User Feedback Techniques to Make

Great Mobile Software

John Carpenter
CTO
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 Box
Prototyping, alpha testing,
developer stage testing,
regression testing, code
review. No emulators!
3. Black Box
Users 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.

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

Customer
Loyalty
Making great software is the best marketing strategy

“Don’t Crash” “Don’t Suck”

Over 50% of users experience 69% of users discover apps based
application crashes on quality through top rankings,
reviews and recommendations.

Your revenue growth depends on creating

customer loyalty for your software
Three Dimensions of Customer Loyalty

Customer
Business Acquisition
Retention
Programs
Business
Programs
Customer
Customer Customer
Product Firm
Development
Acquisition Lifetime
Marketing Value
(cross/up-sell) Value
Sales
Service
Customer
Customer
Development
Retention
(cross/up-sell)

Based on research by Dr. Bob Hayes, Ph.D.

www.businessoverbroadway.com
Three ways to grow business

Outcome Behavior Measure

Increase
Revenue Growth

Churn/ Retention
length of
Defection rate Loyalty
customer life
Increase size
Number of Advocacy
of customer
referrals Loyalty
base
Increase
Purchase Purchasing
number of
behavior Loyalty
purchases
 Customer Loyalty Indices … sample questions

How likely are you to upgrade your MOBILE APP from
Retention

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?
Purchasing Advocacy

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 Qualitative + Quantitative Response
(calculate an average %)
How likely would you be to recommend MOBILE APP to a friend?
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Detractors Passive Evangelists

Critics Neutral Fans
Ambivalent Advocates
Angels
Missionaries
Promoters
What’s the one thing we could do to improve that rating for MOBILE APP?
 Look for biggest impact from
recommending behavior
Evangelist

This is the
Loyalty

stuff you
want to do
Neutral
Critic

Low High

Profitability
 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!
Contact Dr. Bob Hayes, Ph.D. for more help on customer loyalty measurement
www.businessoverbroadway.com
 Group User
Feedback Technique:
“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 Recorded
1. 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
1Ensuring that participants actually write
we're missing? down their answers will help “commit” them
2. Give as much time as needed … to the discussion.

10 to 15 minutes?
3. XXXX team collect post-it notes
and stick on wall … consolidate
comments into categories
 Prioritize by Voting
1. 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”

This is the
stuff you
Importance

want to do
High
Low

Difficult Easy

Ease of implementation
 Thank you!
John Carpenter, CTO