Exploring themes

Individual backlog items tell you what customers want. Themes tell you what those wants add up to. A theme groups related backlog items together, so instead of forty scattered requests you see the handful of storylines running through your feedback.

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The bubble chart

The Themes view opens with a bubble chart. Each bubble is a theme, and bubble size reflects volume - bigger bubble, more going on in that theme. It’s the fastest way to answer “what are customers actually talking about?” at a glance.

Drag the timeline slider under the chart to narrow the window, and switch on Compare with another range to put two date windows side by side. That way you’re not just seeing what’s big - you’re seeing what’s changing. A theme that was quiet last period and loud this period deserves attention long before it dominates the chart.

Prefer a table? Toggle to the list view to see every theme with its backlog item count and creation date.

💡 Tip: The comparison is where the strategy lives. A mid-sized theme that doubled between windows is often a better use of your next sprint than a big theme that’s been flat for months.

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Automatic and manual themes

You get both:

• Automatic clustering - as feedback arrives, Pilea assigns new backlog items to your existing themes and only creates a new theme when nothing fits. You don’t have to plan a taxonomy up front; the structure emerges from the data.
• Manual control - you can create (New Theme), rename, and delete themes yourself, add or remove a theme on any backlog item, and create a theme inline from an item’s detail without leaving it. If Pilea’s grouping doesn’t match how your team thinks about the product, reshape it.

ℹ️ Note: Automatic clustering and manual curation work together. Pilea proposes the structure; you keep it honest.

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Theme detail pages

Click any bubble (or a theme in the list) to open its detail page, which shows the number of backlog items and lists them. This is your drill-down path: the bubble chart tells you “onboarding is heating up”, and the detail page tells you exactly which items - and therefore which fixes - make up that heat.

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Themes in the backlog

Themes aren’t confined to their own view. In the backlog, you can filter by Theme to see only the items belonging to one, and bulk-add or remove a theme across selected items. The ⌘K command palette finds themes by name from anywhere in the app. That makes themes a practical planning tool, not just a chart:

1. Spot a growing theme in the bubble chart.
2. Open its detail page to review the items inside.
3. Or jump to the backlog, filter by that Theme, and sort by Priority Score to find the highest-leverage item within it.

That three-step loop - notice the trend, inspect the evidence, pick the work - is the whole point of themes. They turn “we’re hearing a lot about X lately” from a hallway hunch into something you can click on.

Next: Working with mentions