As Product Managers and Innovation Managers, you know that more often than not, the same ideas come up again and again. It's likely the obvious improvement which you are already working on, or the extension which you already know will not match your business goals. It's important to not waste time going through these obvious cases.
However, not all duplicates are just to be thrown away. They can also be enriching, especially when certain more new ideas are related to the same problem.
A potential duplicate can be enriching or redundant
There are several reasons to actively manage duplicates in your idea collection process:
- Detect actual duplicates — Identify truly redundant ideas that would waste resources if pursued separately; and, give fast feedback to the submitter that their idea is not a good fit in case this duplicate has been already considered.
- Gather comprehensive information — When similar issues arise, each instance might contain unique details or perspectives that enrich the overall understanding
- Identify merge opportunities — Discover similar ideas that could be combined into stronger, more comprehensive solutions
- Maintain manageable scope — Merge ideas that could be managed together to avoid clutter.
AI assistance with human control
Our AI is designed to be your intelligent assistant, not a replacement for human judgment. Here's how it works:
- AI proposes potential duplicates — Our system identifies similar ideas and suggests possible matches
- You decide the action — For each proposed duplicate, you have three options:
1. Merge as embedded child items — When ideas are truly related, you can nest one within the other to create a hierarchical structure that preserves all information while maintaining clear relationships.
2. Place nearby as independent items — For ideas that are similar but should remain separate (perhaps serving different audiences or having different priorities), you can position them close to each other for easy reference.
3. Remove redundant items — When one idea completely supersedes another or adds no new value, you can eliminate the redundancy to keep your backlog clean.
- Manual search — You always have the option of also manually searching for related items, and manually connecting any ideas that you consider should be managed together.
The ultimate goal: Comprehensive information, manageable scope
The ideal outcome is to collect all relevant information about an idea while keeping the number of items you need to manage at a reasonable level. Our tools are specifically designed to help you achieve this balance through:
- Super-fast AI assistance — Quickly identify potential duplicates without manual scanning
- Intuitive merge operations — Simple drag-and-drop and click actions to combine or relate ideas
- Preserved context — All original information is maintained, just reorganized for better clarity
- User-driven decisions — You maintain full control over what gets merged, what stays separate, and what gets removed
This approach ensures that stakeholders feel heard (their input is preserved), your backlog remains actionable (not overwhelmed by duplicates), and you can make informed decisions about which ideas to pursue based on comprehensive information rather than fragmented pieces.