How do you segment and prioritize your customer feedback and requests?

Remember that you are selling to someone, focus more on the right persona than the segment and start to test, sometimes is better to focus on one industry and go all in.

First, keep in mind that not all feedback are created equal. Trying to please everyone will leave you with a "Frankenstein" product—something that does a bit of everything but lacks a clear, strong core. Don’t build a collection of "nice-to-haves" without a sharp focus to break into the market. Instead, seek out "lighthouse users"—those who truly feel the pain and need a solution like yours. They’ll guide you with meaningful feedback and won’t overwhelm you with requests for minor bug fixes, UX tweaks, or dark mode 😁. How do you find them? Segment for behavior-driven metrics. Look at the top 10-20% of your most active users—who are they, and what common traits do they share? Start here and tune out the noise.

A really relevant step to enhance your process is creating a feedback loop with your customers! Not only collect feedback but also let them know the results (how their input has influenced your product or service). By doing this, you not only strengthen customer trust but also encourage lasting engagement.

Impact - Categorise feedback based on potential impact. High-impact feedback could be very crucial in addressing critical bugs, suggesting major feature improvements, or revealing unmet needs. Urgency - Prioritise urgent issues that significantly affect user experience or revenue. Think about crashes, security vulnerabilities, or payment processing problems. Customer Type - Accurate Segmentation of feedback based on customer groups like power users, new users, or specific demographics. This helps tailor responses and prioritise features relevant to different segments. Sentiment - Group your feedback by sentiment – positive, negative, neutral – to gauge overall satisfaction and identify areas for improvement.

Some feedback can change the course of the product journey, for better, or for worse. It’s important to set a clear north star for the product you are building, or the customer will set that north star for you. Be clear.

What type of tools are you using to collect customer feedback? See what options are available to create categories and tags for related ideas as a place to start. Of course this becomes tedious if you manage large amounts of customer (or colleague) input. Look for an idea management tool that gives you more ways to organize, evaluate, and act on ideas. We use our own software (Aha! Ideas) — it is a lot easier and faster to categorize and respond to requests when everything is in one place.

Focus on two key feedback areas: 1. Core Value: What value are you delivering? 2. Value Blockers: What stops some users from gaining more? Start by analyzing your product data. What actions do your most engaged users perform? What value might that represent? Also, interview users like your top segment. Avoid asking, "What feature would improve this product?"—they don’t think about it daily. Instead, dig into their story: 1. “How did you start using this product?” “What were you doing before?” → uncover value. 2. “What do you still do the old way or with another product? Why?” → identify blockers.

You might occasionally spot a brilliant idea that should go right in your backlog. Or you will get the opposite — where it is clear that a request does not support your vision. But it is often more nuanced than that. This makes it tough to discern the value of ideas. It helps to have a scoring method — so you can evaluate ideas against the metrics that matter to your business. At Aha! we use what we call a product value scorecard. Its metrics include impact, importance, strategic alignment, and effort to implement. We can then compare scores across ideas and create ranked lists of what to prioritize.

To segment and prioritize customer feedback, categorize it first, then use methods like the MoSCoW method, RICE score, or Kano model. The MoSCoW method sorts feedback into must-have, should-have, could-have, and won't-have, focusing on essential features. The RICE score evaluates feedback based on Reach, Impact, Confidence, and Effort, prioritizing high-impact, feasible changes. The Kano model categorizes features by user satisfaction levels, prioritizing basic needs and performance improvements. Use tools like spreadsheets, kanban boards, or product management software to track and rank feedback, ensuring a user-centric product evolution.

Focus your product efforts on amplifying the core value your product delivers, while addressing situations where users turn to other solutions. Prioritize like this: - 80% on enhancing the core value. Iterate on core features or add those that strengthen it. - 20% on fixing value blockers. Remove obstacles that hinder usage. Example: Superhuman, an email client for inbox zero, found its core value in speed—helping users organize emails faster. The blocker? Users couldn’t do this on smartphones and relied on other apps. They focused on making the client even faster and built a mobile app to remove the blocker.

In this path to validate customer feedback and requests, it's important not to get too obsessed with proving correctness to something you fixate. There's a reason that your customers tell you the problems they face—it's important to navigate these problems from the lens of assumptions so you arrive at the right set of problems to pick and solve. Viewing customer responses as a means to validate your objective decisions or using them without direct alignment with your product strategy can hurt in the longer run of building your startup.

You'll never fix everything that everyone wants fixed! Take a look at your future product roadmap. Are there certain features that customers want that were already planned? Consider moving the timeline on these newly prioritized features. It's really easy to chase after easy fixes. Focus on the ones which will drive the most benefit for your customers and your revenue.

To segment and prioritize customer feedback, categorize it by impact, feasibility, and alignment with business goals. Implement validated feedback using frameworks like lean startup, agile methodology, or the build-measure-learn cycle for fast, iterative development. Utilize project management software, code repositories, and testing tools to manage and monitor the process. For example, prioritize and develop high-impact features using agile sprints, regularly measure progress, and gather further feedback to refine the product, ensuring customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.

Follow up quickly when someone submits a new idea — it shows you are listening and value their input. Transparency is key, even if that means saying no. (This is another place where idea management software is useful — Aha! Ideas, for example, takes care of email notifications for you.) Be clear about which ideas are not likely to be implemented and explain why, whether it is because there are higher-priority initiatives, technical limitations, or a more effective solution already in the works. People appreciate when you take the time to address their suggestions thoughtfully. This shows that you are not just gathering feedback but actively thinking about the best way to deliver value.

One important aspect to consider is that it's in your benefit to have positive feedback posted publicly and negative feedback sent to you directly. For an early-stage company, a few negative Google reviews can really hurt you. But you still want that negative or constructive feedback to improve your products/services/processes...so a successful strategy I've seen is to solicit feedback like this: "If you're happy with your experience, we'd love it if you left us a 5-star review detailing your experience on our page here *link*. Or if you were not happy with your experience, we'd love to hear from you directly so we can find a solution. Please email us at *address* and we'll get back to you promptly."