EXEED’s User Co-Creation Wins in 2026

When EXEED built a fiercely loyal user base, they proved that mobile app co-creation actually works. It’s about bringing users into the development process so you build features they’ll actually adopt and champion. You stop guessing what they want and start building it with them. But how do you get that same level of buy-in for your own app?

1. Establish a Dedicated Co-Creation Platform

Stop trying to scrape feature ideas from app store reviews and generic “contact us” forms, it’s a chaotic mess that scatters good input. You need one structured place to collect, organize, and act on user suggestions. I always recommend dedicated tools for this, like UserVoice or Canny.io, because they’re built for idea submission, voting, and discussion.

For example, if you’re setting up Canny.io, you’d go to “Settings,” then “Boards,” and create one for “Feature Requests” and another for “Bug Reports.” It’s critical to configure the submission forms to demand a clear title and detailed description, and give users the option to attach screenshots. The most important part, though, is enabling the “Public Voting” option. This community-driven voting mechanism is what separates a real co-creation process from just a glorified suggestion box, as it gives you a ranked list of what the community actually wants.

Pro Tip: These platforms aren’t self-managing. You have to be in there every day merging duplicate ideas, asking clarifying questions on vague posts, and updating statuses. I’ve seen too many of these forums turn into ghost towns because users felt like they were shouting into a black hole with zero response from the company.

Common Mistakes: The biggest mistake I see is failing to create a workflow that pushes popular ideas from the co-creation platform into your team’s actual work queue. A Canny.io suggestion with 500 upvotes is completely useless if it never becomes a ticket in Jira or Asana, making the whole effort a waste of everyone’s time.

2. Recruit and Nurture a Core Group of Engaged Users

You have to pick the right users for co-creation. You’re looking for the ones who are willing to do more than just complain, they’ll write detailed bug reports and give thoughtful feedback. EXEED did this well by identifying their power users first. Dive into your app’s usage data and find the people who log in often, use a wide range of features, or have already sent you genuinely constructive feedback. A good plan is to start small with an alpha group of maybe 20-30 super-users before opening up a larger beta program of 50-100 people.

To get them on board, send a targeted in-app message or email that frames it as an exclusive invitation to help build the app’s future. Be upfront about what you expect, whether it’s regular feedback, bug hunting, or joining workshops. Instead of money, offer things they’ll actually value: early access to builds, a direct line to the product team, or a badge in their profile. A private Slack or Discord channel for this group is a fantastic way to build community and give them that direct access.

This kind of deep user involvement is especially useful in complex fields. For instance, in mobile digital twin projects, getting feedback from operators in the field ensures the features you build are grounded in reality, not just engineering assumptions.

3. Implement Transparent Communication and Roadmapping

People won’t waste their time giving you ideas if they never hear back. Seeing their suggestion move from “idea” to “shipped” is the single biggest motivator. When people see that you’re listening, they trust you. Get a public roadmap up using something like ProductPlan or even a public Trello board. It lets users see the entire lifecycle of a feature, from “Under Consideration,” through “In Development,” and finally to “Launched.”

In a tool like ProductPlan, you can set up columns for each development stage (“Discovery,” “Building,” “Testing,” etc.). Every feature card needs to explain the problem it’s solving and, if possible, link back to the original thread on your Canny.io board. These cards must be updated weekly with comments on progress or blockers. This steady stream of updates keeps users engaged because their ideas don’t just disappear. I often tell clients to make roadmap updates the specific responsibility of one product manager. The user loyalty it generates makes the time investment more than worth it.

Pro Tip: Go beyond the roadmap. Write product update emails or in-app posts that specifically call out features that came from user ideas. If you get their permission, giving a shout-out to the specific user who first suggested a big new feature is a huge motivation boost for the whole community.

Common Mistakes: Don’t put a feature on the public roadmap until you’re serious about it. If something is marked “Coming Soon” for six months straight, you’ll destroy all the trust you’ve built. Users will start ignoring your updates entirely. It’s far better to be honest and say “we’re still assessing the complexity” than to let a feature sit there in limbo forever.

This kind of proactive communication is also critical in areas like mobile dev security, where being transparent about what you’re fixing and why helps manage user expectations and address security concerns head-on.

4. Host Regular Feedback Sessions and Workshops

A Canny.io board is good for collecting ideas, but getting your most engaged users on a live call is where the real magic happens. You need to supplement your asynchronous platforms with synchronous interaction. Set up virtual workshops, Q&As, or live feedback sessions with your core user group on a monthly or quarterly basis using Zoom or Google Meet.

In these workshops, you can do things that are impossible over text. Share a Figma mockup of a new feature and get immediate reactions. Run a live usability test on a new workflow. Or just open the floor to brainstorm solutions for a pain point everyone is experiencing. If you’re building a new reporting feature, for example, you could share the wireframes and have users talk you through how they’d use it, giving you instant feedback on everything from the labels to the layout. Always record these sessions (with permission!) to capture the details. This is what gives you the rich, nuanced feedback you can’t get from a text box, and it lets users see the real people building the app, which strengthens their connection to your team.

5. Measure Impact and Iterate

The whole point of co-creation is to build a better product that people use more, so you have to measure if it’s working. After you launch a feature that came from a user suggestion, you have to track its performance with hard data. Get into your analytics tools like Amplitude or Mixpanel and monitor its adoption rate, how often it’s being used, and whether it’s improving satisfaction. You should be A/B testing the co-created feature against an alternative to get quantitative proof of its value. For example, if users designed a new onboarding flow, test it against the old one and see which one has better completion rates.

You also need qualitative data. Use tools like Hotjar to pop up in-app surveys asking what people think of the new feature, or run follow-up interviews with the users who originally suggested it. This data-driven process is how you prove the business value of your co-creation program and justify putting more resources into it. It also shows your users that their ideas are so important they’re being measured for success, which encourages even more high-quality participation.

Following the EXEED model of user co-creation gives you a clear method for building products that actually fit your audience’s needs. By using dedicated platforms, growing a community of engaged users, communicating transparently, running live workshops, and measuring everything, you turn passive consumers into genuine partners.

This kind of rigorous measurement becomes even more important when you consider that a failed, unused feature doesn’t just waste developer time, it can also rack up huge costs, especially with the projected $10 billion in mobile data egress fees hitting app budgets by 2026.