Filter your user feed back before reading it

Has someone ever told you that your product sucks? Has a customer cancelled his service because he found no use of it? Did you release your product to get feedback and your feelings were hurt? Believe it or not that's what people do and it's actually a good thing. That's the signal you will use to improve your product.

A feedback is better than no feedback at all. Even though you shouldn't listen to every single word your users have to say, it can be a very powerful tool to your success. Take some time to cry it all out, then come back and see what they are actually saying.

A feedback like "move this box 10 pixel to the right" may be completely useless, but it is a signal that you may need to revisit your layout. Just write "revisit layout" in your notes. Others may say something about fonts, colors, spacing, buttons and so on. Instead of trying to address all this one at a time, maybe you should just cross that "revisit layout" from your notes and write "Presentation" instead. Now if you are like me, a programmer, you may be having a hard time creating a user experience. Things may look very easy in your eyes, but your customers maybe having a hard time doing the most basic things with your product:

Another thing is, I designed this website so I know exactly where everything is. You wanna add a new website? Easy:

• Just click on My Account
• go to My Websites
• click on Add website
• enter the URL
• click Add
• add the code on your page to confirm it is your website
• and click on the Validate button.

It made sense when I was creating that process and it still makes sense today, but that's because I designed it. Most people give up before finishing step one.

Obviously feedbacks will not be limited to the UX but I mention this one because it is one that I am currently dealing with. When people find mistakes with what you have to offer, it shouldn't be the end of it all, unless you are claiming that you are perfect. It is an opportunity to make things better, to improve on what you have already created. You just have to accept that nothing is perfect from the start; only incremental upgrades will can get it there.

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On a related note, here are some interesting articles.

How much does your idea cost?

I wish i could tell you that ideas don't matter and it is execution that makes a difference. Then I could show you all kind of data to prove my point. But that's not what I am here for. Actually I can't even give you my own example because I cannot speak from experience.

You can only benefit from your own failure.

In the start up world articles that talk about failure are very inspiring. It is very hard to admit that you failed and move on. On hackernews, these post almost always make it to the front page. There are a lot of praises in the comments section and people thank the poster for being so courageous. But how useful are those articles?

They said if I use bcrypt everything will be fine

Hi my name is Shackleford, Rusty Shackleford. I run a successful web service with millions of active users. It is a one man show but through sheer luck I designed it in a highly scalable way from the very beginning. I am a programmer so it is very important for me to make my service very secure and user privacy is treated with utmost importance. I write today for one reason. Tomorrow, I am shutting down my very profitable business because it is the only way I can hold my end of the privacy contract I promised my customers.

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