Research: User Feedback

The more senior your customers are in their profession, the harder it is to get them to talk to your UX researchers. Fortunately, these customers are already communicating with your company via other avenues and constantly feed insights to your sales team, customer-success managers, and marketing specialists.

Businesses receive a lot of exploratory feedback through all these channels: customers report their problems and blockers, make requests, ask questions about sales demos, and express their doubts during business-development qualification calls. All of this is valuable information, but without a robust system in place, businesses fail to capture and use it effectively. Read More

Many first-time product owners have a hard time responding to and learning from focus groups. They may understandably become frustrated by any negative feedback that their product receives. Or they might overreact to positive feedback, which is not always indicative of a product’s overall success. In this article, I’ll explore how product owners can better learn from and respond to initial user feedback from focus groups. I’ll also touch on how to get the most out of your often limited time with focus groups.

Don’t Bias Your Focus Group Participants

It is critical that you avoid biasing or priming your participants. For example, if your product improves the way small business owners do their accounting and you want to see whether there is a market for your product, do not begin by saying, “Are you often frustrated when doing your business accounting?” Instead, begin by asking broader questions—for example, “What are some of the biggest challenges you face when running your small business?” Read More