This One Goes to Eleven — The Stoked Dispatch, February 2026

February 21, 2026 | Ricky Chilcott | 7 minutes | 1210 words

Welcome to the February edition of The Stoked Dispatch — and folks, this one goes to eleven.

Dad joke: Why do keyboards never get lost? Because they always know the shortcut.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: this is the biggest single-month update we’ve ever shipped. Three headline features, seven quick hits, and a Ruby upgrade that our engineering team is still celebrating. This is the month Stoked graduated from “really useful tool” to “critical infrastructure.”

Let’s go.

Headline Features

Custom Advocate Fields + Merge Variables

Every advocacy program is different. A cargo bike brand cares about different advocate details than a tiny house company. So why were we making everyone use the same fields?

Not anymore. With custom advocate fields, you can add whatever data points matter to your program — product model, purchase date, riding experience, square footage, number of kids, anything.

But here’s where it gets really good: those custom fields become merge variables in your message templates. So when you send an introduction message, it can automatically say “Hey Sarah, meet Mike — he’s been riding his RadWagon for 14 months and commutes 12 miles daily” instead of a generic “meet your advocate.”

Why it matters: Personalization isn’t a nice-to-have in peer-to-peer conversations — it’s the entire point. When a prospect gets matched with an advocate who owns the same product variant, uses it the same way, and lives in a similar climate? That’s not a conversation — that’s a shortcut to trust. Custom fields make those perfect matches possible at scale.

Keyboard Shortcuts + Cmd+K Command Palette

I know what you’re thinking: “Keyboard shortcuts? In a brand advocacy platform?” Yes. And once you use them, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them.

Keyboard shortcuts let you navigate between conversations, take actions, and move through your workflow without touching your mouse. And the Cmd+K command palette (Ctrl+K on Windows) is the crown jewel — a universal search that lets you jump to any conversation, advocate, or page from anywhere.

Why it matters: If you’re managing 50+ active conversations, the difference between “click, scroll, click, scroll, click” and “Cmd+K → type name → Enter” is the difference between 30 minutes and 5 minutes. Power users asked for this. Power users got this. Everyone else will become power users.

This might seem like a small feature. It’s not. It’s the feature that transforms how you feel about using Stoked. Fast software doesn’t just save time — it changes your relationship with the tool.

Structured Close Reasons

When a conversation ends, you used to just… close it. Now you tell Stoked why.

Structured close reasons let you tag each closed conversation with a reason: sale made, prospect went silent, wrong product match, just researching, etc. You configure the reasons that matter to your business.

Why it matters: Closing a conversation used to be the end of the story. Now it’s the beginning of insight. When you can see that 40% of your closed conversations ended in a sale and 15% ended because the prospect wanted a product you don’t carry — that changes your strategy. That tells your product team something. That tells your marketing team something.

Data from closed conversations is some of the most valuable data in your program, and until now, it was just… gone.

Quick Hits

This month’s quick hits section is more of a “quick sprint.” There’s a lot.

Testimonials Management

You can now collect and manage testimonials directly in Stoked. Advocates submit them, you approve them, and they’re ready to use wherever you need social proof. No more digging through emails and DMs for that one great quote someone sent you six months ago.

Advocates can now add their social media profiles to their Stoked profiles. This helps prospects get a fuller picture of who they’re talking to and adds another layer of authenticity. Real people with real social profiles sharing real experiences.

Multi-Channel Inbox Notifications

Your inbox notifications now go where you are. Email, Slack, or Campfire — pick your channel (or pick all three). When a new conversation starts or an application comes in, you’ll know about it in the tool you already have open. No more checking Stoked just to check Stoked.

Inbox Delay on Conversations

New conversations now have a configurable delay before they appear in your inbox. Why? Because some conversations resolve themselves. A prospect and advocate might exchange five messages in the first hour without any admin involvement needed. The delay lets those conversations breathe before flagging them for your attention.

Accepts-Messages Badge / Passive Advocates

Some advocates want to be visible on the map but aren’t the SMS-and-email type. Maybe they’re a bike shop where prospects should just stop by. Maybe they prefer carrier pigeons. We don’t judge. The new “accepts messages” badge makes this clear — prospects can see these advocates on the community site and read their profiles, but these advocates can’t be contacted directly through Stoked. It’s also great for advocates who are traveling or just need a break without disappearing entirely.

Under the Hood

February was a big engineering month too.

We upgraded to Ruby 4.0 — the latest major version of the language Stoked is built on. Our test suite is 30% faster, which means we catch bugs quicker and ship with more confidence. We also made significant performance and accessibility improvements across the admin interface — faster page loads, better screen reader support, and tighter compliance with web accessibility standards.

The a11y (accessibility) work is something I’m particularly proud of. Advocacy platforms should be usable by everyone. Full stop.

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Four months of Dispatches. Four months of shipping. Let me zoom out for a second.

In November, we gave you a dashboard that tells you something. In December, we gave you one inbox to rule them all. In January, we made your community site actually findable. And this month, we added the power tools — custom fields, keyboard shortcuts, close reasons, and a whole lot more.

The through-line? We’re building Stoked into the operating system for brand advocacy. Not a widget. Not a bolt-on. The central nervous system for how your customers help you sell.

We’re just getting started. March has some things cooking that I’m genuinely giddy about. Stay tuned.

And as always — if you have feedback, feature requests, or a dad joke that’s better than mine (low bar), hit us up at stoked-help@stokedhq.com.

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