First-Time Portal Setup

How to get there: After creating your account, the onboarding wizard guides you through setup automatically. You can also access these settings anytime via Settings in the sidebar.

A complete guide to setting up your ProductLift portal from scratch, helping you go from sign-up to a fully configured feedback management system ready for your customers.

What is Portal Setup?

When you first sign up for ProductLift, you'll go through an initial configuration process to customize your portal to match your product and workflow. This setup process helps you establish your portal's structure, branding, and basic settings so you can start collecting and managing customer feedback effectively.

This guide walks you through every step of setting up a new ProductLift portal, from completing the onboarding wizard to creating your first post and inviting team members. By the end of this setup, you'll have a fully functional portal ready to share with your customers.

Complete Setup Workflow

Step 1: Sign Up and Account Creation

Create your ProductLift account:

  • Visit ProductLift and sign up with your email
  • Verify your email address
  • Choose your initial account settings

[Screenshot: Sign-up form with email input, password fields, and account creation button]

Step 2: Complete the Onboarding Wizard

ProductLift's onboarding wizard guides you through essential configuration steps.

Product Description:

  • Enter your product name
  • Provide a brief description of what your product does
  • This information helps contextualize feedback and powers AI features

[Screenshot: Onboarding wizard - Product description step with product name and description fields]

Choose Portal Structure:

  • Select which board types you want to enable:
    • Feedback Board - Collect and organize customer ideas and feature requests
    • Roadmap - Show customers what you're planning and building
    • Changelog - Announce new features and updates
    • Knowledge Base - Provide help documentation and guides
  • You can enable or disable these later in settings

[Screenshot: Board type selection with checkboxes for Feedback Board, Roadmap, Changelog, and Knowledge Base]

Configure Statuses:

  • Set up workflow statuses for organizing posts (e.g., "Under Review", "Planned", "In Progress", "Completed")
  • Choose which board each status belongs to
  • Define status colors for visual organization
  • You can customize these statuses later

[Screenshot: Status configuration interface showing status names, colors, and board assignments]

Workspace Customization:

  • Name your workspace (typically your company or product name)
  • Set initial privacy settings (public or private portal)
  • Configure basic preferences

[Screenshot: Workspace settings with workspace name input and privacy toggle]

Step 3: Customize Your Branding

After completing the onboarding wizard, customize your portal's appearance to match your brand.

Access Branding Settings:

  • Navigate to Settings → Branding & Colors
  • Upload your logo and favicon
  • Choose your brand colors (primary, secondary, accent)
  • Customize the portal header and footer

[Screenshot: Branding settings page with logo upload, color pickers, and preview panel]

Set Portal Domain:

  • Choose your subdomain (e.g., yourcompany.productlift.com)
  • Or configure a custom domain for a professional appearance
  • See Custom Domain Setup for detailed instructions

[Screenshot: Domain configuration with subdomain input and custom domain option]

Step 4: Create Your First Feedback Board

Set Up Your Main Feedback Board:

  • Navigate to Settings → Boards
  • Click "Create Board" or edit the default feedback board
  • Configure board settings:
    • Board name (e.g., "Feature Requests", "Ideas", "Feedback")
    • Board type: Feedback Board
    • Visibility: Public, Members Only, or Group-Restricted
    • Icon and color for navigation

[Screenshot: Board creation form with name, type, visibility, and customization options]

Configure Board Permissions:

  • Set who can view the board (all visitors, logged-in users, specific groups)
  • Define who can create posts (anyone, verified users only, members only)
  • Enable or disable voting, comments, and attachments

[Screenshot: Board permissions settings showing visibility options and feature toggles]

Step 5: Configure Workflow Statuses

Refine Your Status Workflow:

  • Navigate to Settings → Statuses
  • Review the statuses created during onboarding
  • Add additional statuses if needed for your workflow
  • Set status-to-board relationships:
    • Feedback Board statuses: "New", "Under Review", "Planned"
    • Roadmap statuses: "Planned", "In Progress", "Testing"
    • Changelog statuses: "Released", "Completed"

[Screenshot: Status management interface with drag-to-reorder statuses, color coding, and board assignments]

Status Best Practices:

  • Keep statuses simple and clear (avoid too many)
  • Use consistent naming conventions
  • Map statuses to boards logically (e.g., "Released" → Changelog)
  • Define internal-only statuses for team coordination

Step 6: Create Your First Post Manually

Add an Initial Post:

  • Navigate to your feedback board
  • Click "Create Post" or "New Post"
  • Fill in post details:
    • Title: Clear, descriptive feature or idea name
    • Description: Detailed explanation with context
    • Category: Organize by feature area (create categories first if needed)
    • Tags: Add relevant tags for filtering
    • Status: Assign initial status
    • Priority: Optional prioritization

[Screenshot: Post creation form with title, rich text editor for description, category dropdown, tag input, and status selector]

Publish Your First Post:

  • Review the post preview
  • Click "Publish" or "Create Post"
  • Verify it appears on your feedback board

[Screenshot: Published post displayed on feedback board with vote button, status badge, and category label]

Step 7: Install Feedback Widgets on Your Website

Embed ProductLift on Your Site:

  • Navigate to Settings → Widgets
  • Choose widget type:
    • Floating Widget Button - Persistent feedback button on your site
    • Embedded Board - Full feedback board embedded in a page
    • Roadmap Widget - Display your roadmap publicly
  • Copy the widget code snippet
  • Add the code to your website's HTML

[Screenshot: Widget code generator with widget type selector, customization options, and code snippet to copy]

Widget Installation Example:

<!-- Add this code before the closing </body> tag -->
<script>
  window.ProductLiftConfig = {
    workspace: 'yourcompany',
    position: 'bottom-right',
    color: '#5469d4'
  };
</script>
<script src="https://app.productlift.com/widget.js" async></script>

See Install Widgets for detailed widget configuration options.

Step 8: Invite Your Team Members

Add Team Members:

  • Navigate to Settings → Users
  • Click "Invite Team Member"
  • Enter team member email addresses (one per line for bulk invites)
  • Assign roles:
    • Admin - Full access to all settings and features
    • Member - Can manage posts, moderate, and configure most settings
    • User - Limited access, primarily for viewing and commenting

[Screenshot: Team invitation form with email input, role selector (Admin/Member/User dropdown), and bulk invite option]

Team Member Permissions:

  • Admins can access all portal settings and sensitive data
  • Members can moderate content and manage posts but have limited settings access
  • Users are typically customers or external stakeholders with viewing/commenting access

See User Roles and Permissions for detailed permission levels.

Step 9: Set Up Email Notifications

Configure Email Settings:

  • Navigate to Settings → Email Notifications
  • Enable notifications for key events:
    • New feedback submissions
    • Status changes on posts
    • Comments on posts you're following
    • Changelog releases
  • Customize email templates with your branding
  • Set notification frequency (real-time, daily digest, weekly summary)

[Screenshot: Email notification settings with toggle switches for different notification types and template customization options]

Admin Notification Filters:

  • Set up filters to receive notifications only for specific categories, tags, or user segments
  • Avoid notification overload by filtering to high-priority items
  • See Admin Notification Filter for advanced filtering

Step 10: Make Your Portal Public or Private

Set Portal Visibility:

  • Navigate to Settings → General
  • Choose portal visibility:
    • Public - Anyone can view and submit feedback (recommended for most products)
    • Private - Only logged-in users can access (for internal tools or beta products)
    • Group-Restricted - Specific user groups can access (for tiered access)

[Screenshot: Portal visibility settings with public/private toggle and group restriction options]

Privacy Considerations:

  • Public portals increase transparency and customer engagement
  • Private portals work well for B2B products or internal tools
  • You can mix visibility: public Feedback Board + private Roadmap

Step 11: Test Your Portal

Verify Your Setup:

  • Visit your portal as a customer would (use incognito/private browsing)
  • Test submitting feedback through widgets and directly on the portal
  • Verify posts appear correctly with statuses, categories, and tags
  • Test voting and commenting functionality
  • Ensure branding and colors display correctly

[Screenshot: Portal homepage showing branded header, feedback board with sample posts, voting interface, and navigation boards]

Common Setup Issues:

  • Widget not appearing: Check that JavaScript is loading and domain is whitelisted
  • Emails not sending: Verify email settings and check spam folders
  • Posts not visible: Check board visibility settings and status-to-board mappings

After Setup: Next Steps

Once your portal is configured, you're ready to start collecting and managing feedback:

  1. Share your portal with early customers for initial feedback
  2. Set up integrations (Stripe, Slack, Jira) to sync customer data - see Integrations & API
  3. Configure AI moderation to automatically review incoming posts - see Setting Up AI Auto-Moderation
  4. Learn the complete feedback workflow - see Complete Feedback Workflow
  5. Build your first roadmap - see Building and Sharing a Roadmap

Tips and Best Practices

  • Start simple: Don't over-configure on day one. Add complexity as you learn your workflow.
  • Involve your team early: Invite team members during setup to get their input on categories, statuses, and workflow.
  • Seed your portal: Create 3-5 initial posts manually to show customers what types of feedback you're looking for.
  • Test thoroughly: Always view your portal as an end-user before sharing publicly.
  • Iterate on structure: Your board structure, statuses, and categories will evolve as you use ProductLift - that's normal.
  • Enable AI features: Set up your Product Vision to unlock AI prioritization and moderation - see AI Features Overview
  • Plan your categories: Think about how you'll organize feedback (by feature area, product line, or priority) before creating categories.

Troubleshooting Common Setup Issues

Portal Not Accessible After Setup

  • Check portal visibility settings (Settings → General)
  • Verify domain configuration if using custom domain
  • Clear browser cache and try in incognito mode

Team Invitations Not Sending

  • Verify email addresses are correct
  • Check your email service configuration (Settings → Email)
  • Ask team members to check spam folders
  • Ensure SMTP settings are configured if using custom email

Widgets Not Displaying on Website

  • Verify widget code is added before closing </body> tag
  • Check browser console for JavaScript errors
  • Ensure your website domain is whitelisted in widget settings
  • Test widget in isolation (standalone HTML page) to rule out conflicts

Status-to-Board Mapping Confusion

  • Each status can belong to multiple boards or no boards
  • Posts appear on boards based on their current status
  • Use Settings → Statuses to visualize status-to-board relationships
  • Common pattern: "Planned" status appears on both Feedback Board and Roadmap