How Feedback Is Shaping Tern’s Next Chapter

April 11, 2025

Episode Overview

This week on Flight Path, the Tern team opens up about a powerful week of reflection, product progress, and community feedback. Fresh off their leadership offsite, David, Molly, and Brad take you behind the scenes of what’s changing, what’s improving, and how a fiery Facebook thread sparked renewed energy and commitment across the company.

From simplifying forms to improving email deliverability, this episode offers a mix of tactical product updates and a raw, honest conversation about where Tern is going—and how feedback is driving the way.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

Opening Check-In + Detroit Offsite Recap– Team reflections on vision-setting for 2025–2027– Why Tern isn’t building “just another tool,” but a new infrastructure for modern travel agencies

Big Update: Responder Optional on Forms– Say goodbye to duplicate entry! You can now remove the responder field entirely for simpler, one-page forms– When to keep it, when to ditch it, and how to decide based on your use case– Behind the scenes: Why this took longer to build (hint: it’s smarter than it looks)

Email Deliverability Improvements– What caused some automations to trip spam filters– How Tern is now throttling large sends to protect your domain’s reputation– Better reliability, still industry-best deliverability with Gmail/Outlook integrations

Trip Type Labels Now Live– New labels clearly distinguish between group trips, subtrips, and regular trips– Prevents accidental deletions and improves UI clarity for both advisors and support teams

Feature Focus: The Facebook Thread Heard ’Round the World

– What happened in the community group this week– Why it hurt, why it mattered, and how it turned into a catalyst– How Molly and Brad are diving into user calls, digging into workflows, and sharpening the roadmap

Key Themes:

✅ Tern is transitioning from “feature build mode” to “usability mode”

✅ The roadmap now prioritizes smoother workflows, better defaults, and smarter content

✅ Features like library folders, context-aware dashboards, and quicker access to form responses are coming

Upcoming Improvements to Watch For:

  • Folder-based library organization
  • Dashboard-level overviews across bookings and tasks
  • Cleaner, smarter UI updates for key workflows
  • Continued investment in making Tern intuitive for both early adopters and the broader travel community