Canny promised an intuitive UI. I got stuck in 5 minutes.

All right guys, welcome to another teardown.

So this is a really interesting tool, that helps product teams centralize product feedback, uncover insights and just make better decisions around the direction of their product.

I came across it a few weeks ago.

I've not had a chance to try it out yet so I figured we'd sign up, go through the onboarding, get into the product and yeah, I'm intrigued.

like the look of the website.

we scroll down here, they talk about how easy it is to set up and use.

we can just install it in a few minutes.

we can import existing feedback with a simple upload, so maybe that's something we could do.

And then they talk about how user friendly it is with a modern and intuitive ui.

so they're saying all the right things.

but I'm keen to kind of check it out for myself.

All right, so we're going to go up here and we'll click sign up.

So I'm not going to spend too long reviewing the sign up page here.

It's obviously very sparse.

It lacks the personality that we have from the homepage.

but it does help focus users attention.

The task in hand here we've got a convenient link back to sign in if we need to do that.

and I like the fact that they're mentioning benefits as well.

So they talk about how easy it is to gather, track and manage user feedback.

that.

And then obviously two different ways we can sign up here we've got sign up with Google and then we've got a work email.

So let's sign up with Google to make things a lot simpler.

It should help us get into the product a bit quicker.

Okay, so we've gone through that signup process.

Now we just need to set the account up here.

Again, design wise, nothing fancy here.

It has pulled through my Google email address here, it's nice to reassure users that the email that they've chosen is correct.

It's also pulled through my full name and hasn't pulled through a company name.

So let's add that in here.

And And then as you've just seen, as I'm typing in my company name, it's auto filling in the subdomain underneath.

So that's a nice touch.

Makes things really convenient for users.

And if we needed to we can go back.

but in this case let's click continue.

It switched to dark mode for some reason.

Maybe it's just matching my system preferences here.

so we started off with a really simple question here.

What brings you to Canny?

And we got three options.

So we're either here to collect feedback, build a roadmap, or share an announcement.

It's a simple multiple choice question.

You can't really go wrong at this stage.

and we've got a little bit of iconography here just to differentiate the different options.

So in this case I'm going to go with collect Feedback.

Okay, so it's asked us a follow up question as well now.

So there's clearly multiple paths to this onboarding experience.

So this feels very personalized to what it is I'm trying to do.

and it will no doubt lead me towards a path where I can achieve some level of success with it.

So in this case, So we're going to upload a CSV file and then it's Asking us about which tools we use right now and it's going to use these to customize the onboarding experience.

let's go with Linear.

I like the fact that they've pulled through the Favicons from each of these different products because it makes it easier to make a selection at a glance without really having to read them.

Right, let's click continue.

And now they're asking about our team.

And again, this is going to be used to tailor the experience, and give us more relevant tips.

So that simple framing helps users feel like this is just not a waste of time.

Now in many cases it still can be.

So hopefully Canny doesn't go down that route.

so how many people work at your company?

Let's go with one for now.

What is your role?

I assume I can choose multiple here.

Design works for me.

And then obviously if we wanted to skip this, we could.

Click continue So that was really simple.

sometimes these things can go on for far too long.

But we're in here now.

I think it's taken us to a getting started page rather than just dumping us into the product.

And this is obviously being personalized based on that onboarding flow that I've just gone through.

I really like this approach and I think it's a great way of helping new users get some value from it without just dropping them into the product and just hoping they can figure it out themselves.

Now what I would say is this layout feels a little clunky.

They're clearly pushing this, autopilot AI.

We've got an option, to start with that over here on the Left, we've got other ways of getting more from canny under here.

But the bit that I'm interested in right now is importing this feedback and it's given us an option to do that straight from this page.

So it doesn't feel like that onboarding that we've just gone through is a complete waste of time because it is tailoring the experience on those questions.

and it's given us a really simple process to follow here.

feedback, installing any integrations and then syncing our user data.

So I'm going to upload some feedback I've got.

We'll do that by clicking here.

So we've got an option to upload the CV or we can use the autopilot to review the feedback and come up with any ideas and insights that it might have found.

So that could be a huge time saver.

To be fair.

For now though, I'm just going to upload a CSV now.

I do wish they had support for the file types as well because we don't all use CSV CSVs.

Okay, so I've added that in there.

So I think they could have made better use of the available space here.

I can't see the full name of the file I've uploaded something I just want to double check before hitting submit.

Let's do that now.

Okay, so we've run into our first major hurdle.

Right now it looks like the columns in the CSV file don't match what the expected format is.

Now, at no point was I told how to format the file or whether it needed to have certain columns.

And I don't know where I'd find that information either.

If I get an error message like this, then I think you need to point users in the direction of finding a solution.

Otherwise users are going to get stuck like I have here and then they're just going to abandon the process altogether.

So rather than upload a CSV file, I'm going to go back, let's pull this out and then I'm going to paste some of the feedback in here and fill the form in.

And then who gave the feedback.

we've got one choice for user.

I don't know if I can add a specific user here at this point, which I think would be useful if we know who that is, especially if that's a high value customer, we'd want to be keeping an eye on the feedback they're sharing with us.

So to be able to create a new user from here I think would be helpful.

Unless when it's talking about user, it's referring to the user within the canny product itself.

We don't have a source URL, so we won't fill that in.

We've still got this, really confusing error message that sits at the Bottom.

I don't know why that won't go away.

anyway, let's click Submit.

Okay, so we got confirmation that the feedback has been sent to Autopilot at the bottom there.

any feedback will show up in your Autopilot tab.

So we've got a shortcut to see the autopilot or we can add more feedback in here.

both really useful options after they've submitted some feedback here.

So I'm going to close this down for now.

Now, I assume because we've imported feedback, the first of these three tasks would have been completed, but I guess not.

Let me refresh, see if that's working.

So this is clearly not updating in real time.

And if I wanted to figure out where that feedback is gone now that I've dismissed that model, so I think this is where things start to fall down a little bit.

we've imported some feedback.

and we had a few headaches doing that.

and now figuring out where that feedback has been documented isn't as straightforward as I think it should be.

If we go back into Autopilot, we've got sources, we've got no feedback found over here on the left.

So it has detected the feedback we added earlier.

it looks like it was processed three minutes ago, but where is it?

I don't know.

Maybe I'm just being stupid, but I can't figure out where to go to find the feedback.

We've got an action over here about viewing the original, but nothing's happening.

When I click it, that button looks disabled.

And then we've got an icon over here on the left that looks like I might be able to download the feedback.

but clicking on that doesn't do anything either.

users.

So we do have one user in here, which was me.

And then we have another error message that pops up here.

So Something's went wrong and the posts couldn't be loaded.

I have no idea what that means.

Have I done something wrong?

I don't know.

Like these are the questions that users are going to be asking themselves.

And then roadmap.

So it looks like we can create a new board by going through this.

I like the illustrations here.

They could have added something like this on the sign up page just to give it a little bit more personality.

Anyway, let's go through and create a board.

yeah, let's go for just feature request, which is the same as the placeholder.

Now it's given us a unique URL based on the name, Which is nice.

Saved us a bit of time there.

I'm not bothered about, who has access to the board right now.

So I'm going to dismiss that.

In fairness, I think these advanced options should probably be hidden by default as most users are unlikely to use them.

So let's create that board then.

Okay, so we got our board.

I'm not going to go through this in any more detail right now.

Still trying to figure out where my feedback has gone or what I can do with it.

anyway, I, I might be doing something wrong.

I don't know.

Either way, I'm going to leave it there.

Guys.

I think it started off quite promisingly.

But now that we're in the product, I don't think it's quite as intuitive as the website made out.

Certainly not from a UX perspective.

Even if the UI is quite nice and it is, it's quite modern.

But I am at a point now where I'm stuck.

All right, guys, I'm going to leave it there anyway.

Let me know what you think of Canny.