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Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks a lot. I'm a big fan of The Mom Test. Fantastic book. But I was more curious about how are people actually applying it's lessons in their actual business.

+1 for The Mom Test Something I did which was highly effective was set up a Discord server to watch users talk about my product with each other. Doesn’t have to be Discord. Can be a Facebook group, sub-Reddit, etc

Also try user experience testing. You pay a nominal fee to watch users use your product and say their thoughts out loud. I was always surprised by what they said and thought about what we created. The only thing is you need to set up a good testing plan.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#12
>Especially when you're just starting out, and have no users yet.

Add analytics, even rudimentary. Something like PostHog is good.

Add monitoring (Sentry) so you catch exceptions in your code when soon to be people and systems use your product without them having to report them. You'll fix problems faster and prioritize (most frequent, most impactful, etc).

Create a Slack workspace where your users could ask questions.

Get users.

Observe behavior and usage. Keep an eye on non-consumption. Schedule calls with them and ask about what they're trying to accomplish with your product.

If they're not using a feature you know they need or have stopped using it (from analytics), ask why they're not using it or not using it anymore (the load time is just too long, it's buggy, it doesn't support their use case, they moved on to something else or to another role).

Look at where people are coming from (referrers in analytics) but also ask them where they're coming from (community? subreddit? HN? Word of mouth? Someone mentioned it? Who? Ask them. Rinse and repeat. Investigate everything.)

Look at email addresses and their domains. Are they university accounts? Are there many from the same organization? Investigate. Ask questions on how they signed up and what they're trying to do.

You want to get users. You'll get all the feedback you need, either active or passive (them not using something, not doing something, dropping something mid-action).

Ask questions. Don't really ask for "feedback" because you're putting them on the spot. Ask "Have you tried x?". If you're aware of an issue in something, let it out, they may laugh and be relieved because they didn't want to break it to you, but you did and now they can go on about why something sucks for them because they now know you won't be butthurt if they say something.

Ask questions to know the problem they are trying to solve and you'll get reasons or usage or non-usage (work in a very sensitive organization and they can't, regulations, formats, etc).

Asking for "feedback" in the form it is most known is like asking someone what they think of you. Mostly useless and uncomfortable. You want people to be comfortable sharing with you, and they're most comfortable talking about the problems they're having.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#13
post #4

Definitely lots of feedback from everyone possible. Try and have someone other than you ask in some cases, because people will be deferential and kind to you as inventor/creator. Sometimes you can get small grants to cover professional advice, which can include feedback, or sometimes there will be events where you can get such advice from experts for free. I also help run an invetors' club, and that is another good v…

Not trying to clever here but you’re missing a letter in the most interesting word. Is what you run an invester’s club, or an inventor’s club?

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#14
This book was really important for me early in my career, and I still recommend it to others quite regularly https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9039673-undercover-user-... it will give you plenty of tactics you can use to conduct user research and gather feedback when you have no users or low budget etc.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for The Mom Test Something I did which was highly effective was set up a Discord server to watch users talk about my product with each other. Doesn’t have to be Discord. Can be a Facebook group, sub-Reddit, etc

Also try user experience testing. You pay a nominal fee to watch users use your product and say their thoughts out loud. I was always surprised by what they said and thought about what we created. The only thing is you need to set up a good testing plan.

Yes, that makes sense, thanks for the answer.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#17

> Especially when you're just starting out, and have no users yet. Add analytics, even rudimentary. Something like PostHog is good. Add monitoring (Sentry) so you catch exceptions in your code when soon to be people and systems use your product without them having to report them. You'll fix problems faster and prioritize (most frequent, most impactful, etc). Create a Slack workspace where your users could ask questio…

Thanks for the detailed answer, this is very useful.

Re: Ask HN: What do you do to receive honest feedback for your products?

#18
post #14

This book was really important for me early in my career, and I still recommend it to others quite regularly https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9039673-undercover-user-... it will give you plenty of tactics you can use to conduct user research and gather feedback when you have no users or low budget etc.

Great, thanks, will check it out.
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