S3Corp. Tech Blog

Collecting feedback is essential for improving a product, but it’s easy to make mistakes that can lead to wasted time, misdirected efforts, and inaccurate conclusions. It’s common to feel overwhelmed by the feedback process, especially when platforms like Intercom make it easy to request feedback from all users at once. However, soliciting feedback from everyone, at once, can dilute its usefulness. Below are five common mistakes many companies make when collecting product feedback, along with solutions to help you avoid them.

1. Stop talking to “all users”

A frequent mistake companies make is treating all users as if they are the same. This happens when a company surveys all users, regardless of how they use the product. Some users may be long-time customers, while others may have just signed up or rarely use the product. These users have very different experiences and needs, making it difficult to gather useful insights from such a broad group.

The solution is simple: segment your users based on how they use your product. If you’re looking to improve your onboarding process, focus on users who have recently signed up. If you want to improve a specific feature, focus only on users who actively use that feature. For understanding why people aren’t using a particular feature, talk to users who have never used it. If you’re aiming to identify areas of concern, prioritize feedback from active users who use a wide range of features. This approach will help you gather more focused, actionable feedback that addresses specific user needs.

2. Feedback should be on-going

It’s common for companies to collect feedback on-demand, often waiting until a problem is identified before reaching out to users. This reactive approach has two major downsides. First, it leaves you without valuable feedback when you need it most. Second, it only allows you to identify problems when you specifically ask about them, meaning you miss subtle, gradual issues that can build up over time.

Instead of waiting until issues arise, create a system for regularly checking in with users. A simple approach is to ask for feedback periodically, such as at 30, 60, 120, and 365 days after a user signs up. This can be automated using platforms like Intercom. A more advanced approach is to gather feedback on specific features at different usage stages. For instance, if your product includes a calendar tool, ask users for feedback after their first, twentieth, and fiftieth time using the tool. Early feedback will often highlight confusion, later feedback will reveal frustrations, and ongoing feedback will uncover limitations. By gathering feedback regularly, you ensure you’re not blindsided by issues that develop slowly over time.

3. Distinguish Free from Paying Feedback

One common pitfall in feedback collection is treating all user feedback equally, regardless of whether the user is a paying customer or a free user. While feedback from free users can be valuable, it’s often less relevant when the focus is on improving a product for paying customers. Free users typically provide insights about features they use on the free plan, which may not align with the priorities of a business focused on its paying users. Moreover, feedback like “I’d upgrade if…” is speculative and often based on hypothetical situations.

To avoid wasting time on irrelevant feedback, segment your users by their payment status. When working on improving the product for paying customers, prioritize feedback from those who are paying. If your goal is to understand what might prompt free users to upgrade, focus on those who have already made the transition from free to paid. Similarly, when gathering feedback on the free plan, reach out to free users who actively use the product. By distinguishing between free and paying users, you ensure that you’re making decisions based on the most relevant feedback.

4. Don’t fall for the vocal minority

It’s easy to get swept up in the feedback of a small group of vocal users. These users often have strong opinions and can influence product decisions, but they may not represent the broader user base. For example, if five users complain about the complexity of an event form in your product, it might be tempting to immediately redesign the form. However, these five complaints may not represent the needs or experiences of the majority of your users.

Rather than jumping to conclusions, treat feedback from small groups as a hypothesis. It’s essential to verify whether these users represent a larger issue before taking action. Start by talking to more users who use the feature in question. Gather a broader range of opinions and see if the pain point is widespread. This process ensures that you are not overreacting to an isolated problem, and helps you identify real issues that need to be addressed.

5. Don’t assume users request the right feature

Customer feedback can be a valuable source of insight, but it’s important not to take feedback at face value. Users will often suggest features based on their specific needs, but those suggestions may not always align with your product’s vision or solve the underlying problem. For example, if several users complain that an event form is too complex, their request may be to simplify the form. However, a closer look might reveal that the problem isn’t with the form itself but with how frequently users have to interact with it. Perhaps the solution lies in allowing users to duplicate events or add recurring events.

The key here is to dig deeper into the problem before deciding to build the feature that users request. Understand the root cause of their frustration, which may involve analyzing their behavior and speaking to more users. It’s important to abstract the feature request and identify the core issue it’s trying to solve. This allows you to deliver a more effective solution that may not look exactly like the original feature request, but still addresses the underlying need.

Conclusion

Product feedback is crucial for improvement, but collecting it effectively requires strategy and careful consideration. By avoiding these five common mistakes—surveying all users, waiting too long between feedback requests, treating all feedback as equally important, giving too much weight to vocal minorities, and assuming users always know what they need—you can gather more actionable insights. Remember to focus your efforts on the right users, collect feedback regularly, verify small groups’ feedback before acting on it, and dig deeper into feature requests to understand the true needs behind them. With these practices in place, your software product development process will become more targeted, efficient, and ultimately more successful.

Source: Start-up Commons