# Feature request

Copy this file, delete the guidance lines starting with a greater than sign, and fill in what you
need. Delete any section that does not apply rather than leaving it empty.

The order is deliberate. The problem comes before the proposal, because a request that describes a
problem can be solved in a way nobody had thought of, and a request that only describes a solution
can only be accepted or refused.

---

## Title

> One line, written the way you would say it out loud. Search the existing requests for these words
> before you file, because a second copy of an existing request splits the votes for it.

Search the board by the words in the title, not by the feature name

---

## What problem are you trying to solve?

> The situation you are in, not the feature you have in mind. This is the field that decides
> whether the request gets built, and it is the one people skip.

I have to scroll the whole list to find out whether somebody already asked for something, so I file
a duplicate about once a month and then feel bad about it.

## What would you like to happen?

> Your idea for a solution. Rough is fine, and it may not be the one that ships. Say it anyway,
> because it tells the reader what shape of answer would satisfy you.

A search box above the list that matches the words in a request title.

## What are you doing instead today?

> The workaround, and what it costs. This is usually more persuasive than the proposal, because it
> turns an opinion into an amount of wasted time.

I use the browser's find on page, which only searches the requests already loaded.

## How much is this holding you up?

> Pick one and delete the rest. Anything stronger than the truth costs you credibility on the next
> request you file.

Nice to have / Annoying, I work around it / Blocking something I need to do

## Anything else

> Screenshots, links to related requests, the number of people on your side. Optional.

---

## Notes on using this

**Two fields is a real option.** Everything above the line is what a team with a triage process
needs. If you are collecting requests from customers rather than from colleagues, a title and a
description will get you more requests than a form with six fields will, and more requests is
usually the thing you are short of.

**Never make the priority field a number.** A one to ten scale gets a nine from everybody. Three
named choices, where the strongest one has a cost attached to using it, gets you a usable signal.

**Ask what is broken, not what to build.** The single change that improves the requests you receive
is putting the problem field above the proposal field and making it the required one.

This template is published by VoteFirst at https://votefirst.app/en/tools/feature-request-template
and may be copied, changed and used commercially with no attribution.