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Q&A Section

Q: If you weren’t building Habits what other co wld you build? - Dylan

A: I’m fascinated by how crowded and fragmented the soloprenuer & creator space is. Massive opportunity, rising users, and more and more big companies wanting to reach their audiences. In my eyes, the future includes less and less mass marketing strategies. A lot more targeted, customized and unique campaigns. But hey…I took one marketing class in college and pretty sure I got a B+ lol. -JB

Conflicting Feedback

Most startups fall into two buckets: (1) brave new world or (2) better, cheaper & faster. In one case you’re building something that’s never existed and the other you’re a new player in a mature industry.

But no matter what, you can count on everybody wanting more, for less, with simpler, more intuitive, and better technology.

That’s why in a single day, you could have 10 different opinions about new features, work-flows, or UI designs.

So what do you do? And that’s why gathering feedback is a skill.

Blitzkrieg

All the time. Constantly. Never hesitating. BURN THIS INTO YOUR BRAIN…you are always asking for feedback. Tracking it. Questioning it. Following up.

Because you’re in a constant battle between your gut and whatever users are saying back. Let’s go through some examples…

“The fact I have to fill this out to unsubscribe is bs” is going into the hall of fame for survey responses. And yes I joke about that, but you bet your a** I followed up via email.

Why did they subscribe in the first place? Why didn’t they unsubcribe sooner? Are they in our ICP? Was it the content itself, style, delivery, etc.? Should we make that last question mandatory? … these are the questions that roll through my head.

Because there is always something you can learn. You may hear the same response 99 times out of 100 conversations, but that one small remark could flip your product roadmap upside down.

I have dozens of more examples from this week, but I think you get the point. When it comes to feedback -in almost military like fashion- you must be disciplined, calculated, and aggressive.

Critical Feedback >

It’s nice to hear words of encourgement or compliments, but all they do is validate what you’ve done.

You gotta re-organize your mindest to be obsessed with critical feedback. That’s what makes you and your product better for the future.

And people are inherently kind. They don’t want to share tough feedback. So I jokingly break the ice by saying “if I want to be told ‘good job then I’ll call my grandmother, she’s very proud.”

Works every time.

Rapid Fire Bullets on Feedback

• Avoid questions that begin with “so” or “did.” They won’t help. Ask divergent questions. The one’s that begin with who, what, when, where, why, blah blah blah.

• Be comfortable in silence! Take a pregnant pause and force the feedback out through sheer awkward silence.

• Automate feedback loops (e.g. unsubscribe survey to this blog).

• You should have some sort of feedback related question prepared for every external call (investors, users, customers, etc.).

• Organize your CRM to score user sentiment, store recent conversations, build survey workflows, and use something like Hubspot (free for startups) to automate these initatives.

• Reward those who offer good feedback! For example, 50% of our initial advisor based got access to invest in Habits early on.

Feedback is the lifeblood to any startup (outside of cash lol). It keeps you on your toes, it’s the bedrock to your user relationships, and you never know…you may find a new employee or investor through it all.

(both of which are true for Habits…)

^{Find Your Financial Advisor}

If you’re somebody on the sidelines or are not sure if a financial advisor makes sense for you or your family, just shoot me an email at [email protected].

Or… visit our website and book time with us!

Thanks for reading, Habits fam. See you back here next week for more.

-JB