Fear of Feedback

I recently submitted bzplnr to Hacker News – a well-known online community of start-up founders and hackers. The idea was to solicit their opinion on the design, usability and general purpose of the site and business idea.

I knew these people were tough and exacting in their standards, but previously I had been on the reviewer’s side of the fence. This was my first time as a reviewee. Needless to say, I was pretty nervous about the possible feedback. Luckily, I had a fairly good idea what some of the comments would focus on (name, colour scheme, layout) and I also knew the content needed to be punchier and more focused on the value proposition.

At this point, I bet you’re expecting something along the lines of “but I never expected the torrent of bile that spewed forth…” Sorry to disappoint. The comments were all constructive, albeit some more direct than others. They were in the main helpful. Some were really detailed (and therefore time-consuming to construct).

Even though the basic idea of bzplnr was validated and the implementation viewed as being, shall we say, a prime candidate for urgent re-modelling (!) , I am really, really glad the participants took the time out to provide that feedback. My business will be all the stronger because of it. The hardest thing for me was to not focus on the responses that validated my idea or implementation decisions, but to really think hard about the less positive criticism and whether I agreed with it and would act upon it.

So what lessons can be learnt from this? A few, I think:

1. People are basically decent and willing to help a sincere request for feedback and/or assistance
2. Sometimes a risk is worth taking (in this case, risk to my delicate ego)
3. When you listen to the answers to the question you asked, you can learn an awful lot

All three points are important, for sure, but the the third point is critical. I really thought the name and other aspects were brilliant products of my genius mind! A (mostly) harmless pricking of that particular part of my ego has done wonders. I am so much clearer now about what my audience likes; prefers; demands; hates. I am also much more focused on what needs to be done (and how to do it) than before.

Do you listen to people’s criticism? Or do you prefer to scan for affirmation of a preconceived notion?

Do you know what you are missing?