How Product Teams Can Use Session Replay to Prioritize Features

If you’ve ever watched users get confused while using your app and thought, “We really need to fix that,” then session replay might just be your new best friend. It’s a tool that shows you real recordings of how users move through your app—where they click, how far they scroll, and where they suddenly leave. Think of it like sitting next to someone while they use your product, without actually being in the room.

Let’s say you work on a product like an Instagram Highlight Viewer. You’ve noticed lots of people are spending time trying to find a certain user’s Highlights, but many end up leaving the page before completing the task. With session replays, you can watch exactly where they’re getting stuck. Maybe the search bar isn’t easy to spot. Maybe users are clicking the wrong buttons because they're visually too similar. Once you see it happening for real, figuring out what needs to be fixed becomes much easier.

But session replay isn’t just for spotting problems—it’s also great for confirming which features are important to users. If you’re planning what to build next, look at the features people are already using the most. You might discover that something originally meant as a small extra is getting a lot more attention than expected. That’s a good sign it might be worth expanding or improving.

Sometimes, a feature you thought was helpful might just be in the way. If you see users skipping over it again and again, it might be time to rethink its placement—or even remove it. That way, your team can stop spending time on things that don’t make a real difference.

Session replay also helps when presenting your ideas to others. It’s one thing to say, “Users are confused here,” and another to show an actual clip of someone getting stuck. It brings the problem to life and makes conversations around priorities clearer and more focused.

In short, watching session replays helps product teams focus on what really matters: building things people actually use and enjoy. And sometimes, seeing your product through the eyes of your users is all it takes to make smarter decisions.