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Using Tags

Tags help you organize feedback and spot patterns. This guide covers tagging strategy and best practices.

What Are Tags?​

Tags are labels you add to cards to categorize them. Unlike status (which tracks workflow stage), tags track themes and attributes.

Examples:

  • Feature area: billing, dashboard, reports
  • User segment: enterprise, smb
  • Type: bug, feature, improvement
  • Source: customer, internal, sales

Why Use Tags?​

Spot patterns: See that 15 cards are tagged "mobile" - mobile is clearly important.

Filter quickly: View only "enterprise" requests when preparing for a board meeting.

Measure themes: Track what percentage of requests are about "performance" vs. "new features."

Route work: Filter by "backend" to see what engineering needs to prioritize.

Creating Tags​

Two ways to create tags:

Method 1: Create While Adding to Card​

  1. Open any card
  2. Click "Add Tag"
  3. Type a new tag name
  4. Press Enter

The tag is created and applied to the card.

Method 2: Create in Settings​

  1. Go to Settings → Tags
  2. Click "New Tag"
  3. Enter tag name
  4. (Optional) Choose a color
  5. Save

Tags created in settings can be applied to any card later.

Tag Naming Conventions​

Keep it simple:

  • Use lowercase: billing not Billing
  • Use hyphens for multi-word: mobile-app not mobile app or mobileapp
  • Be consistent: Pick bug or issue, not both

Make it scannable:

  • Short tags are better: perf over performance-optimization
  • Obvious meaning: auth not a or authentication-and-authorization-features

Avoid redundancy:

  • Don't tag feature-request on every card - that's what Distil is for
  • Don't tag needs-review - use status for workflow

1. Feature Area (Where)​

Tags that describe which part of your product:

  • dashboard
  • billing
  • reports
  • integrations
  • mobile-app
  • api

Use when: You want to filter by product area or route to specific teams.

2. User Segment (Who)​

Tags that describe who's asking:

  • enterprise
  • smb
  • free-tier
  • beta-users
  • internal

Use when: You need to prioritize by customer segment or prepare for specific audience conversations.

3. Theme (What)​

Tags that describe the type of need:

  • performance
  • security
  • accessibility
  • ux
  • analytics

Use when: You want to track broad themes across features.

4. Source (How You Heard It)​

Tags that describe where feedback came from:

  • customer-call
  • support-ticket
  • sales
  • survey
  • internal

Use when: You want to see which channels generate the most valuable feedback.

5. Priority/Urgency (When)​

Use sparingly - status usually handles this:

  • blocker (only for deal-blockers)
  • quick-win (easy, high-impact)

Caution: Don't tag everything as urgent. Reserve these tags for true outliers.

Tag Strategies​

Use 10-15 tags maximum:

  • 5-7 feature area tags
  • 2-3 user segment tags
  • 2-3 theme tags

Pros: Simple, easy to maintain, forces clarity Cons: Less granular data

Best for: Solo PMs, small teams (<5 people)

Comprehensive Strategy​

Use 30-50 tags:

  • Detailed feature area tags (10-15)
  • User segment tags (3-5)
  • Theme tags (5-8)
  • Source tags (3-5)
  • Priority tags (2-3)

Pros: Rich data for analysis, detailed filtering Cons: Tagging overhead, more to maintain

Best for: Larger product teams (5-15 people), data-driven orgs

Hybrid Strategy​

Start minimal, expand as needed:

  1. Begin with 10 core tags
  2. Add new tags when you spot a pattern (e.g., 5+ cards about same topic)
  3. Archive tags that aren't used after 3 months

Pros: Grows organically, stays relevant Cons: Requires periodic cleanup

Best for: Most teams

Tagging Workflows​

Tag During Collection​

When creating or importing cards, add tags immediately.

Why: Fresh context makes tagging easier and more accurate.

How:

  1. Create card
  2. While details are fresh, add 1-3 relevant tags
  3. Save

Time cost: +30 seconds per card

Weekly Batch Tagging​

Review untagged cards once per week and tag in bulk.

Why: Faster to tag in batch than one-by-one during busy collection moments.

How:

  1. Filter for cards with no tags
  2. Review each card
  3. Add appropriate tags
  4. Repeat until inbox is clear

Time cost: 15-20 min/week

Collaborative Tagging​

Different team members tag based on their expertise.

Example:

  • Customer success tags by segment (enterprise, smb)
  • PM tags by feature area (billing, dashboard)
  • Engineering tags by technical theme (performance, api)

Why: Leverages domain expertise, distributes work

Setup: Define tag ownership in your team documentation

Using Tags to Find Patterns​

Filter by Tag​

Click any tag to filter cards with that tag.

Use cases:

  • Preparing for enterprise customer review → filter enterprise
  • Planning mobile roadmap → filter mobile-app
  • Security audit → filter security

Combine Filters​

Use multiple tags to narrow results.

Examples:

  • enterprise + billing = enterprise billing requests
  • performance + dashboard = dashboard performance issues
  • quick-win + ux = easy UX improvements

Tag Analytics (View Tag Counts)​

Go to Tags view (Settings → Tags) to see:

  • How many cards have each tag
  • Most common tags
  • Unused tags (candidates for deletion)

Use this to:

  • Identify top themes
  • Spot tags you're overusing
  • Clean up unused tags

Tag Maintenance​

Monthly Tag Review​

Once a month, review your tags:

Questions to ask:

  • Are any tags used on <3 cards? Consider removing.
  • Are tags clear and consistent in naming?
  • Do we have redundant tags (e.g., bug and issue)?
  • Do we need new tags for emerging themes?

Actions:

  • Merge redundant tags
  • Delete unused tags
  • Rename confusing tags
  • Add missing tags

Merge Tags​

If you have performance and perf tags, merge them:

  1. Go to Settings → Tags
  2. Click on perf
  3. Click "Merge into..."
  4. Select performance
  5. Confirm

All cards tagged perf now have performance instead.

Delete Tags​

If a tag is no longer relevant:

  1. Go to Settings → Tags
  2. Click on the tag
  3. Click "Delete"
  4. Confirm

The tag is removed from all cards. Cards are not deleted.

Common Tagging Mistakes​

Over-Tagging​

Mistake: Adding 5-8 tags to every card.

Problem: Tags lose meaning when everything is tagged with everything.

Fix: Use 1-3 tags per card maximum. Only tag what's essential.

Under-Tagging​

Mistake: Never using tags, relying only on status.

Problem: Can't filter by theme or segment, harder to spot patterns.

Fix: Commit to tagging at least feature area + segment for every card.

Inconsistent Naming​

Mistake: Some cards tagged mobile, others mobile-app, others ios.

Problem: Can't filter reliably, pattern detection is broken.

Fix: Define tag standards and stick to them. Use tag merge to clean up.

Too Many Tags​

Mistake: Creating 50+ tags without consolidation.

Problem: Overwhelming to choose tags, hard to remember what exists, difficult to filter effectively.

Fix: Start with 10-15. Add new tags only when a clear pattern emerges (5+ cards on the same topic).

Tagging Workflow Instead of Theme​

Mistake: Tags like needs-review, ready-to-push, blocked.

Problem: This is what status is for. Tags should describe attributes, not workflow stage.

Fix: Use status for workflow. Use tags for themes and categorization.

Integration with Jira and Linear​

When you push a card to Jira or Linear, tags become labels in those tools.

Example:

  • Distil tags: billing, enterprise, bug
  • Jira labels: billing, enterprise, bug

Best practice: Only use tags that make sense as labels in your dev tools. Avoid tags that only matter in Distil.

Tip: Review your Jira/Linear label conventions before settling on a Distil tagging strategy.

Advanced: Tag Hierarchies​

Some teams want hierarchical tags (not currently supported natively, but workaround exists):

Use naming conventions:

  • feature:billing
  • feature:dashboard
  • user:enterprise
  • user:smb

This creates a pseudo-hierarchy through naming.

Filter by prefix: Search for feature: to see all feature tags.

Downside: More verbose tag names.

Tag Colors​

You can assign colors to tags for visual organization.

Use colors to:

  • Distinguish categories (feature area = blue, user segment = green)
  • Highlight priority (red for blockers)
  • Make tags scannable

Don't go overboard: Too many colors is noisy. Use 3-5 colors maximum.

Measuring Tag Effectiveness​

Good signs your tagging is working:

  • You use tags to filter multiple times per week
  • You can answer "How many X requests do we have?" quickly
  • Tags help you prepare for meetings or presentations
  • New team members can understand tag meaning without asking

Bad signs your tagging needs work:

  • Tons of untagged cards
  • Tags you never use for filtering
  • Multiple tags meaning the same thing
  • Can't remember which tag to use for common cases

Next Steps​