How Feedback Loops Drive MVP Development: Strategies for
Introduction
Need to develop a product people will adore? Begin with the discovery of what the users require--and then create it. An effective minimum viable product (MVP) assists founders to precisely do so. Fundamentally, MVP is a feedback collection and product development tool. It is an important part in the agile development cycle and the basis of the building, testing, and improvement cycle. The device through which SaaS founders achieve the aim of the MVP is a feedback loop. They minimize risk and can be implemented in response to user needs with reduced speed when done properly and implemented. Since MVP can range between $10,000 and $400,000 or more to construct, feedback loops will save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in re-building fees to startups. To facilitate the ongoing improvement and the agile developmental process, they develop the structure.
Feedback loops can save startups tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in rebuilding costs by validating assumptions early in the development process.
What Are Feedback Loops?
Simply put, feedback loops are the mechanism that influences the software improvement through the user input. The cycle follows a number of critical steps:
- Input: Get feedback. The sources may be the customer interviews, surveys, and user testing.
- Process: Evaluate the results. Insights and patterns also arise in order to create changes.
- Output: Introduce alterations to the product. Insight would drive alterations such as the inclusion of new features, the dissolution of app elements, or the customization of the user design.
- Feedback: Feedback loop is to be closed. The product resulting is reintroduced into the process, as an input.
- Adjustment: Time iteration. The process carries out a sequence of improvement of the product every time through.
In spite of the fact that an MVP is the initial workable adaptation of a software product, multiple feedback circles usually occur in the process of developing an MVP. Changes to the MVP can be informed by data of user interviews, usability testing or market analytics. The process of iteration is hardly linear. The feedback loops can eventually alter the course of your product. Nevertheless, going outside of your original MVP list of features or app design is not a loss, but is the basis of designing a product that really fulfills the needs of used of the product.
The necessity of feedback loops in the development of MVPs
Despite the steps that have been advised, there is uncertainty that must exist in the initial stages of development. Feedback loops decrease the risk because assumptions are validated, and features with the most significant impact are identified. An MVP aims at the final objective of testing the product in the market, confirming the demand, and obtaining feedback as the basis for the further improvement of the product. These are some of the objectives that can be attained through feedback loops.
Deciding against using feedback loops to develop MVPs is a blind-flight approach because you will be lucky and hit a path but will be flying at great risk and it will be a much less efficient approach.
Advantages of Feedback Loops
Feedback loops have several interesting advantages to startups, in general:
- Reduced Time to Market: Feedback loops are useful in creating faster iterations, since they collect and utilize user feedback, which helps create shorter time to market.
- Reduced Development Costs: The feedback-Iteration cycle lowers the development costs since it makes the problems to be identified early when they are relatively easy to resolve.
- User-Centric Product: Feedback loops can be used to create a product that users desire to interact with to find out what they need and match it.
- Better Retention: Generally, higher levels of retention are driven by products which have been created using user input.
- Continuous Improvement: The agile philosophy of development is consistent with adopting feedback loops due to their nature of promoting continuous improvement.
Installing Effective Feedback Loops on Your MVP
In order to implement successful feedback loops, a careful set up is required. To achieve the feedback loops in your development process, you will need to select technologies and determine the processes that will facilitate the process. These are the three steps that should be followed to produce the best effect.
Step 1: Observe valuable feedbacks
The first one is the gathering of quality actionable data. The following are some of the useful tools and techniques:
- User Analytics Tools: To gain a deeper understanding of user engagement, consider using a tool such as Hotjar that can present you with the areas of your interface that users engage with and those they do not engage with. Such tools as heatmaps and recordings provide a transparent image of how exactly people use your product.
- Surveys and Forms: The platforms such as Typeform or SurveyMonkey are also a reliable option when it comes to gathering feedback.
- User Interviews: Interview users face-to-face to get a better understanding of what is needed and what hurts them.
Once you have received feedback, then make sure that you analyze it. Critical trends are not necessarily noticeable. Such tools as Google Analytics, e.g., simplify the identification of trends and conclusions about your feedback.
Step 2: Establish a feedback review mechanism
Only your process of reviewing and acting makes feedback very valuable. Make sure that there is a clear process that:
- Involves the major stakeholders such as product managers, product developers and marketing departments.
- Gives feedback feedback first with systematic constructs (ex: The Impact/Effort Matrix or RICE scoring).
- Tracks and documents receive comments of the feedback to prevent losing precious insights.
Step 3: Close the loop
The last step is to come up with an effective loop closing and implementation insight process. The product which has undergone modification in the end of the loop is then the input in the subsequent loop. At the conclusion of this step, you are expected to be able to respond to some key questions such as:
- How will changes caused by feedback be communicated to the development team?
- How will we measure success?
- Which means of communication will we use to relay improvements and iterations to the users?
Just as the change is the most important, it is nearly as important to communicate the changes to the users. Social media, email campaigns, in-app notification or messages are tools you can use to provide the user with alerts about new features and updates. Messaging can be used to enhance user loyalty and adoption.
Transform Your MVP Development Today
Implement feedback loops to reduce costs, accelerate time to market, and build user-centric products that succeed.
Get StartedInterpreting and Taking Action on Feedback
Sometimes the stage of feedback collection can have numerous plausible variations that a startup can or ought to address simultaneously. Other improvements could be more effective than others. In order to derive the maximum benefit out of feedback loops to develop MVP, lean on a regular structure to assist in priorities of feedback.
Impact/Effort Matrix
This is a popular tool to manage potential features. To use it, create a simple grid. The x-axis translates effort with low impact to high impact. The scale of the impact on y-axis is between low and high. At this point, suggest the changes to the grid based on their comparative effects and effort. The visualization of the low-effort, high-impact changes can be achieved in this way to help you prioritize them.
RICE Scoring
RICE scoring is also used to assist the product managers to understand how to pursue feedback initially. In case of every piece of feedback or an offered update, enumerate every one of the following:
- Reach: How many users will this change reach?
- Impact: With what magnitude will we estimate the results of this change, 0.25 (minimal impact) to 3 (massive impact)?
- Confidence: How precise are our results of reach and impact (50% (not very confident) to 100% (very confident)?
- Effort: What will be the amount of time and resources needed to these changes? The number of resources required is calculable in terms of one unit, which is person-months.
A feature with high RICE score can be calculated by multiplying Reach by Impact by Confidence and then dividing the result by Effort. This will provide a less subjective basis of comparison to have the greatest impact in the least amount of effort. RICE Score = (Reach x Impact x Confidence)/Effort
Feedback Examples: Actionable vs. Unhelpful
When creating feedback loops, you should distinguish between the feedback that you can use to make things better and the input that will not help your product evolve. These attributes and instances show the contrast between negative and constructive feedback.
| Type | Unhelpful | Actionable |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | "The app is clunky" | "The menu button cannot be tapped" |
| Measurable | "I find some of the features frustrating" | "Social feed is slow to load" |
| Possible | "The app could be improved with live stock of any local shopping place" | "I would like the app to have a list of local shops" |
| User-Centered | "I believe it would be trendier with a more simplistic design" | "It is difficult to navigate with a more complex interface" |
Advice on How to handle feedback
Revamp your process when feedback loops always produce unhelpful and not actionable data. You may have to reform your feedback-gathering instruments to provoke more practical reactions. Or, your review procedures may require reinforcement. Actionable insights may be hidden by poor analytics that are not able to point out key trends.
Advice on How to handle feedback
The old adage goes, the customer is always right. As much as this is theoretically the case, user feedback has to be mitigated with the business objectives. As an example, in case the feedback shows that users would like to have a social media application, but not a photo-editing one, it is useful information. Nevertheless, a firm may find out that developing a social media application is not in consonance with its core business objectives and competencies.
Simply because user feedback identifies an opportunity, there is no need to pursue it if it doesn't align with your business objectives.
Tips for Handling Feedback
In case of conflict between business objectives and user feedback, you may use the following tips in deciding the way to go:
- Evaluate the urgency: Does the user feedback have some time-sensitive interest or can it be postponed to a later improvement cycle?
- Review your business objectives: Does the market change or competition push or some other element compel you to refocus?
- Collect additional information: Make sure that the user feedback that you are getting is correct and representative of your target market.
The objectives of your business in most instances must be wide-ranged and agile enough to take into consideration user feedback and product development. Stagnant businesses that fail to keep up with changing user requirements are likely to end up becoming irrelevant with time.
Actual Feedbacks Loop examples
In order to understand feedback loops, it is useful to have examples of them in the real world.
The project by the Behind the Knife
For client, a surgical content and education platform, user response shifted the product (which was initially a podcast) into a gated premium library of visually interactive content. As it is still under user testing, the software will keep on developing with more features.
Evolution of MVP in Instagram
The other interesting example of taping feedback loops to a digital product is the Instagram MVP. The application started as a photo-enabled social check-in application. User testing enabled the founders to find out that the photo-sharing feature is something users identify with. This understanding was used by Instagram to shift its vision towards this central purpose of its MVP. The feedback cycles assisted Instagram to concentrate on the areas of the application that users liked and this has allowed it to grow to be the unicorn it is today. The structured feedback loop is required in SaaS startups such as the Behind the Knife, Instagram, and others. The repetitive nature of collecting, evaluating, and implementing feedback is continuing as long as the software is there. There is no finish line but the product must realise usability, retention or adoption gains with time.
Make Feedback Loops Compete
Feedback loops are needed to enhance MVP results. Using well-organized feedback loops on your MVP may also help to reduce time to market, decrease the cost of development, build a user-focused product, and never-ending improvement. By adopting feedback loops as one of your MVP development, you are putting your startup in a place to achieve long term success, as it will be in line with the needs of the users.
Tags
Introduction
Need to develop a product people will adore? Begin with the discovery of what the users require--and then create it. An effective minimum viable product (MVP) assists founders to precisely do so. Fundamentally, MVP is a feedback collection and product development tool. It is an important part in the agile development cycle and the basis of the building, testing, and improvement cycle. The device through which SaaS founders achieve the aim of the MVP is a feedback loop. They minimize risk and can be implemented in response to user needs with reduced speed when done properly and implemented. Since MVP can range between $10,000 and $400,000 or more to construct, feedback loops will save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in re-building fees to startups. To facilitate the ongoing improvement and the agile developmental process, they develop the structure.
Feedback loops can save startups tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in rebuilding costs by validating assumptions early in the development process.
What Are Feedback Loops?
Simply put, feedback loops are the mechanism that influences the software improvement through the user input. The cycle follows a number of critical steps:
- Input: Get feedback. The sources may be the customer interviews, surveys, and user testing.
- Process: Evaluate the results. Insights and patterns also arise in order to create changes.
- Output: Introduce alterations to the product. Insight would drive alterations such as the inclusion of new features, the dissolution of app elements, or the customization of the user design.
- Feedback: Feedback loop is to be closed. The product resulting is reintroduced into the process, as an input.
- Adjustment: Time iteration. The process carries out a sequence of improvement of the product every time through.
In spite of the fact that an MVP is the initial workable adaptation of a software product, multiple feedback circles usually occur in the process of developing an MVP. Changes to the MVP can be informed by data of user interviews, usability testing or market analytics. The process of iteration is hardly linear. The feedback loops can eventually alter the course of your product. Nevertheless, going outside of your original MVP list of features or app design is not a loss, but is the basis of designing a product that really fulfills the needs of used of the product.
The necessity of feedback loops in the development of MVPs
Despite the steps that have been advised, there is uncertainty that must exist in the initial stages of development. Feedback loops decrease the risk because assumptions are validated, and features with the most significant impact are identified. An MVP aims at the final objective of testing the product in the market, confirming the demand, and obtaining feedback as the basis for the further improvement of the product. These are some of the objectives that can be attained through feedback loops.
Deciding against using feedback loops to develop MVPs is a blind-flight approach because you will be lucky and hit a path but will be flying at great risk and it will be a much less efficient approach.
Advantages of Feedback Loops
Feedback loops have several interesting advantages to startups, in general:
- Reduced Time to Market: Feedback loops are useful in creating faster iterations, since they collect and utilize user feedback, which helps create shorter time to market.
- Reduced Development Costs: The feedback-Iteration cycle lowers the development costs since it makes the problems to be identified early when they are relatively easy to resolve.
- User-Centric Product: Feedback loops can be used to create a product that users desire to interact with to find out what they need and match it.
- Better Retention: Generally, higher levels of retention are driven by products which have been created using user input.
- Continuous Improvement: The agile philosophy of development is consistent with adopting feedback loops due to their nature of promoting continuous improvement.
Installing Effective Feedback Loops on Your MVP
In order to implement successful feedback loops, a careful set up is required. To achieve the feedback loops in your development process, you will need to select technologies and determine the processes that will facilitate the process. These are the three steps that should be followed to produce the best effect.
Step 1: Observe valuable feedbacks
The first one is the gathering of quality actionable data. The following are some of the useful tools and techniques:
- User Analytics Tools: To gain a deeper understanding of user engagement, consider using a tool such as Hotjar that can present you with the areas of your interface that users engage with and those they do not engage with. Such tools as heatmaps and recordings provide a transparent image of how exactly people use your product.
- Surveys and Forms: The platforms such as Typeform or SurveyMonkey are also a reliable option when it comes to gathering feedback.
- User Interviews: Interview users face-to-face to get a better understanding of what is needed and what hurts them.
Once you have received feedback, then make sure that you analyze it. Critical trends are not necessarily noticeable. Such tools as Google Analytics, e.g., simplify the identification of trends and conclusions about your feedback.
Step 2: Establish a feedback review mechanism
Only your process of reviewing and acting makes feedback very valuable. Make sure that there is a clear process that:
- Involves the major stakeholders such as product managers, product developers and marketing departments.
- Gives feedback feedback first with systematic constructs (ex: The Impact/Effort Matrix or RICE scoring).
- Tracks and documents receive comments of the feedback to prevent losing precious insights.
Step 3: Close the loop
The last step is to come up with an effective loop closing and implementation insight process. The product which has undergone modification in the end of the loop is then the input in the subsequent loop. At the conclusion of this step, you are expected to be able to respond to some key questions such as:
- How will changes caused by feedback be communicated to the development team?
- How will we measure success?
- Which means of communication will we use to relay improvements and iterations to the users?
Just as the change is the most important, it is nearly as important to communicate the changes to the users. Social media, email campaigns, in-app notification or messages are tools you can use to provide the user with alerts about new features and updates. Messaging can be used to enhance user loyalty and adoption.
Transform Your MVP Development Today
Implement feedback loops to reduce costs, accelerate time to market, and build user-centric products that succeed.
Get StartedInterpreting and Taking Action on Feedback
Sometimes the stage of feedback collection can have numerous plausible variations that a startup can or ought to address simultaneously. Other improvements could be more effective than others. In order to derive the maximum benefit out of feedback loops to develop MVP, lean on a regular structure to assist in priorities of feedback.
Impact/Effort Matrix
This is a popular tool to manage potential features. To use it, create a simple grid. The x-axis translates effort with low impact to high impact. The scale of the impact on y-axis is between low and high. At this point, suggest the changes to the grid based on their comparative effects and effort. The visualization of the low-effort, high-impact changes can be achieved in this way to help you prioritize them.
RICE Scoring
RICE scoring is also used to assist the product managers to understand how to pursue feedback initially. In case of every piece of feedback or an offered update, enumerate every one of the following:
- Reach: How many users will this change reach?
- Impact: With what magnitude will we estimate the results of this change, 0.25 (minimal impact) to 3 (massive impact)?
- Confidence: How precise are our results of reach and impact (50% (not very confident) to 100% (very confident)?
- Effort: What will be the amount of time and resources needed to these changes? The number of resources required is calculable in terms of one unit, which is person-months.
A feature with high RICE score can be calculated by multiplying Reach by Impact by Confidence and then dividing the result by Effort. This will provide a less subjective basis of comparison to have the greatest impact in the least amount of effort. RICE Score = (Reach x Impact x Confidence)/Effort
Feedback Examples: Actionable vs. Unhelpful
When creating feedback loops, you should distinguish between the feedback that you can use to make things better and the input that will not help your product evolve. These attributes and instances show the contrast between negative and constructive feedback.
| Type | Unhelpful | Actionable |
|---|---|---|
| Specific | "The app is clunky" | "The menu button cannot be tapped" |
| Measurable | "I find some of the features frustrating" | "Social feed is slow to load" |
| Possible | "The app could be improved with live stock of any local shopping place" | "I would like the app to have a list of local shops" |
| User-Centered | "I believe it would be trendier with a more simplistic design" | "It is difficult to navigate with a more complex interface" |
Advice on How to handle feedback
Revamp your process when feedback loops always produce unhelpful and not actionable data. You may have to reform your feedback-gathering instruments to provoke more practical reactions. Or, your review procedures may require reinforcement. Actionable insights may be hidden by poor analytics that are not able to point out key trends.
Advice on How to handle feedback
The old adage goes, the customer is always right. As much as this is theoretically the case, user feedback has to be mitigated with the business objectives. As an example, in case the feedback shows that users would like to have a social media application, but not a photo-editing one, it is useful information. Nevertheless, a firm may find out that developing a social media application is not in consonance with its core business objectives and competencies.
Simply because user feedback identifies an opportunity, there is no need to pursue it if it doesn't align with your business objectives.
Tips for Handling Feedback
In case of conflict between business objectives and user feedback, you may use the following tips in deciding the way to go:
- Evaluate the urgency: Does the user feedback have some time-sensitive interest or can it be postponed to a later improvement cycle?
- Review your business objectives: Does the market change or competition push or some other element compel you to refocus?
- Collect additional information: Make sure that the user feedback that you are getting is correct and representative of your target market.
The objectives of your business in most instances must be wide-ranged and agile enough to take into consideration user feedback and product development. Stagnant businesses that fail to keep up with changing user requirements are likely to end up becoming irrelevant with time.
Actual Feedbacks Loop examples
In order to understand feedback loops, it is useful to have examples of them in the real world.
The project by the Behind the Knife
For client, a surgical content and education platform, user response shifted the product (which was initially a podcast) into a gated premium library of visually interactive content. As it is still under user testing, the software will keep on developing with more features.
Evolution of MVP in Instagram
The other interesting example of taping feedback loops to a digital product is the Instagram MVP. The application started as a photo-enabled social check-in application. User testing enabled the founders to find out that the photo-sharing feature is something users identify with. This understanding was used by Instagram to shift its vision towards this central purpose of its MVP. The feedback cycles assisted Instagram to concentrate on the areas of the application that users liked and this has allowed it to grow to be the unicorn it is today. The structured feedback loop is required in SaaS startups such as the Behind the Knife, Instagram, and others. The repetitive nature of collecting, evaluating, and implementing feedback is continuing as long as the software is there. There is no finish line but the product must realise usability, retention or adoption gains with time.
Make Feedback Loops Compete
Feedback loops are needed to enhance MVP results. Using well-organized feedback loops on your MVP may also help to reduce time to market, decrease the cost of development, build a user-focused product, and never-ending improvement. By adopting feedback loops as one of your MVP development, you are putting your startup in a place to achieve long term success, as it will be in line with the needs of the users.
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