Responding to Complaints

Photo by Icons8 Team on Unsplash

Be grateful for complaints.

1. It shows that you’ve created a safe environment for open discussion
2. It is great feedback for your product / team — helps you improve

But not all complaints are equal, and not all of them should be addressed.

1. Customer wants something not in line with your product vision?
2. Customer wants that thing urgently, which could derail other priorities?

It’s our job to keep an open mind and seek feedback regularly. It’s also our job to to set boundaries on what feedback we’ll respond to vs. ignore.

If we don’t, we fall trap to “design by committee”, where any service becomes a hodgepodge of features with no coherent vision.

It means we lose track of what’s “important” in the weeds of what’s “urgent”.

Rather disappoint one person by declining their feedback than accepting all feedback and disappoint everyone when your product fails.