General

Q: What is MileMarker?

A: MileMarker is your GPS for innovation - using collaboration and prioritization to map out your ideas and show you the road ahead. MileMarker helps organizations capture ideas and prioritize them, making it easier to decide what to work on next.

Q: How does MileMarker work?

A: MileMarker focuses on prioritization to create company and customer value. After collecting ideas and feedback from both customers and employees, you can rank ideas based on feasibility and value. MileMarker then helps with the hard part: we’ll create a Roadmap that explains which ideas you should work on next, save for later, or not use.

Q: Why use MileMarker?

A: Ideas are everywhere, but good ideas are hard to find. MileMarker’s first goal is to open communication between customer and company, allowing new ideas and feedback to be heard. Most importantly, MileMarker evaluates and prioritizes ideas so you can spend less time evaluating and more time turning your ideas into actions.

Q: Who built MileMarker?

A: MileMarker was built by a team of software developers in Minneapolis, MN who believe software should work with you, not against you. Want to learn more about the MileMarker team? Check out refactr.com!

Collaboration

Q: What does it mean to be an account owner?

A: As an account owner you are the group creator and are responsible for billing. An account owner, manages all aspects of the group. You have the ability to create, delete, archive, and unarchive groups and projects as well as manage all ideas. Depending on your plan, you can also invite people to your groups and projects for collaboration and activate MileMarker’s idea capturing tools.

Q: What does it mean to invite a person to administer a group?

A: This means the invited person can manage all of the projects and ideas within an account owner’s group. Based on the account owner’s MileMarker plan, the invitee can create, archive and unarchive projects as well as invite other people to the group and/or its projects. Administering a group also allows for activation of MileMarker’s idea capturing tools available in the group/account owner’s plan.

Q: What does it mean to invite someone to collaborate on a project in MileMarker?

A: When you invite someone to collaborate on a MileMarker project, that person will have access all of the ideas within the project he/she was invited to. This person can can then add, archive, delete, recycle, prioritize, and comment on ideas.

Idea Capture

Q: What are the MileMarker widgets?

A: MileMarker created several ways to help you capture ideas from your community. MileMarker’s idea capturing widgets let you collect ideas and feedback.

• IdeaFlag: With a few lines of code, this 'pop-up' widget helps you capture ideas and feedback from your community. When you use this widget a tab will show up on the side of your website that reads “Feedback.” Whether you want to receive feedback from customers or employees, your community can click on the Feedback tab to give you feedback or new ideas. Our IdeaFlag was created to work on any website and does not require custom design work.
• IdeaShare: Encourage a feedback community with a tool that lets people submit, view and comment on ideas in your project. With the IdeaShare widget, your community can view all of the submitted ideas so you can get more feedback and see which ideas your community likes most.

Q: Are MileMarker widgets similar to a suggestion box?

A: MileMarker opens communication between company and customer by providing companies with accurate market research data and a stronger connection to customers. Our IdeaFlag and IdeaCapture widgets act like a suggestion box by allowing for constant employee and customer feedback in minutes. MileMarker then takes this feedback and enters it into a comprehensive idea management system that helps not only organize ideas, but also recommend the ideas you should turn into action.

Q: How do I use widgets?

A: It's as simple as placing the code on your website. MileMarker gives you the code for the widgets that are available with your MileMarker plan so you can then place the widgets anywhere you want on your site. We give you the ability to capture ideas and let you decide where you want to capture ideas. If you need further assistance, send us an email at support@getmilemarker.com.

Q: How does MileMarker facilitate brainstorming?

A: Whether you are starting with too many ideas or just one, brainstorming is the first step in putting a task into motion. MileMarker is the second step. By using idea ranking and prioritization, MileMarker takes brainstorming to the next level. MileMarker also gives you the opportunity to collaborate on ideas - team members and customers can give idea feedback - giving different perspectives to help see ideas more completely. Through feedback and collaboration, MileMarker points you in the right direction to help turn ideas into action.

Prioritization

Q: How do I read a Roadmap?

A: In your Roadmap, you’ll see 4 idea categories: Do It, Consider It, Maybe Later, Don’t Do It.

• Do It:
  These ideas have high feasibility and high value. What does this mean? Start working on these ideas!
• Consider It:
  These ideas have either high feasibility or high value. So take a second look at these ideas.
• Maybe Later:
  These ideas have medium feasibility and/or medium value. Save these ideas if you are looking for something to do in the future!
• Don’t Do It:
  These ideas have low feasibility and/or low value. Take these ideas to the garbage and don’t use them.

Q: How do I rank an Idea based Feasibility and Value?

A: MileMarker makes it easy to rank ideas on a 5 bar scale. We’ve broken down prioritization into Feasibility and Value, so you can uncover the best ideas

• Feasibility: Rate both technical and operational feasibility.
  • Rate Technical Feasibility by asking, "How complex is the implementation of this idea?" If the idea is easy, go ahead and give it five bars and if it is too hard, give it one.
  • Rate Operational Feasibility by asking, "Do we have the resources to implement this idea?" If the idea has low feasibility, give it one bar and if it has high feasibility, give it five.
• Value: Rate value based on business and user value.
  • Guarantee that both you and your customer are getting what they want and need. It’s pretty straight forward! If the idea adds value, add more bars.

Accounts & Billing

Q: How do I change my MileMarker plan?

A: MileMarker allows you to downgrade or upgrade your account at any time. Once you have logged in to MileMarker, click on “Your Account” you can click on the “Plans and Billing” section. Here you can change to any of the MileMarker plans. If you are having difficulty downgrading, it could be because you have too many projects or people. If that’s the case, click on the “Groups, Projects, & People” section and change your settings to fit your ideal plan.

Q: How does billing work in MileMarker?

A: You are in charge! There are no contracts and you can sign up and cancel at any time. Monthly payments start when you sign up for your paid plan. MileMarker also lets you upgrade or downgrade at any time, so you can change your plan to fit your needs.

Q: What is Chargify?

A: We specialize in idea management, so we let Chargify help with their speciality-simplifying the billing process. When you sign up for a paid MileMarker account, Chargify helps with the billing process. Chargify and MileMarker make your privacy and security a top priority. We guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone. An added bonus when using Chargify: They’ll take care of everything for you. Don’t worry about having to remember to make a payment. Chargify will automatically charge you for your monthly plan and MileMarker will send you an email with your receipt. You can learn more at Chargify.com