Can Contributors edit their own Ideas (description/title for example)?
Asked by Ori Cohen:

Hi,

Is there a plan to allow Contributors to edit some details of ++their own++ Ideas (description for example) after it was created?

Many of the Contributors in my organization asked for this option when they need to fix typos, add/change the wording or simply clarify their idea description.

Thanks,  
Ori


Answers:
author: Bob Ho
body: The same worry with Erki Tammik.

I was wondering to have such a feature when I am first to JPD. But after some time of using it. I think it is not that necessary to let Contributors change their own.

If they have typos or have new things to share related to the idea, the ***Comments*** and ***Insights*** would be the ideal way.

If only a typo needs to be corrected, the PM team can do it for them because the PM team will also refine the Summary sometimes.

The main worry here is that when an idea is created, the ownership is shipping from Contributor to Creator. The Product team will spend time and energy analyzing, communicating, and designing. Let's imagine, sooner or later, the Contributor modified the idea! What if he or she changed the whole thing? It is out of control and will affect all other teams.

I like the **Allow Contributors to Edit Own** too. But it has to be designed with care.

Just my two cents.

comments: author: Ori Cohen
body: I completely agree with your last sentence, although there are workarounds for this, it could be nice if they could edit their own but it needs to be designed correctly.


author: Ricardo_Dinis
body: We could let the contributors edit is own ideas in To Do status in the workflow where we are still analyzing or discussing the idea, after go to status in progress or done they are not able to edit as a possible solution.


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Hi,

This is not possible today. Only creators can edit ideas.

comments: author: Ori Cohen
body: Is it in the roadmap to allow such updates?


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Not at this point but we'll look at this when we next review this feature.


author: Ori Cohen
body: thanks.


author: David Nadri
body: [@Ori Cohen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4905132) [@Tanguy Crusson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502312) - if I may just share some thoughts:

**From Atlassian's POV**: Allowing Contributors to edit ideas on top of already being able to create (submit) ideas will remove the main differentiator between the Creator \& Contributor roles, and thus, will remove one of the ways Atlassian in monetizing JPD.

**From JPD users' POV**: As a Contributor, I sometimes need to be able to edit my own idea (description and fields), so that I can correct my typos or clarify something I initially said that is incorrect when I submitted the idea.

So, if I could suggest a compromise for consideration when Tanguy \& the JPD team review improvements to this feature:

**Contributors can only edit ++*their own*++ ideas, not ideas created by other users**. For other users' ideas, Contributors can add comments or insights to suggest edits/clarifications to the creator of the idea.

Thoughts?


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Thanks David. Don't worry, we heard you loud and clear ?

We'll need to sit down and review that one when we can catch a breath. For now we're racing on a bunch of other stuff (e.g. the stakeholder experience)


author: Ori Cohen
body: This is what I asked in the initial question (it is in the title :)).

The meaning is that Contributors will be able to Edit ONLY their ideas and ONLY fields they filled when they created the idea.

but thanks for the clarification.


author: David Nadri
body: [@Tanguy Crusson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502312) - of course! Just a comment (insight :) ) whenever that time comes. No rush. Apologies if it sounded like I was pestering you with yet another request. Trust me, I know you guys are hard at work and we appreciate all of it!

[@Ori Cohen](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4905132) - yes :) I am agreeing with you. Apologies if it sounded otherwise. I wanted to describe your point of view (as is mine) and Atlassian's side-by-side to help the argument for this feature.


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: And just to be clear: it's not only a question of licensing. There's a bit of that, but there's also quite a lot of ramifications in the UX that aren't trivial, since you're able to edit ideas in a bunch of different places in Jira Product Discovery, and now we'd need to find ways to make it clear if you can only edit your own. That's why we treated it as a form for now: you can submit the idea, and that's it (you can still comment after the fact, watch it, add insights, etc.).

It's also not a widely used feature (although you'd get a different impression by reading posts in this community group!), and that also plays a part in how we prioritize enhancements. We're reviewing things like this frequently.


author: Alex Tsai
body: Tanguy, Atlassian needs reconsider because this is one deal breaker for us moving and using Product Discovery. Contributors should at a minimum be able to edit their own ideas. Unfortunately, I will need to look at another tool


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Thanks for the feedback [@Alex Tsai](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5289185) , I completely understand. We're not able to prioritize this right now, but you can watch the community for updates (if and when we do, we'll make an announcement here).


author: Jeremy Wallace
body: Hey [@Tanguy Crusson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502312) , I apologize if this is the wrong place to post this, this is my first post here. I just wanted to add in a comment that we have a large number of Contributors and while I understand all the comments and reasoning below about Contributors not editing their own ideas, I just wanted to add my own comment that this will be a necessary feature.  

Maybe a solution to some comments below where we don't want the Idea being edited and dramatically changed when PMs are reviewing it would be to lock the Idea once it gets moved up to the "Ready for PM Review" field or if the "Status" changes to a specific status it gets locked.

Thanks!


author: James Gentes
body: Adding my $.02 - our developers are starting to use comments to finish their ideas because they accidentally submit them before they are ready. They can't delete them, and they can't edit the description, so they are left with comments as the only option.

I think the creator should be able to edit, and probably delete the idea up until the point that the state changes or some amount of time has elapsed.


author: Erki Tammik
body: Glad to see that other people are requesting the same functionality. It would be nice if something on the form could be modified by a contributor, but we have to keep in mind that the ticket may have already been prioritized and planned on the roadmap by someone in creator role.  
Some changes may affect the roadmap depending on what is modified by the contributor.

comments: author: Omer Meshar
body: May I suggest to use something like a PR here (pull request, as used by developers) - where a contributor will be able to "request" a change in any of the fields of the form, and this request will be either approved or rejected by the idea's assignee?

Maybe this is a bit of a complicated solution, but it takes care of the need to merge the contributor's changes with the creator's changes (and maybe even have automatic merge, or AI merge it...)

Just an idea...


author: YY Brother
body: Maybe we can consider leting the constibutors edit the summary and descrption fields of their own submitted ideas, but not for all the fields like Roadmap, Assignee, which are not reasonable.


author: Louise Baker
body: [@Tanguy Crusson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502312)any reconsideration of this?  
A C-suite submitted an IDEA for the first time (yay!) and then was super irritated that he couldn't edit the idea, and wants to end our subscription now (annoyed he's paying extra for a project that's so restrictive)  
There seems to be continued chatter on this topic, so curious if your team has reconsidered?

comments: author: Tanguy Crusson
body: [@Louise Baker](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4751632) not at this stage - you'd need to give the C-suite person a license to edit ideas.

(Creating ideas like that works like submitting a form)