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I feel like that makes it really easy to wall off constructive criticism. If you're looking for bad comments you will see more of them. Human communication in g

I feel like that makes it really easy to wall off constructive criticism. If you're looking for bad comments you will see more of them. Human communication in general is hard, consider: "Your product sucks!" ... could mean "Your product is not optimized for my low powered device and I received a subpar, if rare, experience because of it! Please optimize for my device in the future and I will happily become a recurring customer and tell my friends about it!" EDIT: \n, wording

kbenson 10y ago
Well, once you're researched and understand the the other side of the argument, presumably you should be in a good position to determine whether the argument has merit, and additionally whether it makes sense to make a change in response to it (because merit does not imply the change would be right for your product). Sometimes the right response is "Yeah, I understand. It would be great if we had something that addressed your needs, but that's just not something we have the ability to focus on right now given the other priorities we have. If that means you choose something else, that's unfortunate for us, but we wouldn't want to be serving you in a substandard way anyways. Maybe at some point in the future we'll be the right fit." Sometimes respecting your customer is realizing they shouldn't be your customer, for the benefit of both of you.
- ben_jones 10y ago
  "researched and understand the other side of the argument" This assumes the process of "research" can accurately depict not only ALL of the customer's needs and requirements but also their emotional and physical state, put simply you're suggesting research and "understanding" can accurately place your perception of the world 1:1 with their perception of the world. I agree with your point though that some customers are "beyond saving". However the idea from $BIG_COMPANY_X that "I know the problem domain so well and the customers don't know whats best for them!" seems endemic in tech (i.e. Google Plus) and leads to inferior products smelling of our own bull shit. Customer feedback is important. Communication is important. Sometimes we think we are sufficiently communicating when we are not. Sometimes we think we have sufficiently "researched" and we have not.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    Well, yes. But if you have an answer tailor made for the specific critique, then presumably you've heard it before, and have looked into it, and hearing it again (barring an upswell in reporting that type of complaint you weren't anticipating) doesn't really change the facts of the matter (as long as it is the same, and you aren't just misidentifying it). If your research didn't include talking to people that experienced the problem (even if just beta testers), then you didn't research it very well. But, truth be told, most of us have probably fallen prey to that sin before.

kbenson 10y ago

Well, once you're researched and understand the the other side of the argument, presumably you should be in a good position to determine whether the argument has merit, and additionally whether it makes sense to make a change in response to it (because merit does not imply the change would be right for your product). Sometimes the right response is "Yeah, I understand. It would be great if we had something that addressed your needs, but that's just not something we have the ability to focus on right now given the other priorities we have. If that means you choose something else, that's unfortunate for us, but we wouldn't want to be serving you in a substandard way anyways. Maybe at some point in the future we'll be the right fit." Sometimes respecting your customer is realizing they shouldn't be your customer, for the benefit of both of you.

ben_jones 10y ago
"researched and understand the other side of the argument" This assumes the process of "research" can accurately depict not only ALL of the customer's needs and requirements but also their emotional and physical state, put simply you're suggesting research and "understanding" can accurately place your perception of the world 1:1 with their perception of the world. I agree with your point though that some customers are "beyond saving". However the idea from $BIG_COMPANY_X that "I know the problem domain so well and the customers don't know whats best for them!" seems endemic in tech (i.e. Google Plus) and leads to inferior products smelling of our own bull shit. Customer feedback is important. Communication is important. Sometimes we think we are sufficiently communicating when we are not. Sometimes we think we have sufficiently "researched" and we have not.
- kbenson 10y ago
  Well, yes. But if you have an answer tailor made for the specific critique, then presumably you've heard it before, and have looked into it, and hearing it again (barring an upswell in reporting that type of complaint you weren't anticipating) doesn't really change the facts of the matter (as long as it is the same, and you aren't just misidentifying it). If your research didn't include talking to people that experienced the problem (even if just beta testers), then you didn't research it very well. But, truth be told, most of us have probably fallen prey to that sin before.