Definition
A Salesforce object (part of the Ideas feature) that represents a suggestion posted by a user in an Ideas community or zone, which other users can vote on and comment on to help organizations crowdsource innovation.
Real-World Example
Consider a scenario where an architect at Skyline Consulting is working with Idea to extend their Salesforce implementation to meet growing business demands. Idea provides the additional capability they need without requiring a separate third-party system, keeping everything within the trusted Salesforce ecosystem and reducing integration complexity.
Why Idea Matters
An Idea in Salesforce is an object that represents a user-submitted suggestion in an Ideas community or zone. Users post ideas, other users vote up or down on them, and comments capture discussion. Ideas surface the most popular suggestions through the voting mechanism, helping organizations identify what their community cares about most. The Ideas feature has been used historically for crowdsourcing product feedback from customers.
Ideas as a standalone Salesforce feature is largely legacy now. Salesforce's own community ideation has moved to the Trailblazer Community Ideas (formerly IdeaExchange). For internal innovation programs and customer feedback gathering, modern alternatives include Experience Cloud with custom innovation pages, third-party innovation platforms, and dedicated voice-of-customer tools. The Ideas object still exists in Salesforce orgs but isn't actively developed and isn't typically the right choice for new ideation programs.
How Organizations Use Idea
- •Skyline Consulting — Helps clients evaluate whether legacy Ideas implementations should migrate to modern alternatives like custom Experience Cloud pages.
- •NovaScale — Treats the Ideas feature as legacy and recommends modern third-party innovation platforms for new feedback programs.
- •TerraForm Tech — Maintained their old Ideas community for years before migrating to a dedicated voice-of-customer platform that better fit their needs.