Highs and Lows of the Great Feedback Loop

Remember back when we were starting out, when we couldn’t have enough customer feedback? Aww, we were so young back then. When we were a wee SaaS company, it was so disorienting. How do we go about collecting feedback, how do we organize everything that we have collected, how do we analyze it - the entire routine seemed like a large boulder sitting on top of our heads.

It's been a while since we have come from those days. Oh, we know how daunting all of it can be. There used to be conflicting priorities and dogma that would clash when it was finally time to assess and make final decisions of the extensive feedback we had collected. The perpetual reverberations of the extroverted customer sets - especially when it comes to demands that do not meet the overall vision of the brand; giving the stakeholders some curdling opportunity costs. After all, when we were young, we were taught that the customer holds prerogative over your decisions.

And, the creepiest feeling of all - having your product drift away from the user base, with features that do not really hold any water when it comes to real customer value.

When it comes to handling raw input, trying to feel in control of the extensive feedback data sets that have been collected or the infuriating feeling of not doing enough, it almost became a rite of passage for us. The Product Managers spent years trying to take on the challenges that were being faced by end users and convert them into sprinkles of opportunities!

What we did end up realizing is that in order to make the most of the Big Data that we collected from our customers, we really just needed to:

1 - understand our business goals;

2 - understand the kind of customer we cater to; and

3 - put both of the above together and try to bring harmony in our task lists so that:

4 - we were able to customize - so to speak- our entire feedback loop where it was consistent with the product goals and our team members.

Truly, this was our epiphany.

What is incredibly important is the realization that comes with the acknowledgement of customer feedback. And what makes this even more potent is that with the right customer base fueling your feedback pumps, your in-house development can feel even more brilliant, leading to some earth-shattering breakthroughs.

With this piece, our weary reader, we aim to help you recognize the hidden panacea that is customer feedback, and make sure your path towards treasure isn’t as long-winded as ours ended up being.

If you feel that your company is either:

1. Getting feedback the size of Kilimanjaro ⛰; and
2. That aforesaid feedback is bringing your firm decisions to be skewed in ways you didn’t necessarily expect,

I suggest you sit down and get some coffee, because we gotta have a heart to heart.

Why do we chase after feedback after all?

Have you ever tried listening to a baby when they are trying to explain to a guardian what it is they need, instead of explaining what it is they feel at that point? Toddlers aren’t the best communicators, it is a skill that is nearly always acquired after some kind of schooling. I would go as far to say that many people, well into their adulthood, might find it difficult to express exactly the root of a particular feeling, but instead speak of and try to come to solutions that would bring finality to a situation.

Thinking of customers in such a way too. Your customers might give you feedback in terms of features instead of describing the heart of the problem they’re facing, so that you and your team are able to come up with solutions that are resourceful in the long term too.

While customers speak in the ‘solution space’, it is worth noting that some problems deserve some in-depth and consistent work in the whole product development process.

Customer feedback is what is going to be your guiding light when you are aiming to mold your idea on a customer-centric product.

Now, let's talk about ways that proves customer feedback to be such a hot cake lately:

1. The One Where Feedback will set you up to some sweet upgradesCustomer feedback will be able to give you information about the improvements that are specifically based on verified needs and wants of your customer base.

   Do we remember when Nokia got wiped out only about 10 years ago? Nokia could be a study about a company not keeping up with its customers changing needs or adapting to market dynamics. Instead of adopting Android (like everyone else at the time), it stubbornly stuck with Symbian. Nokia also failed to update its software offerings and only focused on hardware

   What happens when a better, trendier, sleeker product enters a market and leaves you behind? How did they know to make this product sleeker? How did you not find out?

   While periodic technological advancements are true, in some cases, we shouldn’t forget that the minute a product is not able to serve the customer’s needs but instead serves the that of the business’, the customer will not think twice about staying back.

2. The One Where Feedback will help you quantify your Customer’s contentment

   

   This might be a no-brainer: when you are able to create a synergy with respect to your feedback loop, your customer will feel listened to, and in turn raise your brand’s goodwill - leading to an uptick in revenues!

   We as humans do not operate as islands. We require and need all types of communication. That is the only way forward - once you make it a habit of listening to your consumers you will find nourishing relationships of higher quality.

   Just having a meaningful interaction with your customers which will help you identify the problems they are facing will give you so much insight into the status of your customer’s satisfaction levels.

   And when you follow up on the feedback and at least attempt to close the loop, your users will know that you are aiming to build a business with products that have the customer’s priorities as the foundation of your values.

   The constant communication channel with your users will ensure a strong and lasting relationship, which will benefit everybody involved.

3. The One Where Feedback will Allow you to Control customer Attrition

   

   One of the words that frankly send chills down my spine is user churn rate. In order to understand it, it is imperative to understand what it is that your customer is going with your product. And how do you gain an in-depth understanding of how the customer is going about working on your product? Ding ding ding 🛎! It’s customer feedback!

   Customer feedback will help you to build upon your what data too - what surveys and on-page behavior applications will show is what is being done on your product by your consumer. But the why data, which customer feedback will help you obtain - will give you valuable insights, provide data for usability testing and even allow you to truly understand the behavior of your customers.

4. The One Where Feedback will help you Optimize Resources

   

   We know that sometimes the disconnect between those who build the product, versus those who use the product can be deep as a ditch in some cases. This leads to not only your product not being utilized to its potential, but also having your team feel disillusioned by the low levels of relevant feedback.

   Instead, try this: get a strategy that prioritizes the need for continuous extraction of insights from customers, which prompt leads to deliver some useful and valuable solutions.

   An incoming flow of consistent and relevant customer feedback will generate validation of the initiatives taken during the product development process.

All of this incoming feedback gives confidence to your team, helping you optimize your resources, both human and monetary - giving the ultimate certainty that the work being performed is meaningful and is taking care of real human needs.

How do you make the feedback effortless?

While feedback can be relative, it holds equal amounts of value for each company. The context still holds importance, though. The weight of customer feedback will be measured differently for different companies. For example, the fact that whether or not you use the customer feedback collected to influence your firm decisions relies heavily on the fact whether or not you have products or services that sell directly to the customer’s needs. If you are a B2B firm, there might be a lower number of users with a higher ACV - whereas if you have B2C products or services, you might deal with high usage numbers but less revenue.

You have to keep in mind:

• The way your feedback is compartmentalised
• The channel of procurement for your feedback
• The number and kind of assumptions you formulate while working on a problem
• The number of user groups that you are taking into consideration

All of these ways must be held into deliberation while making firm decisions. However, my dear buttercups, why can we not try and work at a solution that works for everybody, eh? Let’s try and come up with something shall we - whether you’re a startup or enterprise B2B or a B2C, let me try and fix you up with techniques that should apply across the board with regards to working out what is best for your company when listening to feedback and how to make this feedback into actionable items on your agenda.

Your first action

We might have to work out who it is that would be a good match for your implementation strategy. You need to be able to define the users who shouldn’t ever be ignored because they are the ones who will help you grow. You must endeavor to ensure that you’re acting on feedback from people who are most likely to be able to transcribe the points that mean the most to the value of your business. They will allow you to work on goals that revolve around increasing the acquisition, retention and improving the rate of engagement.

A proper feedback segmentation strategy will define not only the demographic and filmographic (fancy term for job titles, company size and industry), but also look at segments that includes behavior and functions that take into consideration aspects of the targets that the user is hoping to achieve with the product that you are providing them with - the kinds of problems that your product will be solving for them, as well as as issues that are currently not being addressed by your product, but can be achieved through an iterative process.

If you are certain that all the above stated considerations are being taken into account, you can trust your process of feedback analysis. There is no one “right” way to do anything, but a lot of metrics that fall through as a result of these steps will show you that you have picked the right track for yourself and for your brand.

The customer feedback that you would end up collecting would add in itself another layer of context, which will help your team to prioritize the kind of decisions that should be made.

When you have a well thought-out overview of the kinds of behaviors that your user will engage in, in addition to a thorough understanding of the intentions behind their expression on your platform, the team is able to come to an understanding of whether or not there is a requirement for optimization within segments.

The next important step comes from the actionability of the plan that is derived from the feedback that has been received.

Your subsequent action

After you have received the feedback and have been able to identify the patterns, you are going to have to sort through them. This might include politely setting undoable requests aside and grouping them up.

Now you are ready to do some major digging. Like, deep digging. Like the depths of Mariana Trench, like digging.

One thing that life has taught me, quite randomly, is that to work through to a goal, start with a hypothesis. You can have a rough idea of what it is that you need to prove or validate - here you use the general requests that you have received into hypothesis statements. They say that a good hypothesis goes well beyond a simple “if…then” statement. Instead, try to include the following into your hypothesis:

1. The feature or solution that you wish to test at the end of the exercise.
2. The direction you are hoping this feature/solution will take your business to take.
3. The specific target audience that you will be able to meet at the end of the proverbial path you take as a result of the aforementioned change in direction
4. The degree to which this impact will last
5. The amount of time it will take for this impact to be felt.

Focus on working out a technique that helps you visualize the needs and challenges of your user that inspired such a feedback to come through

Using the method of ‘problem discovery’ to assess a new feature or an initiative for your product will not guarantee you a solid path to success.

When you are able to try techniques of ‘problem exploration’ like Jobs to be done and a Problem/ Solution fit canvas can capture the needs of your consumer in a way that allows your product team to understand exactly where they are coming from, and even to the point whether they are shining a light towards some yet undiscovered problem that isn’t immediately obvious from the direct feedback.

Try zooming out on the product. Methods of mental models and even user journey mapping - these will even help you as far as showing whether a segment is underserved or even overserved. They will allow your team to see where the feedback has its roots laid out, but in a more organized way and a way that prioritizes your goals besides your customer’s needs.

Some problem, need & goal exploration techniques can be:

• Jobs to be done
• The “5 WHYS” interrogative technique
• Mental models
• Empathy mapping
• Root cause analysis

Can we fit user personas into this?

Personas are basically a mock archetype that you will make for the understanding of your team and for your own knowledge of these segments and their specific needs. It is basically created to represent the user type that would be making the most use of your product. You might worry about the model and the market segmentation that has to be created with it, so which one should be prioritized?

Well, there’s an easier way to go about confirming this - simply try to dig further down to understand what persona you are hoping to define.

You can try and explain to your valued segment units as well as personas that you are working towards making their problems better understood in a way that is sustainable in a holistic sense - i.e. with respect to your product, your brand and even the industry.

Try doing this and see the trust and empathy account in your team grow multifold ;)

Ultimately, this process isn’t about deductions and trying to find reasons to refute a theory, it's quite naturally about informing your users that you are trying to deliver the product with the right amount of quality, that sets your brand apart from the others in competition. They need to know that their feedback is valuable in terms of alignment with the quality of the end-product.

You will also never hear us tell you to right away refuse a request, like, ever. You always need to be keeping the channels of communication open. Instead of telling them that you are not going to be taking up the request as given, you are instead going to spend some resources, including time, in explaining how your focus is on the consumer on this site. A lot of platform development

Is the process of almost coaching users in the way you want them to move around on your site. The way you develop your product can actually create new  behaviors out of your users. They may come up with a concept of what it is that they want to do, but somehow - because of the way that your site has been designed, they end up liking the way that you want them gliding through the site.

Conclusion

Product research strategy consists of a multitude of processes, one of which is customer feedback collection.

You will see most product managers trying to take into account the entirety of the decision making process, however, those who have been blessed by the rains that fall on our planet know that the best money is in the feedback from the user base that has trust and loyalty towards the product, because the product that is being delivered to them is built with the user in mind.

Attempt to go about this in an organized way, start off by identifying the specific user segments whose feedback you can actually look upto. And then once you have finished the collection of said feedback, sort and organize any incoming unsolicited feedback that comes from these segments you have chosen. You can further compartmentalize the feedback into different kinds of needs, problem areas and development points for your product.

Use problem exploration, instead of problem solving, in order to identify what actual predicaments behind the given requests. Make sure you are involving your development and engineering teams in this exercise!

Lastly, remember to prioritize your resulting list of solutions based on what is the most important for your team and your brand as a whole.

And with that, my lovely reader, I will send you off into this world. Remember that your fairy godmother (me) is alway rooting for you.

Should you like to have your customer feedback needs fulfilled, try out our platform at hellonext.co - we will be more than happy to help out set your shop up and get you started on your journey to greatness!