them to add it to JAC themselves.

Other routes were TAMs (i.e. large customers), knowing Atlassians directly or getting partners or leaders to talk on your behalf, raising support requests (not a lot of use as a voice as no-one else gets to see them) and that things like strategic direction and demand from large customers were always far more important.  For most Jira users, there's no apparent route that might appear to have any effect on what matters to them.  JAC routinely ignored and the other routes invisible or silent.

Although I've said JAC a lot there, if there would be a better route for general visibility and weight, great.  I've said JAC because you have a wealth of history, voting, and it already could support visibility and weight.  It just needs to not be ignored by Atlassian.  That goes for any other system you might implement.

[Susan Hauth _Jira Queen_]

Hi Caroline,

This would be important to everyone to understand the areas of influence in the roadmap decision making.   Is it from internal sources?  From enterprise clients? From platinum partners?  Since I don't think Atlassian is getting it quite right, wondering where the other influences are coming from and how those may require reshaping.   JAC is the only visible, public voting forum and so wondering what the non-public influencers are and how those might be made more public and open to voting.

Susan

[John Funk]

Yes - this! ^^^