Quotes About Feedback

New customers come from the actions of past customers.

Product managers figure out what features are likely to please customers; product designers then figure out how those features should look and feel.

we were much more likely to run experiments on our customers than we were to cater to their whims.

The common tendency of product development is to skip straight to the fourth question and build a solution before confirming that customers have the problem.

If a competitor can outexecute a startup once the idea is known, the startup is doomed anyway. The reason to build a new team to pursue an idea is that you believe you can accelerate through the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop faster than anyone else can.

I was finally ready to turn to the last resort: talking to customers. Armed

As Cook says, "Success is not delivering a feature; success is learning how to solve the customer's problem."4

Even if the amount of time that each process took was exactly the same, the small batch production approach still would be superior, and for even more counterintuitive reasons. For example, imagine that the letters didn't fit in the envelopes. With the large-batch approach, we wouldn't find that out until nearly the end. With small batches, we'd know almost immediately.

Instead of working in separate departments, engineers and designers would work together side by side on one feature at a time. Whenever that feature was ready to be tested with customers, they immediately would release a new version of the product, which would go live on our website for a relatively small number of people.

must learn what customers really want, not what they say they want or what we think they should want.

Many of the techniques for doing this—actionable metrics, continuous deployment, and the overall Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop—necessarily cause teams to suboptimize for their individual functions.

Like the other engines of growth, the viral engine is powered by a feedback loop that can be quantified. It is called the viral loop, and its speed is determined by a single mathematical term called the viral coefficient. The higher this coefficient is, the faster the product will spread. The viral coefficient measures how many new customers will use a product as a consequence of each new customer who signs

Although we write the feedback loop as Build-Measure-Learn because the activities happen in that order, our planning really works in the reverse order: we figure out what we need to learn, use innovation accounting to figure out what we need to measure to know if we are gaining validated learning, and then figure out what product we need to build to run that experiment and get that measurement.

It does not matter how fast we can build. It does not matter how fast we can measure. What matters is how fast we can get through the entire loop.

the paid engine of growth is powered by a feedback loop. Each customer pays a certain amount of money for the product over his or her "lifetime" as a customer. Once variable costs are deducted, this usually is called the customer lifetime value (LTV). This revenue can be invested in growth by buying advertising.

Build-Measure-Learn. The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.

although we write the feedback loop as Build-Measure-Learn because the activities happen in that order, our planning really works in the reverse order: we figure out what we need to learn and then work backwards to see what product will work as an experiment to get that learning

What if it turns out that the customer doesn't want the product we're building? Although this is never good news for an entrepreneur, finding out sooner is much better than finding out later. Working

All this time, David was learning and gaining feedback from his potential customers, but he was in an unsustainable situation. You can't pay staff with what you've learned,

Build-Measure-Learn. The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products, measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere.

When startups start to run low on cash, they can extend the runway two ways: by cutting costs or by raising additional funds. But when entrepreneurs cut costs indiscriminately, they are as liable to cut the costs that are allowing the company to get through its Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop as they are to cut waste. If the cuts result in a slowdown to this feedback loop, all they have accomplished is to help the startup go out of business more slowly.

Departments too often spend their energy learning how to use data to get what they want rather than as genuine feedback to guide their future actions.

Greg set out to change the QuickBooks development process by using four principles: 1. Smaller teams. Shift from large teams with uniform functional roles to smaller, fully engaged teams whose members take on different roles. 2. Achieve shorter cycle times. 3. Faster customer feedback, testing both whether it crashes customers' computers and the performance of new features/customer experience. 4. Enable and empower teams to make fast and courageous decisions.

If you are building the wrong thing, optimizing the product or its marketing will not yield significant results.