Subjective feedback is usually unstructured and non-constructive

As designers, we are faced with subjectivity every time when collecting feedback. This is default and natural human behaviour.

This is also a sign of us asking for product feedback in a wrong way.

Customer feedback is an opinion; it is not a demand[1]. The final decision about which feedback should be implemented into a product is a task for a product designer.

Everyone express their opinion when using the product. This is a natural human behaviour, because the interface IS the product for most of the users. Also people frequently judge design by aesthetics and believe that visually attractive products are also easy to use.

Collecting product feedback

It's on designer to ask for exact, structured product feedback. To provide a corrective framework for useful, constructive responses that contribute to the research, rather than just collecting opinions.

So how do we do that? The basic example is to ask "How does (X) deliver value to the customers?" instead of "What do you think?" The idea is to aim for a reflection rather than for the opinion.

Another way to go is to develop a culture of stating hypothesis, and to try to disprove it during collecting feedback, in the same way as scientists do. It is not easy to establish this ritual, but it pays off in the long run; you will harvest high quality, structured and constructive feedback.

And what if we doubt the stakeholder answer? The more continuous research we do in a project, the more accurate answers will eventually pile up.

Your audience has the answers you need, not the ones you want. Your goal is to recognise the difference, and to distinguish between those two.

This note is inspired by those authors:

Designs without user feedback are just expensive art projects. -Jon Balboa, LinkedIn

Opinion is the weakest form of user data. -Jared Spool

Design without feedback is theater. -Pavel Samsonov, Product Picnic

Your audience has the answers you need, not the ones you want. -Rob Fitzpatrick, Author of "Mom test"

Customer feedback is an opinion; it is not a demand. -Jason Fried, It doesn't need to be crazy at work

  1. In "It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work"(2018, co-authored with David Heinemeier Hansson), Jason Fried discusses how companies often misinterpret feedback as demands rather than opinions. ↩︎

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