Essay · 8 min read

3 rules for customer feedback

Des Traynor · Intercom Blog Free Intermediate

Traynor's rule that you should never ask for feedback you are not prepared to act on is exactly the discipline the short answer is pointing at: pick one product decision a week that a real conversation informed, don't just collect opinions. He also warns against pulling feedback from everyone at once, which is a trap founders fall into once they have more users than they can personally track. Short, blunt, and worth rereading whenever your feedback inbox gets noisy.

  • Never solicit feedback you are not prepared to act on.
  • Feedback from all users at once is noise, not signal.
  • When and where feedback was given tells you as much as what was said.

The question it answers

  1. How do I keep learning from customers after launch instead of only doing research once at the start?

Read with it

  1. The single best thing ever written on customer conversations. It teaches you to ask about the customer's life and past... momtestbook.com Book · ~130 pages The Mom Test Rob Fitzpatrick
  2. A short, practical field guide to customer discovery: who to talk to, how to find them, and how many. Pairs perfectly with The... talkingtohumans.com Book · ~80 pages (free PDF available) Talking to Humans Giff Constable
  3. The permission slip to recruit users by hand, do things manually, and deliver 'insanely great' experiences to your first few... paulgraham.com Essay · ~15 min read Do Things That Don't Scale Paul Graham
  4. The standard modern playbook for keeping discovery continuous so roadmap decisions stay grounded in real customer input, not... Product Talk Book · ~240 pages Continuous Discovery Habits Teresa Torres
  5. Video · ~20 min How To Talk To Users | Startup School Gustaf Alstromer
  6. Video · About 3 minutes Steve Blank: Want Your Startup to Succeed? Get Out of the Building Steve Blank (Inc. Magazine)
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