Sara Hampf

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Product Marketing

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Sara-Adolfsson-Hampf

Marketing

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This is what happens when an idea is added to our portal

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Love all things proptech? Get ahead on building automation with Kiona. On our blog, you will find content on automation suitable for newcomers and tech-savvy partners. Find blog posts, use cases and videos on everything from systems automation, machine learning and AI to Smart functions, Rest API, drivers and IoT for use in technical installations.

Building Automation

Jon Åkerström has more than two decades of experience in product and system development. Together with our products and innovation team, he works closely with everything in the realm of property technology.



Because <a href="https://kiona.com/products/">our product platform</a> is fundamentally open and customizable, flexible and independent solutions are encouraged – and prioritized. The whole mantra is that open, flexible, and independent solutions = more opportunities for customers and partners.





But to bring innovation and creativity to our partners, the whole product platform must be thoroughly thought out while keeping an eye on the price.



<h2 id="h-creating-the-product-platform">Creating the product platform</h2>



The products and innovation team works with a development process considering current strategic goals, technical state, suggested innovations, and customers' and <a href="https://kiona.com/our-partners/">partners'</a> upcoming needs.



In addition, the team stays updated with technology, trends, and <a href="https://www.ericsson.com/en/news/2022/9/iot-meets-the-property-sector-to-combat-rising-energy-costs-and-climate-change-while-increasing-property-value-ericsson-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proptech technologies</a>. This means that the development of ideas and concepts is a continuous process.



– We have several support systems to help us prioritize, such as our idea portal, feedback channels, relevant community forums, and interviews with customers and partners. This helps us identify customers' problems, needs, and the tasks they are trying to perform within our markets and segments. And that is, by the end of the day, the most crucial part of our product development, Åkerström explains.



<h2 id="h-open-solutions-programmable-or-ready-made">Open solutions: programmable or ready-made</h2>



We often like to translate open with accessible. That means you should get any data in any format you want when you want it.



– We have integrations to virtually any equipment and offer open APIs for all our products. We support over 25 communication protocols, over 4000 different PLCs – each with freely programmable variations – and a vast number of IOT APIs and wireless standards, Åkerström continues.



That means you can use our ready-made smart functions and analytics tool or choose to go with a third-party solution. Full freedom and less risk.





<h2 id="h-driving-innovation-forward">Driving innovation forward</h2>



A major part of the everyday work is to ensure that our "roadmap" reflects our shared sustainability goals.



Åkerström highlights the importance of developing tools that create opportunities for partners and customers. Opportunities to be creative, adapt, and expand so that they are allowed to be innovative in their business. This creates actual incitement that drives development forward.



With an open platform, building owners, contractors, refrigeration experts, service technicians, and facility and operations managers can all access and configure each feature and tailor their product suite to fit their needs. The same goes for energy advisors, employees, tenants, and developers.



What benefits does that give our partners and customers going forward?&nbsp;



– In the short term, customers will see that the current platform development will improve how the products work together, providing more effective operations as a direct effect. Speaking more long term, we have a very ambitious goal: to build Europe's leading Proptech platform. But we do not think we can do that alone.&nbsp;



– We will do it together with our partners and customers, Åkerström concludes.

Your gateway to freedom and flexibility

Proof of concept

The Idea Portal goes live

The workflow behind every submitted idea

Many partners and customers throughout Europe work with our solutions daily. As a user of any system or solution, it is common to miss that one feature that would improve the service. Given that, we thought there must be plenty of good ideas for improving <a href="https://kiona.com/kiona-platform/">our platform</a> within our customer group. In addition to our own developed ideas for improvement, we were convinced that ideas from our users would also strengthen our solutions.&nbsp;





<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-idea-portal-goes-live-nbsp">The Idea Portal goes live&nbsp;</h2>



With that in mind, "<a href="http://kiona.ideas.aha.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Idea Portal</a>" was introduced in 2023. We created the portal to be easy to use and open for all users with a Kiona ID. Once signed in, you can submit new ideas for a selected product. Our workflow makes it easy to follow the status of your idea. And, you can comment or vote on ideas – whether it is your own or someone else's. No matter how big or small the idea, we promise that it will be treated with respect and that all ideas will be valued based on facts and data according to our well-defined product development process.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-workflow-behind-every-submitted-idea-nbsp-nbsp">The workflow behind every submitted idea&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>



It is crucial to have an efficient workflow to make this function work. We created a thorough workflow to make it easier for us to work with and for our users to follow their ideas through the different stages of the workflow.&nbsp;&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://kiona.com/app/uploads/2025/02/IDEASINT-N-37-Idea-process-simplified.png" alt="Idea Portal process" class="wp-image-60954"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Kiona Idea Portal process</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-this-is-what-happens-when-an-idea-is-added-to-our-portal-nbsp">This is what happens when an idea is added to our portal&nbsp;</h2>



We go through our idea portal weekly. When reviewing ideas, we give them an initial score and ensure they contain enough information to understand and grasp what they are about. Our goal is to leave the initial stage Needs review as soon as possible, and our target is within two weeks.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Every week, we choose the three top ideas with the status of Future consideration per segment; Building management, Energy management, and Retail and refrigeration—and decide to investigate them further.&nbsp;&nbsp;



These ideas get the status Gathering insights where our product managers investigate them in more detail and determine if they should be developed.&nbsp;&nbsp;



If the idea can be achieved with existing functionality, it is set to Already exists. We have a set strategy for our platform, and if an idea is not a good fit for our strategy, it will be set to Will not implement. 



All ideas that could be developed get the status Likely to implement. Once every month, our roadmap team reviews this list and selects the highest-ranked ideas to be developed. After this stage, we decide to if they should be placed on our roadmap and set it to Planning to implement, but no work has begun yet.



When an idea has passed the above stages, it will be set to Under development, and last but not least, it will be set to Released and will soon be available on the platform. 



<figure class="wp-block-image size-full"><img src="https://kiona.com/app/uploads/2025/03/Idea-portal-image-new-e1742887822724.png" alt="" class="wp-image-61414"/><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Overview of the Idea Portal</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-proof-of-concept-nbsp-nbsp">Proof of concept&nbsp;&nbsp;</h2>



Since the launch of our idea portal in 2023, we have received more than 120 ideas for improvement from our partners and customers. Eight ideas were sent to production, and over 300 idea votes were added.&nbsp;&nbsp;



So, there is no reason to wait if you have an idea to improve your work and our products – keep the great ideas coming.&nbsp;

Working together for better solutions – we bring our partners' ideas to life with our Idea Portal 