How to Create Effective Feedback Categories to Better Leverage Your Feedback

You collect feedback. Your users send you messages. But where does this feedback go? Into a shared inbox, unsorted, unstructured. Result: 67% of collected feedback is never used (source: Gartner).

The problem isn’t collection. It’s organization. Without effective feedback categories, you drown insights in noise. Critical bugs sit alongside minor suggestions. Urgent requests get lost among thank-you notes.

This tutorial shows you how to create a categorization system that transforms chaos into actionable decisions.

Why Categorizing Your Feedback Changes Everything

The Cost of Uncategorized Feedback

Imagine a product team that receives 200 pieces of feedback per month. Without categorization, each member spends an average of 3 hours per week searching for relevant information. That’s 12 hours wasted monthly per person.

Multiply by hourly cost. Add in undetected bugs, customers lost due to slow response. The real cost of disorder amounts to thousands of dollars.

Benefits of Structured Categorization

Good categorization allows you to:

• React faster: critical alerts emerge instantly
• Prioritize objectively: quantitative data guides decisions
• Assign accountability: each category has an identified owner
• Measure trends: you detect recurring patterns
• Save time: manual sorting disappears

Companies that effectively categorize their feedback reduce processing time by 40% on average.

The 6 Essential Feedback Categories

Before creating 50 categories, start with the essentials. Here are six categories that cover 95% of user feedback.

1. Bug Report

Technical malfunctions. Something doesn’t work as expected.

Recommended subcategories:

• Critical (production blocked)
• Major (degraded functionality)
• Minor (inconvenience without blocking)
• Cosmetic (display, typo)

Example feedback: “The payment button doesn’t respond on Safari.”

2. Feature Request

Requests for new features or improvements.

Recommended subcategories:

• New feature
• Existing improvement
• Third-party integration
• Customization

Example feedback: “I’d like to be able to export my data as CSV.”

3. Question / Support

Requests for help or clarification.

Recommended subcategories:

• Product usage
• Billing
• Technical
• User account

Example feedback: “How can I add a new member to my team?“

4. Positive Satisfaction

Positive feedback and testimonials.

Recommended subcategories:

• General testimonial
• Appreciated feature
• Support experience
• Spontaneous recommendation

Example feedback: “Your tool saved me 2 hours per week. Thank you!“

5. Complaint / Dissatisfaction

Negative feedback about the overall experience.

Recommended subcategories:

• Performance
• Pricing
• Complexity
• Missing feature
• Customer service

Example feedback: “The interface is too complex, I’m wasting time.”

6. Idea / Suggestion

Spontaneous improvement proposals.

Recommended subcategories:

• UX / Design
• Workflow
• Content
• Business model

Example feedback: “Having a customizable dashboard would be useful.”

How to Define Your Custom Feedback Categories

The six base categories work for most companies. But your context is unique. Here’s how to adapt the structure to your needs.

Step 1: Analyze Your Existing Feedback

Take your last 100 pieces of feedback. Classify them manually. Identify:

• Recurring themes
• Frequent phrasings
• Gaps in your current categories

This analysis reveals your real needs. You might discover that an “Onboarding” category is necessary if 30% of your feedback concerns getting started.

Step 2: Define Clear Criteria

Each category must have a precise definition. Avoid gray zones.

Bad example:

• “Problem” category (too vague)

Good example:

• “Technical bug” category: any malfunction preventing the user from completing an action intended by the product

Document these definitions. Share them with your team. Consistency depends on clarity.

Step 3: Limit the Number of Categories

More is not better. Beyond 10 main categories, complexity hurts efficiency. Users hesitate. Classification errors increase.

Golden rule: if a category receives less than 5% of feedback, merge or delete it.

Step 4: Plan for Evolution

Your categories must evolve with your product. Plan a quarterly review:

• Which categories are underused?
• What new themes are emerging?
• Are definitions still clear?

This maintenance ensures relevance over time.

Implementing Your Categories in Practice

Configure Your Collection Forms

Categorization starts at collection. Integrate your categories into your feedback forms.

Option 1: User Selection The user chooses the category themselves. Simple but risk of error.

Option 2: Qualifying Questions Questions guide to the right category without the user having to explicitly choose.

Example:

• “Does your message concern a technical problem?” (Yes -> Bug report)
• “Would you like to propose an improvement?” (Yes -> Feature request)

With Skedox, you create conditional forms that automatically route feedback to the right category. The user answers a few simple questions, sorting happens automatically.

Automate Classification When Possible

Some feedback can be classified automatically:

• Detected keywords (“bug”, “error”, “doesn’t work” -> Bug report)
• Feedback source (pricing page -> Pricing category)
• User type (new customer -> Onboarding category)

Automation reduces manual work and improves consistency.

Train Your Team

Even with clear definitions, edge cases exist. Train your team:

• Present each category with examples
• Process ambiguous cases together
• Create an accessible reference document
• Designate a point person for questions

A 30-minute training session is enough. Time invested is recovered in classification quality.

Leveraging Your Feedback Categories to Make Better Decisions

Create Dashboards by Category

Each category deserves its own indicators:

Bug reports:

• Volume by severity
• Average resolution time
• Recurring bugs

Feature requests:

• Top 10 requests
• Evolution over time
• Completion rate

Satisfaction:

• Positive/negative ratio
• Sentiment evolution
• Recurring themes

With Skedox, you visualize these metrics in a centralized dashboard. Filter by category, period, source. Export data for your reports.

Assign Owners by Category

Each category should have an owner:

Category	Owner	Expected Action
Bug report	Tech Lead	Resolution or escalation
Feature request	Product Manager	Evaluation and prioritization
Support	Customer Success	Response within 24h
Complaint	Customer Success	Follow-up call
Positive satisfaction	Marketing	Testimonial usage

This assignment eliminates “I thought you were handling it.”

Establish Analysis Rituals

Categorization has value only if you analyze the data.

Daily (5 min):

• Scan critical bugs
• Check urgent complaints

Weekly (30 min):

• Review trends by category
• Identify emerging patterns

Monthly (2h):

• Complete report with metrics
• Product decisions based on data
• Adjust categories if needed

Measure the Impact of Your Actions

When you fix a bug or deliver a feature, measure the result:

• Does the volume of negative feedback on this topic decrease?
• Are affected users satisfied?
• Does overall satisfaction improve?

These measurements validate your priorities and justify your investments.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Too Many Categories

15, 20, 30 categories? You paralyze your team. Classification becomes a chore. Errors multiply.

Keep fewer than 10 main categories. Use subcategories if needed.

Categories Too Vague

“Other,” “Miscellaneous,” “General” are trash categories. If more than 10% of your feedback ends up there, your definitions are insufficient.

Analyze the content of these categories. Create new specific categories or improve your definitions.

Ignoring the “Positive Satisfaction” Category

Positive feedback is often neglected. Yet it serves to:

• Identify what works well
• Feed your marketing (testimonials)
• Motivate your teams
• Balance perception (we remember negative more easily)

Create a dedicated category. Leverage this data.

Never Revising Categories

A static system becomes obsolete. Your product evolves. Your users change. Your categories must follow.

Plan a quarterly review. 30 minutes is enough to ensure relevance.

Concrete Example: Implementation at a B2B SaaS

Take the example of a SaaS company with 500 active users.

Initial situation:

• Feedback collected by email and single form
• No categorization
• Manual processing by founder
• Time spent: 5h per week
• Feedback utilization rate: 20%

Actions implemented:

1. Creation of 6 main categories
2. Form with qualifying questions
3. Dashboard with filters by category
4. Owner assigned per category
5. Weekly 30-minute ritual

Results after 3 months:

• Processing time: 2h per week (-60%)
• Utilization rate: 75%
• Critical bugs detected in less than 2h
• 3 features delivered based on most frequent requests
• NPS went from 32 to 41

The system refined over time. Two subcategories were added. One underused category was merged.

Conclusion: Effective Feedback Categories Are the Foundation of Successful Customer Listening

Creating effective feedback categories isn’t a bureaucratic exercise. It’s the foundation of an organization that truly listens to its users. Without structure, feedback remains noise. With the right categories, it becomes a strategic advantage.

Summary of steps:

1. Start with the 6 essential categories
2. Adapt to your context after analysis
3. Define clear, documented criteria
4. Integrate categories from collection
5. Assign owners
6. Analyze regularly and adjust

Ready to structure your feedback? Try Skedox for free and create your feedback categories in just a few clicks. Conditional forms, centralized dashboard, advanced filters. Everything you need to transform your user feedback into concrete decisions.