Mike Lyons explains how to know if users actually like your product after launch. He covers in-app telemetry, facial reaction recordings, pilot sessions, surveys, and kiosks, then shows how to turn that feedback into backlog stories that make the product better.
Your product owner is happy. Your test users have given you good feedback. You release your product into the wild. How do you know they're gonna love it? Do they really use your product? How do they use your product? It's important to understand how your users are interacting with your product. It's not just a, like, let's engage with the user community while we build it. And then, you know, it'll all be great once we get in the app store or make it available for people to install or whatever that thing of value you're trying to release. Maybe, maybe it's like a book or an online learning program. It's important to gather and use user feedback. When I was a product owner for a mobile app, we had two teams. One was building the iOS side, one was building the Android side. Now, you know, we can have a discussion on whether or not having two teams for that is the way to go. Some, some hybrid approach might work, but I digress. The point is that when we would release apps out and get feedback, we use tools to get feedback for the users. One of the tools I really was fascinated by, I still am blown away that you could do this, is that when the user would interact with our app on the device, the device would have the camera on and would record their face while they're interacting. And maybe they're frustrated, how does this thing work? And then they could talk as they're talking, recording. So we're watching their facial expressions. We can, they can just record, tell us what they think of the app. And of course, we're recording within the app how they're interacting with it. Are they swiping? Are they put, did they, did they get, are they stuck on a screen? We're just gathering telemetry. We're gathering all of this data. We've got telemetry on our products. My, my point is don't get caught in the trap of, build it to some sort of current standard and then, and then don't keep gathering feedback. No, we have to keep getting feedback and then be intentional about writing stories for that and putting in our backlog to make a better product. So on an app like a mobile app, you can have a tool that's gathering that, but what about like just a user group session where you invite people in, set them up on a laptop and let them try your product out. You could do this remotely. You know, maybe it's a pilot program of the first chapter of your, of your book or first chapter of your training. Allow for, maybe put a survey at the end that wouldn't be there. Once, you know, you've got your pilot information back. And then adapt your product at will based on the feedback. And once you're live with your product, have periodic surveys where people can give you feedback. How many times have you been on a website and something will pop up and say, you know, tell us about your experience. One to five. Or, you know, frowny face to smiley face. There are tons of methods to do this. I was walking through an airport in the baggage handling area, and as we left that area, there was a little station stood up there and a little red button and a green button. How was your experience at baggage handling? Red button poor. Green button good. Well, the point is like, that's a method of gathering feedback, by the way. That's like a low tech, you know, they're not even gathering feedback on software. Right. It was just how was your experience in the baggage carousel area? Point is that, you know, they take that same seriously. Gathering feedback, it's huge. It's easy. Make sure you're doing it on your products.
