The proof loop

On this page

The proof loop is the wedge Proofback is built around: when you ship a feature, every customer who opted in while voting for it gets a one-tap email asking for a one-line testimonial. Approved replies render on your public roadmap, next to the feature card. Visitors trace any claim back to the customer who made it.

Why we built this

Every feedback tool we surveyed (last re-verified July 2026) stops at "shipped." Canny notifies voters when their request lands. Featurebase notifies voters. Productlane notifies voters. None of them capture the testimonial, and none of them link a 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. Proofback closes it automatically.

How it works

  1. Customer votes and opts in. A user upvotes a feature on your public

roadmap or submits one through the feedback widget, and ticks the consent checkbox ("you may contact me when this is shipped") with their email. Proofback stores that opt-in against the feature. No consent, no email — ever.

  1. You ship it. Mark the roadmap item shipped and publish the linked

changelog entry from the dashboard.

  1. Invitations go out. Publishing enqueues one invitation per opted-in

voter on that item (deduplicated — nobody is ever asked twice for the same feature). The send worker runs every few minutes, so invitations land shortly after you publish. Proof-loop emails are a paid-plan feature.

  1. The customer replies. The email links to a single-field testimonial form

— no password, no signup. One sentence and a submit button.

  1. You approve, it renders. Every reply lands in your Testimonials inbox

as pending. Nothing goes public until you approve it. Approved replies render on the public roadmap attached to the feature card, on your Wall of Love, and in the testimonial widgets.

Moderation is always on

There is no "auto-publish" mode: every testimonial arrives as pending and waits for your approval in Testimonials in the dashboard. The Testimonials → Proof loop page also shows failed invitations and lets you send them again with one click.

What the customer sees

The email is sent from Proofback's verified sending address, carrying your project's name — so it lands reliably without any DNS work on your side. You can set the reply-to address, brand color, logo and the invitation template per project under Settings → Email. On the Team plan and above you can verify a custom sending domain and send from your own address.

What renders publicly

Approved testimonials render with the name and title the customer submitted in the form (collected with their consent to public display). Each proof-loop testimonial carries the provenance pill — "Asked for <feature>" — linking back to the feature it came from.

Opting customers out

Every proof-loop email has a one-click unsubscribe link. Opted-out addresses are suppressed from all future asks.

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 opted in on a feature; we do not blast your whole list. If a customer never voted, they never get the ask.

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