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When is it too early to ask the community for product feedback?
We all know that when it comes to product development, feedback is the most precious gift. Communicating on what you are building and allowing people to test it and comment on it is a great way to make sure you're on the right track.
But when is it too early to do so? Is there a risk that you'll alienate potential users by sharing something that you don't consider completely "finished"?
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Bill Flitter
It's never too early.
Build.
Get feedback from a small group
Iterate
Get Feedback from +1 from the original group
Iterate
Get Feedback from +2 from group 2
Iterate
Get Feedback from +4 from the original group 3
Repeat and continue to ask for feedback when you have thousands of customers.
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It is never too early to ask for feedback, as Reid Hoffman said a couple of times: "If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late", so don't be afraid that you will alienate users, on the contrary you will gain many more if the idea is good even if the product still has kinks that need to be worked out. Also you might find that the feedback you receive from users might take you in different directions, that you might have not considered, allowing you to shift focus early and deliver to your users what they really need.
I agree with the others- it's never too early for feedback! In fact, getting feedback can help you find your product value sooner (the value may be different from what you originally planned!). If you are worried about alienating potential users, you can always communicate your future plans and upcoming features with them :).
@hannahsuyun @benedetta_dal_canton Yes, it is! I'm looking forward to see where Ponicode Dogstring goes in the future :)
I think when you already know about some issues with your product, asking for feedback just reminds you of those obvious bugs or issues. So when you yourself had no other feedbacks about your product, ask others. That way you get valuable feedbacks without telling "oh I already know about that"
@masoudfatemi But don't you think that sometimes you *think* you know about issues in your product, but in reality you're biased by a perspective that is too close?
Couldn't agree more with everyone on this thread that it is basically never too early.
We started to test integrating feedback paths into our products very early.
1. If a customer reaches out to support (for us generally via chat), ask them for some feedback on the product separate from their specific question. Usually since they are already talking to us we've found they are willing to share something about what they like or what they feel is missing.
2. As soon as we launched a self-service sign up for our product, we started emailing users who spend a decent amount of time with the product and abandoned.
Response rate on the email is low, not too surprising, but we've received back a couple of short, but very helpful notes that have given us ideas of how to do better.
@benedetta_dal_canton There is no correct answer to this question. There are just...experiences and cases.
There is a good book about testing - https://www.amazon.com/Mom-Test-... - check it out :)
My own experience says that it MUST be early followers of your product (they like the WAY you solve their fit and don't care about bugs).
BUT be extremely careful to implement ALL the features they offer - keep your own plan.
Good luck! 😊