Who do you ask first, users who love your app, or users who don’t?
Philippe Beaudoin
7 replies
I know it’s all about talking with my users to understand them… but who do I talk to first? Those who answer « yes » to my satisfaction survey or those who answer « no » ? Or a bit of both maybe?
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Nico Spijker@nicolaas_spijker
Bash
Those who answer 'Yes' will help you narrow down your ideal customer profile (ICP), so initially it's a great place to start.
People who already love your product can more easily be converted into paying customers further down the road + you need to make fewer changes to adjust the product to their needs.
Obviously the 'No' can provide a lot of interesting insights as well, but typically defining your ICP first will bring you more impact in the short term. :)
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@nicolaas_spijker makes sense. So, the ‘yes’ to build a better model of who need my app, which is a big driver of success early on.
I find it hard. I so want to ask the ‘no’ what they don’t like! :)
I would ask users who don't love my app first, but I would be selective to what type of "disliker" I ask.
For example, if they weren't even a previous customer and dislike my app because it's not even offering what I intend for it to offer and they want an entirely different app, then I would either ignore them or point to a different app.
But if they're avoiding trying the app for a feature they dislike, then I'll pay more attention. And I'll be even more attentive for those that use my app but dropped it.
I think for users that already love your app, there is no loss if you do nothing and something to gain if you improve, but for users who don't like it, you have more to lose if you don't improve and something to gain if you do. So the payoff for me is pretty clear here.
@richard_gao2 Interesting. I imagine it works for incremental changes. Any hints at how you can make this work for a new app? How could one segment their dislikers into: (a) those who dislike it because it's not the app for them, vs (b) those who need the app but dislike it as it is.
@philbeaudoin For a new app, rather than ask existing customers, you could conduct customer interviews and ask about their problems, what they're doing to solve them, and what they don't like about their current solutions (this one is most important)
I've noticed that potential customers that have a problem but have a vague or nonexistent answer to question 3 ("what don't you like about your current solution?") are usually in group (a) - not the app for them.
You can ask these questions to existing customers that dislike your app as well as a new app.
If they answer the third question specifically and strongly, then it's likely because your app isn't serving their needs or will not serve their needs as a (b) disliker.
I prefer to ask users who like our products, especially users who use them deeply. You must know that there are many similar products, and these users who use them deeply must have used other competing products. And compared to users who don't like our products, users who like our products are more willing to spend time answering our questions about the products. This is the result of our user research not long ago.