How are you onboarding internal vs external Contributors to Jira Discovery

[Matteo Nicolich]

I'm trying to figure out the best way for us to first make JPD open for contribution to internal users and then external customers, with insights on existing "Initiatives" or by submitting Ideas to contribute to future initiatives.

I saw Atlassian videos where internal stakeholders use a Slack channel, and external are funneled through Service Management.

We don't use Slack internally and I'm not sure we are ready to set up a Service Management process for Product Team.

Is this the only way?

1. Do you add all internal stakeholders as contributors (customer-facing teams, like sales and services)?

2. Do you handle it with a separate project in JPD for Ideas Funnel

3. Do you collect separately and then add insights manually?

I see there is something in the roadmap for insights, feedback, etc., but I need to set this up now, or the internal value of JPD will not be perceived. Any feedback on how to set up now and transition to the future capability?

[Hermance NDounga]

Hello Matteo, 

Based on what I see from our customers, there are indeed the three ways of doing it. 

If you aren't using Slack, are you maybe using Teams? 

For external users I would recommend more setting up Jira Service Management (that's how we do it in the Jira Product Discovery team), but for internal teams, giving access as contributor to the product projects is surely sufficient.

What would be your ideal solution? 

Best Regards,
Hermance
Product Manager @ Jira Product Discovery

[Matteo Nicolich]

Thank you Hermance, 
I saw your handbook and related resources on stakeholder feedback systems, but I'm still uncertain about the optimal implementation approach for our specific situation. With limited room to experiment, I'm concerned about creating another temporary feedback channel that stakeholders won't trust.

I'm considering several options, each with their own advantages and challenges:

1. Microsoft Teams Shared Channel

Pros: Leverages our existing company-wide platform, requiring minimal onboarding.
Cons: Stakeholders lack direct visibility into existing ideas, work gets duplicated, and ad hoc processes develop.

2. Jira Service Management (JSM) Implementation

Pros: Provides robust feedback loop processes.
Cons: Introduces additional costs and configuration requirements. Stakeholders have limited visibility and voting capabilities for existing ideas. Given our recent JPD rollout, introducing another parallel system seems risky.

3. Utilize Existing Jira Product Discovery (JPD) Instance

Pros: Maintains existing PM tooling.
Cons: The project could become unwieldy when juggling both PM roadmaps/processes and idea triage. The relatively simple configuration options, while beneficial in some ways, might prove limiting.

4. Create Dedicated JPD Instance

Pros: Enables customized views, fields, and permissions. Internal stakeholders could join as Contributors.
Cons: Requires learning yet another system, which is problematic if this isn't our medium-term solution.

I'm leaning toward option 4, but I'd appreciate hearing from others who have faced similar challenges. Has anyone navigated this journey successfully? What lessons did you learn along the way?

Thank you!

[Hermance NDounga]

Hi Matteo,

For option 3 & 4 when you say "instance" do you think a new *site* ? If so i would suggest against creating a new site, this will double your costs and moving ideas between two sites will be very difficult, loosing a lot of data in the way. 

So I'm guessing by "Instance" you mean a different "project", in the same instance. That would difinitely be the one I recommend too, based on your message - even if in option 3 internal stakeholders could also join as contributor in the same project, it's just that it become more complex if you need to have different fields and a lot of different needs between what's triaged and whats untriaged. 

For option 1, I just want to add that even if you create a Teams channel, nothing prevents you to place the link of the project for everyone to see before suggesting something. If it's like in slack you can even create a bot that automatically reply to the person suggesting to check the project first and eventually confirm if that's a suggestion they want to submit. 

Best Regards,
Hermance
Product Manager @ Jira Product Discovery