Track progress with statuses

Use the default statuses or create your own, choose which ones become roadmap columns, and explain status changes to the people who follow a post.

Statuses show where each piece of feedback stands, from "Open" to "Complete". When you change a post's status, its subscribers are notified automatically, which is the easiest way to close the loop without writing individual emails. This article covers the default statuses, creating and editing your own, and which statuses show on your roadmap.

Default statuses

Quackback starts with six statuses in three categories.

Active

Posts that need attention or are being worked on:

Status	Meaning
Open	New feedback (the default for new posts)
Under Review	Being evaluated
Planned	Approved and scheduled
In Progress	Being worked on

Complete

Status	Meaning
Complete	Shipped to users

Closed

Status	Meaning
Closed	Won't be done

Tip: Completed and closed posts are ranked lower when Quackback suggests similar posts to people writing new feedback, so old resolved items don't crowd the suggestions.

Create a status

Add statuses such as "In Design", "In Beta", or "Blocked" when the defaults don't fit your workflow.

Go to Settings > Feedback & Roadmaps > Statuses.
Click New status.
Fill in:
- Name: the display name, for example "In Beta"
- Category: Active, Complete, or Closed
- Slug (for API): generated from the name, for example in_beta
- Color: the badge color
Click Create status.

Show statuses on the roadmap

Each status has a Roadmap toggle. Statuses with it on are used as the starting columns when you create a new status-columns roadmap. You can still change the columns of each roadmap afterwards. See Build a public roadmap.

Tip: Most teams show Planned, In Progress, and Complete.

Reorder, edit, and delete statuses

Changes on this page save automatically.

Reorder: drag a status by its grip handle. The order is used in status menus and roadmap columns.
Change the color: click the color dot.
Rename: open the row's menu and choose Edit.
Delete: open the row's menu and choose Delete, then confirm.

Warning: You can't delete the default status for new posts (shown with a lock icon), or the last status in a category.

Explain status changes

When you change a status, add a comment so users know why. Some starting points:

Moving to Planned:

"Great news! We've added this to our plans. Thanks for the suggestion, and we'll keep you posted."

Moving to In Progress:

"We're working on this now. Stay tuned!"

Moving to Complete:

"This is now live. Thanks for suggesting it, and let us know how it works for you."

Moving to Closed:

"After reviewing this, we've decided to go a different direction because (brief reason). We really appreciate you sharing the idea."

Moving back to Open:

"We're putting this back under review. Priorities shifted, but we haven't forgotten it."

Tip: In the post view you can change the status and comment in one step: pick the new status next to the comment button.

Example workflows

Simple

Open → Under Review → Planned → In Progress → Complete
            ↓
          Closed

Detailed (custom statuses)

Open → Under Review → Planned → In Design → In Development → In Beta → Complete
            ↓
          Closed

Best practices

Keep it simple. Start with the defaults and add statuses only when you feel limited. Too many statuses confuse users and make the roadmap harder to read.
Use clear names that describe the current state: "In Progress" rather than "Development", "Complete" rather than "Done".
Only show meaningful statuses on the roadmap. Users don't need internal review stages or closed items.

Notifications

When a post's status changes:

subscribed users get an email (when email is configured)
connected integrations such as Slack are notified, if you've set them up for status changes