What methods gather feedback when user access is limited?

All answers suggest indirect methods—like observing users, leveraging communities, trusted testers, surveys, and usage data—to gather feedback when direct access is limited, differing mainly in their chosen channels.

6 answers

Answers

  • Marty Cagan

    Partner · Silicon Valley Product Group

    Watch User Use Product

    Marty Cagan says to watch a user use the product, because it made obvious what the user was trying to do and how the product was not good at it.

    Mind the Product · Watch on YouTube

  • Angelique Taylor

    Founder · Addmaple

    Slack Community

    Angelique Taylor says she used a Slack community she'd been part of for years, familiar with its rules but distant enough to get genuine, honest feedback.

    Greenbook · Watch on YouTube

  • Jonathan Evens

    Product Lead · Google Deepmind

    Trusted Testers

    Jonathan Evens says he uses trusted testers, not consumer testers, for B2B feedback, because if there's trust with those users and the PM acts as first human user to QA before real users, it helps iterate faster.

    Mind the Product · Watch on YouTube

  • Srinivasan Raghavan

    Chief Product Officer · Freshworks

    In‑Product Surveys

    Srinivasan Raghavan says he uses in-product surveys, sampling roughly 5–10% of users monthly to gauge satisfaction, because they reach actual users in the moment rather than an admin speaking for others.

    DataCamp · Watch on YouTube

  • Todd Olson

    CEO / Founder · Pendo.Io

    Usage Data

    Todd Olson points to actual usage data from production interactions, saying it lets teams learn areas for improvement and feed them back into an agent to continuously improve.

    DataCamp · Watch on YouTube

  • Dianne Na Penn

    Head of Product Management, Research · Anthropic

    Thumbs Up/Down Feedback

    Dianne Na Penn says the best thing is user feedback, such as thumbs up/down on product surfaces, which reaches her and helps make Claude better.

    Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career · Lenny's Podcast: Product | Growth | Career · Listen at 1:31:33

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