I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how much (if anything) user feedback really means when it comes to developing new products. How do you know where to draw the distinction between a few vocal users, and an actual groundswell that is representative of what the masses actually want or will use?
TripAdvisor CEO Stephen Kaufer actually had some fantastic thoughts on this at the Momentum Summit a few weeks back, but sadly, the audio of his interview is not on the wrap-up page. Do listen to these speakers though, they all were great (especially the story of Akamai from co-founder Tom Leighton).
ANYWAYS…
I was reminded of two great quotes on the subject of user feedback. One of which I’ve posted before.
“If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”
-Henry Ford
And
“Frind has resisted adding other commonly requested features, such as chatrooms and video profiles, on the same grounds. “I don’t listen to the users,” he says. “The people who suggest things are the vocal minority who have stupid ideas that only apply to their little niches.”
-Markus Frind
And lastly, since it is related and funny…
We recently added a “Feedback” tab on one of our consumer facing sites. The tab sits rather subtly to the side of the page, and is meant to give users a quick channel through which to send us (ideally meaningful) feedback. Since putting this up, we’ve had several users take advantage of this feedback tab. Their feedback? They don’t like the feedback tab.