I am looking for innovative ways to gather feedback from customers of a platform and a service in a global scale. Although I am willing to talk with users, I am more interested to know if you have any advice in how I can do it unobtrusively. I am thinking in something where the customer actually don't need to spend a lot of energy and time and I get data with quality. Any software or thoughts that pop up in your mind?
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This feels slightly off-topic. At the very least, can you please provide some solutions you've considered, specific pain points you're having, and a little more about your situation?– Daniel BrownOct 9, 2015 at 20:42
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Sure. I am looking for a way to gather feedback in a more global scale. I don’t want to go and talk with each user, I actually would like to see what they do, without having to ask. For instance, one of the things I have considered is using a heatmap tool, or even some third part tool as Uservoice.– Jean MichaelOct 9, 2015 at 21:17
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I work for a service design company and we use Design Thinking as the heart of the solutions we build. In Human Centered Design we have a bunch of methods that helps us understand our users’ behaviors and feelings. However, most of them requires a certain level of proximity with the user, for instance, interviews, fly on the wall observation, think out loud and so on. But that is not what I want now.– Jean MichaelOct 9, 2015 at 21:18
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This isn't off topic. Feedback collection is important and should not interfere into the flow of the user. One question: What will be the user giving the feedback on? Is it your process, your product, your service?– Swapnil BorkarOct 10, 2015 at 9:13
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Thanks for reaching out Swapnil. This is a new HR process, we are redesigning the way employees are recognized inside an organization. We're shifting the mindset to a more "personal" level, where employees can recognize leaders and peers in a more "open" way. So we are introducing to this organization, new tools to support this process and a completely new way of doing things and I want actually to understand how things are going so far, what we should adapt based on users’ feedback.– Jean MichaelOct 10, 2015 at 21:53
4 Answers
I think there is no substitute for getting your product in front of real people as early in the lifecycle of the product as possible. While I understand the desire for quantitative data, if the product is not yet released, then that option is not available. Ideally you will get your product in front of people who are your customers, or at least who are as much like your customers as possible. Going to the mall or a coffee shop with a laptop and getting into conversations with folks who don't mind talking to you can teach you a lot in just a few hours, even if you only get 10 people to view your product and give you feedback. The time for getting lots of user data is later when the product is available. The suggestion of getting feedback from internal folks within the organization is also a great option, although I assume moves farther away from your customer and carries with it some assumptions your customers may not have such as familiarity with your product or service.
You can try to place a button 'Review Us' near their screens, and ensure your polls are very flexible to have customer enter their ideas, their thought.
One more thing, you can try to use a live chat during beta period to reach customer very closely.
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+1 for live chat during beta period. The more you speak with the users the better.– MayoNov 23, 2015 at 4:20
Sometimes the most subtle way of getting the user feedback is by using analytics. Of course this will not give you valuable feedback right away, you need to put in the right tracking in the right places then be able to read it. I often find that this data is more reliable than user giving direct feedback. It's easier to understand the user needs than the wants.
I have found some good products like feedbackerr.com, usabila, usertesting.com and there are others out there. You ultimately will be paying users for their feedback. I think this is a better approach than asking users to 'donate' their time and tell you their opinion. This approach doesn't properly value their time or their opinion- and will result in low-quality information.