How Unified Prioritizes New Features
July 1, 2024
We've built a next-generation architecture that allows us to move quickly while keeping maintenance overhead low.
With this architecture, along with our internal AI-assisted build processes, we can typically build a new API integration in under an hour, or introduce a new data model across an entire integration category within a few hours.
But how do we decide what to build?
Below is how we approach prioritization and the systems that support it.
Two Pillars of Prioritization
Our roadmap decisions fall into two primary categories: strategic initiatives and customer-led development.
Strategic
Our goal is to become the default integration infrastructure for SaaS products.
We evaluate new verticals and use cases to determine where a unified API delivers the most value. Strategic work is then sequenced into the roadmap behind high-priority feature requests and critical defects.
Given our architecture, introducing a new vertical typically takes no more than a week of engineering effort.
Customer-Led
Most of our roadmap is driven by direct interaction with customers and prospects.
Since our earliest version, we've relied on customer input to guide what gets built next.
Our prioritization hierarchy:
- Critical blockers
Issues that prevent customers from using the product are addressed immediately. Our internal SLA is under one hour, and we track resolution times closely. - Defects and backfill
Non-blocking issues and gaps in existing functionality are prioritized based on severity and impact. - Feature requests from paying customers
These are prioritized based on customer timelines and urgency, with near-term deadlines taking precedence.
Volume also matters — features requested by multiple customers are prioritized higher.
We focus heavily on customer experience, ensuring our customers can deliver reliably to their own end users. - Enterprise customer requests
Customers on Enterprise plans receive additional prioritization as part of their service tier. - Prospect and internal requests
Requests from prospects and internal team members are evaluated last, but still inform long-term roadmap direction.
Tooling
Over time, we've used a range of product tools — including Asana, Jira, and GitHub Issues. At Unified, we've intentionally consolidated into a small set of tools that work well together.
Slack is our central communication layer for both internal collaboration and customer interaction. Customers are onboarded into private channels, which are connected to our support and roadmap systems.
Notion is our core product system. We use it to manage:
- CRM
- task tracking
- roadmap
- support tickets
All systems are connected within a single database.
Our Notion roadmap automatically calculates prioritization based on the framework above and syncs updates back to customer Slack channels, so customers can track progress on their requests and issues.
The pace of our output — visible in our changelog — reflects both our architecture and our prioritization system working together.
Customers can track their tickets in the Unified ticket portal and view the integration roadmap.