Opening the Feedback Floodgates
And why Armageddon is further away than you think.
I get it. Asking for feedback is hard. Whether it’s feedback on a new haircut, your performance at work, or a product you’ve spent the best part of 8 years building, exposing yourself to judgement is scary. Unfortunately, it’s also essential — especially if you don’t want to leave the house looking like Justin Timberlake circa 1999.
Since the beginning of time (don’t quote me on that) humans have had a severe aversion to critique. Mainly because we fear it’s going to be negative and is going to bruise our precious egos, but also because we fear it’s going to be negative and is going to bruise our precious egos. It’s true, we’re a delicate species and often find it hard to separate ‘constructive criticism’ from ‘spiteful contempt’. It doesn’t take a genius, therefore, to understand why it’s so difficult for companies to truly open themselves up to user feedback.
User experience, user-centric, user-centred design. These are all words we read about on a daily basis, encouraging us to believe that unless we put users at the very heart of every product decision, we are doomed to fail. The alternative, of course, is opening the feedback floodgates and letting our users tell us we’re doomed to fail — directly.
Or so we think. The truth is that even when our egos feel secure and stable enough to ask for feedback from our users, we open the gates and, instead of being met with a tsunami of complaints, we are met with nothing.
Unfortunately (or fortunately!) users tend to have better things to do with their time than bad-mouth your product. While this might initially seem like a worthy cause for celebration, it’s not actually helping you build the best possible product, or helping you be the best possible [insert job title here] you can be.
Feedback is important. It not only allows you to see your work from a different perspective, it also allows users to see you from a different perspective — a company that is empathetic, compassionate, and humble. When you ask for feedback, you’re not just asking for advice: you’re letting your users know that you value their input and that you want them to join you on your journey as you grow the product, and the company, together. When you ask for feedback, you’re not just asking what’s wrong: you’re asking what’s right; you’re asking how you’re successfully solving today’s problems and all the small ways in which you’re making someone’s life just that little bit easier.
Here at 90 Seconds not only do we keep the feedback floodgates open, we proactively seek it out. We understand that when users engage with our emails, our surveys, or our untimely phone-calls, they are giving us something very valuable — their time. And when someone gives you their time, it’s not because they’re trying to be malicious, it’s not because they hold you in contempt, it’s simply because they care and they want you to do better.
Follow me in this series as we explore the importance of user feedback, how to open the floodgates with minimal damage, where to direct the current, and, most importantly, what to do with it once you’ve got it.
And as always, feedback is encouraged and deeply appreciated(!)
