1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:00,840 We've all been there, haven't we? 2 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:04,980 Especially if you're, um, leading a product team or maybe you're an indie 3 00:00:04,980 --> 00:00:09,240 builder or just running a passion project, that feeling of being totally 4 00:00:09,240 --> 00:00:13,760 swamped by feedback, you know, your inbox is overflowing with, can we add 5 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:15,760 this emails than a Slack message box out? 6 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:16,520 Hey, quick thought. 7 00:00:16,520 --> 00:00:19,820 And then someone mentions three more ideas in a quick chat. 8 00:00:19,820 --> 00:00:23,160 It really is like trying to drink from a fire hose sometimes. 9 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,840 How do you possibly cut through all that noise? 10 00:00:25,840 --> 00:00:28,560 How do you figure out what to actually build next when ideas are 11 00:00:28,560 --> 00:00:29,960 just flying in from everywhere? 12 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:33,340 Well, today we're going to dive into something that might 13 00:00:33,340 --> 00:00:34,920 just help tame that chaos. 14 00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,960 Our mission here is to really unpack FIDR. 15 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:39,900 It's an open source future voting tool. 16 00:00:39,900 --> 00:00:43,560 We want to explore how FIDR can take all that scattered input and turn it 17 00:00:43,560 --> 00:00:46,520 into, well, a structured system, something that helps teams build 18 00:00:46,520 --> 00:00:47,880 features users actually want. 19 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:52,200 And crucially, we want to explain it so that anyone, even if you're totally 20 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:53,800 new to this, can get a handle on it. 21 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,600 It's really about getting off that treadmill, just reacting and starting 22 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:01,240 to, you know, focus your energy where it matters most for this deep dive. 23 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:04,340 We've looked at some great source material stuff directly from FIDR's 24 00:01:04,340 --> 00:01:07,040 own get started guide and their GitHub repository. 25 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,360 So we've got a pretty solid view. 26 00:01:08,360 --> 00:01:11,460 And before we really jump in, we want to give a quick shout out to the 27 00:01:11,460 --> 00:01:15,120 supporter of this deep dive that's safe server, they handle hosting for 28 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:19,360 software like this and can support you in your digital transformation. 29 00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:24,040 You can find out more over at www.safeserver.de. 30 00:01:26,320 --> 00:01:28,280 Okay, so let's get started. 31 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:30,120 What exactly is FIDR? 32 00:01:30,120 --> 00:01:33,000 The description says a simple and elegant feature voting tool. 33 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:34,920 What does that actually mean in practice? 34 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:37,000 How does it help with that feedback mess we talked about? 35 00:01:37,000 --> 00:01:40,720 Yeah, that's the really interesting part, how it tackles that, uh, that 36 00:01:40,720 --> 00:01:42,480 messy feedback problem head on. 37 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:46,780 Instead of you having to chase down ideas from, you know, emails, Slack, 38 00:01:46,780 --> 00:01:51,840 meeting notes, random chats, FIDR gives you one single place, a central hub 39 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:55,760 that's organized and importantly searchable for all of that feedback. 40 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:57,760 It just pulls everything together. 41 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:00,800 This basically takes the guesswork out of deciding what features come next. 42 00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:03,680 You're not just hoping you remembered that one comment from last week. 43 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:06,200 You get a clear picture of what users are actually asking for. 44 00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,220 It helps make sure those important suggestions don't just fall through 45 00:02:09,220 --> 00:02:11,120 the cracks and it's not just theory. 46 00:02:11,120 --> 00:02:14,360 Uh, FIDR is genuinely trusted by teams all over the world. 47 00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:16,960 Product managers seem to really like its simplicity, especially 48 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,500 compared to some, uh, more complex tools out there. 49 00:02:19,500 --> 00:02:21,080 The scale is pretty impressive too. 50 00:02:21,080 --> 00:02:24,200 We're talking over 2000 sites actively using it, more than 51 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:29,280 30,000 ideas submitted and something like 200,000 votes cast. 52 00:02:29,280 --> 00:02:30,960 That shows real world impact. 53 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:31,480 Okay. 54 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:37,480 That central hub idea sounds really powerful, but thinking about someone 55 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:43,520 just starting out, maybe a small team or even one person, how does it actually work? 56 00:02:43,520 --> 00:02:45,880 Is it complicated to use? 57 00:02:45,880 --> 00:02:48,800 The sources mentioned three simple steps. 58 00:02:48,800 --> 00:02:52,960 No, it's actually designed to be very straightforward, very beginner friendly. 59 00:02:53,240 --> 00:02:54,440 That's one of its strengths. 60 00:02:54,440 --> 00:02:56,560 The first step is just set up. 61 00:02:56,560 --> 00:02:58,800 This is where you create your own feedback site. 62 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,760 You can easily pop in your own logo, tweak the colors, change the text, make 63 00:03:02,760 --> 00:03:06,120 it look and feel like part of your brand and getting started. 64 00:03:06,120 --> 00:03:07,360 You've got two main options. 65 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:09,680 There's fighter cloud, which is probably the easiest way. 66 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:11,480 It's fully managed by the fighter team. 67 00:03:11,480 --> 00:03:13,480 So they handle updates, hosting all that stuff. 68 00:03:13,480 --> 00:03:14,400 You just sign up and go. 69 00:03:14,400 --> 00:03:16,440 The other option is self hosted. 70 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,200 This one's free open source, but you are responsible for setting it up 71 00:03:20,200 --> 00:03:21,760 and managing it on your own server. 72 00:03:21,760 --> 00:03:24,320 So you pick based on your technical comfort level, really. 73 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:24,680 Right. 74 00:03:24,680 --> 00:03:26,400 So you choose the path that fits you best. 75 00:03:26,400 --> 00:03:26,840 Okay. 76 00:03:26,840 --> 00:03:27,800 What's next after setup? 77 00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:29,720 Step two is collect. 78 00:03:29,720 --> 00:03:34,160 Once your site is up, you invite people, your users, customers, maybe 79 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:36,320 internal teams to visit your fighter site. 80 00:03:36,320 --> 00:03:40,720 They can then easily suggest new ideas, request features they'd like to see, 81 00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:43,400 or report bugs or issues they've run into. 82 00:03:43,400 --> 00:03:45,640 It becomes the go-to place for all that input. 83 00:03:45,640 --> 00:03:46,640 Simple enough. 84 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:47,600 And the third step. 85 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:49,400 The third step is deliver. 86 00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:53,400 And this is all about closing the loop, keeping everyone informed. 87 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:57,480 When you as the product team update the status of a suggestion, maybe it moves 88 00:03:57,480 --> 00:04:03,400 to under review or in progress or gets marked as completed, users get notified. 89 00:04:03,400 --> 00:04:07,400 Specifically, anyone who submitted or voted on that idea gets an update. 90 00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:08,680 It keeps things transparent. 91 00:04:08,680 --> 00:04:09,560 Okay. 92 00:04:09,560 --> 00:04:11,520 So that's the keeping everyone in the loop part. 93 00:04:11,520 --> 00:04:14,440 That sounds like it sounds like it tackles a major frustration point. 94 00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:19,280 How does that transparency really help build trust and does it actually save time? 95 00:04:19,480 --> 00:04:20,400 Oh, absolutely. 96 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:22,120 It's a huge deal on both fronts. 97 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:22,880 Think about it. 98 00:04:22,880 --> 00:04:27,000 Without something like this, users often feel like their feedback just 99 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:28,800 disappears into a void, right? 100 00:04:28,800 --> 00:04:30,080 They wonder if anyone even read it. 101 00:04:30,080 --> 00:04:32,080 That erodes trust over time. 102 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:36,520 But when fighter automatically notifies them about progress, it sends a clear 103 00:04:36,520 --> 00:04:37,000 signal. 104 00:04:37,000 --> 00:04:37,880 We heard you. 105 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:39,200 We're considering your idea. 106 00:04:39,200 --> 00:04:40,200 Here's what's happening. 107 00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:44,480 That makes users feel valued, respected, like they're actually part of the 108 00:04:44,480 --> 00:04:45,280 product's journey. 109 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:46,720 It builds community. 110 00:04:46,720 --> 00:04:47,400 I can see that. 111 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:49,520 And yes, it definitely saves time. 112 00:04:49,520 --> 00:04:53,800 Think about how many, hey, any update on feature X emails or messages teams get 113 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:56,280 fighter basically automates that communication. 114 00:04:56,280 --> 00:04:59,880 Users can see the status themselves or they get notified. 115 00:04:59,880 --> 00:05:03,440 It frees up the product team from constantly answering those repetitive 116 00:05:03,440 --> 00:05:06,160 questions, letting them focus on, you know, actually building. 117 00:05:06,160 --> 00:05:07,720 It streamlines things a lot. 118 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:08,040 Okay. 119 00:05:08,040 --> 00:05:12,600 So the basic workflow is set up, collect, deliver pretty clear, but fighter seems 120 00:05:12,600 --> 00:05:16,040 to offer more than just like a tidy feedback list. 121 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:18,600 What are the bigger problems that help solve? 122 00:05:18,600 --> 00:05:19,160 Right. 123 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:19,840 It goes deeper. 124 00:05:19,840 --> 00:05:22,040 The sources highlight a few key areas. 125 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:26,520 First, keeping users engaged fighter isn't just a suggestion box. 126 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:30,440 People throw ideas into it's interactive users, submit, they vote. 127 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:33,240 They can even discuss ideas with each other and with the team. 128 00:05:33,240 --> 00:05:39,200 It creates this, uh, community feeling people feel involved, invested, and that 129 00:05:39,200 --> 00:05:40,720 makes them more likely to stick around. 130 00:05:40,720 --> 00:05:44,760 fighter makes this easy too, with things like one click sign in using Google, 131 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:48,040 GitHub, Facebook, whatever people already use, less friction. 132 00:05:48,040 --> 00:05:49,360 So that makes it easy for them to jump in. 133 00:05:49,360 --> 00:05:49,960 Exactly. 134 00:05:49,960 --> 00:05:54,110 And it supports multiple languages over 10, like Spanish, German, French, 135 00:05:54,110 --> 00:05:54,520 Portuguese. 136 00:05:54,520 --> 00:05:58,080 So your users worldwide can participate comfortably in their own language. 137 00:05:58,080 --> 00:05:59,400 That's crucial for engagement. 138 00:05:59,400 --> 00:06:00,160 What else? 139 00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,040 Second big thing, figuring out priorities. 140 00:06:03,040 --> 00:06:05,680 This is huge for any product team. 141 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:10,560 Instead of guessing or just listening to the loudest person in the room, fighter 142 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:11,520 lets the users vote. 143 00:06:11,920 --> 00:06:14,960 The ideas with the most votes naturally bubble up to the top. 144 00:06:14,960 --> 00:06:17,960 It's like crowdsourcing your roadmap priorities. 145 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,960 You get actual data showing what features people want most. 146 00:06:20,960 --> 00:06:24,680 This makes decisions much easier and helps focus development effort where we'll 147 00:06:24,680 --> 00:06:25,680 have the biggest impact. 148 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:27,800 No more just hoping you pick the right thing. 149 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:30,760 Data driven decisions, basically powered by the users themselves. 150 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:31,360 Precisely. 151 00:06:31,360 --> 00:06:33,760 And you can organize things further using tags. 152 00:06:33,760 --> 00:06:37,720 You can create public tags everyone sees or private ones just for your team's 153 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:41,800 internal use, maybe to categorize feedback or track progress helps keep things 154 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:42,320 manageable. 155 00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:42,680 Got it. 156 00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:44,760 And the third major benefit. 157 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:46,360 Saving time and effort. 158 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:51,040 Honestly, managing feedback without a dedicated tool can easily become someone's 159 00:06:51,040 --> 00:06:51,840 full-time job. 160 00:06:51,840 --> 00:06:55,080 It's a lot of work collecting, sorting, tracking, responding. 161 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:58,080 FIDR is designed to be lightweight and efficient. 162 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:00,160 It streamlines that whole process. 163 00:07:00,160 --> 00:07:04,520 Because users are submitting and voting directly, they're doing a lot of the 164 00:07:04,520 --> 00:07:06,160 initial organization for you. 165 00:07:06,480 --> 00:07:10,560 It just saves the team a ton of time and mental energy, letting them focus on 166 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:11,600 higher value work. 167 00:07:11,600 --> 00:07:14,920 It's meant to be easy to set up and easy to maintain. 168 00:07:14,920 --> 00:07:18,000 And there are specific features supporting these benefits, right? 169 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:19,240 Like customization. 170 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:20,720 Yeah, lots of neat features. 171 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:23,640 We mentioned the one-click sign-in and multi-language support. 172 00:07:23,640 --> 00:07:28,200 There's also the ability to fully customize the look with your brand, custom 173 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:29,960 CSS, logo, et cetera. 174 00:07:29,960 --> 00:07:34,000 You can make it a private site if you only want specific people like internal 175 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:36,120 teams or beta testers to access it. 176 00:07:36,480 --> 00:07:40,640 For more technical folks, there's a public API for integrations and webhook support. 177 00:07:40,640 --> 00:07:44,560 So you could say automatically post new high-priority ideas to a Slack 178 00:07:44,560 --> 00:07:45,720 channel or Discord. 179 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:46,520 Ah, okay. 180 00:07:46,520 --> 00:07:47,880 So it can connect to other tools. 181 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:48,480 Right. 182 00:07:48,480 --> 00:07:53,000 And for writing the actual ideas and comments, it supports markdown styling so 183 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:54,680 people can format their text nicely. 184 00:07:54,680 --> 00:07:54,920 Okay. 185 00:07:54,920 --> 00:07:58,640 That gives a much clearer picture of the features and benefits. 186 00:07:58,640 --> 00:08:00,960 Now you mentioned earlier, it's open source. 187 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,520 Let's shift gears a bit and talk about that philosophy. 188 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:04,760 What does that mean for FIDR? 189 00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:05,640 Good question. 190 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:12,400 Yes, FIDR is 100% open source, specifically under the AGPL 3.0 license. 191 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:15,680 What that means fundamentally is transparency. 192 00:08:15,680 --> 00:08:20,440 Anyone can look at the code, but it also fosters a community because it's open 193 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,840 source, people can contribute fixes, improvements, translations. 194 00:08:23,840 --> 00:08:25,080 It's a collaborative effort. 195 00:08:25,080 --> 00:08:28,160 The license ensures it stays free to use and modify. 196 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:31,440 It was started by Giller-Mayoning, now maintained by Matt Roberts. 197 00:08:31,440 --> 00:08:34,480 And there's a whole community of contributors on GitHub helping out. 198 00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:37,960 You can see the activity there, thousands of stars, hundreds of forks. 199 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:39,400 And kind of a cool point. 200 00:08:39,400 --> 00:08:42,040 They actually use Fyter themselves to gather feedback on Fyter. 201 00:08:42,040 --> 00:08:43,400 Dogfooding, as they say. 202 00:08:43,400 --> 00:08:45,480 It shows they believe in their own product. 203 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:46,440 That's always a good sign. 204 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:47,280 Definitely. 205 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:50,000 Now for people who don't want to deal with hosting it themselves, there's 206 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:53,840 Fyter Cloud and they have what they call simple no-tricks pricing. 207 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:58,520 It's currently $30 a month, and that includes basically everything. 208 00:08:58,520 --> 00:09:03,080 All features, unlimited customers, unlimited feedback, unlimited members. 209 00:09:03,360 --> 00:09:06,960 It also covers the multiple languages, using your own domain, the brand 210 00:09:06,960 --> 00:09:13,080 customization, the API access, social logins, even enterprise SSO login, and 211 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:15,480 the private site option, pretty comprehensive. 212 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,720 And is there a way to try it before committing? 213 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:19,040 Yep. 214 00:09:19,040 --> 00:09:22,840 They offer a 15 day free trial and you don't need to put in a credit card to 215 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:26,000 start it so you can easily take it for a spin and see if it fits your workflow. 216 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:28,880 That sounds very straightforward and user-friendly, tying back to that 217 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:33,840 simplicity thing, which leads me to ask that open source nature you described. 218 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:37,160 How do you think that might actually contribute to FIDR being simple and 219 00:09:37,160 --> 00:09:37,640 effective? 220 00:09:37,640 --> 00:09:38,520 Is there a connection there? 221 00:09:38,520 --> 00:09:40,160 Oh, I think there's a strong connection. 222 00:09:40,160 --> 00:09:40,440 Yeah. 223 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:44,760 Open source projects often have this inherent pressure towards elegance and 224 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:47,720 clarity in the code because lots of different people might look at it or 225 00:09:47,720 --> 00:09:51,560 contribute that often translates into the user experience too. 226 00:09:51,560 --> 00:09:56,440 There's less incentive to just tack on feature after feature, you know, feature 227 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:56,760 bloat. 228 00:09:57,400 --> 00:09:59,760 The focus tends to stay on the core problem. 229 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:04,080 If a feature adds too much complexity without adding significant value, the 230 00:10:04,080 --> 00:10:07,600 community might push back or it just won't get prioritized. 231 00:10:07,600 --> 00:10:10,040 It helps keep the tool lean and focused. 232 00:10:10,040 --> 00:10:14,360 Plus, because the community is using the tool and contributing to it, the 233 00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:17,320 development is often guided by very real practical needs. 234 00:10:17,320 --> 00:10:21,160 It evolves based on direct user feedback, which naturally leads to a more 235 00:10:21,160 --> 00:10:22,720 effective and intuitive product. 236 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:24,680 It's a nice feedback loop in itself. 237 00:10:24,680 --> 00:10:25,600 That makes a lot of sense. 238 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:28,520 It's almost like the development process mirrors the tool's purpose. 239 00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:30,880 Well, this has been a really illuminating look at Fader. 240 00:10:30,880 --> 00:10:34,880 It really paints a clear picture of how moving to a more structured, 241 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,360 transparent way of handling feedback isn't just about organization. 242 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,800 It's about building better products by truly listening. 243 00:10:41,800 --> 00:10:46,840 It shifts you from guessing what users want to actually knowing and involving 244 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:49,520 them in the process, which builds that engagement we talked about. 245 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:50,280 Absolutely. 246 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:54,000 And maybe that leaves us with a thought for you, our listener, to ponder. 247 00:10:54,960 --> 00:10:59,560 If a tool like Fader works so well for centralizing feedback and empowering 248 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:03,200 users and product development, where else could we apply this model? 249 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:07,480 This idea of transparent data-driven prioritization based on collective input. 250 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:11,880 Think about community projects maybe, or how nonprofits make decisions, or even 251 00:11:11,880 --> 00:11:13,840 strategy within larger organizations. 252 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:17,640 What happens when we build systems to truly listen and give people a voice in 253 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:18,640 the things that affect them? 254 00:11:18,640 --> 00:11:21,960 What stands out to you about building trust through that kind of structured 255 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:23,360 feedback, something to think about? 256 00:11:23,760 --> 00:11:24,960 A great question to end on. 257 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:27,800 Thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive into FIDR. 258 00:11:27,800 --> 00:11:31,840 We hope this gives you one much better understanding of the tool and the value 259 00:11:31,840 --> 00:11:33,480 of managing feedback effectively. 260 00:11:33,480 --> 00:11:36,920 And one last thank you to our supporter, Safe Server. 261 00:11:36,920 --> 00:11:39,560 Remember, you can learn more about how they can help with your digital 262 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:42,800 transformation at www.safeserver.de.