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Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#21

Post by ilaksh »

I have a link to the Discord server on the web page and I always have that open. Once every week or two someone will ask me something, usually really basic, about how to use the system. Mostly it seems like they want to make sure there is support for the product. So the questions are usually easy to answer.

People do also occasionally message me with feature requests or put them in the public room.

I will say though that the times I have directly asked groups of users what product or feature to build, I have mostly received crickets. Before I built the main product I practically begged a couple of Discord communities to tell me what they needed/wanted. It took awhile and I got a single response. I built that and then had everyone else in the community tell me how badly they had needed it.

I don't know what it is really but it can be like extracting teeth. But the sort of leaders may eventually give feedback.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#22

Post by shalmanese »

scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #14

From my experience working as a PM with a medical/educational/hardware/software product, I think everyone finds this process is extremely challenging. First surprising thing I learned is that users don't usually actually have the will to spend any amount of time giving feedback. But they will avoid admitting it. The second discouraging thing is that when you do get them to sit down and talk, you will find that they'r…

People really don't have any passion for talking about your solution because they don't really care about you and you should take any discussion of solutions with a large grain of salt because customers are not PMs.

But people are passionate about talking about their problems and that's where you should orient your discussions on. Don't ask about your product at all during PM interviews, simply try to understand the problems users are facing and figure out what ways your product is or is not addressing those problems.

The biggest mistake I see PMs make is coming in with an over optimism bias and assuming that your product must be top of mind for all users when the reality is that the most often scenario you discover from user interviews is that the problem you're trying to solve is of relatively minor importance to most people.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#24

Post by holler »

Have you considered simply putting a feedback button or link to a survey?

It's interesting I have no problem communicating with all of my users because my project is a live chat app.

But one thing I noticed is there are countless things people want, so much that it can become challenging to filter them down and choose which ones are valid or should have priority.

Another issue is the conversations can be dispersed, so really it makes me think having a dedicated feedback button is still the best option even in my case.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#25

Post by jitl »

Did you try emailing them? Look up your most active users and send a personal email or reach out to them on Twitter.

Especially when you’re B2C, small, and your users are small, build that personal relationship. Find your most passionate users, figure out where they hang out (Reddit? Twitter? Facebook? Discord) and try to start a community there.

This serves two purposes:

- Your passionate users will want to talk to you! They will have a particular power-user perspective, but much better than no feedback.

- Building an effective community that is excited about your product is fantastic for marketing. Word of mouth is the most effective kind of advertising.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#26

Post by scyzoryk_xyz »

shalmanese wrote: post #22
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #14

From my experience working as a PM with a medical/educational/hardware/software product, I think everyone finds this process is extremely challenging. First surprising thing I learned is that users don't usually actually have the will to spend any amount of time giving feedback. But they will avoid admitting it. The second discouraging thing is that when you do get them to sit down and talk, you will find that they'r…

People really don't have any passion for talking about your solution because they don't really care about you and you should take any discussion of solutions with a large grain of salt because customers are not PMs. But people are passionate about talking about their problems and that's where you should orient your discussions on. Don't ask about your product at all during PM interviews, simply try to understand the…

Harsh but very true.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#27

Post by matt_the_bass »

shalmanese wrote: post #22
scyzoryk_xyz wrote: post #14

From my experience working as a PM with a medical/educational/hardware/software product, I think everyone finds this process is extremely challenging. First surprising thing I learned is that users don't usually actually have the will to spend any amount of time giving feedback. But they will avoid admitting it. The second discouraging thing is that when you do get them to sit down and talk, you will find that they'r…

People really don't have any passion for talking about your solution because they don't really care about you and you should take any discussion of solutions with a large grain of salt because customers are not PMs. But people are passionate about talking about their problems and that's where you should orient your discussions on. Don't ask about your product at all during PM interviews, simply try to understand the…

Yeah they’d buy magic wands if they solved their problem. They don’t care about your solution. They care about their solution.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#28

Post by meristem »

You need to make it absurdly easy and in-flow. Otherwise you are stuck sending emails to users asking for feedback, and the return on those in my experience is below 4%.

If what you want is to have a lengthier conversation please remember time is money--remunerate the user for their time helping you.

Re: Ask HN: Do you find it challenging to talk to your users?

#29

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

I'm on IRC and and the project's own Discourse forums, plus two independent different Discord servers, at all times. There's also the bugtracker, currently with about 2700 open bug reports. Not really a problem, but this is all after 22 years, so probably not equivalent to a "when I had my first users" situation.

This is, by the way, why I prefer having other developers as my first users.

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