Feedback: The Message In A Bottle

Feedback loops are present in digital products and their projects through a range of distinct streams. Customer surveys where responses are solicited, in hiring processes where candidates may receive comments, and on social media and in app-store reviews where customers have an opportunity to make remarks.

There's a story behind every piece of feedback, yet not all forms of feedback will help you make effective decisions in your interest.

To use customers as an example - they know (or at least we should expect them to) about the experiences they've had. When they make remarks they don't necessarily know about the past experiences that they could have had with previous versions, they won't know about plans to change the product in the future, and they won't know about the factory or the project or any other associated concerns. User feedback may read something like: "doesn't work". It may be true, but it doesn't tell us whether we have a mutual set of expectations - in other words, whether there is a problem with the factory or with the digital product.

When I wrote about hiring processes for technology roles I mentioned a range of common challenges that are put to candidates to overcome, some of which relate to code, primitives and forming The Plan. In practice when feedback forms a part of these processes, it often reads as a preference of one side of a project metric trade-off over another. Performant code might receive the note that it could have been more readable. Highly readable code might receive the note that it is not reusable enough. The sensibilities of engineers about code is its own field of truth.

The broader point is that navigating feedback systems to your benefit requires a framework to filter and process for remarks that are aligned with your goals. When people make remarks, they are telling you their truth. Look at that, the field of truth grows larger.

Feedback can loop into itself through communities, which is a consideration not only for the maintenance of digital products and their factories but also for technology choice, as per revolution after revolution.

Until next time.