How to Set Up a Feature Request Board in Canny
Canny is purpose-built for product feedback management. Unlike repurposing Notion or Trello, Canny provides voting, user segmentation by plan or company size, roadmap status boards, and native integrations with Linear and Jira. For teams receiving steady user feedback, Canny removes the manual work of aggregating, deduplicating, and prioritizing requests.
This guide covers setting up Canny from scratch — boards, tags, user identification, roadmap configuration, and the integrations that close the loop with users automatically.
Step-by-step guide
Create your boards based on product area
In Canny, click Boards > New Board. Create one board per major product area rather than a single catch-all board: "Integrations," "Editor Experience," "Admin & Permissions," "Mobile." Each board has its own URL and can be embedded separately. Use Settings > Board Privacy to make some boards public (customer-facing) and some private (internal team feedback). Separate boards make triage faster and prevent one area's requests from drowning out another's.
Configure tags for organized filtering
In Settings > Tags, create a taxonomy with two levels: Category tags (Bug, Enhancement, New Feature, Performance) and Product Area tags (matching your board names). Apply tags to every post during triage. This enables JQL-style filtering in Canny: "show me all Enhancement requests in the Editor Experience board with more than 10 votes." Tags are the primary tool for slicing the feedback to match your current sprint focus.
Set up user identification for segmentation
For qualitative feedback analysis to work, you need to know who is voting. In Canny's developer settings, get your SSO token and add the Canny identify snippet to your application's frontend: `Canny("identify", { appID: "...", user: { id: user.id, name: user.name, email: user.email, companies: [{ id: company.id, name: company.name, monthlySpend: company.mrr }] }})`. When users vote after identification, Canny shows you their company name, MRR, and plan — enabling you to filter for "features wanted by customers paying over $1,000/month."
Configure the public roadmap in Canny
Go to Roadmap settings and enable the public roadmap view. Create status columns that match your development workflow: Under Consideration, Planned, In Progress, Complete. For each Planned or In Progress post, add a "Planned for" quarter using the ETA field. When users click a post and see "Planned for Q4 2026," it reduces the support ticket volume asking "when is this coming?"
Connect Canny to Linear or Jira
In Settings > Integrations, connect Canny to your Linear or Jira workspace. When you decide to build a feature, open the Canny post and click "Push to Linear" (or Jira). Canny creates a linked issue in Linear with all the voter context. When the Linear issue is marked Done, Canny automatically changes the post status to "Complete" and notifies all voters. This automation closes the loop without manual PM work.
Set up automated status update emails
In Settings > Email Notifications, enable automatic emails to voters when a post status changes. Configure the email template to include the PM's name, the quarter the feature will ship, and a link to the release notes when the status is Complete. These emails have very high open rates because users care about features they requested — use the opportunity to include a soft CTA like "Here is what else is coming in Q4."
Common mistakes
One board for all feedback
A single "Feature Requests" board becomes impossible to triage when you have 500+ posts. Separate boards by product area from the start. Migration is painful — it is much easier to structure correctly at setup than to reorganize a busy board later.
Not identifying users before they vote
Anonymous votes have no customer context. You cannot tell whether 50 votes came from 50 enterprise customers or 50 users on your free plan. Implement the Canny identify snippet in your application before launching the board publicly.
Marking posts as Complete without notifying voters
Canny's automation handles this, but only if you mark the status as Complete rather than just closing the linked Linear ticket. Always update the Canny post status when a feature ships, and confirm email notifications are enabled.
Accepting posts without requiring a problem description
Enable Canny's required fields setting so post submitters must explain the problem they are trying to solve, not just name the solution they want. Posts that only say "Add dark mode" are harder to prioritize than "When I use the app in low-light environments, the bright white background causes eye strain after 20 minutes."
Tips
Use Canny's "Segments" feature to create a segment for customers paying over $X/month and filter the feedback board to see only their votes — this is your enterprise priority view
Embed the Canny board inside your product using an iframe in the help center or settings page so users can vote without leaving the app
Set a weekly Canny review calendar event where you triage new posts and update statuses — consistency is what keeps the board useful
Export Canny data monthly via the CSV export (Settings > Export) and import into your RICE scoring spreadsheet as the Reach data point for each feature
How Vantage helps
Vantage can ingest your Canny board data as a context source when generating a PRD. The top-voted, highest-impact feature requests from Canny become grounding context for requirement generation — ensuring that the PRD reflects demonstrated user demand rather than assumptions.