Right now I'm in the process of redesigning the Bazaar Web site. It's a really exciting project for me as each major step in the redesign process involves a community consultation process. This is similar to the same process that the Drupal community went through with Mark Boulton Design, but on a smaller scale.
One of the things I've learned about working with communities and committees is how to solicit feedback. By directing people to specific questions you can generally get more usable feedback. Of course things will always drift a little bit, but the more focused you are in the "ask", the more useful the comments will be to you.
Asking specific questions is only one part of getting useful feedback though. You must also be asking the right people. The stakeholders. The customers. The people willing to pony up and foot the bill. Karyn Greenstreet wrote about this recently on her blog post The Fallacy of the Small Sample Size. In the post she shows that patience is key to getting the feedback you need. But she's missing one part. Of all the people who provided feedback, which of the target group has (1) paid for services in the past and (2) is likely to pay for services in the future?
In the Bazaar redesign project I've been referred a number of times to the "vulnerable" or potential users. In the case of the redesign I have developed a series of Bazaar front page personas. The personas are used to ensure the loudest feedback I receive does not steer the design away from what my vulnerable users need to see on the front page of the new site.
Karyn's open call to her mailing list raises a great point about sample size, but also a concern. Asking a large number of people about future business offerings does not address one key point: who in this group is ALSO planning to buy this offering in the next year?
Next time you ask for feedback be sure to keep these lessons in mind and:
- Determine which specific questions you really want answers to.
- Determine who, specifically, you want to get feedback from. (Hint: you want to help the "vulnerable" people make a commitment to your service or product.) Write a description of this person is.
- Solicit feedback from people who match your potential consumer for this specific offering. You will end up with several different kinds of people that you solicit feedback from for various initiatives.
- Don't be distracted by the loudest feedback. Be sure to look for answers from the most vulnerable, and those most likely to buy/consume/download or use your services and products.
