⚠️ Canny Ideas is currently in closed beta
To apply for access, please start a chat or email us at support@canny.io
Overview
Canny Ideas helps teams stay organized internally by structuring their feedback using a clear hierarchy (parent-child relationships).
Benefits
Enables more strategic roadmapping
Provides stronger organization and filtering
Enhances prioritization by using richer context (e.g., MRR impact)
Improves navigation for large product teams (including multiple view options)
Keeps things simple for end users
Integrates fully with your existing Canny portal
How it works
Canny’s new Ideas feature introduces three new concepts: Groups, Ideas, and Insights. Organized using nested relationships. This helps your team visualize and organize work more effectively.
📂 Groups: Broad categories (e.g. product areas)
Function like folders
Groups are used for broad categories like product areas, themes, or ongoing initiatives
Up to 3 levels of nesting
Sub-groups provide optional breakdowns (e.g. initiatives)
💡 Ideas: Specific, actionable tasks or features
Represent actionable work with clear deliverables
Can also be nested up to 3 levels
Sub-ideas break large ideas into smaller components
💬 Insights: User interest in an idea
Insights are pieces of information that show additional interest or context around an idea - often coming from people other than the original creator. They help your team understand how users engage with the idea and preserve where each signal came from.
Manually by admins directly on the idea (e.g. if an executive mentions that this idea is very important, an admin can add that detail as an insight)
Automatically when a vote is added to the post linked to the idea (e.g. a customer voted on a linked post or a Sales member added a vote on a post on behalf of a customer)
Automatically when a comment is added to the post linked to the idea (e.g. a customer
Compared with Agile framework:
Agile product development focuses on short, iterative cycles. Below are the new concepts in Canny and their equivalent Agile terms:
Canny | Agile Equivalent | Notes |
Group | Theme/Domain | Broad area of focus |
Sub-group | Initiative | A structured effort within a theme; spans multiple cycles |
Idea | Epic | A large problem or request that requires decomposition |
Sub-idea | Story | A specific, actionable task delivering value and usually tied to sprints and owners |
Examples of Hierarchies:
We recommend organizing Groups around your product areas. However, the best way to group your data is the one that matches how your team already thinks about your product. Below are a few examples of different hierarchy structures you can use in Canny.
1. Grouping by Product Area
Group: Product Onboarding
Sub-group: Signup Flow
Idea: Streamline account creation
Sub-idea: Show progress bar
Sub-idea: Add more 3rd-party signup options
Sub-idea: Add Google Auth
Sub-group: Registration
Idea: Improve intake flow
Sub-idea: Capture team size
Sub-idea: Ask about tools used
Idea: Recommend trial experiment
(Optional Sub-ideas can be added if needed)
2. Grouping by Team
Group: Design
Sub-group: UI/UX
Idea: Dark Mode
Sub-idea: Admin dashboard toggle
Sub-idea: Inherit OS/browser preference
Group: Engineering
Sub-group: Infra
Idea: Optimize storage
Sub-idea: Compress images
Sub-idea: Offload unused assets
3. Grouping by Company Initiatives
Group: Reduce Churn
Sub-group: Improve onboarding
Idea: Personalized setup
Sub-idea: Tailored onboarding steps
Group: Increase Activation
Sub-group: Improve first-run experience
Idea: Feature education
Sub-idea: Add interactive product tour
Is an Idea just another view of a Post?
Yes and no.
Ideas and Posts are connected, but they serve different purposes and can come from different sources.
Where Ideas Come From
1. Manually created by a Canny admin
Admins can create Ideas directly in the Ideas dashboard without exposing them to end users.
This is useful when your team wants to track an internal concept, opportunity, or problem that isn’t ready for public visibility.
If later on it makes sense to share it publicly, you can create a Post from an existing Idea.
2. Created automatically through Autopilot
Autopilot can extract potential feature requests from sources like Intercom conversations.
Previously, Autopilot created Posts directly on a board - risking accidental exposure of AI-generated insights.
Now, Autopilot creates internal-only Ideas, assigning them to the proper group without exposing anything prematurely.
3. Created from the Canny Portal when a Post is submitted
When someone submits feedback manually and a post is created (through Canny Portal or an integration), a connected Idea is created alongside it.
The Post is the public-facing representation; the Idea is the internal one.
How Ideas and Posts Relate
Think of it like this:
Idea = internal record for your team
(e.g., engineering/design effort, alignment with objectives, MRR impact)Post = external view for customers
(e.g., progress updates, clarifying questions, categories)
Every Post maps to an Idea, but not every Idea needs to become a Post.
Ideas can start internally and stay internal unless you decide to publish them.
Permissions
Permission | Contributor | Manager | Owner |
Create new ideas | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Add insights | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Delete your own ideas | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Move ideas between groups and other ideas | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Change idea status | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Sort/filter views | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Create/update groups | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Create/update views | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Assign owners | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Merge/unmerge ideas | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Delete others' ideas | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
Manage custom fields | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
FAQ
Do I have to use the idea database to manage feedback?
No. It’s optional, but it is a core part of the Canny experience. You can use Canny without using the idea database, however.
Can I still use the public portal?
Yes! Every post will map to an internal idea.
What’s the limit for nesting?
3 levels for both groups and ideas.
Things to note
If Canny Ideas is enabled, Autopilot will create ideas instead of posts based on client interactions. Autopilot will no longer create posts or take any actions visible to end-users.
No actions taken on the Ideas page in Canny will reflect in your Canny portal.
You cannot link multiple posts to the same idea. Posts and Ideas are 1-to-1. Break out the idea into two sub-ideas if two separate posts relate the the idea.
Ideas are strictly internal. They cannot be shared outside of the admin team.
Changing the status of an idea does not change the status of posts linked to that idea.
Have feedback?
We'd love to hear from you, especially during the beta!