How to Create a Product Gap Program

By Brett Crane, VP Solutions at Vivun

This is the second article in a series exploring why and how Presales leaders can add strategic business value by stepping up to lead internal Product-Field alignment processes.

As a Presales leader, one of the most impactful things you can do for your organization is to spearhead a comprehensive product feedback initiative. The SE team should play a critical role in bridging the gap between sales and product, ensuring that customer and prospect feedback is effectively captured, analyzed, and acted upon.

In this article, I'll share my recommendations regarding what teams and roles you need, as well as best practices for leading your own product-field alignment program that I've developed over the years. With that said, let’s get tactical. ??

The below table provides a very high-level overview. This article will explore each part of the process in more detail.? For additional context, see this more comprehensive Product-Field Alignment Playbook.

Terminology

To clarify some terminology upfront, I’ll use the term “feature request” for product features being requested by the client or prospect and “product gap” as the parent-level bucket that houses all the related individual feature requests.

Roles and Responsibilities

The triage process involves several key roles described below:

Feature Requesters: These are your team members responsible for accurately capturing and submitting product feedback. Usually, the Presales team is the bare minimum, but I would recommend you get the CSM, TAM, SA, and any prospect- or client-facing roles involved so that you can get a more complete perspective. They all have a wealth of information from direct interaction with buyers.?

GTM Triage Team: Led by a Presales leader (in our case, me), this team is responsible for the review and categorization of gaps. They ensure that each gap is properly understood and aligned with the right product line and functionality area.

Field Experts / SMEs: Other technical experts like Solution Architects, product specialists, etc. can provide additional context on complex requests and help untangle complex use cases into their core components. This set of people can be tagged in more unofficially as needed.

Product Team Collaborators: Product managers who participate in regular meetings to align gap feedback with current and future product initiatives. If you have a Product Operations team, they can be a great partner to keep the program on track and organized on the product team side.

Leadership: Your highest-ranking SE leader should be the champion of your Product-Field alignment program and carry the torch to get other department leaders aligned with its value. Your CRO / VP of Sales should partner with you to strengthen the voice of your asks of the product team. If you have trouble getting the product team’s attention, your CRO can often help if they want the revenue outcomes this feedback program can generate.

Your CPO (head of Product) should be confident in the sophistication of your product feedback process, and ideally, they will commit to partnering with you on which features to build for the GTM team. Your CEO should be aware of the program and your ownership of the cross-departmental charge to improve revenue growth and retention.

Steps & Cadence

The product gap triage process we've implemented at Vivun follows these key steps:

1. Gap Entry

Team members are empowered to enter feature requests quickly and easily. Quality data intake begets a reliable output down the road (see best practice for data analysis below). Here’s what we capture to give Product a complete picture of prospect and customer feature requests while encouraging standardization:

• Revenue Impact: Deal size using total ACV (or TCV) affected?
• Use Case: Description of the feature request in the customer’s use case context
• Severity: Level of risk to the deal or account (deal breaker, nice to have, etc.)?
• Competitive alternative: Availability of competitive options for the customer

2. Internal Triage

Some feedback doesn’t fit in with existing requests, but it all needs to be categorized. To accomplish this, we selected a go-to-market “triage” team to make sense of the gray areas. Make sure that your triage team members are detail-oriented and experts on each product line and product area.

The triage team reviews new feature requests that don't have an obvious match and determines if any existing Product Gap we’re tracking already captures what’s being requested. If it is, in fact, a novel feature request, they will create a new Product Gap to be the parent to all future similar requests. If any feature requests are unclear, they will ask for clarification from the creator to ensure we understand the use case or capability being requested.

3. GTM (Field Team) Review

For complex requests, we may convene a meeting with additional experts e.g., Solution Architects, to discuss the use case in more detail.

4. Product Team Review

We meet with the product team to discuss whether new requests align with current development efforts and should be considered or if they represent entirely new use cases. We also discuss any extremely complex requests or the inverse, simple “quick wins” worth considering in small future releases.

Consistency is critical

From experience, the main outcome you want to drive is that all feature requests are properly categorized every week. We aim for “inbox zero,” excluding the ones awaiting clarification from the feature requestor. The key to ensuring the success of the program is maintaining a consistent cadence.

We have 2 hours blocked off each week for triage meetings. We expect to (and often) adjust the time we dedicate each week when new company dynamics arise (e.g. a new product launch that starts generating a significant volume of new feature requests). This ensures we don't fall behind on data categorization and always have access to the latest insights.

To be clear, these reviews need to be scheduled using calendar meetings. If you rely on ad-hoc meetings, client and prospect work will always find a way to take priority, and you will forget to triage that week. If you let feature requests pile up, it’s the beginning of the end. You will accidentally create the dreaded “black hole” effect, where no one on the go-to-market or product teams knows where feature requests go once they are submitted for review, which erodes trust in the data and devalues the entire program.

Best Practices for Data Analysis

To make the most of your gap triage process, you will need to provide metrics and perspectives to sales, product, and executive leadership. Focus on these key areas of insight first and grow from there:

1. Potential Revenue Impact: Analyze the potential revenue, i.e. Opportunity Amounts, associated with each product gap. This is a simple way to help prioritize which gaps to address first.

2. Outcome Impact: Analyze how specific product gaps truly affected deal win rates and velocity along with renewals. This data is a powerful way to demonstrate the impact of not addressing certain product gaps and highlights which gaps can or can’t be sold through when they arise.

3. Frequency Analysis: Track how often each gap is reported. Typically this is less important than the two metrics mentioned above. Try pairing these metrics together to highlight some gaps that are both high-value and high-volume or find outlier high-volume gaps that might be impacting certain segments of the market e.g. most of your SMB customers. Frequently reported gaps may indicate widespread issues and reputational risks to address.

4. Customer vs. Prospect: Break out your product feedback metrics by existing customers and prospects. Depending on your company situation and top initiatives, you may want to refocus your product gap asks on improving churn prevention, upsell/cross-sell, or new logo growth.

5. Roadmap Alignment: Categorize gaps based on their status according to your product team (roadmapped, in progress, not reviewed). If your product team is not prioritizing your top product gaps, this would be an obvious area of conversation.

For a data deep-dive, see The Metrics that Matter for Aligning Product and Sales.

Encouraging Adoption

Track how consistently your teams are submitting feature requests. This sounds harder than it is in reality, and it’s critical to ensure you have a high-quality dataset that your product team can trust.?

Don’t let any client-facing person tell you it's not their job to record product feedback. Part of why you pay them a salary is to provide insights, and tracking product feedback directly impacts near and long-term revenue growth and retention while highlighting deal risks in the forecast.?

Encourage SE leaders to actively engage with the stats and the process. Leaders who understand adoption metrics and hurdles can effectively reinforce the importance of feedback collection and address non-compliance within the team.?

Note: In our case, we use Vivun Xpert Analytics, which has a view that allows us to set monthly targets for the number of feature requests we expect, providing a simple visual for managers to see who is not consistently recording product feedback.

Remember, the goal isn't just to collect data but to drive action. Show your teams how you use the data to make a compelling case for product roadmap changes and sales strategy adjustments. If the team sees how their feedback drives change for the better, they will more readily participate and buy into the program.?

Lastly, by implementing a robust product feedback program and focusing on meaningful data analysis, you can position Presales as a strategic driver of product direction and business success. This not only elevates the role of Presales within your organization but also ensures that your product roadmap stays closely aligned with market demand.

Conclusion

Now is the time to step up as a company leader, not just a team leader. By implementing a product feedback program, you can transform Presales and other client-facing teams into a strategic insight machine and drive tangible results for the business.?

This is not just an opportunity to enhance your career by demonstrating your leadership skills and vision, but also a chance to directly impact company growth.?

Don’t wait for someone else to champion this initiative. There’s no one better to take the reins, rally your team, and start making a difference. By prioritizing and implementing this program, you can create a multiplier effect on your go-to-market results. The future of your career and your company’s success depends on it—so go make it happen!