

Sending Customer Development Surveys - tylerhwillis
http://tylerwillis.net/blog/sending-customer-development-surveys

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skmurphy
There are some good suggestions in the post and in the comments, especially by
David Barrett of Expensify and Lance Walley. Two suggestions I would add:

    
    
       o probe for how satisfied customers would encourage others to try your product.
    
       o listen to "drop-outs" to understand what is dissatisfying
    

Here are two blog posts that contain more suggestions for direct conversation
to understand customer perspective from the stories they tell you as much as
the multiple choice questions they answer.

The Best Feedback From Your Early Customers Is a Story
[http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/11/29/the-best-feedback-
fr...](http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/11/29/the-best-feedback-from-your-
early-customers-is-a-story/)

The Best Way To Get Feedback From Early Customers Is a Conversation
[http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/11/28/the-best-way-to-
get-...](http://www.skmurphy.com/blog/2007/11/28/the-best-way-to-get-feedback-
from-early-customers-is-a-conversation/)

EDIT: It's also good to bear in mind <http://xkcd.com/523/> for the limits of
numbers for understanding relationships, Lord Kelvin's injunction to "measure
everything" doesn't always lead to greater understanding.

------
tylerhwillis
Here's a short list of advice for how to send customer development surveys.
The CEOs of Recurly and Expensify both left great comments arguing for and
against using surveys vs. direct customer development.

[Disclaimer, I wrote this post, but I don't submit everything I write -- the
comments really push this post into being useful].

