> The fact a customer has a comment doesn't mean you should just implement what they asked for, it means you should really look to understand what they value in the current product and enhance that.
I often felt this way with public education, even down to the elementary-school level. When I was in school, specifically high school, I felt appalled that my voice didn't matter. It was always some school board member telling me that they knew best for me. And certainly that is true to some extent; there are some insights adults will have that students just haven't been exposed to yet due to limited life experience. But they didn't even bother to ask us how they could improve school.
An elementary school kid can still provide great value. Ask them what they would change, and they may reply, "less homework". You know less/no homework isn't the best solution, but maybe what they're really asking for isn't what you hear on the surface. A plea for less homework could be a plea to make education more exciting, without necessarily changing the dial on homework. Is there a way to keep the same amount of homework, but make it more engaging or meaningful that it feels like less work? I think at times we need to dig deeper on people's feedback, past the surface.
I like your approach but in this example, kids really should have less homework. It galls me that a 10 year old is expected to spend 8 hours confined to a school building, and then spend a signficant chunk of after-hours on homework. Unless this is supposed to be preparation for an adulthood where you're never truly off the clock.
This is a really great comment that aligns with most of my experience. Asking feedback is step 1, where you get information and setup social dialogue and reciprocation. Step 2 is to find why you get that feedback, distilling underlaying motivations or reasons why. Sometimes it's not there, and customers really do want a faster horse. But often times, customers want better horses in ways they can't imgine. They just feed you back the limitations of horses.
Step 3 is to verify your true understanding of the feedback using prototypes. "This metal horse is just as fast, but can handle 10 times the forces on the field. Can you try and check if this is what you meant with a faster horse?"
I often felt this way with public education, even down to the elementary-school level. When I was in school, specifically high school, I felt appalled that my voice didn't matter. It was always some school board member telling me that they knew best for me. And certainly that is true to some extent; there are some insights adults will have that students just haven't been exposed to yet due to limited life experience. But they didn't even bother to ask us how they could improve school.
An elementary school kid can still provide great value. Ask them what they would change, and they may reply, "less homework". You know less/no homework isn't the best solution, but maybe what they're really asking for isn't what you hear on the surface. A plea for less homework could be a plea to make education more exciting, without necessarily changing the dial on homework. Is there a way to keep the same amount of homework, but make it more engaging or meaningful that it feels like less work? I think at times we need to dig deeper on people's feedback, past the surface.