There's a Customer Out There with a Bullet for You: Understanding Your Customers

There’s a Customer Out There with a Bullet for You
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Understanding Your Customers
Evan Hamilton
Community Manager, UserVoice

Agenda
Listening failures
Failures of understanding
Success through understanding
Best practices
The importance of saying no
Q&A

Ideas Can Kill
Ideas you ignore
Ideas you don’t understand
Ideas you shouldn’t have listened to

Listening Failures

Listening Failures
Data: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/15/business/yourmoney/15friend.html

Listening Failures
Customers said: 30-second load times suck

Listening Failures
Friendster focused on: VOIP

Listening Failures
Friendster focused on: VOIP
Result: $30MM to ???

Listening Failures
Data: http://blog.precipice.org/why-wesabe-lost-to-mint

Listening Failures
Customers said: We don’t want more work

Listening Failures
Wasabe focused on: Effort-heavy features

Listening Failures
Wasabe focused on: Effort-heavy features
Result: Mint $170MM, Wesabe $0

Listening Failures

Listening Failures
Customers said: We don’t understand it

Listening Failures
Google focused on: “Revolutionizing” communication

Listening Failures
Google focused on: “Revolutionizing” communication
Result: Dead after one year

Failure to Understand

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/like_the_grand_canyon/4649102556/ Data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Coke

$4MM research

$4MM research
200k blind taste tests

$4MM research
55% liked new taste

$4MM research
55% liked new taste
40k letters

$4MM research
55% liked new taste
40k letters
6,000 calls/day

$4MM research
55% liked new taste
40k letters
6,000 calls/day
Off shelf in 79 days

$4MM research
55% liked new taste
40k letters
6,000 calls/day
Was brand, not taste

$4MM research
55% liked new taste
40k letters
6,000 calls/day
Didn’t understand brand importance

500 votes for OpenID integration

Customers disliked it

We finally understood that the issue was signing up for a new account

Built simpler sign-in

Built simpler sign-in
7x increase in conversions

Success Through Understanding

“A stupid idea”
Photo : http://www.flickr.com/photos/tychay/513991272/in/photostream/ Data: Personal interview

“A stupid idea”
6 months building a camera

“A stupid idea”
Traffic “went off a cliff” after 6 weeks

“A stupid idea”
People said: “I want to broadcast”

“A stupid idea”
People said: “I want to broadcast”
Now 3MM visitors/month

Best Practices

Best Practices
Email doesn’t scale

Best Practices
Wastes your time

Best Practices
Wastes your time
Wastes your customers’ time

Best Practices
Wastes your time
Wastes your customers’ time
Solution: Aggregate and prioritize

Best Practices
Avoid the vocal minority
Photo : http://www.flickr.com/photos/28096801@N05/4581041971/in/photostream/

Best Practices
Not representative

Best Practices
Not representative
May not be your best or stickiest customers

Best Practices
Not representative
May not be your best or stickiest customers
Solution: Limit votes so everyone is at the same volume

Best Practices
Avoid the J-Curve
Photo & Data: http://buildingreputation.com/writings/2009/08/ratings_bias_effects.html & http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/09/five-stars-dominate-ratings.html

Best Practices
Avoid the J-Curve
Y! properties: average 4.5 out of 5 stars

Best Practices
Avoid the J-Curve
YouTube tried like/dislike, still had the J-curve

Best Practices
Avoid the J-Curve
(Almost) nobody rates badly

Best Practices
Avoid the J-Curve
(Almost) nobody rates badly
Solution: Only allow up votes, don’t default to top ideas

Best Practices
Avoid steep on-ramps

Best Practices
Domain aliasing: 12% engagement increase

Best Practices
Logo: 25%

Best Practices
Logo: 25%
Custom design: 55%

Best Practices
Logo: 25%
Custom design: 55%
SSO: 124%

Best Practices
Logo: 25%
Custom design: 55%
SSO: 124%
Solution: Integrate your ideas tool completely

The Importance of Saying No

Don’t forget your vision
Data: UserVoice internal & http://mixergy.com/stack-exchange-joel-spolsky-interview/#transcript

StackOverflow had a clear vision

Completed 30% of ideas, declined 62%

0 to 6.5MM monthlies in 2 years

0 to 6.5MM monthlies in 2 years
“educating customers”

StackExchange let anyone create a StackOverflow
Data: http://mixergy.com/stack-exchange-joel-spolsky-interview/#transcript

For every 1 successful site, there were 20 sites with 3 users

The vision was missing

The vision was missing
New sites have to prove themselves before launching now

Conclusion
You have the tools to win:

Conclusion
Actively solicit feedback

Conclusion
Avoid the vocal minority and the J-curve

Conclusion
Avoid the vocal minority and the J-curve
Spend the time understand what people are really saying

Thanks!
@evanhamilton
evan@uservoice.com
understanding.uservoice.com

There's a Customer Out There with a Bullet for You: Understanding Your Customers

by Evan Hamilton on Oct 25, 2010

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