Application Development John Carpenter Mob4hire

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” 3. Black Box 2. White Box Prototyping, alpha testing, developer stage testing, regression testing, code review. No emulators!

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

1. Blank Canvas 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

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

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 application crashes

69% 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

Business Programs Business Programs Product Marketing Sales Service

Customer Acquisition Retention Customer Customer Development Acquisition (cross/up-sell)

Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Customer Development Retention (cross/up-sell)

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

Firm Value

Three ways to grow business

Revenue Growth

Outcome

Behavior

Measure

Increase length of customer life

Churn/ Defection rate

Retention Loyalty

Increase size of customer base

Number of referrals

Advocacy Loyalty

Increase number of purchases

Purchase behavior

Purchasing Loyalty

Purchasing Advocacy

Retention

Customer Loyalty Indices … sample questions
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 Qualitative + Quantitative Response How likely would you be to recommend MOBILE APP to a friend?

0

1

2

3

Detractors Critics

4

5

6

7

8

Passive Neutral Ambivalent

(calculate an average %)

9

10

Evangelists Fans Advocates Angels Missionaries Promoters

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

Evangelist Neutral

This is the stuff you want to do

Critic

Loyalty

Look for biggest impact from recommending behavior

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 we're missing?

2. Give as much time as needed … 10 to 15 minutes? 3. 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 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.

High

This is the stuff you want to do

Low

Importance

“Low hanging fruit”

Difficult

Easy

Ease of implementation

Thank you! John Carpenter, CTO