our beliefs
Building great products is not a mathematics problem, it has more of art.
Great product teams are always listening to their users.
Great product teams build a fast feedback loop with their users. (Quarterly feedback surveys don’t work)
Great product teams are where everyone knows about their users’ problems.
Great product teams, appreciate, and talk to their community champions often. (which builds more of them)
Great product teams close the loop with their users on every piece of feedback they receive.
Great product teams always communicate and keep their users updated with everything they build.
great products and feedback
It’s not just about reducing the number of clicks to do something, it’s about making something with a heart that makes a mundane and difficult job a delight for their users.
It’s why people buy products. To get their job done without feeling like they’re doing any work, to be delighted how something that was a pain for them is now easy.
The problem is, the product analytics tools of today fall short. Yes, 20% more users are converting through our funnel this month, but did they enjoy their experience?
Numbers can’t answer these questions. Your users can. User Feedback can.
It’s not a novel idea. It’s been there ever since people started selling products and services.
As the technology evolved, and our world changed dramatically with it, the ways of collecting this user feedback evolved too. It eventually got to letters, then to the suggestion box, you probably had at your old bank, then to phone calls, SMS, emails, and surveys.
A side-effect of all this growth was noise. Your users today have every business they interact with prompting them for feedback. They’ve gotten immune to it. They’ve tuned them out. Send out a feedback survey to all your users, see the responses roll in, and you’ll confirm this.
User feedback is where real insights come from. Where innovative ideas first form. It’s where all great ideas often begin.
So how can you figure out what your users need?
community and feedback loops
Your users are already giving you feedback. They’re already telling you about their experiences with the product. Some have learned to hide feedback as questions, some drop it politely, and some come in angry all guns blazing ( and IN ALL CAPS!).
A lot of your users are giving you product feedback you need in their day to day interactions with your product.
They’re mentioning you on their social media. Sharing their thoughts in your community. Their support tickets have feedback. Their praise tweets have feedback (angry ones may have a little more)
Listening to all this feedback is one step towards building a better product, but it’s not enough. Your #feedback and #reviews Slack channels are not enough.
It’s about how you’re acting on the feedback and keeping your users in the loop. Product teams that build with their users never end up building the wrong thing.
When someone takes time to share a bug report or feature request with you, they should always receive a response. If your users feel heard, they’ll share more and tell their friends about it. Acting on user feedback is where real growth comes from.
communication and celebrations
Remember how excited and happy you feel whenever you favorite company releases a new product? You have users who feel the same level of excitement when you make something new.
Every product update should be celebrated with users. They love seeing and learning about the new and exciting things you’re adding and fixing day by day. Constant product updates make your users feel a part of your product’s growth and journey.
All of this builds trust with your users. They engage more. They share more. You build a community, (if you’re lucky, a cult).
Great products are built with empathy ❤️
