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Introducing Instructure Collaborative Roadmaps and the new Product Connection page

Over the years, one message has come through clearly: as Instructure has grown, you want better visibility into where our products are going, earlier opportunities to shape what we build, and a simpler way to share your ideas and understand how it translates to what we’re building.

After partnering and iterating with users from 130+ institutions across 8 countries, we landed on a solution that we believe strikes the balance between connecting your inputs with the features being delivered. The result is our newly launched Instructure Collaborative Roadmaps. It connects the view into what's ahead across our products and the opportunity for you to play an active role in influencing our priorities and shaping our solutions.

Collaborative Roadmaps provide a clear view of upcoming work across Canvas, Mastery, Parchment, and Instructure’s platform. You’ll be able to see what we’re exploring and building, why it matters, how it’s expected to work in practice, and the stage of development it’s in.

We’ve already captured and included previously submitted ideas in the new roadmap, so there’s no need to resubmit them. We hope this new approach will make sharing ideas (and seeing how they influence what we build) even easier. Based on your feedback, we’ve also redesigned how we share updates about what we’re building and how you can help shape those plans.

You can find the roadmaps on the new Product Connection page in the Community. In this space, you’ll also be able to access the Product Blog, Known Issues, and other helpful updates and resources.

See what’s coming

Roadmap cards are organized by stage (aligned to our product development lifecycle) to make it easier to track progress and prepare your teams for what’s coming. The stages are now:

Released: Generally available in production
Coming Soon: Expected to be generally available in the next quarter
Active Development: Currently being built by Instructure’s research & development team
Under Consideration: Collecting input from customers on prioritization & needs

Shape what’s next

Our Collaborative Roadmaps come with several new, streamlined ways to engage with Instructure’s product development teams:

Voting: Rate opportunities as “must have,” “nice to have,” or “not interested.” Voting carries the most influence on cards in the “Under Consideration” stage. To ensure voting signals are meaningful, product teams can see voting trends by institution and user role (e.g., administrator, faculty), providing important context and helping surface broad needs across the community rather than volume from a single source.
Open contributions: Share use cases and provide open-ended feedback that goes directly to Instructure’s product managers. We’ll review your contributions regularly and surface feedback patterns.
Product testing opportunities: Discover ways to get involved with new features early by expressing interest in a testing opportunity or early adopter program directly from an item on the roadmap. We’ll clearly indicate the feature’s degree of readiness before you opt in, so you know what you’re signing up for.

Connect with peers and Instructure’s product team

To get your ideas in front of our teams, simply submit a contribution through the roadmap portal. If you’d like to engage with peers at other institutions and discuss ideas and solutions together, please visit the forum for the Product you wish to brainstorm on and post your conversation starter there.

We also know that visibility into why we landed on our set priorities matters. Each quarter, we’ll publish Roadmap Recap blog posts outlining our current focus areas, summarizing the key feedback themes we’re hearing, and highlighting where we’re seeking deeper input. These updates will share how community feedback is shaping our direction and provide a clear view into the areas we’re prioritizing for upcoming quarters.

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As your partner, we’re here to support the critical work your organization does for learners and communities. That’s why it’s so important that our products are shaped by the institutions and educators who use them every day.

As Instructure continues to grow and scale, Collaborative Roadmaps help strengthen that partnership by creating a consistent place for you to engage with us, share feedback, and help improve the products you rely on.

Thank you for being on this journey with us, and I hope you’ll dive in today:

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Comments

Mikee

Most delighted to see this - thank you for some visibilty into the process again @shirenv :)

Jeff_F

Will updates be aligned to the same dates once IgniteAI tools go 'live'? Please. 😍

Deepa Prasad

Hi Jeff! We will definitely be updating the roadmap regularly, so as features move through the product development lifecycle, the status will change over time (e.g., from "Active Development" to "Coming Soon" to "Released"). This includes all IgniteAI features. Let me know if you still have questions!

kmclenna

I have a new feature request — for more hierarchy in discussions (= forums, [multiple] topics, and threads — see below). Further, DiannaDK suggested I post my request via the Instructure Collaborative Roadmap BUT the Roadmap appears to be closed to new feature requests (?).

Need for More Hierarchy in Discussions

Presently, Canvas discussion forums primarily support "focused discussions" (instead of facilitating discussions that include multiple topic prompts — known as "threaded discussions"). Further, when faculty use multiple topics on a discussion forum, these topics cannot be saved (and copied over) via a Blueprint course.

Based on the above, the facilitation of more hierarchy in discussions (= forums, topics, and threads) in Canvas is sorely needed. Note: See the attached picture to see a "work around" that cannot be included in a blueprint course.

Any thoughts from colleagues (re: the need for more hierarchy on a Canvas discussion page)?

Thank you in advance.

sample-discussion-forum-with-multiple-topics.jpg

Renee Carney

Hello @kmclenna
So exciting to see you checking out the new roadmap. In the top right of the roadmap you will see the "share a contribution" button. You'll want to click that and share your request in this way.

leward

@shirenv

As a long-time customer, active Community member, and Co-Labs EAP participant, I want to respectfully share some concerns regarding the new 'Collaborative' Roadmap.

While the new interface is polished, the decision to make user contributions private—visible only to Instructure staff—feels like a significant step away from the transparency that was the hallmark of Instructure when we adopted Canvas in 2014. By making ideas private until the 'Under Consideration' stage, Instructure loses the immense value of peer collaboration. In the previous 'Ideas' model, the community could refine, troubleshoot, and add institutional context to a concept before it reached your product teams.

In my experience with recent EAPs, customer engagement often happens too late in the cycle. This frequently results in features that institutions are hesitant to enable because they don't quite hit the mark or fail to account for complex, real-world workflows.

Transparency isn't just about sharing a roadmap; it’s about being listening to your customers individually and collectively and demonstrating the connection between our needs and your development plans. I worry that moving toward a 'black box' submission process will only increase the gap between feature design and institutional needs. I’d love to see a return to a model where we can support and elaborate on each other's ideas from the start.

Ruth McFarland

@leward Thank you for sharing your perspective and for participating in the early adopter program. Our customer base has grown a lot over the years, and it's no longer scalable to maintain an Ideas process like we've had in the past. Instead, we're reviewing submissions internally and publishing trends on a quarterly basis, as you'll see in the first roadmap recap posts. This way, you can see aggregate feedback from institutions of all shapes and sizes and keep up with areas that need your input next.

Our community remains an open forum to start discussions with your peers, so I encourage you to continue posting questions and engaging. Thank you again for your engagement here.

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