Building a successful product is not only about having an awesome idea, but it also consists of creating something people need and love. You also need to learn how to leverage user feedback for product development
Feedback from users is gold dust: it can allow you to confidently make data-driven decisions and will enable you to tailor your product to the real world. But how do you actually go about gathering this feedback and then using it to your advantage?
This is a useful guide for finding and using user feedback on your product. In the end, you will learn how customer feedback can become a crucial weapon in your arsenal to improve products.
Image source: pixabay
How to Leverage User Feedback for Product Development: Importance of User Feedback
And there is no better way to understand what does work (or not!) for your customers, than hearing it from the horse’s mouth — user feedback.
Doing this without having any user input is a guessing game of what users might want or need but the problem with it is that they most likely end up building things (products) irrelevant to them.
1. Test ideas before building them
Right, so it lets you validate assumptions prior to the time and resource investment into new features. Users’ confirmation or refutation of your hypotheses will make it clear what you take precedence in developing features. This minimizes their risk and avoids building things users don’t want to use.
2. Catch issues early
Your team may not have thought of the issues that your users commonly encounter. This way, any issues are spotted with feedback much earlier and thus easier to resolve. It greatly speeds up certain processes and can lower the price of troubleshooting a problem at later stages in development.
3. Enhance user experience (UX)
Use the people using your product — they use it every day which means that their insight is priceless when it comes to its usability. This feedback also tells you where the UX can be improved to make for a more seamless and intuitive experience.
Improvement of UX elements that have been identified due to feedback can allow for a better user experience and more user retention.
4. Build customer loyalty
If users feel heard, they will use your product more. When you implement their suggestions, it shows that not only do they want to contribute but also creates loyalty and trust.
This stage, if executed correctly ensures that your satisfied customers are likely to stay long-term users or even advocates of your brand!
5. Stay competitive
This feedback that is taken from user reviews says a lot about the developing market trends and customer preferences which you are not know to.
Following these expectations keeps your product relevant and competitive with other products in the field.
Methods to collect feedback from customers and users
Now that we have experienced the importance of user feedback. It is important to talk about some common ways in which a developer can gather them!
It is a case-to-case basis because not all products and audiences are alike, so it should be based on the best fit for users.
1. Surveys and Questionnaires
One of the most simple methods for collecting structured feedback is through a survey. If you wish to be slightly less intrusive, consider tools like Google Forms, and Typeform and ask questions about specific parts of your feature set.
Make the most of your surveys with brevity and focus. Mix a good combination of open-ended and closed questions to get both: Quantitative Open-Ended Data.
2. User interviews
So user interviews are a good way to get deeper insights. Interviews, unlike surveys, allow you to ask follow-up questions or address points of confusion from the user giving more context for particular areas of interest.
Regardless of phone, face-to-face or video interviews, they illuminate a ton about user behaviour and where their pain points lie.
Conduct open questions and converse in the interviews, allowing people to express themselves. However, with permission, it can be useful to record interviews.
3. Focus groups
A focus group is a controlled discussion with a handful of users. This can help you to collect different points of view which is incredibly beneficial when testing new features or product ideas.
However, groupthink must be prevented when it comes to focus groups. Send an invite to a mixed audience for a rich open-ended discussion. A good moderator is able to maintain this balance of input amongst all respondents.
Image source: pixabay
4. Customer support interactions
Because your customer support team is dealing with people experiencing a problem or frustration. Through analysis of the patterns in support tickets or chat interactions, common problems that may need addressing can be surfaced.
For instance, if there are multiple user reports for the same specific feature it means that is something wrong with this particular feature.
Follow-up questions also allow support teams to collect feedback directly. After you have recorded a handful of interactions, begin documenting these conversations. You will start to see trends in which things frequently come up as pain points or new ideas.
5. Analyzing user and behavior tracking
Sometimes user feedback isn´t about what users say, but how they interact with your product.
Google Analytics, Mixpanel or Hotjar can follow user behaviour and tell you where people are dropping off. These features they love using the most out of your platform + what are some pain points visitors encounter. This might give you insight into if users are leaving the checkout funnel of an e-commerce site again.
There could be a design issue or functionality-related bug. This allows you to identify these pain points without having to depend on direct user feedback.
6. In-app feedback
In addition, users can provide their thoughts through in-app feedback tools like feedback buttons or pop-up questions when using your product. It gives you real-time feedback, especially when users experience problems.
In-app feedback is most efficient for products with context such as mobile apps, and software platforms. These are areas in which you can collect relevant insights and act on something meaningful that will move the needle right now.
7. Social media & online community
Users will sell and/or talk about their viewpoints on products via social media, or in forums. Perusing other monitoring platforms — e.g., Twitter, or niche-oriented communities is an excellent way to obtain feedback that you might not have encountered by the time your Search Console activates.
Using social listening tools such as Hootsuite or Brandwatch you can follow a conversation about your brand. Joining these online communities will serve two purposes; to collect feedback, and build a reputation for your brand.
Read also: How to Use Social Media for Business Growth
Wrap-Up: How to Leverage User Feedback for Product Development
Feedback from the users is a key weapon to shed light on how you can enhance your product better and keep customers satisfied.
If you are testing new ideas or solving problems or improving the user experience, your ultimate source is the input of your customers on every step throughout product development.
These tools include surveys, interviews, focus groups, support interactions with your users and analytics but also extending that to in-app feedback mechanisms or simply monitoring social media.
