Product innovation is a great way of setting yourself apart from your competitors. Because not only are the needs of your customers everchanging, but also technologies and possibilities. But how do you stay informed regarding customer needs? And how will your company respond to these needs and translate those needs into an enhanced product? The answer is a good product feedback loop.
In this blog we explain what a product feedback loop is and how it can help those who want to continuously innovate on their products.
To illustrate, Mopinion asked Michelle Matus, Product Marketing Manager at MindMeister (a long time customer of Mopinion) to share her input – because if anyone knows how important product innovation is, it’s Michelle. To give you some background information, the Meister company has gone from one brand, MindMeister, to three different brands (or products). These brands all complement each other in one way or another and are all aimed at achieving good team collaboration.
Taking the right product marketing approach...
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What is a Product Feedback Loop?
The product feedback loop is the process of continuously collecting, analysing and acting upon user feedback so as to maximise the performance of a product or service. It is not called a ‘loop’ for nothing. The product feedback loop is an ‘ongoing’ process and that is exactly where its strength lies.
Michelle tells us that Meister has been collecting feedback at MindMeister since the very beginning (in 2007). Based on this feedback, her team learned how customers use the mind mapping software in practice, which features are important and what they could improve upon.
Source: Productboard
The Benefits of a Product Feedback Loop
By consistently addressing the needs and expectations of your customers, you increase their involvement in the enhancement of your product(s). Your customers want to get the most out of your product and if you make that possible for them to provide feedback on the product, that will certainly be a great start to a long-term relationship.
By keeping your customers well informed about the developments of your product, you indirectly tell them that you value their feedback.
Note: communicating clearly to your customers prevents confusion and/or wrong expectations among your customers and thus ensures that you will receive fewer complaints or negative feedback.
We balance between innovating and leading the way while making collaboration easier by developing user-friendly features
Michelle Matus, Product Marketing Manager at MindMeister
Improve your products with user feedback
Enrich your product and shape the roadmap
The Different Phases of the Product Feedback Loop
Let’s take a look at the different phases:
1. Collect product feedback
2. Analyse data for insights
3. Use conclusions for product optimisation
4. Share improvements with customers
Below we will explain the different phases step by step, so that you can set up your very own product feedback loop.
1. Collect product feedback
Let’s start at the beginning and find out what your customers think of your product. Is your product user-friendly? Are your customers using your product as intended? Collecting product feedback provides answers to these kinds of questions.
Example of a product feedback form in Mopinion
“When MindMeister was first launched, we immediately started collecting feedback, even when there were not that many users. We asked family, friends and customers about their experiences and we learned a lot from this,” says Michelle.
In practice, you can collect product feedback in several ways. Read all about it in this product feedback guide. Alternatively you can check some practical examples of product feedback templates here for inspiration.
Analyse data for insights
Once you’ve collected the feedback, the next step will be to interpret what these insights mean for your product. In a tool like Mopinion you can view your feedback results in the dashboard. Compare the different KPIs and supplement the feedback with data from your product management tool or support department, so that you know what users think of new features. This will help you discover what your customers really find important and which features, for example, are hardly used or could be used more effectively.
Example of a dashboard in Mopinion
Michelle shares, “thanks to user feedback, we discovered that customers needed more options besides mind mapping to collaborate and our feedback gave us insight into what those options might be.”
Use Conclusions for Product Optimisation
Now that you know where your product falls short or what doesn’t match your customers’ expectations, you can get started with optimising.
For example, the user feedback MindMeister collected showed that many users were creating projects in MindMeister, but couldn’t really move forward after that; an insight which led Meister to create MeisterTask. This tool enabled these same users to create and manage tasks so that they can collaborate even more extensively.
By sharing this feedback with the right teams, you can create a strategic product roadmap and improve the quality of your existing product(s) as well as prioritise new features.
Share updates with your customers
Your customers have taken the time and effort to leave feedback. Therefore by keeping customers informed about the time and effort you put into improving your product based on their feedback, your customers will realise that their voice counts. Customers are more likely to purchase a product from you or tell others how satisfied they are with you if they feel good about your product and brand.
“Recently, the beta version of MeisterNote went live and by popular demand, we now also have a documentation tool,” says Michelle. “During the beta phase, as much feedback as possible is collected so that the tool can be refined where necessary and meets the needs of the users even better.”
By sharing news, releases and updates by email, showing a pop-up notification in the app or on your website, you can keep customers informed of the changes you’ve made. And don’t forget to take advantage of this moment and ask your customers for feedback on these improvements.
Source: MeisterNote
Innovation and user feedback
“This market is changing very quickly,” says Michelle.
“To stay ahead of our competitors, we constantly measure how well our products are. We cannot blindly follow trends, because it is almost impossible to keep up. Instead, we look at the user experience and rely on the feedback from our users. We have grown tremendously in recent years. We want to make working together better and more fun for our users, regardless of time or place. And we can only do that by listening to our users and keeping them informed of developments. In this way we continue to innovate and grow as well as close the product feedback loop.”
Mopinion’s feedback loop in a nutshell
At Mopinion we are also constantly optimising the user experience. We collect user feedback in various ways and are always in touch with our customers about our platform, the functionalities we offer, their needs as users and more. We incorporate this feedback into our digital strategy and product roadmap and then share what we are doing, i.e. what users can expect in the near future and what we have done with the feedback.
Have you read up on our newest releases? Be sure to check out our new blog series ‘Behind the Feedback’ and discover what’s new and how we continue to innovate our platform. Because our feedback software is never finished….
Ready to see Mopinion in action?
Want to learn more about Mopinion’s all-in-1 user feedback platform? Don’t be shy and take our software for a spin! Do you prefer it a bit more personal? Just book a demo. One of our feedback pro’s will guide you through the software and answer any questions you may have.
