User Feedback Techniques to Make Great Mobile Software

John CarpenterCTO

Mob4Hire

Why is user feedback important?① 69% of mobile

users discover apps based on top store rankings, user reviews and recommendations from friends.

② Therefore … making great software is your best marketing strategy

③ But … you can’t make great software without including users!

Two Problems:1) The “Fragmented Mobile Ecosystem”Mobile Ecosystem

Handset diversity; Over 25K on 750+ operators Software diversity

O/S diversity (platforms, middleware, widgets) Standards implementation diversity

(“According to standards, this should work …”, “That API isn’t documented but it kinda works like …”)

Mobile 2.0 browser diversity Operator / Environmental diversity

Developer or Regional Feature variations, e.g. freemium models User preference diversity (requirements, accessibility, languages)

Two Problems:2) Difficult to access users for feedback

The Mobile Test “Cycle of Life”

2. White BoxPrototyping, alpha testing, developer stage testing, regression testing, code review. No emulators!

4. GoldUsability and user experience feedback. Customer loyalty and business model studies.Viral / killer feature feedback for marketing.What needs to go into next version?

3. Black BoxUsers testing software on their devices, in-market. Developers make the worst testers. How do users respond to your app? Make sure it’s a great experience BEFORE you port or post.

1. Blank CanvasWhat do we want to build? Who is our target user? Storyboarding. What’s our business model?

“Mobile Test Cycle of Life” © 2009 Mob4hire.com

User Feedback in the 10 Step Development Cycle

“User Feedback in the 10 Step Mobile Development Cycle ” © 2009 Mob4hire.com

CustomerLoyalty

Making great software is the best marketing strategy

“Don’t Suck”“Don’t Crash”Over 50% of users experience

application crashes69% of users discover apps based on quality through top rankings, reviews and recommendations.

Your revenue growth depends on creating customer loyalty for your software

Three Dimensions of Customer Loyalty

Based on research by Dr. Bob Hayes, Ph.D.www.businessoverbroadway.com

BusinessPrograms

MarketingSales

Service

CustomerDevelopment

(cross/up-sell)

FirmValue

CustomerLifetime

Value

CustomerAcquisition

CustomerRetention

BusinessPrograms

MarketingSales

Service

CustomerAcquisition

FirmValue

CustomerLifetime

Value

CustomerRetention

CustomerDevelopment

(cross/up-sell)

Product

Three ways to grow business

Outcome Behavior Measure

Revenue Grow

th

Increase length of customer

lifeChurn/

Defection rateRetention

Loyalty

Increase size of customer base

Number of referrals

Advocacy Loyalty

Increase number of purchases

Purchase behavior

Purchasing Loyalty

How likely are you to upgrade your MOBILE APP from Freemium to a Paid subscription?(Please rate us on a scale of 0-10 where 0 = Extremely Unlikely and 10 = Very Likely)

Would you buy this app from us again?

How likely would you be to recommend MOBILE APP to a friend? What’s the main reason you’d give for recommending MOBILE APP?

How likely are you to purchase different types of APPS from us? What’s the main reason you’d want to purchase different APPs from us?

Customer Loyalty Indices … sample questionsR

eten

tion

Pur

chas

ing

Adv

ocac

y

Customer Loyalty Qualitative + Quantitative Response

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

EvangelistsFansAdvocatesAngelsMissionariesPromoters

DetractorsCritics

PassiveNeutral

Ambivalent

How likely would you be to recommend MOBILE APP to a friend?

What’s the one thing we could do to improve that rating for MOBILE APP?

(calculate an average %)

Look for biggest impact from recommending behavior

Loya

lty

ProfitabilityLow High

Crit

ic

N

eutra

l E

vang

elis

t

This is the stuff you want to do

Contact Dr. Bob Hayes, Ph.D. for more help on customer loyalty measurementwww.businessoverbroadway.com

Starting a Customer Loyalty Measurement Program

• Someone in the Executive Team must sponsor it Don’t delegate leadership or the program will fail Get outside help to set it up

• Measure constantly and consistently• standard survey tools• at regular events or times; when the user registers,

disconnects, upgrades, hits a high score• Incorporate metrics into executive

management meetings• Watch for quantitative upward trending …

if things are going up, that’s good!

Group User Group User Feedback Technique:Feedback Technique:

“Townhall”“Townhall”

Who is at a Townhall? Team Members

1 team member to be Facilitator 1 coordinator to handle logistics 1 note taker for “stream of consciousness” Bring in others from the team to participate (support,

development, sales, executives mandatory) … virtual townhalls can have many

Recruiting customers 12 participants is great Contact day before townhall to confirm / remind Ensure customers have directions and parking

instructions (pay for parking if needed); if virtual, clear instructions on how to log in

Townhalls take approximately 2 hours

Before you start the townhall Prepare two flipcharts

On flipchart 1, page 2, write: “Take a few minute to jot down:”

3 things you like about XXXX 3 things you dislike about XXXX 3 opportunities that we’re missing”

On flipchart 2, page 2, write: “This is what we’ll do:

Record your ideas / issues (private time)

Vote to prioritize ideas / issues Discuss top ideas / issues”

Cover both flipcharts with page 1 On wall, clear three large areas

with the titles “Like” “Dislike” and “Opportunities

Get Ideas Recorded1. Ask participants to write down 3

answers to each of the following questions1: What do you like about XXXX,

XXXX's products? What do you dislike about

XXXX? What are the opportunities

we're missing?§ Give as much time as needed …

10 to 15 minutes?§ XXXX team collect post-it notes

and stick on wall … consolidate comments into categories

1Ensuring that participants actually write down their answers will help “commit” them to the discussion.

Prioritize by Voting1. Once all post-it notes are

on wall, pass out 10 little sticky dots to everyone

2. Everyone should stand up

and review what’s on the wall. XXXX staff can get dots of another colour, optional.

3. Customers place their dots on the sticky notes that resonate the most with them. They can allocate their dots any way they want; 10 on one note if they like

4. Virtually, you can use a chat room

“Seek to understand”On flipchart, list

the top priorities from each category

based on the # of dots

Then … “Seek to understand” … dive into each priority … involve customers in trying to understand. Spend only a little time on “likes” and much more on “dislikes” and “opportunities”. Ask customers how to solve it.

“Low hanging fruit”Im

port

ance

Ease of implementationDifficult Easy

Low

H

igh

This is the stuff you want to do

Thank you!John Carpenter, CTO