Go after feedback with a club

Jack London, the author of The Call of the Wild, was talking about writing when he said “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

The product design equivalent is:

You can’t wait for feedback. You have to go after it with a club.

If you’re waiting for feedback, you’re only going to get 5% of it…as only a tiny proportion of people reach out unsolicited. It’s the hard conversations you need to have…like with your friends who don’t want to tell you the truth, that you need to hear.

Example: recently I was talking with a friend about how they use What to Wear and it occurred to me that her use had actually fallen off and so I asked why. Her response was interesting…something I could immediately fix (and subsequently did fix). I asked why she didn’t tell me and she said “I didn’t want to make you mad”.

Wow…I was floored. I couldn’t believe my friend had suppressed the most important feedback I needed to hear just so she wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I told her that I was actually more upset she didn’t tell me and that I want more than anything real, honest feedback about what’s working and what isn’t working. I can fix anything that’s wrong with the product…but I need to know about it! So that was an extremely important lesson for me to learn…I’ve got to go after feedback with a club.