The proof loop

The proof loop is the wedge ShipPulse is built around: when you ship a feature, every customer who voted for it gets a one-tap email asking for a one-line testimonial. The reply renders inline on your public roadmap, next to the feature card. Visitors trace any claim back to the customer who made it.

Why we built this

We surveyed fourteen feedback tools in May 2026. Every one of them stops at "shipped." Canny notifies voters when their request lands. Featurebase notifies voters. Productlane notifies voters. None of them capture the testimonial. None of them link the testimonial back to the feature card. The public roadmap stays a graveyard wall — a list of things that happened, with no proof anyone cared.

That is the gap. The feedback → ship → testimonial → public proof loop is a four-edge graph that no surveyed competitor closes. ShipPulse closes it automatically.

How it works

  1. Customer votes. A user upvotes a feature on your public roadmap, or submits one through the feedback widget. ShipPulse stores the voter's email against the feature.
  2. You ship it. Mark the feature shipped — manually from the dashboard, via the API, or by linking a Linear / GitHub issue that closed. The changelog entry auto-publishes.
  3. Auto-DM fires. Every voter receives an email: "We shipped the thing you asked for. One sentence — how is it working for you?" The link goes to a single-field testimonial form pre-filled with their context. No password, no signup, no friction.
  4. Public proof renders. Replies render inline on the public roadmap, attached to the feature card that produced them. Visitors see the request, see the ship, see the proof — in one scroll.

Turning it on

The proof loop is on by default for new projects. To verify or change:

  1. Go to Settings → Proof loop in your dashboard.
  2. Toggle Auto-DM voters on ship — leave on (the default) for the wedge to work.
  3. Configure the email template. The default copy is short and founder-direct; customize the sender name, subject, and signature.
  4. Set a delay: 24h is the default. Long enough that the customer has actually used the feature; short enough that the context is fresh.
  5. Optionally turn on moderation: testimonials draft to your inbox before going public. Off by default — the loop works better when it is fast.

What the customer sees

The email is from your sender address, not ours. Subject: "We shipped: <feature name>." Body: one sentence acknowledging their vote, a single-question form ("How is it working for you?"), and a one-click button. Reply rate in beta: 18 to 31 percent depending on email-template polish and feature impact. The 18 percent floor matches what testimonial-only tools (Senja, Testimonial.to) report — except we are not asking cold; we are asking the person who specifically requested the thing we shipped.

What renders publicly

By default, only the testimonial body and a generic-persona label render publicly (for example: "Indie SaaS founder, 2-person team"). You can opt to show the full name + company if the customer consents in the testimonial form. Display rules live under Settings → Public roadmap → Testimonial display.

Opting customers out

Customers can opt out of proof-loop emails via a one-click footer link in every email. Opted-out customers still receive product transactional emails (password reset, billing) — only the testimonial ask is suppressed.

What this is not

This is not a review-bombing tool, and we do not pay customers for testimonials. The proof loop only fires for customers who actively voted for a feature; we do not blast your whole list. If a customer never voted, they never get the ask.

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